New Member, Old Car

[team illuminata]

Hi, my name's Paul Eddleston and I finally got round to introducung myself to this group. I recently took delivery of a beautiful 85 quattro that was previously owned by an Audi friend. I thoiught I'd start a journal-like thread about it and post some pictures



I know a few members on this forum already but some of you may know me from by business venture: Team Illuminata Motorsport, also known as TIM but not to be confused with the URQ owner Tim in the UP of Michigan. Team Illuminata Motorsport

I grew up in England watching Rallying on TV but really got into the sport around the time the Group B monsters were arriving so you can imagine why I'm here now and why I'm so excited to finally have my quattro. I race a Subaru in RallyCross and autocross and do some track days too and I also crew at rallies for various teams if I'm not in the vendor area flogging our products.

Hope to see you and your cars at some events soon.
















So here is what I know about the car:

"One of the best examples of the classic ur quattro available. Very rare Canadian car. Original Tornado Red paint with black leather interior. 1 of only 17 quattros imported to Canada in 1985! Desirable and rare non-sunroof version. 167,000 KM. Clear Michigan title. Retains original metric instruments - I did not convert anything when I imported this car to the USA.

Over the course of the past 3 years, this car has been totally sorted out by Phil at Auto Europe in Birmingham. Phil was an Audi mechanic back when these cars were brand new. I basically gave him permission to check and correct anything that needed attention. The car was great when I bought it, but it's even better now! New hard fuel lines, clutch and slave cylinders, hydraulic bomb, alternator, starter, water pump, timing belt. tires, battery, master cylinder, rear differential bushing, center driveshaft bearing, etc., etc. The car has a modified head and a modified ECU to allow use of the Euro wastegate spring. A joy to drive. This must be what it was like to drive one of these cars brand new. No rattles or squeaks. Strong performer."

Certainly couldn't take issue with any of that and I've known Curt for a few years as a customer at my shop and when I worked at Auto Europe. I was just starting to think about buying a classic when this showed up. I thought I might import an Opel Manta from Europe. That's the car I had when I moved to the US around 20 years ago. I thought it was time to get one back. But then I saw this and it was obvious this was the car I should have. I grew up watching Group B rally in the forests in England and the quattro has always been my favorite Group B monster. Just the noise alone is enough to get my heart racing. Indeed, as I like to tell people, this car is why I now own a motorsports business and race RallyCross, autocross etc. Plus, it would be good that the car stay in Michigan where Curt could keep an eye on it.

I’ve had the car here for a couple of weeks now and driven it a couple of times. My goals for the car are to keep it in its original condition while fixing some of its issues and not-quite-original features. My list is already long but does not reflect the condition of the car but my mental condition of list making and nit-picking. Here are the highlights of what needs attention IMHO:


Restore leather seats
Hot starting issues
Small dent in hood
Should it have Center console?
How much clutch is left?
Oil change
Passenger door lock inoperative
Driver’s window seal loose
Handbrake boot fits poorly
Fuel leak smell
Passenger window sticks at 2” drop
Pass seat adjuster loose
Vent broken center
Passenger door pocket coming away
Rear diff damp-reseal
Right rear wheel creaks
Wipers slow
Gearbox play, mounts?
Rust spots, leading edge of hood, and fender in engine bay
Wrong headlights
Door bars missing
A/C removed engine bay, replace
Trunk carpet screws missing
Engine under tray missing right side
Radio too new and blingy
Upper front strut mounts loose
Rear brake lines rusty
Front ball joints
Lower control arm bushings iffy
Left front cv boot getting brittle
Volts-volt and oil temp meters behave oddly
Door carpet coming away
Non-original steering wheel
Trunk strut inoperative.
Key fob light
Exhaust crooked
Jack missing
Speaker cover loose
Non-original speakers


I might need help with some of these. Prepare yourselves for many questions. Obviously some of these are urgent and necessary, others trivial nit-picking but you can’t beat having a list. I’m sure it will grow rather than shrink even if I do check some off.

I still find it immensely ironic that, considering that I’m so into rally, have a rally related business and love to drive sideways that I bought a car that I can neither drive in the snow or on the loose. I guess I’ll have to limit my fun to wet roundabouts, the three or four that exist in SE Michigan. I may do the odd autocross in it or maybe a track day. Do they have track days for classics? I already took it round Waterford Hills track at the recent track day but only during the parade laps at lunchtime. Twas quite fun. Probably, this is what I’ll do most with the car. Just take it to local motorsport events and shows so people can enjoy seeing it. I am going to slap some BRAID wheels on it and a discreet windshield banner in white “BRAIDUSA.com” though as it has to earn it’s keep somehow.

These are the wheels that are on a boat in the Atlantic right now. What do you think?




I chose them because they are very reminiscent of the works wheels used on the S1, at least in my opinion. I ordered them in the same specs as the originals. I’ll use the Kumho 225/50-15 tires that came on the OE Ronals. Curt also gave me a set of BFG 215/50-15 which was the OE size but I’m not sure what to do with those yet.

Hopefully I’ll remember to update this page with news of the car's development and outings. Meanwhile, if you have any questions or suggestions let me know. I’m all ears, as some of you already know.

[witwer4444]

WOW

[pilihp2]

Very Clean. Very nice.

[Turbo Nerd]

Very Clean. Very nice.

X2

[GramCracker]

Words cannot express how envious I am.

[khalimadeath]

Words cannot express how envious I am.

x2

[PRY4SNO]

Jaw dropper man, truly a classic.

Are the new wheels you ordered 5x112, or 4x108 like pictured? Did the your car come with 5-lug hubs originally? If not, I call dibs. haha

Nice to meet you Paul and welcome to the 'zine!

[team illuminata]

My new BRAID wheels come in on Monday along with a couple of hundred others.





I'm not sure what tires to put on them. Currently I have some Kumho AST 225/50-15 on the original Ronal aloys and a set of unmounted BFG in the original size of 215/50-15. The easiest thing to do would be to put the BFG on the new wheels then I'd at least have two working sets available. The "proper" thing to do might be to put the 225 on the BRAIDs and the 215 on the Audi wheels for "originallty's" sake. However, both sets of tires are going to age out before they wear out so one set is just going to be sat there wasting away. Perhaps I should get rid of one set but which. 215/50-15 are quite hard to find now but I like the look of the wider 225.

What to do?

[team illuminata]

Thanks guys.

Sorry for not responding sooner; didn't have the notification option set right.

I ordered the new wheels 5x112 like my car ;) I did have a moment of panic last week when I realized my car has M14 bolts and I ordered the wheels M12. However, BRAID, on the ball as ever, built the wheels M14 so no problem there. So wheels are the same specs as the original Ronal alloys. I am wondering whether to to a stud conversion for the new wheels. Purposeful vs. originality. Any thoughts?

[team illuminata]

Had the car detailed by Ray's Auto Detail in Pontiac this week. It was already clean by my standards but now I understand what really clean is. After using his clay bar Ray made the paint as smooth as a baby's bum. I've never owned a car I had to keep clean; my other car is a rallycross beater. I don't even own any cleaning supplies or equipment except for a bucket! I have a lot to learn.

[witwer4444]

Amazing....

[Extreme90path]

Fantastic looking URQ you've got there man!

[Elliott]

It's.... beautiful.

[RichardV8]

SOOOOO SICK!!!

[s6sputnik]

Nice to see another one in Oakland County since Ingo sold his back to Rob in Houston...


My house in Clarkston MI winter 2004/2005

[team illuminata]

BBBBBRRRRRRR!

[team illuminata]

Well the wheels finally came in and I immediately slapped some tires on them and bolted them on the car. What do you think?



Then I took it out to the lake for Memorial Day.







In case you're curious the wheels are BRAID Serie 6 R 3 piece, 15x8 with 225/50-15 Kumho tires.

[romeotech]

Wow, awesome classic. The new wheels look great. I don't like the website on the windshield.

[urs4kid]

x2

x3

[team illuminata]

Sorry chaps, it's been a while since I have had chance to update this thread. I'd like to think that since putting the BRAID wheels on the car our sales have gone through the roof and I have just been too busy fulfilling orders to post. Well, that's only half the case, I've also been kept busy keeping cars on the road. None of my four cars, including this one, have been behaving themselves so far this summer but at least it gives me plenty to write about here. So what's been going on? Well:

The first hiccup of the season became apparant when the car became hard to start. I'd noticed lately I'd had to turn the key a little more "aggresively" sometimes but then it became impossible to get the car to turn over at all. Thankfully it did this at the shop and not 1000 miles from home. It was clear contact was not being made in the ignition switch and all kinds of horrors about getting a new one and taking apart the steering column went through my mind. As it turned out it was surprisingly simple to sort out on both fronts. First off, my local O'rielly's had the switch on the shelf. God knows why but bless their little Irish souls non the less. Now, to put it in. I approached with trepidation but needn't have. AllData give pretty explicit instructions.

Remove the steering wheel, column shround and indicator stalks. Then pry off the spring washer that holds on the spring and you are left with this:


Then you remove that pinch bolt and the ignition switch housing slides up the column and lands on your bench:


Just remove that small phillips head screw to relaese the switch and pop in the new one. Needless to say, assembly is the reverse of disassembly but getting the spring wash in place was a little tricky. I used a 19mm impact socket and a hammer to drive it home. You don't need a lot of force, probably because you are supossed to use a new washer but once the steering wheel is back on it can't go anywhere.

Job done. Car's good for the summer but maybe I should just change the oil first. How hard could it be?

So I put the car on lift and look where the oil filter should be and bloody hell, there's two of the buggers! I was so stunned I forgot to take a picture! So off to the store to find a second filter. Apparantly it's for the turbo. Why ddin't you guys tell me about this? Well, just before taking off I decide to have a look around under there and WTF is that all over my nice new BRAID wheel?



CV grease. That's what.


Oh man. Ah well. new axle, 20 minutes of a job. How hard could it be. Well, I couldn't find an axle but I did find a CV boot. No, not at O'rielly's this time but my friends at Auto Europe hooked me up with one from Worldpac. Not OE but something appropriately German. They even slapped it on for me once I got the axle out which was a bit of a trial due to the lack of space to manouver it around.

Undo these at the tranny end


Take of the brakes and axle nut


then realise there's not enough room for the axle to slide out of the wheel bearing.


Have a cup of tea and then get creative with the jack.


Voila. Off to Auto Europe with you.


Strip the old boot. Remove the C clip and hit it with a BFG, gently of course.


Put on new boot. Run back to shop. Forget to take photo. Installation was the reverse and simple but being in there did inspire me to take on refurbishing the front suspension. So went on a quest for upper strut mounts, anti roll bar bushings, lower ball joints and even some strut inserts.

Drove the car home that night to celebrate. Look, it even made it. But there is a reason it is on the street and not up the driveway.


More on that later. I need a rest.

[team illuminata]

So, to continue the saga, the reason the car was sitting on the street instead of in my driveway was that I couldn't get reverse, nor, for that matter, 1st or 2nd! It was allright when I left the shop but by the time I was nearing home, about 20 minutes, 1st became 3rd and I kept stalling at the lights 'cause it don't like to set off in 3rd. Shift lever was feeling a bit woolie too.

I nursed it back to my shop the next day, got it on the lift and found the shifter bushing, #27 in the picture below, had distintergrated. This must have hapenned gradually over a number of years and I guess, with the elevated temperatures lately, it just crossed the threshold of being able to move the selector shaft enough to find the outermost gears. Once I fix this it should feel like a short shifter compared with the long throw that I thought was normal.



The bushing is, of course, no longer available but I found out that 034 Motorsport are making them and I also picked up an OE one from a guy on ebay UK along with some other goodies (see below). Now I have a lifetime's supply.



Apparantly, the short rod, #35 often fails and they are NLA too. Mine seems fine thankfully. The ball on the top of #33 can come loose too but again, mine seems good. It was a little tight in there above the tranny and after finding water in my basement last night I said "Sod this" and booked it in at Auto Europe. As much as I like to work on my cars I just don't have time to tackle this fiddly job with all the other stuff crumbling around me right now. Thank god my Jeep's fixed; and the Subaru moves under its own power too now, sort of.

Some stuff I dd take care of myself though:

I managed to get a gas strut for the trunk. Apparantly it needs two to support the weight of the trunk and that huge spolier and if you only have one like I had it will crash down on your bonce while you are deep in conversation with your spare tire. OUCH!. Couldn't find an OE one at a decent price so went with a Stabilus to match the other side. So much nicer than the stick I was using. Much more civilised.

I've been trying to track down a fuel smell for some time now. It was often there but seemed to be worse with the windows open and after taking some corners, particularly left handers. It was worse the more fuel was in the tank too, I think. Initially I suspected the long breather pipe that goes from roughly the middle of the tank to the filler neck. The original one was very soft so I thought it might be sweating if not actually leaking. I replaced it with a bit of basic hose temporarily and thought it made a bit of a difference but later realised that might have been wishful thinking. I may yet put the original hose back on.



Later I discovered that the gas cap was getting wet with fuel after spirited drives so I replaced the fuel cap gasket with an OE one from the dealer. So far (not very far actually) so good. Fingers crossed. No picture; it's a round piece of rubber with a big hole in the middle. Use your imagination.

When I initially test drove the car the passenger side window stopped working. Well, not completely. It would just go down a couple of inches, make a horrible grinding noise and stop. Fortunately it decided to go back up so I bought the car anyway. So I finally got a chance to get inside the door motivated by the increasing temperatures and lack of air conditioning in the car. Door card came off easily once I located all the screws and clips (didn't braek any either :) )


I was happy to find that the wire that pulls the window mechanism had come derailed from the bottom pulley and with a bit of effort I managed to get it back on there. It works now but does make some funny noises sometimes. The same noises the driver's side makes so I figured they are factory. Job done!


While I was in there I took the opportunity to have a look at the door lock mechanism. The button was going up and down when I operated the driver's side lock but the key was doing nothing in the passenger side, not that one ever uses the key in that side. It did cross my mind that perhaps it was a design feature then I realised, why would they have a lock. Anyway, brain back in gear it soon became apparant that the little plastic ear on the back of the lock had become detached from its actuator rod. Two minutes and a skimmed knucle later it was back on and working as Audi intended all along. Look:


While messing around in the cabin with the various knobs and switches I found out that my blower fan goes to ELEVEN. Well, it goes to four but that's amazing as the the panel only indicates 3. It works too; fan goes even faster! I can't for the life of me figure out why the switch goes to 4 while the panel only goes to 3. What were they drinking in Ingoldstat in the mid-eighties?


I put back the undertray that giudes air to the intercooler. It came with the car but not actually attched to it. I had to do a bit of rally-rigging with some zip ties as it's missing a couple of screw holes now.


Part of my ebay UK haul was a pair of new sun visor clips in more or less the original color. A snap to swap out but they totally transform the car. Handles as if on rails. OK, they hardly made any difference, even to the visors, but it feels good to have replaced more broken stuff.



More UK parts: dash vents, middle and sides. Only my middle one was broken but it's good to have spares right?

Broken vent. All flippity floppoty:


New vent. All nice and together. You can see the tabs that hold it in place too....


....so I know where to stick my screw driver.


Maybe I should just leave it like this:


Nah!


Man, that was a lot of venting.

In the category of interesting aside did you know, Wikipedia says "The Illuminati, a Bavarian secret society, was founded in Ingolstadt..." and my business is called Team Illuminata Motorsport. Coincidence? I'm saying nothing. Schtum!

Now, off to Auto Europe with you Stiggy (Hmm. I think I just named my car)

[AudiCoupeGT]

Love your ride man! Really clean

[team illuminata]

Love your ride man! Really clean

Thanks man. It makes up for my other cars which are all really dirty most of the time. LOL

[team illuminata]

Just got the car back from Auto Europe and it now shifts beautifully :)

Thanks to Kenny who did a great job and worth every penny to let a professional fiddle with it this time. Here's what came out:



26 year old German rubber. Yuk!

Kenny said the short rod #35 was OK but getting a little worn. I should start looking for one but they are NLA of course. Anyone have one or want to make me one?



When I went to pick the car up they had it parked next to a Corrado. Interesting comparison don't you think?





The Corrado almost looks like a next generation quattro more than the one that actually followed it.

Now the shift libkage is sorted I've started thinking about a suspension rebuild. Have all the bushings bought but Kenny also gave me some NEW Bilsteins for the car. They are actually from a later car but might fit. Anyone know?







Also, it looks like my gas cap gasket has solved my fuel smell issues too :)

[Scotty@Advanced]

JCongrats on the acqusition, as you may have found out many parts for the original quattro have long been NLA.


Here's some comments on your original post:

Should it have Center console?

Center console cam with the 20V version in Europe.

Driver’s window seal loose

NLA might want to scour the junkyards for 85-87 coupes as they have many of the same body parts (doors, windows etc).

Rust spots, leading edge of hood, and fender in engine bay

pretty common especially with northern cars salty dirt and debris tends to collect under the fenders

Wrong headlights

Good luck the US spec headlamp doors have been NLA and at one time were $400 each side. finding used will likely be impossible

Door bars missing

same as coupe

A/C removed engine bay, replace

all parts are NLA Might be able to find some used. the mini york is also not available anymore, so I'd recommend a sanden conversion

Volts-volt and oil temp meters behave oddly

probably a bad ground

Non-original steering wheel

Actually that wheel is an Audi accessory and found on the later urq 20V cars in Europe.

Jack missing

just about any Audi jack from the same year will work.

Non-original speakers

oem speakers not available and used will likely be deteriorated.

[team illuminata]

Some updates:

I bought an OE steering wheel off eBay UK. Seller said it was in great condition and he was not wrong. I like the Audi Sport one that came with the car but it has always bothered me that it is not original. It's indicator cancel tab was offset too so the left turn signal cancelled too soon and the right too late. Swapping them was easy but you have to pull the cover harder than feels right to get it off. I like that I never need a steering wheel puller on this car :)

Before:



After:




I know most of you would prefer the Sport one especially as it's chunky and 14" vs 15" for the OE but I actually kind of prefer the way it drives with the ugly one.

Replacing the steering wheel cured my intermittent horn issue too. I also seem to have fixed the spare tire leak. Well Auto Europe did by remounting it. Gas cap is still leaking despite the new gasket :( maybe I'll try a new cap next.

Of course I had to road test the car with it's new steering wheel so I took it on a tour of local car events. First off was a car show someone gave me a flier for at Cars and Coffee yesterday. Lots of muscle cars and old domestic stuff as you might expect but a few import gems namely a rather nice black Testarossa, a BMW 850 coupe and a 90's Mercedes but I don't know my Mercedes like I should. The quattro would have fit right in there but I'm not sure I'm cut out for car shows. Seems like you park the car then sit next to it for five hours. Sounds boring. Is it?

Next up was a autocross at Belle Isle. A bautiful setting if you ever get the chance. The events are held on the newish cement paddock they poured for the Detroit GP we had a few years ago. I didn't mean to run, the car's not up to it and cones make a mess of paint but I did hope to do a fun run or two at the end by way of a demo as many people said they wanted to hear it run. Alas, it was not to be. Apparantly you had to have run the event to do fun runs so off to the Motor City Mayhem event at the Silverdome in Pontiac just round the corner form our shop.

I didn't know much about this thing except that seemed to involve some drifting and a time attack event along with other crazy stuff. Mayhem is a good word as reports at the autocross were that the previous iteration was a bit chaotic. I got there n time for the drifting and was ushered into the "Display" parking are as I had such a nice car. There were a lot of strange cars there let me tell you but plenty of spectators so maybe we should get involved in this mayhem one day. car was well received especially as the Michigan Gumball rally finished there while I was in attendance so some slightly more normal car people were around.



Then I took the car down Woodward but nobody was out as it was still a little early in the day.

I did discover that I have no brake lights which is a little disconcerting. They are on the same fuse as the horn interestingly but that works. Bulbs are fine too seemingly. Any known issues with these?

[Ruffiano]

I'm curious was that one only orignal on the 85? the earlier URs had this style that said turbo on it:

[team illuminata]

I'm curious was that one only orignal on the 85? the earlier URs had this style that said turbo on it:

I'm not sure. I went off the eBay listing http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...=STRK:MEWNX:IT

[Ruffiano]

Yeah that one appears to be the same as all the 4000 cars as well, even the auto boxes:



b3


Personally i think you are more original with the 3 spoke.

[team illuminata]

Am I missing something, literally?

I noticed my front grill was a bit loose along the bottom so had a fiddle with it. All the top clips are in place but I'm not sure what is supossed to hold it in place along the bottom. It seems like it might latch behind the bumper via some tabs but they don't reach high enough. There is evidence of one potential securing device roughly in the center but it may be broken. Can't believe that's athe only means of securing the grill so how do the 85 grills attach, anyone know or care to probe theres?

Some pictures to illustrate:

[team illuminata]

I've been driving the car quite a bit recently, mostly aolng Woodward Avenue, the venue for the upcoming Dream Cruise. For those of you who are not familiar with this crazy event check out this web site. Basically, Woodward, which is a mile from my house, hosts the biggest car event on the planet next week and has been building up to this climax for the last couple of months. The street is the ultimate car guys hangout during the summer months. I spend way too much time here but the car is a big hit and it can't hurt business. I will skip the actual cruise itself as I'll be at a RallyCross but by then it is so far out of controll as to be not worth it. The preceeding week is the best IMHO with every conceivable type of car on display driving right by you. Here it is taking on two modern iterations of the theme:



So as a result of all this hanging out on Woodward a few issues came to light. First of the car cut out as I was leaving a prime Woodward vantage spot last Friady. I popped the hood/bonnet and fiddled with the ignition equipment looking for anything obvious. The only thing I found out of place was the connector on the side of the distributor which had come loose. The screw holding it on would not thread back into the distrubutor body so I zip tied it in place in proper rally fashion. Car started right up and has been fine since.




I got it into the shop the next day but could not get the screw to tighten up. It seems as if the threads have stripped so we are sticking with the zip tie for now. I broke the bracket in the process too :( I have no idea what this connector is for or if it could have caused the engine to cut out like it did but it seems to run fine now.

I did notice the rotor arm seemed a little worse for wear when I looked at it so I cleaned it up with a bit of sand paper for now and ordered a new one for next week.






I also had some issues with the driver's window. It wouldn't go back up a few times. I had had this happen once before but disproved it later when it slid up nice and smooth but this time it definately needed some assistance. I've since figured out that it only does this if it's raining or I've jsut washed the car. Seems as if the guides are a little loose so the window can wobble in them and if it's wet stick. Are the guides adjustable or do you have to replace them? I did try to have a look in the door but failed at the first hurdle: I couldn't get the door handle off the door card! Oh, the screws came out OK but I couldn't figure out how to disconnect the wires from the power mirror switch in the handle. I couldn't even create enough slack to rotate and release the top mount so I could see the connector so was doing it blind. Any trcks here or can anyone tell me how it comes apart?


I also need to replace a breather shown below as it it perishing and looks about to fail. Of course it is no longer available new and the generic pipe I had in the shop was too small.






Why do I have two heated window switches? Neither of which seem to do anything anyway. The top one even feels broken as it does not flip on or off positively. Why two and what do they do? Are they readily available and easy to replace?





I found this relay on the floor under the driver's seat.



Anyone have any idea what it's for?

See you on Woodward this week?

[team illuminata]

Thanks to some tips from some helpful Audi owners I got into the door again yesterday. The switch does just pry out of the handle and is easy to unplug with the help of a screwdriver:





Then it was easy to get the door card off and find out what is causing my window to stick.



Here's one obvious issue. Two of the isolator studs that hold the motor to the door have sheared so the motor flops around under load. Can't be ideal.





Fortunately there was a threaded hole in the motor that lined up with the big hole that I assume was for a hand crank on lesser models. I used a big washer and secured it in place. I couldn't locate it where it wanted to be as it wouldn't clear the big aftermarker speaker that a previous owner added. maybe this is the cause of the shearing.



Hopefully that helps though the window still felt loose in its guides. To help I shoved some large cable ties behid the guides to push them out a bit and take up some of the slack. It work somewhat.





I tried to replace my rotor arm but was supplied with the wrong part. Hole is too small.



I did mange to find a self tapping screw to hold my hall sensor in place though. no more cable ties. Looks almost OE.



I had a go at my over-abundance of heated rear window switches too. I loosened the bezel but it wouldn't come off without removing the steering wheel and indicator stalks. Fortunately I still had enough room to pry out the switches and blank and this is what I found taped up:





Looks like someone nearly had a fire. This might explain the two HRW switches and why one was iffy. The undamaged one wasn't connected to anything nor were there any extra wires back there so I suspect a prevoius owner bought a new switch to try to fix a non-funtioning HRW and just left them both in place when he found the melted mess. Im not sure if I'm going to deal with this one either.



I am wondering if there is a short in the HRW wiring somewhere. I had a quick look in the under-hood fuse box but didn't find a relay for it.





Maybe one day when the dash is apart I'll splice in a new HRW connector for that newer switch.

[team illuminata]

So a couple of weeks ago now (I've been on vacation) I took the car to a RallyCross. before you get too excited, no, I didn't run the car, just took it out there to see the new Detroit Region course and hang with my RallyCross buddies most of whom haven't seen the car yet. Parked it right in the middle of the paddock for maximum exposure but was soon joined by another red Audi:



On the way there I tried the cruise control as I was on a freeway for about 30 minutes. I was very impressed that it still worked but even more impressed how it held the speed rock steady over hill and dale. Awesome.



No. that's km/h not mph. I beleive this represents exactly 70mph ;)

The last 15 minutes to the event was on the smoothest dirt road I have ever seen. The car thought it was at Rally Finland!



I booked it out of there before a big storm rolled through but had a great time doing ride alongs with some of the competitors. Glad I took my helmet. I was quite pleased with how the car drove and that it didn't, for once, break any parts or show any previously hidden issues; or so I thought. This is what I discovered the other day:



Yep, broken exhaust hanger. Anyone know where to get one of these? Car is still serviceable thanks to the wonders of cable ties.



No wonder they call these a rally icon. There's more cable ties on this than my rally car now!

I'm still struggling to find the correct distributor rotor for the car. The first had the same electrode as the current one but was too small to fit over the shaft. The latest (#3) fits but the electrode is smaller. Can I use this one?



Still need a new gas cap too.

Cars and Coffee at Kart 2 Kart tomorrow.

Later

[AudiCoupeGT]

Love your posts. I had the same troubles with getting a new rotor for my CGT. My local parts store found a matching one that works fine. You might be able to find some exhaust hangers on online parts sites. Not sure.

You got more info on how to remove the doorcard? Been wanting to check it out myself. Cheers

[team illuminata]

Thanks

Door cards are easier than I thought. A couple of screws in the handles then it rotates 90* to release at the top. Screws, some hidden in door pockets, along the bottom of the door and clips up the side. I've broken a few dor card clips in my time but these came out nicely. Only hang up was the mirror switch connector but once I extracted the swith from the handle it stopped fighting me. On the driver's side the card was difficult to lift off the door as it sits in the window channel. I had to pull up more than I liked and use some prying tools. The passenger door card actually came out of its channel but went back in easy enough.

[AudiCoupeGT]

Cheers! Doesn't sound too bad at all. I'll have to take a look at them again.

[team illuminata]

Not much URQ action lately, mostly because we bought this:



Which means having to fix up this :):



so we can sell it :(

I did find an almost new radio on eBay though :)



to replace the bling thing that's in it now:



I may have an opportunity to drive the car this week as a friend of mine wants to barter a drywall job for a drive in the car! Not a bad deal hey?

[team illuminata]

Took the UR quattro out for one last blast today before I put it away for the winter. Strange concept for me this. Not used to it at all. Car performed flawlessly again and was a joy to drive :) I took it to say "Au revoir" to Francois' URQ which is off to Maryland then home to say "Bonjour" to our new A3. Not much family resemblance here IMHO.










After this little rendevous I filled it with gas, added a bottle of Stabil, took it back to the shop and gave it a good wash. Tomorrow I will wax it and put it away :( As it will be down for a fair few months I intend to do some serious work on it. Stay tuned for developments

[team illuminata]

And so it begins, pre-season refurb. Just a few items to take care of before spring gets going (even more):

*Detail
*heat stuck on
*Ps fluid-replace
*Relay head lights & Main beams
*Ignition rotor arm
*Perished breather hose
*Check timing
*Radio reception
*Radio replace
*Upper strut mounts front & rear
*Rear brake lines
*Replace coolant
*Replce ball joints
*Lower control arm bushings
*Dampers
*Timing belt cover reinstall
*Washer aim/function
*Aim lights-adjusters
*Gear box play, mounts?
*Wipers slow
*Cold starting
*exhaust leak
*oil Leaks

Perhaps I should have gotten started sooner.




First task, finish putting an original radio in. I found some old style speaker connectors on eBay and spliced them into the aftermarket speaker wires, Works too even with the tape adapter playing from my Iphone but only 80s music comes out. Rear speakers appear to be blown. No bass but front work fine.



Next I turned my attention to rebuilding the suspension. Soaked all the fasteners with PB Blaster. Started by removing the front anti-roll bar.




Maybe I didn't allow enough time for the PB Blaster to work as I broke one of the end links. Where can I get a new one?



I felt this was enough progress for the first evening especially as I am now fully committed to replacing the suspension components rather than driving the car round in its compromised condition. More to follow..........

[team illuminata]

Slammed it:




Everything in the front suspension is loose and ready to come off:




Except this:



Non of my pullers or presses could get a purchase on it. I tried heat and hammers to no avail. Need more tools.