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9 minute(s) of a 155 minute read
11-30-2013
As I'm walking behind my car to get in it today I feel my foot slip..I look down and theres a little fluid on the ground. I thought it was left over from when I bled the brakes and went to wipe it up when I see a puddle and trail of liquid.
Brake fluid…lots of it. Pop the hood and the reservoir is nearly empty, just above the level of the master cylinder.
This was my fault. I made a stupid mistake when I got the new reservoir. New reservoirs come with the ports capped on the bottom and with the clutch line sealed. To open it up you're supposed to cut off the end of the plastic. My old reservoir had only one port for the clutch line. The new reservoir had two nipples with plastic ends to be cut off…I cut both off and immediately realized my error. Oh the curse words that left my mouth.
In what appears to be a foolish attempt to fix the reservoir, I found the piece I cut off and glued the **** out of it. It held fluid for the last week, but no longer.
Lessons learned:
Double check that the parts are the same. Even with the same part number these reservoirs were molded slightly differently.
Don't attempt to glue your brake fluid reservoir. Don't attempt to glue your brake fluid reservoir. Don't attempt to glue your brake fluidreservoir.
When working on such critical components as the brake system, check your work on a routine basis until you are positive all is well.
So I made a $100 mistake. At least I caught the mistake before I took the car out for a drive today, it could've been a lot worse.
12-1-2013
The dealership was nice enough to knock $20 off the price of a new reservoir so I got it for $70 instead of $90. Also picked up the little plastic tool to pull off the lug nut caps.
Installed the new reservoir, bled the brakes and clutch again but haven't taken the car out yet.
Tonight I worked on wiring up my bench testing/flashing harness. Not my prettiest work, but it should be sufficient. If I were to do this again I would build the harness inside a box for cleanliness.
One switch is to emulate the ignition switch and the other is to switch power on and off of pin 43. My understanding is that pin 43 must have 12v to flash 3.8.2 ECUs.
12-10-2013
Bench testing rig works just dandy, got my ECU flashed with a new tune. I also re-plastidipped my last wheel, rewired the dash camera (again), got the proper bolt to tie down my full size spare, and retightened my pedal covers and shift ****.
In other news, just as everything seems to be coming together something else breaks. That seems to be the name of the game, although this pattern seems to be increasing. I guess that is also to be expected as there are fewer and fewer stock parts on the car.
This time it was the cat-turbo flange that broke cleanly leaving me with an open turbo/exhaust. I was testing out the new tune on some backroads and heard a loud pop, pulled over to find this.
12-12-2013
Pulled the down pipe and cat out this evening. I wasn't able to get the DP/cat assembly out the top as I thought I was going to be able to. The cat kept hitting the corner of the turbo oil feed line.
Disconnecting the down pipe from the rest of the exhaust allowed me to drop the assembly down far enough to easily reach the last bolt. After that the DP dropped down from below and I pulled the cat out from the top.
12-14-2013
Went to the pick n pull today since I saw they just got two A4s in yesterday. In my quest to find a decent junkyard K03 I was looking for a later year 1.8T passat with low miles. Instead I found a 98 A4 with a good looking turbo and decided to go for it. I also snagged a bunch of other parts along the way. Twas a good day of picking and pulling.
Facelift rain trays and cowl
Lower valence for my dad's A4
Instrument cluster with LCD from a 97 A4 with the wiper arm controls and plug. This set will be for sale for someone who wants to do the same cluster swap I did. I also needed a new headlight switch since mine turns on the high beams with the left turn signal, the CC also doesn't work. I'm hoping this new switch fixes both those problems. Also got a leather e brake cover when I already had one. Whoops.
And the K03 turbo I pulled today. Unknown miles.
No axial shaftplay, minimal radial, no evidence of the compressor hitting the housing, no damage to the blades on the compressor or turbine, waste gate looks like it is sealing, WG opens properly with air pressure, and the assembly spins freely.
It was a pain in the *** getting the turbo-manifold bolts out. Those things were in there strong. I ended up breaking one of the bolts on the way out. So I'll have to extract that.
I did find what appears to be a crack in the turbine housing. It is hard to tell if the discoloration is due to a leak or because of its location (in a corner at a high point.)
Waste gate sealing
Oh! I forgot to post the video I put together of when the cat separated from the turbo. Couldn't help myself and had to run it once.
This is also the channel I'll be uploading video from my dash camera to.