The amount of work we put into our cars is mad!! Looking so much nicer from when you got it though mate
The amount of work we put into our cars is mad!! Looking so much nicer from when you got it though mate
had a problem with the car going into limp-mode giving the codes P0400-5A and P0400-F8... turns out the EGR valve mechanism wasn't moving out properly due to 2 of the the nuts that hold the angled front and the rear together had worked themselves completely off... a simple plastic cover removal showed the problem immediately I just bolted them back on after i cleaned the whole egr piston and valve... put it back and the car was back to normal... the plastic cover (the gray one) can only be pushed off while the egr valve is connected to the car.. otherwise it'll break but once that comes off you have full access to the mechanism and a clean-up is easily done if you use some ovencleaner... just spray it on watch it foam leave it on for 10 minutes wash it off... repeat if you got some stubborn soot stuck in the nooks and crannies..
Than as you all know i've got the electric rear windows activated but the OS rear one wasn't accepting the comfort closure commands of the keyfob, i tried to reset the switches ( yes both the drivers switch and the OS rear switch by holding the window open/close position for a good old 10 seconds, but the car refused to except it.... 2 days later it all of a sudden worked.... so i figure it is due to the half-canbus system being stubborn..
Next up will be me sorting out the seat occupancy problem on the passengers seat as it acts up ( turns on the airbag ight as soon as you put something heavy on it).. but i forgot to write down the code... so will have to check that again and see what causes it in the first place... and i also have to finish off re-upholstering the rear doorcards...
once that is done than the interior is finally finished and pictures will be taken...
well yesterday i finished the re-upholstery of the rear doorcards... I followed the very well described how2 to change the doorstrip but switched it up by disassembling the whole doorcard... so i could replace the cloth with leather... than i drowned it in carpet adhesive.... put the leather on, cut it to size, used an ample amount of black silicone adhesive between the mating edges and screwed it back together ... it was strong enough but didn't want extra rattles coming from the added metal... so i covered it with a layer of duct tape... this than added some stiffness to the doorcard... so i laid an extra an layer down... over the complete inside of the hard plastic and the softer cardboard ( it's actually multiply paper) parts... to my surprise the rear speakers sound way better now so i might apply the same to the front doorcards... when i take them off for whatever reason...
When i do those i will take pictures, as i haven't seen any one use duct tape as a sound deadening solution... i just used it to not have to wait for the silicone to dry, and in doing so added stiffness and got better sound...
yes i promised to take pictures but as i'm suffering from a back pain out of hell (feels like i've been runover by a truck) I didn't clean the car for over a week and both the interior and outside are filthy, once the lot is clean pictures will be taken.
So today I replaced the drivers side front mid-speaker as I blew it up... yes completely my fault as me playing about with an extra amp blew it up... I removed the little amp any way after that happened and I was lucky it just blew up the mid-range speaker the tweeter survived... anyway no more annoying rattles coming from the music at high levels...
I also installed a steering wheel control box so i can use the buttons on the steering wheel... I don't like the 6 little buttons but for now it'll do luckily the little box of tricks I got is programmable via USB/PC or I can do it through my phone wireless through an app... so if I finally pull my finger out and upgrade the steering wheel to one with scrollers I can easily put that in without having to suffer with the horn going off on the right hand side...
That sorted i also sorted the Pioneer Appradio to be able to actually mirror the screen from my phone so when using the satnav there is an extra big display to see the map and street names.. although it's low I'll still have my phone situated high enough so I don't have to look down at the bigger screen...
Handsfree for the mobile is also sorted now so I'm almost done with the interior mods... No need for extra lights as most do but I will be re-dying the leather seats with a few more layers as the last time I did it I didn't have enough dye so you can still see some grey patches... (I'll get more than needed this time)
just leaves the interior door strips that need a repaint or wrap don't know what colour yet but it'll be something that doesn't hurt the eyes or has extra glare when the sun hits it... just haven't settled on a colour for them yet.... but the rears are non glossy which I prefer ... so I might just go for a satin/matte colour... that contrasts enough yet not to much.. might end up with a brushed anodised wrap in the end... but I might change my mind again on that...
I started on taking the gearbox off today, yeah suspected rear crankshaft seal leak... I was wrong... while laying under the car cleaning off the leaking oil I realised the oil was clean not black unlike the engine oil... than I decided to drop the engine oil just to make sure... and *bl***y hell it's gearbox oil not engine oil... the reason why it was black is because it ran through the bellhousing taking with it all the dirt that is inside it including all the dirt that comes from normal driving turning the oil black... but the real tell tale was the smell... I could smell sulphur while laying under the car.. and the only oil that smells like that is... gearbox oil! Now since it's leaking out of the bellhousing it can only be a coming from a crack or hole inside the bell housing... so I stopped after removing the drive shafts.. and yes you guessed it right, no oil came out of the diff on either side...
I left the car on axle stands, put all the parts that came off the car in the interior, put my battery on a trickle charger and put my tools inside the car too... tomorrow I'll pull the gearbox off as it was getting late.. I started late anyway... and had a slight problem getting the driveshafts off.. they fought me al the way especially the driver side one ( it would with them being brand new, the retaining clips are doing their job very well)
so tomorrow I'll be doing the 35 bolts that you need to remove to actually be that far to spit the gearbox off the engine ( yes these include the engine mount bolts also and the ones to drop the subframe)
Report will continue tomorrow... oh and since I have to remove the gearbox and clean the clutch I'll remove the old rear crankshaft seal and put the new one on, I bought the part so it's best to put it on.
So after a day of taking the car apart and putting it all back together, i found that a bolt from the CSC had worked it's way out this is where the oil came through from the gearbox side... the bolt was stripped from almost all it's thread so i replaced it with an M6 with really flat washers, than tightened it down until it stopped and gave it a 5 degree turn... leak stopped... than i had to clean the bellhousing, and all the oil that found it's way everywhere...
than i could built the car back up, now if it wasn't for the bolts needing a breaker bar to crack them off than i would have done this job quicker ( i should buy a battery operated torque gun with spare batteries) it would've saved me loads of time as all was done with hand tools.
Just left to do is to bleed the CSC as i had to pull the line off... i did however close it so it won't need much bleeding... just getting the air out of it will suffice.. and my car will be back to normal...
Oww and for people wanting to take the gearbox out.... make sure you take out passenger side subframe bolt, than drop the OS front sub frame bolt out too but the rear one bolt it all the way out than as soon as it comes of push it back and give full turn so it holds the subframe ( saves you from removing that pinch bolt on the steering wheel column) that should give you enough space to get the subframe down to pull the box out over the subframe in the NS wheel arch... be careful the thing is heavy and you'll still have to push down the frame to get it out completely.. i use a metal bar to push it down...
Right time to get my lazy arse in gear and get ready to bleed the clutch, than clean up all the oil that the car spilled in the parking lot.
I know it's a pain doing photos, but it would be sooooooooo good you know.
And really useful
2006 Signum Design 2.8T
Teapot TUNED, Memory mirrors, Eibach/Bilstein, Roof rails, XP2 front end
IDS+ (removed), Multi-contour memory front seats
I would but hands being covered in oil, and having to do all that work... I decided against taking pictures
If I had help than it would be a different story or a clean job... but it wasn't and knowing it takes me a whole day to take the car apart and built it back up, I decided to leave all distractions away from the task at hand.
I even skipped dinner and kept working until the car was back on it's wheels. Than it was collecting my tools and putting them away... mind you this all is done in a parking spot outside my house... don't have the luxury of a garage, meaning whatever I start to do I need to finish ASAP. Can't leave nothing unsecured etc..
So maybe now you get the lack of photos...
And it started leaking again... so I had it with this gearbox and ordered a refurbished one yesterday...
I'll receive it somewhere next week so...it's time to get ready for another 16 gruelling hours of taking the car apart and building it back up... how lovely..NOT
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