Audi Coupe GT rolling resto

Great build, really enjoying it. shame about the door incident.

tolse7 wrote:Great build, really enjoying it. shame about the door incident.

Cheers for that mate, glad to know people are enjoying the thread

I've finally gotten around to fitting the door! Although in typical British weather fashion it’s been pissing down on and off so it's still not finished

First thing was to obviously remove the old door. This isn't overly difficult but access is tight getting in to the 4 hinge bolts:



If anyone else is trying to do a similar thing I recommend you have a friend round to help. These doors are bloody heavy so you'll need the assistance of a trolley jack and friend to keep it supported whilst doing the bolts up again.

Once you've got the hinges taking the weight you'll need to make adjustments so the door closes properly. Again this wasn't hard as I just lined the hinges up with the old marks on the replacement door which got it pretty much spot on and just needed a little tweaking:





The next job is to swap over the barrel from the knackered handle to its replacement. You'll need to remove a rubber grommet and the screw beneath it as shown here:



Then pop the trim off the handle and undo the screw here:



Now you'll need to unclip the 2 rods from the back of the handle which is a bit of a pig as access is tight and you'll be working blind. But after a bit of swearing you'll end up with this:



Now it's simply a case of undoing the screw and withdrawing the barrel. I put the key in the lock first though just in case the levers tried to spring out when the barrel was removed although I'm not sure if you actually need to do this.

That's all I've got done so far as it's raining again but hopefully I'll finish it tomorrow

In typical Coupe fashion, just when I think the car is working well it goes and throws up another problem. This time it’s the headlights.

Monday night, about a mile away from home in the pitch black and the headlights decided to fail completely! Fortunately I still had the spotlights when using the high beam flasher but it meant every time I changed gear I had to let go of the stalk and drive blind briefly.

After some detective work I narrowed the problem down to the indicator/high beam stalk, basically it had shorted itself out and taken dip beam with it. The problem I’ve now got is I’ve spent all my spare cash on crimbo presents so can’t afford another stalk and I need the car for college next week.

Here’s the mess of wires that I was trying to diagnose:



The plug in the middle is the one that’s meant to be connected to the stalk, it’s got 4 terminals on it, 30, 56, 56a and 56b. As far as I can tell without a decent wiring diagram, terminal 30 activates the headlight relay, 56 is a constant live, 56a is dip beam and 56b is high beam. So with a bit of improvised wiring I’ve connected pins 30, 56 and 56a together so I can at least have dip beam when needed:



It seems to work pretty well for now but I’ve just got to hope this bodge doesn’t cause anymore electrical gremlins.

Other than that I’ve done a bit more to the driver’s door, all that’s left now is to hook up the electric windows and the central locking into the alarm

Turns out my little headlight problem is actually a major wiring problem. Got about half a mile from home earlier today and found I had no wipers, heater blower, horn and electric windows Then smoke started billowing out of the dashboard as well! Fortunately I had my tools in the car so I pulled over sharpish and disconnected the battery before I had a full blown fire on my hands The only thing I can think of is that I've got a bad earth behind the dash somewhere, so it looks like my christmas holidays will be spent ripping the dashboard out

Hi all, hope you've had a good xmas/new year!

The Coupe wiring problems are almost sorted! All the problems have stemmed from condensation on my windscreen. The interior smells very faintly of anti-freeze so I think my heater matrix has got a tiny leak which should be fixed when I get round to running some Radweld through it. The leaked coolant has been condensing on the windscreen and from there running down the back of the dashboard and into the electronics. It’s corroded an earth point which I’ve cleaned up again but worse than that some water got into the ignition switch and shorted it out.

Before I rushed off and bought another ignition switch I first bypassed the old one to check it was definitely that which had gone, I won’t say how I bypassed it as it’ll basically give anyone reading this a guide to hot wiring cars but it confirmed I needed to fit a new one.

New from Audi the switch is £32, new from GSF it’s £6, so I got a GSF one. Although for £6 I’m fairly sure it’s been made from toffee and will probably last until just after the 1 year warranty runs out.

The offending culprit:


To fit this you need to strip the steering column down which isn’t overly difficult, until you come up against a bodged repair by a previous owner...

Once you pull off the stalks there should be a lock washer round the column which holds a big spring in place and stops the steering lock housing from moving about. On mine, instead of the lock washer a metal ring has been welded to the column to retain the spring. You can just see it in the next photo; it’s the greyish ring on the column just in front of the brass ring on the steering lock housing.


So tomorrow’s job is to get the angle grinder out and remove the weld... Not a job I’m looking forward to. Nothing’s ever simple

It's back on the road

Earlier in the week I finished off the electrical problems by replacing the ignition switch. I had to grind some weld off the steering column to get the lock housing away, here's a better picture of the bodge I was removing:



I've rebuilt it all minus the dodgy welding and everything works as it should.

Other than that I've stripped down the passenger side electric window and replaced the plastic gear with a spare that came with the new door so that works as well now

I've also done a bit of work on the engine. I had some rough running issues so on a hunch I pulled the distributor cap and found this:



Lot's of marks in there suggests the dizzy has got a problem, if you look carefully in the next picture you'll see a plastic cover in the dizzy has been chewed up, there's a bit of play in the shaft so I assume it's caused this:



My spare engine was called on again to donate it's distributor which is filthy but perfectly servicable:



The part numbers on the new dizzy is slightly different but it works perfectly and the engine now has a decent amount of power again. It even torque steers now

All that's left now is to give it a bloody good clean which can wait til the weather warms up

Bloody hell, it’s been 2 months since my last post. Which means I’ve had 2 months of trouble free motoring out of the Coupe!

It was bound to come to an end though. Drove it to College last Thursday and I was having to rev match up and down the box to get it into gear even with the clutch pedal depressed. Given the hydraulic problems I’ve had in the past I decided to bleed the clutch with a friend in College, which made the problem even worse...

We came to the conclusion that the clutch master cylinder was fucked so I towed the car home on Friday and set about removing the cylinder today.

I’d heard from a few people that it’s a proper bitch of a job to do and I have to agree. It’s located up behind the dashboard with the steering column and pedal box in the way so access is non-existent. You have to undo the lower column support, remove the brake pedal and undo the pedal box assembly before you can even get access. Then you’ve got to disconnect the most convoluted linkage I’ve ever seen between the clutch pedal and master cylinder as well as undo the hydraulic lines all whilst working upside down in the driver’s footwell. Once you’ve done that you’ve got to manoeuvre the master cylinder out of this tiny space:



First look at master cylinder wasn’t good, note the corrosion on the end:



I figured I might as well strip it down since I had it out on the off chance I could get a repair kit for it instead of buying a new one. First you remove the circlip from here:



Then bang it on its end a couple of times so the piston and spring pop out:



A closer look at the piston and seals explains what has gone wrong:



Moisture has gotten in and caused the cylinder to rust which has got onto the seals and started allowing fluid past. So instead of fluid being pushed down to the slave cylinder it’s been going back into the reservoir, hence difficultly getting into gear.

All I need to do now is find a new master cylinder, fit it and bleed the system. Hopefully it’ll go in easier than it came out but I doubt it.

If I’m lucky this should sort it and I won’t need to replace the slave cylinder as well, although that’s not overly difficult to change, you only have to disconnect part of the steering rack to get access to that...

Bloody car

The Coupe lives again!

Euro Car Parts managed to supply me with a new master cylinder although it was a bit pricey at £60.

You can see in the next picture that the new one is slightly different in shape from the old one but nothing too major:


The push rod needed changing for the old one though as the threaded part is wrong. This meant having to partially strip the new cylinder down which isn’t ideal:


Getting it all mounted up in the car was even more of a faff than taking it out. I ended up building most of the linkage out of the car and then squeezing it back in above the pedal box and column


In the picture above you can get a rough idea of how it’s all connected. The rose joint on the left connects to the top of the clutch pedal, whilst the mounting brackets connect up to the pedal box and bulkhead. There’s also an over centre spring and some more linkage that I didn’t take out of the car but I’ve got no pictures of that part as space is so tight I couldn’t get the camera in.

All that was left to do was manoeuvre everything back in, connect the clutch pedal, the over centre spring, bolt the linkage to the pedal box, connect the hydraulic lines, adjust the pushrod, bolt the pedal box back up, re-connect the lower steering column, put the brake pedal back in, idiot check it in case you’ve forgotten a link pin or bolt and finally bleed the system though.

Net result of that little lot is the Coupe is drivable again. The clutch pedal is now insanely light but gives good feel for the bite point, so all in all I’m a happy man.

Although if the master cylinder every goes again I’m just going to sell the car, it’s not a job I ever want to repeat!

This a fantastic thread and a gripping read...you should get it published Honestly its guys like you that make me proud to be part of the scean...the last line of defence for an aging Audi...Keep it up!

yep this is a quality threar and fair plat to you.

although its put me off ever owning an old audi haha!

Cheers lads. It’s turning into a labour of love now. I knew when I bought it that it wanted quite a bit doing to it but if I’d have realised just how much work it’d be, I might not have bothered. On the flip side though it has taught me loads about mechanics and especially electronics which is handy since I’m studying Lv2 mechanics at Grimsby College at the mo.

Hopefully I’ll get more than 2 months of motoring out of it before it needs fixing again!

Hi all, just got a little update for you today.

I’ve been having oil issues recently. When the oil get’s nice and hot my oil warning light has been coming on when idling. It goes back out again as soon as the throttle is touched and my oil pressure gauge never goes below 2 bar. A mechanic friend suggested it might be that the oil is getting too thin when it warms up so since It’s due an oil change anyway it makes sense to do that first and see what happens. If this doesn’t cure it I’ll start looking at the oil pressure senders instead since one of them is obviously lying to me!

Since I’m doing the oil change I figured I’d do a write up with a couple of tips for those of you who’ve never done one, they’re pretty easy to do and it’ll save loads of money in garage fees.

You’ll need a few things before you start, such as enough oil of the correct grade to refill the engine, a new oil filter, a new sump plug and washer, an oil filter wrench, a suitable container to catch the old oil and lots of rag to clean any spillage.

First off run the engine to get the oil warm, not too hot though or you will burn yourself. By getting the oil warm it’ll flow more easily and remove more of the gunk that inevitably builds up in an engine. Once it’s warmed up turn it off.

Next raise the car up on either axle stands or ramps. Don’t be tempted to support the car on just a trolley jack or worse the widow makers manufacturers see fit to supply for changing wheels.



Now put your container under the sump but remember that the oil will come out in an arc so be prepared to reposition it quickly. Give the area around the sump plug a clean and then using a spanner or socket undo the nut. A tip here is to keep gentle inward pressure on the sump plug until it’s completely undone and then pull it away from sump quickly, this should stop oil covering your hand and arm. Once it’s completely drained fit your new sump plug and washer being careful not to over tighten it.



Next it’s time to undo the oil filter. Mine is of the ‘spin on’ type which basically means you unscrew it and throw it away. Another type is the ‘replaceable element’ type where you have to unbolt the housing and then only replace the inner filter. If you’re lucky you’ll be able to undo the filter by hand (although it’ll still be tight). If you’re not lucky you’ll need an oil filter wrench which aren’t expensive to buy, but if you’ve already drained the oil you can’t exactly drive to the local Halfords to pick one up. One option is to loop an old leather belt around the filter nice and tight, then pull on the loose end to undo the filter (the same way a strap wrench works). If you can’t do that then there’s always the cowboy way of using a hammer and a screwdriver... Once the filter is off make sure the old sealing ring isn’t stuck to the engine and then give the mating surface a good clean.



Get your new oil filter and put some oil on its sealing ring then spin it on the engine. You only want this as tight as you can do it by hand. Most problems to do with filter removals are caused by people over tightening them when they’re put on.

Now you need to put the car back on the floor and re-fill the oil, your car manual should tell you how much you need to put in. If you’re not sure keep checking the dipstick, but remember to give it a minute between filling and checking the level as the oil has to get down to the sump to give you an accurate reading. Another little tip for you is to remove the dipstick while you pour the oil in the filler to prevent air locks. When you get close to the MAX level on the dipstick start the car up and check underneath for any leaks. Once you’re happy turn it off, let it sit for a minute, re-check the level and top up as needed.

The other little job I’ve been meaning to look at is my central locking which has packed up. With any electrical problem the place to start is the fuse box. Conveniently it had blown it’s fuse so I replaced that and tried the central locking. This made it immediately blow the new fuse . After a bit of hunting around I found a broken clip in the driver’s door and this:



I think the clip that was holding the wires broke and this wire got caught in the window mechanism. So I’ve repaired it all and now it works perfectly again.

One slightly worrying thing I noticed when I opened the fuse box was the 3rd fuse from the right in the picture:



That’s the fuse for the blowers and the plastic has completely melted. The blowers work fine and the fuse obviously still works but I’ve no idea what’s caused it. I’ve replaced the fuse anyway and I’ll keep my eye on it for a while.

Hopefully the Coupe will behave itself for a while now as I've got a couple of expensive jobs to do on my Passat (timing belt and a CV replacement)