A6 Excitement

[Morris Minor]

What do you do/use to clean up the headlights? I have one on a Prius that's looking a bit sad (the other is a replacement, & is fine).

[FlatBlackCaddy]

What do do/use to clean up the headlights? I have one on a Prius that's looking a bit sad (the other is a replacement, & is fine).

If they are really rough then:

400 grit
600 grit
800 grit
1000 grit then
Compound and polish(regular automotive paint stuff)

IF they aren't bad then you could start at 600 or 800 and sand them and then compound and polish.

Most, if not all, of the headlight repair kits are not very good IMO.

[saxonyron]

Nice work!  The paint job looks real good, and your body work is impressive!  I don't have the patience so any body work I've ever attempted looked pretty lame.  I noticed a 3rd pedal.  That makes your car one badass ride!  I owned the same car, same year, same transmission from 2003 till 2006.  I loved it massively, and just wish they'd offer real transmissions still on the A6's.  You should have a lot of fun with that beast!  Congrats!

[FlatBlackCaddy]

Nice work!  The paint job looks real good, and your body work is impressive!  I don't have the patience so any body work I've ever attempted looked pretty lame.  I noticed a 3rd pedal.  That makes your car one badass ride!  I owned the same car, same year, same transmission from 2003 till 2006.  I loved it massively, and just wish they'd offer real transmissions still on the A6's.  You should have a lot of fun with that beast!  Congrats!

Thanks, there are some flaws in the bodywork but it turned out MUCH better than I had hoped(given the somewhat rushed nature).

I have the car pretty much wrapped up.

i buffed the whole car out, cleaned the wheels, repainted the center caps, shampooed the interior and I'm just about to treat the leather and get the car mats all cleaned up.

Tonight I just got done digging around trying to find the coolant leak(the only mechanical issue keeping me from driving it). After digging around and alot of time with a mirror and a light, it looks like it's the secondary(aux) coolant pump. I'll drain the coolant and throw the vacuum tester on it and see if I can hear exactly where it's coming from. I might get luck and just have a hose connection leaking. Either way, looks like the intake manifold has to come off and get down in there to fix this.

[12,000 RPM]

CPO GTI's certainly seem to fit the bill the best. For around 18K I can find a couple year old 4 door gti(manual) that would be a great blend of economy, fun to drive, semi-luxury and utility. The Golf R would be nice, but for what I can find they are going to be about 7K more(CPO). Don't know if I need that extra power or awd for a DD. I'm trying to be somewhat realistic and restrained. It's just going to be a car that's kept stock and driven like other normal people drive(to work, store, etc). Then again, i've never been good at normal, I see that used S6's are getting down in the price range that I'm in.

I wanted a GTI for wifey but my buddy has one and it has nothing but problems. It's barely running right now.

[CALL_911]

CPO GTI's certainly seem to fit the bill the best. For around 18K I can find a couple year old 4 door gti(manual) that would be a great blend of economy, fun to drive, semi-luxury and utility. The Golf R would be nice, but for what I can find they are going to be about 7K more(CPO). Don't know if I need that extra power or awd for a DD. I'm trying to be somewhat realistic and restrained. It's just going to be a car that's kept stock and driven like other normal people drive(to work, store, etc). Then again, i've never been good at normal, I see that used S6's are getting down in the price range that I'm in.

Hell yeah. I absolutely love mine. It does everything well.

[FlatBlackCaddy]

Well, have been searching for my coolant leak for a few days on this thing. Thought it was on the back of the motor where there is a crossover tube that connects the secondary coolant pump to the turbos. This area was suspect due to the spray pattern of dry coolant around the area. So I double clamped the 3 hoses and continued to vacuum test the system.

After a day of messing with that it still could not hold a vacuum on the coolant system. So I switched over to a pressurized tester, thinking I should be able to see the coolant leak.

I ran the pressure test and it couldn't even get to 10psi. I kept checking the suspected area and it was bone dry. After a quick glance under the car and seeing a large pool of antifreeze I figured I should look around under the car. I saw a path of coolant coming off the underside of the alternator. It's tighter than shit down there and couldn't see where it was coming from. After a few quick searches on the net it appears the thermostat housing is a common leak that shows signs around the alternator.

I didn't want to do the timing belt, but this repair is done during the timing belt service. So that pretty much made the decision for me, it's leaking way to much to ignore. So I figured, fuck it. Might as well dive in and get it done.

In reality, this is probably just a 5 hour job. Reading about it sounds much worse than it is(the case with about everything IMO). I've spent atleast 3-4 dicking around on the back of the motor. In an hour and a half I'm pretty much at the timing belt. If i had parts I could have replaced the belt and put it all back together tomorrow morning.


Popped the bumper off



This is actually a pretty nice process, IMO. You can remove the core support and don't have to break the A/C charge or other coolant(ps/oil) lines.


I'm going to order the parts on monday, hopefully have this done next weekend.


I need to get this thing out of the garage, I'm loosing time on critical stuff that needs to be done before summer. Ironically I need the space to do a timing belt change on mitsubishi.

[Rich]

Was the same way with the Cooper S, the theromostat housing failed at about 55,000 miles.

[FlatBlackCaddy]

Was the same way with the Cooper S, the theromostat housing failed at about 55,000 miles.

I got the timing covers off last night, looks like a party under there. The thermo housing and water pump are just spewing all over the place.

Typical neglect, it's been a problem for atleast a few thousand miles. I don't know how some people, and one who called himself an "enthusiast", can just ignore shit like this.

[Rich]

A lot of guys say they like women, but tend to ignore them too, so YMMV

[dazzleman]

We should race! 

[dazzleman]

A lot of guys say they like women, but tend to ignore them too, so YMMV

Not every guy gets scouse-sucked every weekend, man.....

[FlatBlackCaddy]

We should race! 

Too easy of a win for me.

I think I recall reading a post about your "extra illegal speeding" which apparently equates to 91MPH.

[FlatBlackCaddy]

I ordered up the ultimate plus timing belt kit from ECS, I also ordered a bentley manual and some other tools(electrical) from amazon. My LCD replacement screen as well as the box of parts from ECS should be here tomorrow(or at the latest friday).

Hope to have the timing belt job done, front reassembled and the lcd replaced by sunday. Might actually get to drive this by next week.

Then probably sell it and buy a cts-v.

[giant_mtb]

Who the hell wants a CTS-V when you can have an annoyingly complicated Audi that you did a bunch of work on. Pffffff

[FlatBlackCaddy]

Who the hell wants a CTS-V when you can have an annoyingly complicated Audi that you did a bunch of work on. Pffffff

Double the HP and half the wheels driven. 

[giant_mtb]

hahaha Valid.

[FlatBlackCaddy]

It's either that or an S6.

probably the s6..

V10 for the win.

[giant_mtb]

10 whole cylinders. In a friggin V. What more could one ever desire.

[FlatBlackCaddy]

10 whole cylinders. In a friggin V. What more could one ever desire.

a stick, but the m5 is pretty hideous inside so....

[CALL_911]

Naaaaaaaah the E60 has a great interior

[giant_mtb]

Sticks are nice. I'm thankful every day that I drive one. Even if it is mostly instinct/muscle memory for everyday driving.

[Rupert]

Yeah, but what about your car?

[68_427]

With blue interior

[FlatBlackCaddy]

The wagon is lame, I'd rather have a S4 avant than that.

[FlatBlackCaddy]

So I finally am COMPLETELY done with this thing. I got the TB job all done, fixed a few other things and got the car inspected. I messed with a few things here and there(radio reception) and have been driving it off and on. Then it got nice out so I decided to move it back in the garage and switch the wheels. Finished the change up with another round of interior detailing and a wipedown for the exterior.

Snapped some pics of it clean for the CL ad I'll be throwing up soon. Just to complete the thread, here is a final pick of it "done"(as much as I'm going to do) before it finds a new home. The wheels actually look a lot nicer than I thought they would.

[mzziaz]

Looking good!


How much are you gonna get out of this thing?

[FlatBlackCaddy]

I was going to ask around 5500 or so