My B5.5 TDI diary.

[Col]

Another busy day. I seemed to be out there all day without much happening but I was fat out.

I jet washed the beam and them de-rusted it as best I could which took ages and ages. There are loads of nooks and crannies which you cannot get to on it. The important thing is that it wasn't too bad.

I also took the rear arch liners off along with the sill covers. I've not seen anyone else do this on here despite being on here since 2007. I just wanted to clean things up under the covers and inspect things for rust. The good news is there is none as expected. There is only some minor crush damage where the car has been jacked up without care but nothing to worry about.

Dirty beam


Grotty beam end






Funny plastic strap on the anti roll / torsion bar. Like a cable tie but on steriods!




Part cleaned off of rust




Those two studs that had sheared off, I had some bolts, a tad longer but they'll do the job


In position


Welded on using my ancient Clark MIG. I worked out that I've had this welder 25 years !


I also welded the existing studs on a bit better so they don't in the future shear off. Come to think about it, I did have a mysterious rattle squeak noise, it must have been the handbrake cable knocking on the beam.


Hanging up waiting for paint. I wanted to use the daylight to work out the car.

[Col]

Got the shocks off and the rear arch liners. The shocks are really quite worn comparing them to the resistance of the new ones, they move very easily with much less resistance.


Mud built up


Not too bad, a lot of this is factory applied wax


Another shot of the bracket(s) that bolt to the beam via the studs, two of which I've welded new ones on..


The goodies in the boot waiting to get fitted, not the stereo though and I don;t know why that isn't indoors.


Sill covers off


Moody interior shot, I liked the angle!


Next shots are of the sills, before and after cleaning...






A lot of mud


Minor crush damage




Cleaned and totally rust free


More crush damage at the back, again not too bad


Clean


Clean, but there is a funny water trap. This is where the mud was!


Paint time now.

[Col]

Came in after the filty cleaning session earlier, had a good shower a Sunday roast.

Then back out there to get the 1st coat of paint done.

Beam




Disc shields and bush / cassettes which I laquered.


Rear caliper carriers hanging up to dry


Under crackers all scrubbed clean and dry


Wheels bearing / hub units. These were a rusty mess.

[Col]

A little bit more done.

Blacked up the lowers, it actually easier to do this on the car. I never thought I'd say that!


And the arch liners




Things have dried nicely, a nice OE looking satin black. Except car makers due to the cost don't paint things or paint them properly like this and therefore in a few years they turn red rusty and get crusty.




These were saved so cleaned them. For reference they unscrew from the studs on the beam.


I've ordered about £60 of new bolts from VW today as well. I was going to re-use some of them but thought why not. Also ordered a load of the T25 trim screws as well off e-bay as most of mine are a bit scabby.

[Col]

Working from home!

During my "lunch" I tackled the slightly bubbling rear brake lines.

Note that this is a temporary measure and I'll tackle the brakes once the suspension is back in place. I also noticed the rear flexi hoses had a few surface cracks in them. Good enough for the forthcoming MOT but not for me. To undo the flexies it means splitting the joint between them and the main front to rear hard lines. From bitter experience I know that these won't split or undo without ruining the main front to rear brake pipes / hard lines. So the that whole job is on the list sometime soon but not immediately.

It is still good enough (hopefully) to pass its forthcoming MOT but I'd not be happy with them as they are.

So a temporary fix was to remove the plastic bubbled coating, scrape and sand the corrosion away and then paint the exposed lines. Sounds like a lot but this only on the short hard lines that clip to the beam. The corrosion ironically was where the green clips are. These particular pipes are £18 each new but as stated above I don't want to disturb the hydraulic circuits just yet.

When doing work like this, things do escalate and unplanned works do creep in. I'll now leave the new rear calipers and drain down the and bleed the system once.

Anyway, I did of course take some photos, saying that, the camera really struggled to focus on the thin pipes so some are a bit blurred.

Bubbly


Part cleaned, notice the white corrosion, these lines are aluminium it seems unless there is some ali in the plastic coating




Prepped


And painted, I'll give these at least three coats as the brake hydraulics side project may not follow immediately.


During my "lunch" or was it the teabreak? I also popped down to VW and picked up £64 worth of bolts !




It was the big beam pivot bolts that cost most, almost a Kings ransom on their own! And good job I counted them as there were only nine of the hub bolts, one short.

[Col]

You know I said there was no rust...

Well, I had a very very good look and found some. Very minor superficial surface rust but I found some. So, I whizzed it off and touched it up.

Can you see it? Clue I've removed the wheelarch liner clips


Same again but whizzed off ready for paint


Some here, whizzed off ready for paint


Just a tad on a spot weld, in fact there were a few like this.





At the moment I'm waiting for a few bits and bobs to arrive before re-fitting the beam and building things up. I also had a think and decided to go for it on the brakes, I've ordered new flexis, hoses and a roll of kunifer to make up new front to main lines if things go wrong.

I also spent five minutes fitting the bushes / cassettes and green clips back on the beam.

[Col]

Some will be bored to death of this and some will understand.

Another busy evening.

I got the beam back onto the car with the assistance of my 15 year old son. It would have taken me much longer to do on my own. The bits and bobs I was waiting for turned so it meant I could get things done. I've ended up getting one side 3.4's built up on the beam and then decided I'd had enough. I didn't take any photos of the build up but will when I do the other side.

A load of nice new shiny and rust free trim screws turned up. These are the T25 torx ones that fix many many things to the car, I got 50 delivered for not much. Funnily enough they arrived just as I was putting the arch liner back in so some of the pics below are with the me using the old screws as a temporary measure.


Scabby old vs shiny new. It is the small things.


Oh no... There is run in the paint! This is an example of where I splodged it on on the bits where there was rust!


This tin of waxoyl must be 20 years old. I looked all over the tin and couldn't see a www dot anywhere on it. The irony is the tin is a bit rusty, maybe I should waxoyl it?


Dabs of waxoyl on the arch where the liner tightly fits against it. It'll also help the mounting screw holder holes to not go rusty like the two I had to deal with in a previous post.


Arch liner on


A bit more dabbaging of waxoyl on the shock top mount.


Shock on




The spring cups turned up each in there own nice red box.


The old uppers were possibly re-usable but the lowers were quite knarled up. As I'm going this far, I though whats another £27 or so....


A pointless shot of old and new


Shiny screws


Cleaned up the carrier sliders. They were actually perfectly good from five years ago when I last changed the discs and pads. All I had to do was clean and re-grease


Greasing anything on the brakes should be done with ceramic grease. NEVER use copper grease.


Trial fit of pad in carrier, I wanted to know if the paint had caused clearance issues. It hadn't


So, beam on !


One side 3/4's done before I gave up.


More completely mind numbing updates tomorrow.

[Col]

A jolly good session has been had. The rear end is now complete. I've still yet to do the brake hydraulics but as I've mentioned that will be a separate project from the suspension.

As I mentioned in the previous update post, I 75% finished one side last night after getting the beam back on the car with the help of my 15 year old son. This afternoon I finished the 25% of work on the side I'd started last night and then proceeded to build up and finsh the other (drivers side). Whilst doing the driver side I took some pictures...

Passenger side done (except for the brake hydraulics)




Which me the drivers side to do. This is as it was after fitting the beam last night. All I've done is tie the brake caliper back up out the way.


You will note the marks on the paint. This is where I'd 'levelled it off' in truth removing a run with a wood chisel. The hub needs to fit a flat surface.


A bit of dabbage of waxoyl on the mating faces


Hub on


Brake caliper carrier bracket going on


All tightened and torqued up


New nuts and washers on the handbrake cable brackets


Caliper piston wound back in although the picture below gives no clue


Those cheese haeded bolts that were crusty rusty, I didn't want these nice new one going the same way, so I painted them!


And I painted the new nuts on the handbrake cable


Disc on, a nice feature on the rears is that you do not have to remove the carrier bracket to remove and fit the disc


Diego. He is the research and development bloke at Brembo and such is his importance there is a pictore of him on the brake pad box. I wonder what he drives? I bet he has got an old Alpha and goes for long boozy lunches at various pavement cafes and that is where he gets his ideas from.


When fitting pads, a blob of ceratech grease needs to go on the pads end ears. I'm hoping the built in squeal shims will do their job and hence have not applied any to the backs of the pads.


Pads mounted


Old caliper back on for now


Job done. All that hard work will never be seen except by me and the MOT man. But whenever I drive the car, I will know and be safe in the knowledge that the car is "sorted".

[Col]

A slow day, lots of time spent but seemingly with nothing happening.

Saying that, I did spend a fair bit of time tidying up as things were a right mess with tools everywhere. I hate that and when in that state you can spend, I do anyway, more time looking for tools than actually using the damned things. You put one down and then five seconds later you cannot find it. So I tidied up.

Then I commenced the front end. Jacked it up, axle stands and wheels off. Then wheels back on and down off the axle stands as I'd forgotten to undo the CV joint nuts. And back up it went.

I started to tackle the passenger side first. I've previously had issues with the lower arm balljoints releasing from knuckle so have left them as were / is. I released the uppers though with the infamous pinchbolt coming out easily as expected, it has only been a year since I last replaced it. What was surprising though was the complete absence of any copper grease which I liberally coated it with.

Upper arms released, lower shock mount bolt undone, the three top mount / upper arm carrier plate bolts undone and them I wriggled the strut assembly complete out from the car. Nice.

I swapped the strut over for the new one and refitted it back on the car, no drama. When I do the drovers side I'll take some pics.

I then whipped the complete drveshaft off the car for the CV joint swap on the bench, a much nicer place to do it. With the shaft on the bench, I cut the boot off and gave the joint a tap with the lump hammer and off the joint popped.

Cleaned and inspected the splines, all good.


Old joint. I shall carry out a clean up and inspection of it when I've finished doing the car, more out of curiosity than anything.


New boot on and then a trial fit of the new joint, just to make sure...


Greased it up, the full sachet supplied with the joint and fitted it. Then fitted the clip. A pair of pliers like this are essential for this job.


Cleaned up and carefully inspected the inner joint boot. It is like new with no signs of wear at all. Not bad for something that old.


A random shot of the dirty disc shield.


Back onto the car. This era of VW and Audi's are prone to the front wings going rusty. Starting from here and also where a lump of foam in close proximity remains wet. Mine was / is spotless.


Same here, no rust at all


Edge of the bit of foam on the left, again spotless and rust free.


Subframe alignment holes for reference. I'm not dropping the subframe this time as I don't have an engine crane any more. You need to support the engine to remove the subframe. What I will though is touch up the subframe on the exposed bits facing the wheelarch.


A tiny bit of surface rot on the subframe. Not the best pic but this type of rot leads to bad things and maybe in another 20 years it could cause an MOT failure!


On a Ford of this era, a seam / joint like this would be rusty, this is as clean as a whistle, no sign of rust at all.


Same here, no sign of rust and testament to the VW build quality. Very pleased to see nothing in these areas. I do know that there is a bit on the drivers side but that may be due to a bad accident repair earlier in the cars life.


And that is it for today, I really couldn't be ***** to do anymore.

[Col]

Another non day.

I got the bumper and part of the front end off as well as the front wings and gave it all a good jet wash and scrub clean So I could inspect things. My suspicion always was that the car had early in its life been involved in a dink to the front drivers side, those suspicions were confirmed when the wing came off, it was / is a replacement.

Having carefully inspected everything for rust, all is good except for some very minor bits here and there which will be easy to deal with. One bonus is there was a bit where I was sure it was a bit rotty but for the time being it seems now that the dirt is out the way it just some runs in the paint.

Font end off






Dirty but rust free


Mud trapped by the poofa block type thing


Removing the big foam rubber poofa block type thing.


A poofa block !


The poofa block stops crud collecting here at the wing base but not all. No rust though in what is a mud trap


You can see the depth of wax applied from the factory, good work VW


Suspicion / exibit Nr1; overspray on the cable gaitor


exibit Nr2; paint off the wing bolt


Wing off


And the other wing off


Initial inspection, just dirty


Hinge and bracket! I can clean these now which is very difficult otherwise


Wings. the factory fitted one is silver, the replacement on is black.


Very clean and totally rust free although I've to carefully inspect these


Another poofa block of foam. This one is bad as it is the primary cause of wings rusting on this vintage of VW / Audi cars. I'm not sure if it is going to remain or if I'll remove it. It is the bit that touches the lip / edge of the arched bit. It obviously chaffs and and stays wet and lets rust get a hold. I've no idea why this car seems to be un-effected by the issue. I was at least expecting to see the start of some rot, but as said I've yet to take a close look.


The other side of the mud trap


Wings on the garden seat cushions. The Wife will be pleased just as she will be when she finds outs about me using all of her cotton buds I used earlier to clean the brake slider brackets!


A quick look after jet washing.

Spot welds again as were a few on the back showing some light surface rust. I wonder why they are susceptible?


A tiny bit of rust but above the paint runs which I thought were rust. The black stuff is factory applied rustproofing wax and nothing to worry about.


And just another tiny bit of surface rust. Likely to be as a result of low standards in the repair done years before when the wing was replaced.