Intro:
Update 3/4/2010
Made a list of things I want to do to the car this summer at the top of page 10. One of them being the more-urgent-than-before desire to have one-piece bumpers as I sorta broke the front bumper valence ice racing back in February. >_< I didn't actually hit anything. There was this one really big dip I didn't know about where the new course crossed the old.. i bottomed pretty hard. hard enough to break the bumper valence. oh well. If you go racing you have to accept that something might break.

Update 10/10/2009
The struts/springs are in, plus a 26mm front swaybar in the back. Car handles like 50x better. Also got some e-code headlights and HIDs so I can see at night (angled way down so as not to blind folks).

Update: 7/1/09
Just bought some 17x7.5 wheels and I'm going to be getting some H&R's/Boge Turbo's from Sam, so I think that plus I'm mostly done with all my maintenance stuff officially puts me into Project status. Woohoo! Thread title changed accordingly.

[original]
I seem to ask a lot of questions on here and make a lot of threads (you guys are really helpful btw). Maybe I should just make one big maintenance thread? This isn't a project thread because I'm not really doing anything special or hard, just regular to more advanced maintenance and I thought this might help tidy the forum up a tad if I keep all my cries for help in one place.

Things I've done to it (stock unless noted):
Engine:
034 Injector kit
034 Brass distributor gear
Bag 'o' Snakes
A/C Delete

Suspension:
HD Control arm bushings
034 Track density strut mounts
26mm Front sway bar installed in rear
H&R lowering springs over Boge Turbo shocks
17x7.5 et25 Ronal LZ's 4x108 with Admiral 712's in 215/45/17 (Summer)
Stock CQ Speedlines with Hankook Winter iPike w409's in 206/60/15 (Winter)
15" Borbet's. Not sure what type. Currently not in use, but I can't bare to part with them.
Diff lock speed sensor disconnected

Exterior:
Clear signal lenses
E-Code headlights w/HIDs (5000K)

My car
I think it's pretty.
The color is Indigo Blue Mica. Quite rare I'm told.






What I /do/ did with it:
I don't want to punish it any more. I'm going to find a nice old 4k or 90/80 and destroy that in stead.

Remove the fill plug before you remove the drain plug.

Sam

Good idea. Thats basically part of why I made myself a project thread.

What you do with it looks very cool. I'd like to do something like that with mine sometime, just for fun. What is it? Rally cross?

Yeah it's rally-x. And, as you may know, in preparation for Sunday I wanted to change the tranny oil. I checked the fill plug. No problem whatsoever. Easy in fact. The drain plug on the other hand.. well, a picture is worth a thousand words. There are only a few I'd like to use right now though.

You should use words like "I should've used a breaker bar for loosening a large, tight bolt".

Sam

And the words are

sam right on with the no brainer always check the fill plug! the idiots who put my clutch in didnt do it on my transmission and it cost me. anyway whos all goin to the rally-x on sunday im down for sure dont think im going to race though. but i will have some pictures something i picked up for my 80q. sam knows what im talkin about

Breaker Bar + PB Blaster + Heat =

Great looking car but sucks on the socket. Hopefully the knuckles faired better than the tool did . . . (doubtful, I can see that being aimed right at the floor pan, or pavement if on the opposite side). Keep it up and let's see some pics from the rally-x!

peace on it
dj apothecary

Breaker bar and cheater ftw.

Yeah. Breaker Bar. Right. I need to buy a lot of things right now. With no money. A good breaker bar, a decent jack, stands. Those are the only things I can think of off hand. Oh and a new socket wrench of course.

Thanks DJ. The knuckles are just fine. um.. this is where I might look stupid. I took the 4 foot lever bar off my friends jack and stuck it on the socket wrench, so I had a LOT of leverage. I don't think the socket was ever meant to take that. heh. On the plus side my friend had a 17mm hex wrench I forgot about. He brought that over with a sledge hammer. Still no go. Gonna call up a friend with an air compressor and stuff tomorrow. Oh yeah, an air compressor would be nice too.

Advantage of breaker bars is that they are 1/4" drive over 3/8th giving your tool much more surface area and strength. Yes this is going to mean you need to buy more things, but I think most of us started buying tools as the task mandated. It may be limiting at first but seems to be the proven method. And a breaker bar with the correct socket is FAR superior to the Audi supplied lug nut wrench when changing a flat. I bought mine at autozone for about 20 bucks. Sure its not top of the line but I haven't seen it bend yet . . .

peace on it
dj apothecary

well that's probably what I'll buy initially, some cheapo breaker bar with 3/4" drive (I'm assuming you meant 3/4 not 1/4) and a 17mm hex socket for this and one for the oil plug. but I'm not sure a cheapo breaker bar would get this one off. The plug is flush with the tranny housing.

yeah what you said (well 1/2", i checked with calipers) , there's some extra work on the current project, you'll see . . .


peace on it
dj apothecary

I called up an old friend of mine yesterday. He's swinging by with a mac 1/2" breaker bar and a decent 17mm socket.. and hopefully a torch, so all should be well tomorrow by 1pm. Which brings my question..

Is there any reason I wouldn't change the tranny fluid right before a rally-x? Does the oil need any special time with the tranny to get everything right? I'll be driving about 30 miles to get to the rally-x btw.

nah ur all gravy once you get the fluid in im guessing you went with mt redline 90 weight thats what brian recomends

Frank recommended it to me as well. It's also what Further Performance had in stock.

ugh that plug got me before too...

And I did what you did to your rachet...to my 1/2" breaker bar...three times. Then i stepped up to a 3/4" It's more of a weapon if you ask me.

lol are you kidding? you sheared the drive of a 1/2" breaker bar THREE times? wow.. well, my friend's bringing a torch along so hopefully we won't have that problem. particularly since tomorrow's race day. >.<

On a better note, I got my headlamps yesterday! Happy! Not quite so happy though when I saw they didn't have the boots and one of them is missing the clip that holds the light in. I did install the clear corners though, and they look a lot better imo than the amber corners, though one of them was uh.. not in the best shape. It's being held in by some twine. It looks fine though.





The corners are a little yellowed. Is there a way to fix that? UV light or something? I Know you can use UV light to remove yellowing from old camera lenses.

you can just get chrome bulbs that illuminate yellow but when off the lense still looks clear

Lights look good Belg. Car is looking good too.
I think most of us here have a significant investment in tools. What I've found is the following regarding quality of tools.

1) Boxend wrenches, etc you can get away with a little cheaper. I get mine at Harbor Freight. I'm loving their Extra Long metric boxend set right now. Goes up to like 24mm and the handles are really long for extra leverage. But you need a standard set also.

2) Sockets, socket wrenches I by Craftsman. I have blown to many cheap socket wrenches and its not worth my time. Plus, If I blow one of theirs its a free replacement. That said, over time I"ve learned to get the 1/2" Breaker bar out first or at least the 1/2" Drive Socket wrench before spinning my little 3/8" long Flex Handle which is BTW my favorite and most used socket wrench in my toolbox. But basically, if it has a ratcheting mechanism or is prone to breakage I get craftsman. Oh, and I find myself often needing a 1/2" - 3/8" Reducer so I can put leverage on a smaller bolt. I have snapped so many of these over the years that I now only buy IMPACT Reducers. I have not snapped my Craftsman Impact reducer yet and I've been pretty hard on it. PUlling a Driveline at the junk yard last week was torture on it and it held up.

3) Specialty Stuff. Here you dont usually have an option other than to bend over and take it. Lets see.
-Tool for the nut at the top of the struts so you can keep your Allen key in there,
- O2 Sensor socket. FYI..I think you can use this on the strut if needed. Doesnt give as much range of motion but it works. "I THINK"
- Triple Square wrenches for CV Joints and Head Bolts on Stock Audi's.
- And lots, lots more. Fun fun.

Keep up the good work!

Alot of people just use an impact wrench and spin that nut off. I got bored and made a wrench.

http://forums.audiworld.com/4000/msgs/130462.phtml

zarati wrote:
Specialty Stuff. Here you dont usually have an option other than to bend over and take it. Lets see.
-Tool for the nut at the top of the struts so you can keep your Allen key in there,


Alot of people just use an impact wrench and spin that nut off. I got bored and made a wrench.

http://forums.audiworld.com/4000/msgs/130462.phtml

I just use an offset ringkey, and if you have hex bits for your socket set

Whew! Rally-x was a blast today and I am beat. I always leave rally-x days pretty spent, but with a big smile on my face. Didn't even break anything this time. And the course was awesome! Very bumpy/rocky, but extremely fun. I got third in class, but I think I could have had second for sure. Apparently I hit a cone, but I don't remember hearing anyone call it and I don't remember hitting it. I also went rather slow the first set or two because I was afraid I would break something with how bumpy it was. It just emphasizes the need to buy another Audi beater so I don't care if something breaks.

Oh yeah, the friend with the breaker got the nut out with hardly any effort. Didn't even use the torch, just popped right out with the proper tool.

Nice homebuilt tool Martin. I use the impact if I"m replacing a shot suspension. But on good shocks I dont risk it. Chances are it shouldn't turn but you never know. For torquing them back on especially.

Belg... Glad to hear you had fun and didn't break anything. And your wire tied light even stayed in???