What Went Wrong With Your B6 Today?..

[grayjay]

The aftermarket DV I am using came with an assortment of spring weights that can be replaced. You can likely obtain a replace yours if you want to continue using. You are probably not getting error code if it was correctly setup as a recirc valve instead of blowoff valve venting to atmosphere and loosing metered air.

[willemml]

Yeah I need to find a place that sells springs here, but really I just want to swap it for a 710N or something, because I don't have the fitting to make it 100% recirc. Hopefully I find somewhere that sells similar springs.

[willemml]

Driving out of the parts store suddenly started smoking like crazy out of the exhaust, white... so I guess my turbo failed from being run without pressure? I should add, the turbo suddenly changed tone, and then just stopped making any sounds right before/during the smoke.

Edit: made a dedicated thread.

[Gunnarrrrr]

bro where on earth did you even find this car jesus christ


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[willemml]

Surrey. It was fine for the first 3 or 4 k except the ac didn't work. And then it just had problems every week lol
I bought it at 288k, 9k later it seems pretty much everything has broken one thing at a time. Good learning experience though, I bought this knowing absolutely nothing about cars.

[Mike Tries]

I bet you know an awful lot about cars now!

[willemml]

Hah! I'm definitely getting a lot faster at taking taking this one apart and identifying issues lol
Feel like I've barely scratched the surface though.

[TobiqueSlang]

Didn't happen today but like... a couple of months ago now:

CCT literally grenaded. Replaced it, but the damage was already done. it'll still run and drive but it sounds awful and has zero power. going to have to wait until spring to get into it and see just how much damage has been done ie. new head/block/turbo or all 3. it SOUNDS like there's a hole in the block but nothing is leaking, no coolant/oil mix and I can't find anything.

"c'est la vie" as it were.

[Dr.B6Banter]

Didn't happen today but like... a couple of months ago now:

CCT literally grenaded. Replaced it, but the damage was already done. it'll still run and drive but it sounds awful and has zero power. going to have to wait until spring to get into it and see just how much damage has been done ie. new head/block/turbo or all 3. it SOUNDS like there's a hole in the block but nothing is leaking, no coolant/oil mix and I can't find anything.

"c'est la vie" as it were.

Was it an aftermarket one? They seem to be very hit or miss. My gates one has been fine since 2019 but others have had them basically explode after a few months. A new OEM or used one with new pads seems to be the safest route. Hopefully no metal shavings went through the oiling system.

[TobiqueSlang]

Was it an aftermarket one? They seem to be very hit or miss. My gates one has been fine since 2019 but others have had them basically explode after a few months. A new OEM or used one with new pads seems to be the safest route. Hopefully no metal shavings went through the oiling system.

It was an OEM tensioner but I'm pretty sure it was the original one with 300,000km on it. When I got it opened up it looks like the bottom shoe disintegrated and then the timing chain hung up on it and ripped the whole bottom out. I replaced it with another OEM tensioner but it still sounds the same when its running so I'm pretty sure the motor is toast.

Luckily enough though I have a donor car with known good motor in it, so all might not be lost except that I'm not exactly set up to do a motor swap in my driveway so I'm going to have to find a shop that can do it locally that I can trust. (there's like 1 guy in this city that knows anything about these cars as they are wildly uncommon out here but he's pretty much impossible to book)

[Mike Tries]

Well, I think my master cylinder is definitely busted. I think the thing failed while I was at an HPDE event last year, but it continued to function--just noisily. I thought, perhaps the thing ran low on fluid, and sucked a whole bunch of air in, so this weekend I did a bench bleed (with the thing installed in the car). The problem persists, though. I think a seal failed inside--and the spring may have broken, or at least the seal is jamming up the return operation. Add it to the list of things I need to fix on the car before... well, I don't know the date, but probably in the next two or three weeks when tech inspection hopefully takes place. Now I have to figure out which of the two master cylinders I have on my car. A phone call to Audi may be in order.

[CJM_RVA]

Went for state inspection (after delaying it due to several things including needing rear brake pads, now taken care of) and failed on 3 counts. One, condensation in both side marker lamps. (Really???) She said she would have let those slide on their own except for two, the passenger side headlamp also has significant condensation in it. That thing has only been on the car for a few days, pulled a set of xenons off of a junkyard S4 last year and had never got round to installing them until a bulb went out. Well, they work, but righty has a bad condensation issue. And three, the cherry on top, my power steering pump is leaking significantly. So I get to replace that too. Sigh...

[Mike Tries]

Well, I think my master cylinder is definitely busted. I think the thing failed while I was at an HPDE event last year, but it continued to function--just noisily. I thought, perhaps the thing ran low on fluid, and sucked a whole bunch of air in, so this weekend I did a bench bleed (with the thing installed in the car). The problem persists, though. I think a seal failed inside--and the spring may have broken, or at least the seal is jamming up the return operation. Add it to the list of things I need to fix on the car before... well, I don't know the date, but probably in the next two or three weeks when tech inspection hopefully takes place. Now I have to figure out which of the two master cylinders I have on my car. A phone call to Audi may be in order.

Nope. I was wrong. It was the brake booster that went bad. I checked the master cylinder on the bench, and it seemed to be operating perfectly. I pressed the brake pedal down a bit and the squealing sound was still present. I took the booster off, took a look inside, and it was super rusty. The spring was rusty, and when I shook it around a bit, I could hear dust swooshing around inside. I reproduced the sound by pressing in on the input rod thing, and it was very obviously the culprit.

OK, so the new one will arrive today. Have any of you replaced one of these before? My concern is getting the correct rod length, and getting it screwed onto the ball that snaps into the pedal. I don't know how to adjust it, and I feel like I am unable to safely remove the ball joint from the back of the pedal, so my plans is to be under the dash board, on my back, reaching up past the roll cage cross bar. It's not terrible--I just want to make sure I do it right.

Oh. And one more thing that I'm struggling with. I removed the clutch switch to improve access to the rod. This would be the switch that gets depressed when you press the clutch to the floor--the firewall-side switch. It was so simple... just gently twist it, and remove it. Reinstallation? Magical incantation and then twist in the other direction? There's a little black tab that juts out, blocking me from twisting it once it's sitting in the bracket. It looks like a little locking pin. How do I defeat that little gizmo? There's a whole three-page thread on this on the B7 forum, but the answer wasn't clear to me. I can't press it back in, and I don't want to force it and break it.

[Danisson]

Went for state inspection (after delaying it due to several things including needing rear brake pads, now taken care of) and failed on 3 counts. One, condensation in both side marker lamps. (Really???) She said she would have let those slide on their own except for two, the passenger side headlamp also has significant condensation in it. That thing has only been on the car for a few days, pulled a set of xenons off of a junkyard S4 last year and had never got round to installing them until a bulb went out. Well, they work, but righty has a bad condensation issue. And three, the cherry on top, my power steering pump is leaking significantly. So I get to replace that too. Sigh...

Since it barely starts to warm up outside around here... I'll give it a try this Thursday. My 17"s are about 200 miles away so I hope they'll pass me with the summer USP 18"s currently on the car... (though not in the vehicle's ID :)
Besides this I think the car has no other issues... well maybe some oil leaks here and there but c'mon she's 23 years old now. (considering what people are driving in the Eastern Europe)

[Mike Tries]

Profanity laced tirades aren't really my thing. But I'm always open to trying new things. I cannot. Get. The. Brake. Pedal. Apart.

This guy. Right here.



I made a tool. I tried screw drivers. I even tried grunting a lot while pulling very hard.

I did figure out the clutch switch. So that's cool and possibly irrelevant.

Any ideas?

[willemml]

I even tried grunting a lot while pulling very hard.

I really like that method, but have you tried a sledge?

I had a look through the Erwin PDFs but didn't see any good diagrams of that specific assembly.

I think you are supposed to loosen that small nut which is tightened against the long hex. Then you should be able to unscrew the long hex from the threaded rod. Measuring and marking everything is probably enough to make sure you do the reinstall correctly. Like you said earlier that ball joint does not look like it is designed to be removed.

I did find this blog post: https://myaudis4.com/2013/02/06/audi...sembly-removal
It doesn't lay things out very clearly in my opinion, and is also for removing the entire pedal assembly which I assume you don't want to do... but it has some good pictures.

All of that said I haven't had to do any of this, everything I have done in that area is routing new wires and inspecting my broken hood release.

[Mike Tries]

Ah ha! I figured it out! Thank you for chiming in willemml! It turns out that the answer was persistence (and removing the ball). Eventually, jamming a screw driver in there and twisting it just-so popped it loose while I yanked on it.

That's good. So... you know... I know how to do it now.

The new one clicked right in place. Which is funny, because now? Yeah, that one has to come out too! Cool right? The new booster's master cylinder mounts are 1/4 inch too short! (That's 0.250 inches for you metric crowd). The nuts that secure the master cylinder to the booster won't engage. I double checked this after I realized the mistake--the booster bolts are actually recessed into the mount slightly for the stock unit, while my rebuilt piece of crap has them flush on the outside.

At least this time, I know how to get it off.

Right? Maybe? We'll find out tomorrow.

The old one was so rusty! I'll put up a picture once imgbb starts working again.

[Turbo510]

My little red battery symbol came on at idle a couple of times yesterday. Maybe the $30 Amazon regulator I installed 2.5 years ago, or maybe very worn slip rings are giving up after 315K miles.

[Gunnarrrrr]

My little red battery symbol came on at idle a couple of times yesterday. Maybe the $30 Amazon regulator I installed 2.5 years ago, or maybe very worn slip rings are giving up after 315K miles.

If you wanna do the 180 amp B9 alternator upgrade, I have a spare one with 50k on it. I just need to throw the new oem valeo b7 regulator on it and it’s gtg.


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[alleykat]

My battery drained after an interior light was left on. I charged it up and car starts like normal but the alarm keeps going off even while the car is on. The key fob isn't working anymore as far as making it beep on/off. I've tried manually locking/unlocking using the key in the door to see if it would reset. So far it's still doing the random alarm while its parked. Roof is in the down position as well and wont go up.

Edit:

I did the key syncro and now the remotes work again. Not sure what's wrong with the roof yet, maybe battery is not fully charged.

[pablolizarraga]

Replaced the power steering line. Thankfully, it gave out while backing out of a parking lot instead of while canyon carving or just making a left turn in LA traffic.

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Thankfully, super easy replacement and the pump didn’t grenade itself.

[Mike Tries]

I finally broke the hood pop lever. I can't say I didn't know it was coming. I just couldn't get the action smooth on the thing. So, now I don't know how to open the hood. I broke it, threw it into the woods, and then climbed off the trailer and gave up. I didn't try to climb into the window, head first and upside down (because I can't open the doors on the trailer), to see if I could just yank on the cable with vice grips or otherwise solve the problem. I suspect I can, but I'll have to try it later on. Eventually, that whole mechanism will go away and be replaced by aero catch pins. You know... when I'm feeling particularly masochistic, which is a requirement to attempt to install those little demons. Oh well.

[willemml]

Mine was broken for a long time, I just used some small pliers to pull the cable. I finally replaced the whole lever last week.

[Mike Tries]

Thanks, this is super encouraging. Having the car on a trailer makes it hard to do stuff, and this is one of those things that's kind of been worrying me a bit today. I might yank it off of there this evening and give it a bath and try to get that hood open. Heh, maybe I can Velcro the pliers or vice grips into the door cavity the car and label them "Hood Latch" with my laser.

[willemml]

Another tip, depending on how the lever broke you might be able to put it back on the wire and just use it as a pull stick, I did that for a while too. With the pliers I recommend grabbing perpendicular to the wire right behind the nub thing on the end. I used my the pliers in my Leatherman which I keep in the drawer under the drivers seat.

Reason I mention this is that I didn't even bother trying to use the broken lever at first, I just used my pliers for a few months. But for the last few months I had the broken plastic in there again.

Also grease the hood latch if you haven't already, made a world of difference for me. (I just used a grease gun to put a giant blob in, then rubbed it around with my fingers and did partial open and close without fully latching it a couple times.)

[Mike Tries]

I got it open with the broken remnants of the lever today. I don't trust that not to crumble to bits, so I'll grab some pliers in the meantime.

The grease is something I will try out. I tried something there previously, but it might have been too thin. I'll just gloop it on there and see how it goes.

[Kevin C]

The hood latch pivot has a pivot that gets sticky and is hard to get oil up into. I found that unbolting it, and flipping it over made a big difference in how much force I needed to get the hood to pop. This was after a new cable and spraying it from the top.

[Mike Tries]

I'm moving into the "I'm done asking" phase with this hood. The hole saw is involved. Aero catch pins are next.

[Danisson]

While cleaning wipers and arms, the right one decided to make my day "awesome"... fell right onto the windshield and the wiper unclipped.
Sooo, while seeing the whole scene from a foot or two swearing and almost wanting to break it all with my screwdriver I just had to learn how to welcome this 6-7" long crack into the family :)
Will try to repair ASAP and if it doesn't work... well, new glass in :(

[Mike Tries]

Oh no! That's a huge crack! Do you have a Romanian version of Safelite? They are a huge windshield replacement company, at least in North America.

[Danisson]

:) There's NO "Romanian version" to anything, trust me ! (even changing the oil shouldn't be done the "Romanian way") I could get a Pilkington glass replacement at their dealership (which is not far from my home actually) for ~ 150$ in total (including their services)... though think abut the old trim lining like moldings and rain cover that would obviously break (2002) and I'd have to get them brand new, OEM only. So probably it'd be twice as expensive as the glass, considering just a few plastic/rubber pieces.

Balkan life s*cks, man ! You can't find anybody that you can trust while working on your car around here. Taking your car to anyone (including some dealerships) is only a matter of spending tones of money and re-doing all the work again by yourself... they just want to finish the job as fast as possible and rip you off big time !

That's why many people are asking me why my left fender is rusting or why my rear bumper doesn't get a repaint / why I install a rear-view mirror that's more expensive than my beaten-up windshield and so on... my work in making her as perfect as I can basically stops where I have to rely on somebody else doing something :(

[Mike Tries]

Oh man, no fun. But, a bit of good news for you might be that your windshield trim.... is probably fine. I took mine off myself (2003) just a few months ago and it came off with ease. The base of the windshield rain gutter thingy, which I broke like a dummy while trying to remove the ECU cover, was actually pretty hard to break when I did that... and the Safelite guy had no trouble removing it. I superglued it back together later on, and even that is holding.

[Gunnarrrrr]

Oh man, no fun. But, a bit of good news for you might be that your windshield trim.... is probably fine. I took mine off myself (2003) just a few months ago and it came off with ease. The base of the windshield rain gutter thingy, which I broke like a dummy while trying to remove the ECU cover, was actually pretty hard to break when I did that... and the Safelite guy had no trouble removing it. I superglued it back together later on, and even that is holding.

I finally got a new one for $60 from the dealer recently and I have to say it’s one of the best “upgrades” i’ve done to this car in my 10 years of ownership

psa to everyone reading, go out and get one while you still can before we end up like the b5 guys bidding up windshield cowls to $1k on ebay

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[kwilson]

I finally got a new one for $60 from the dealer recently and I have to say it’s one of the best “upgrades” i’ve done to this car in my 10 years of ownership

psa to everyone reading, go out and get one while you still can before we end up like the b5 guys bidding up windshield cowls to $1k on ebay

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$60 isn't too bad. Mine's broken and it seems like all of the ones at the junkyard are as well.

Edit: Part number 8E1819403A01C.

[Danisson]

Driver's door harness is now toast (3rd one built on the same old & crappy connector :) so after spending like a day trying to deal with it once more I got angry and cut it all off. Fortunately enough, tomorrow the brand new connector with rubber boot arrives. So let's have some fun with some heat-shrink solder butt connectors I'd say !

[Larhal]

Driver's door harness is now toast (3rd one built on the same old & crappy connector :) so after spending like a day trying to deal with it once more I got angry and cut it all off. Fortunately enough, tomorrow the brand new connector with rubber boot arrives. So let's have some fun with some heat-shrink solder butt connectors I'd say !

I have had to do the same. I used a FEBI repair kit, Crimp connectors with a heat shrink sleve. Worked great.

[ye1low]

Went to get an inspection and alignment yesterday. Noticed the car pull ever so slightly to the right for the past couple months. With the car up in the air the tech calls me over to show me that my right lower control arm bushing is totally gone and chewed up the inside corner of my brand new tire! I own a car lift and can't believe I missed that.
Time to hit up FCP to see if I can get on that Groton Control arm group buy price.

[Gunnarrrrr]

just remember, lemforder only 🫡


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[ye1low]

just remember, lemforder only 🫡


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Hate to be "That Guy" and ask the same question 10000000000000000 times but do we not have any options for poly control arms? I've been searching for days and can't find anything other that ebay crap, Lemforder, 034, OEM and Meyle. I'm thinking of backfilling the voids with poly, as I have done on other engine mounts on other cars I have owned.

[Gunnarrrrr]

Hate to be "That Guy" and ask the same question 10000000000000000 times but do we not have any options for poly control arms? I've been searching for days and can't find anything other that ebay crap, Lemforder, 034, OEM and Meyle. I'm thinking of backfilling the voids with poly, as I have done on other engine mounts on other cars I have owned.

If you insist on rattling your teeth out, grab some new lemforder arms and press in powerflex bushings

lemforder are oem audi with the audi rings ground off with a dremel before they package them. 034 is some random aftermarket idk I wouldn’t go with theirs aside from their adjustable ones if you absolutely need that.


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