Mannyo's 2001 Audi A8 3.7 Quattro Sport

[Paul007]

Scrubs up well !

[Babs]

Beautiful

[vRSLen]

Like lots

[mannyo]

Small update.

Sorted out a couple of broken switches, bought some off ebay so now the interior boot release and alarm interior sensor disable buttons now work.

Car booked in to APD (VASWorks) in Poole for cambelt / tensioners / water pump / thermostat and service. Hopefully they will also diagnose and fix an issue with the front steering / suspension. Suspect at least one of the 5 suspension arms each side has worn bushes. They are picking the car up and delivering it back, not bad considering its about 12 miles each way.

Tomorrow weather permitting, I'll attempt to de-bobble the Alcantara on the drivers seat.

[mannyo]

Drivers seat has now been de-bobbled and it almost looks like new now and a great improvement on before. I'll give the Alcantara a thorough clean once the weather improves and it should be almost as good as new.

[Wardy]

Very nice Manny. They're lovely cars. Knew a guy with the 4.2 version which went very well, sounded good, smooth drivetrain and cornered well, especially considering the size and age/technology the car was designed in

Nice choice - would love something like that for longer journeys and general wafting about

[mannyo]

Got the car back from VASWorks this evening, small technical issue to sort following the work they did but nothing that cant be sorted. Looks like they forgot to plug the front parking sensors back in after putting the bumper back on and as result the parking sensors front / rear dont work due to a single fault with the front.

I am now £1.5K lighter, but the car has just had the following replaced with genuine Audi replacement parts.

Cambelt

Tensioner

Rollers x2

Damper

Water Pump

Thermostat

Alternator belt

CV Boot x1

Inner track rod

NSF Single suspension arm (the big lower one)

Wheel Alignment

Full service.

Edited to add: VASWorks (APD) fixed the problem this morning (Saturday 21st Jan) and credit to them they stopped what they were doing and sorted it even though it took them 1/2 hour or so. They even gave me some money to pay for the petrol I had used to get the car back to them.

[mannyo]

Doing some digging and discovered that these can be remapped, although I am not sure that at 174000 miles on the original engine and auto gearbox its something I want to entertain. Even though its a NA non turbo engine, its possible by a simple remap to increase the power from 260BHP to just under 300BHP. Somehow I dont think the gearbox and engine would last long with that much going through it.

[Wardy]

Yep, probably wise. Might be interesting to get it on an RR though, to see how it's performing and if it has lost any horses

[mannyo]

Yep, probably wise. Might be interesting to get it on an RR though, to see how it's performing and if it has lost any horses

Would be good, but I dont know of anyone who has a 4 wheel drive RR. My car has full time 4WD so whoever does it needs to have a proper 4WD RR. I know Jabbasport do, but from here they are miles away. Not sure how you would deal with the auto either as even in tiptronic mode the gearbox still has kickdown available..

[Hedge]

Surrey Rolling Road is proper 4WD.

[Babs]

Would be good, but I dont know of anyone who has a 4 wheel drive RR. My car has full time 4WD so whoever does it needs to have a proper 4WD RR. I know Jabbasport do, but from here they are miles away. Not sure how you would deal with the auto either as even in tiptronic mode the gearbox still has kickdown available..

And Jabba's RR would say you've got 2,213bhp anyway

[wilsy7]

1.5k are you wise!! Lol

[mannyo]

1.5k are you wise!! Lol

Probably not, but even after spending that amount of money I should be able to recoup most of it if I sell it due to the price I paid for it, doing an autotrader search or on ebay I cannot find one this new for the total price. I knew these things needed doing when I got it, so was already expecting a big bill.

The A8 D2 variant was made between 1994 and 2003, with a facelift in 1999, and most on ebay and autotrader are early pre-facelift examples. There were only 278 of this model on the road in the UK at its peak, and today 176 3.7 Quattro Sport remain on the road so its becoming quiet rare.

http://www.howmanyle...ttro_sport_auto

Mine has very rare Bi-Xenon headlights called Xenon plus, lets hope I don't have an accident and break even one of them as even today they cost £800 each for the light unit and that would write the car off in instantly.

New mine with all the options it has was the best part of £50K 11 years ago, and that was a lot of money then.

[mannyo]

Had to replace all 4 tyres yesterday, and set about fixing the drivers side headlight broken brackets that fix it to the car. Sorted the cracked bottom one, and now need to get the repair kit from Audi which provides a replacement upper bracket. Luckily the kit is cheap, so on my to do list as I need to fix it for the MOT so the lights can align correctly.

[mannyo]

Another update.

Headlight is now sorted, kit from Audi to fix it was just over £10 so thats another tick off the list.

Now the weather is improving and it feels like Spring is almost here, I have started going over the rest of the car. Having a close look at all the body panels in bright sunlight, its obvious that the car has seen a lot of paint at some point. This is all accounted for by the two accident repair quotes I have in the paperwork, and the work was done in 2003. Also quiet obvious are the millions of stone chips on the front of the car, I have patched them up for now so at least the car does not have measles anymore.

I finally seem to have got the front reg plate to stay stuck to the car, the car was swapped from a cherished reg just before it was auctioned by BCA and the plates they made up were not stuck to well. Removed all the crap from the back of the plate, and used nice fresh pads to stick the plate back.

Things coming up, and things to do in the future.

March, Car will pass 175,000 miles so another step closer to 200K.

April, MOT time and fingers crossed all the money I have spent on it, should pass fine.

June, Manny's run to the sun 2012 will see the Audi making its way to the Costa Del Sol.

October, Road tax to renew.

I may get the front of the car repainted, Bonnet, Bumper, Wings but may well leave it as is.

[Babs]

Still a lovely looking car, and yeah, the money you've spent will be worth it

[Reavenger]

Looks like a real tidy runner that you could take the family on long trips with. Interior looks very good considering it's 175k miles. You inspired me to have a sneaky peak at BMW 7 Series and Audi A8's on Autotrader just to see what's going

[Babs]

Don't do it! It'll cost you money!

[mannyo]

The interior is now in much better shape than in those pictures which were taken a week after I got the car. I have added quality carpet mats, and given the whole interior a thorough clean.

I'll be posting some updated pictures once I get the exterior clean again. The joys of living on a farm mean that the slightest amount of rain and its covered in mud.

[mannyo]

Another week and another problem to sort, I'll get there in the end I am sure.

This weeks problem, Rear coil springs.

Filled the car up with Petrol for a run up to Hertfordshire in the week, and noticed that the OS side tyre was more in the arch than the passenger side even though I have nothing in the boot. After 175K miles it looks like the coil spring has possible broken at the end, well I think it has. See the attached pictures snapped on my iphone with wheels in place.

[mannyo]

Another update,

Rear springs now replaced, and the car is once again sitting level at the rear. Also sorted the rusted screws on the ECU cover, so this is now fully attached making the box totally water tight.

I gave up with sticky pads to hold the front reg plate on after the 4th set gave in last week. The front plate is now screwed on instead, so is hopefully more secure.

Also cleaned the engine bay and applied a coating of a silicon back to black style product, so this is now looking good as well.

[mannyo]

Today was MOT day for the Audi, and it passed with flying colours.

Emissions all fine, no advisories or anything.

Here are the emissions figures, not bad for 175,500 miles.

Fast Idle Test:

CO - Limit 0.20% , Reading 0.04%

HC - Limit 200ppm, Reading 13ppm

Lambda - Limit 0.97 to 1.03, Reading 1.003

Natural Idle Test:

CO - Limit 0.30% , Reading 0.01%

So no issues, and all looking good for the drive to Estepona (Costa Del Sol) in a few weeks.

[mannyo]

Following the MOT, we have another issue to fix which is apparently a common one.

Last time I filled up with petrol, there was a petrol smell that I put down to overfilling then the weather warming up.

However I filled up again today, and stopped at the first click, went out to the car 9 hours later and the petrol smell is there again. Looked under the car and nothing, so I opened the boot and the smell was very strong indeed. I did some digging on google and this went on to removing the boot carpet, and the cover over the fuel sender unit. After removal the cause of the smell is apparent, a small puddle of petrol in a recess on the sender unit.

I have soaked up what was there, so its all gone for now, but it will return.

The cause is I hope a simple seal on top of the unit, which because the car is full has petrol sloshing around underneath. I cannot do anything with it yet, and will need to wait until I have driven the car a bit so the fuel level drops. I'll get a replacement seal from Audi, looks like its around £10 and change it.

[mannyo]

Seal on tank sender unit now replaced using brand new repair kit from Audi, I'll find out at the next fill up if that was a successful repair. I have for now left the metal cover unscrewed, so I can quickly see what is going on and if it leaks again soak up the excess petrol again. I hope that I dont have to do that though, and think it should be fixed.