Audi 80 Avant

[A80Avant]

hmm.... not again!

im going to have to get it aligned again after march, esp. if the plan is to refit the other springs and the pro-mounts.!!!

Might as well have a look at the bolts at the same time then i suppose. in the mean time, ill try and do some work on the inner side of the fender tomorrow and cover it with paint again, to minimise the effects of the rub. Oh well...

How's Ian's car?

[Tonks4x4]

I think he is searching for a Cam pulley

[A80Avant]

Right,
tomorrow, ill get a bit more out of the inner fender and hopefully that should be enough for now. Got the tools charged and ready to go!

[A80Avant]

Ok, grinded away as much as possible, but eyeballing the rear wheels i have to say that the subframe movement as you suggested Brian is actually the best solution. Trouble is we dont know if the fender is actually the one that has not been properly redone or the subframe being off.

If there is anyway to measure that somehow, you could probably check it in March!

now out to see if the issue is at least improved a bit!

[A80Avant]

Success!

about 90% of the rub is gone!

Mary agrees that the left rear wheel seems a bit sideways, but this is only an illusion IMO, as probably whoever did work on that rear fender, probably didnt get it 100% right.

anyway, rub is gone so owner is happy!

On the way to the supermarket, a gold V decided to try and keep up, and as the 6th gear was around 2800rpm and a slight uphill emerged on a 3way part of the motorway, the muscle on the right foot flexed and the TPS figure rised.... within seconds the kpa level went from 90 to 260-270 as it wasnt WOT and the golf V couldnt keep up anymore!.. a few meters further down the road the Golf owner went to the side lane to give a thumbs up which was happily accepted and returned! Golf V GTi i think it was!

[mcandmar]

Watching this with interest as i have the same problem on my avant. When i first fitted the 18" Avus with 225 tyres and 15mm spacers the tyre rubbed on the arch on the rear left, but right hand side was fine. Went back to 10mm spacers to cure it. As you say eyeballing the car it looks like the rear track is shifted a few MM to the left hand side of the car. Tried moving the subframe which made no difference once tracked and the camber set in spec. The problem seems to be with the upper a-arm position. Its almost as though the jig was slightly off when they welded the inner wheel arch together in the factory. I wonder if they are all like that...

[A80Avant]

hmm.. interesting...

well, mine going from 5mm to 3mm spacer didnt make a huge difference. I cannot remove it completely as the wheel will reach the upper suspension arm.

[A80Avant]

delete

[A80Avant]

Havent updated this for a while.

the thread needs a change in name, so Sonic is already informed...

After my recent visit to Brian (Tonks) a few things were done and some left. I have to say i admire his patience with my rs2, as it always seems there is something weird about it and Brian is not the only one who knows that!

Anyway, things that were done this time were:

1) Top mount-adjustment-tie rods check/replacement: I have had about 8 tracking sessions done till we realised that there was a bit of everything going wrong. Initially the bambridge inner tie rod bushings were colliding with the bolts and causing a rub making the rods jump. Then after that was corrected, the bracket holding the bolts to the rods became loose, and the bolts on it loose as well. Finally the steering rack was leaking and making very fine noises, even though the green steering fluid was ok.
So- refurb rack was put in, the old one will have another refurb and stocked. New OEM tie rods were also used and a new bracket. Old one will be welded and stocked as well.

2) Water hose from heater to block was leaking(samco) and replaced

3) Full DIY coilover conversion with Bambridge parts: I always fancied the idea of being able to have the height wherever i wanted, with it being able to go from stock to 20-30mm lower at most. All coilover options do not allow the car to keep the stock height so i wasnt having it. Also im pretty happy with the stiffness and response of the bilstein shocks. So after the various bits got together, im now enjoying the car at a nice height with the provision of changing the front 8inch to 9inch springs as they are a bit tight and can bottom out when the car is at stock or slightly lower level.

We used 250lbs front and 300lbs rear and the car feels a touch stiffer than OEM. So im going for 225 front instead and longer. (will be fitted in January). Rear could also do with 325lbs 9inch or even 10inch which i may have an option for the future.





3) I thought my garrett had a bit of a play, though it still pulled strong. I thought it let Owen Developments have a look this time instead as they are the official garrett represenatives in the UK. Indeed there was a bit of a wear in the ball bearings section and it needed replacing. So along with that, i also asked them for a small upgrade...





I was out today doing a couple of runs just to see if everything is ok, and the car has gained about 200-300rpm in spool in 3d gear, (a hell of a lot more further up), and i did a run which was slight downhill and it gave much more torque and power overall, so i need to test the same usual road i use to be absolutely sure what the gains are. This wheel should have less lag and give more power, as well as its able to run more boost. However at the moment im keeping the same boost profile on the ECU to see the gains.

just a small example:


4) Front heated windscreen was fitted and tested today. Works really nice, takes it's time with the icy weather but its much faster than not having it at all. We wired an extra switch for it in the dash. Draws quite a bit of current, so there is always an idle drop, but vems is coping very well, and doesnt have any problems.

5) Leather handbrake from the cabriolet:


6) The driver's seat bolster(outer) has been broken. I attempted to fix it today only to eventually use tireups and wait for the next visit to Brian for some welding.

Things to do:

I am waiting from Aron to make the A/C in carbon to complete my set.

I need to have the door cards retrimmed, as the foam under the leather is perished.

Need to change a fuel filter and do the fuel pump mod.

Replace the front springs.

Replace the GPS tracker system.


Things for sale:
will shortly put the Turbo-Dynamics billet wheel up for sale as well as the compressor housing with the antisurge attachment for noise reduction.
Wheel is as good as new, no marks. Costs 250GBP from TD and if you already have a 3076R all you need is a fitment and balancing. Im offering 250GBP for the set(housing and wheel).
A set of 8inch springs (faulkner) of 250-325 will also be for sale, costing 85GBP new from faulkner. As the fronts are still being used, i will have them for sale from January(late).

[andy10v]

Looks like some more good progress.

Could you elaborate on the issue with the bambridge inner bushes?

Do they flex as the steering arms move?

[A80Avant]

this issue with the bushes may have been a one off, but here is what happened.

we installed them and then at some point of turning the wheel, there was a knocking noise coming from the rods and it was one of them(left one) was jumping instead of rotating in the alloy sleeve that the bolt from the bracket goes through. So Brian and i decided to cut that sleeve shorter so as the rod can be flat in it's clearance with the poly bush rather than the alloy sleeve touching the bracket.

Then upon tightening the bush for a little while, everything was fine, but my tracking was going off, and i was always noticing that my locking nuts on the bracket of the rods were loose, so i tightened and tightened until the time came to replace the whole rods as there was no solution to my problems. It was then when i realised that the bushes where squeezed in after all this tightening and distorted. I must say i was meant to give those back to kev(bambridge) for inspection and i forgot, so ill do that in january.

the polybushings are meant to allow some flexing but minimise it. Noone else has ever got this issue with them, or reported a problem besides me. So it must have been a one off. i dont know..

Long story short, the replica rods i used were also crap as their inner bushes were like jelly, so i got a set of the original rods which are fitted now.

[andy10v]

Ok, interesting.

I did wonder if the bushes were solid if it could cause issues, if they are poly they should flex a bit, depends on the stiffness I suppose.

my2000apb on motorgeek has mentioned failures due to solid bushes not allowing flex as the steering arm travels in an arc, and something had to give.

[Error404]

Vas you guys did totally the wrong thing there!

The inner sleeve needs to be marginally longer than the delrin bush, the sleeve is supposed to be fixed by virtue of the torque of the fixing bolt. The Bush is an interferance fit in the tie rod. The bush needs to be free to rotate around the inner sleeve.

[A80Avant]

But when it was like that the turbo rod was jumping within the bracket upon rotationof the steering wheel. There was no way to cure that. Shortening the sleeve corrected that but damaged the bushing I suppose

sent with Nokia 5110

[Error404]

maybe there way a machining error or the bush wasn't greased or something.. anyhow it was just as a pont of reference for anyone else that that was definately not how they are designed to work