airbil

Wife just drove off in the A8, stylin with the newly installed S8 polished alloy mirrors. Very nice. Damn they look cool on the black car! Damn cool!
None other than PW himself showed up at 1100hrs with toolbox and laptop for the mirror install and A8 labotomy. Soon followed by Flooris (sp?)(escape8 I believe) to lend a hand too.
Remember 1968 when you would just reach out and adjust the stinkin ball n socket ford mirror? Forghettaboutit! These Audi mirrors like the rest of the car are an engineering marvel and the cast / machined aluminum housings are incredible works of art.
Like all audi undertakings there always seems to be a bit of a challenge, but with a little thought, manuevering and skinned knuckles, all is overcome. A quick S6 trip to Ace for some screws provided provided opportunity to gas up with a few gallons of 110 octane and Paul was heard to be giggling a couple times if my ears served me right
Of course we had to trouble shoot the check engine light, air induction goofiness mit laptop.
Wow... not only can Paul steer a car with vice grip pliers, I think he can drive it via laptop too. Instrument cluster test had it doing 150mph and never leaving the garage.
How nice to have sensors all over the place.
Tested blower motor in airbox and relays ..check check .. OK.
Check hoses for leaks.. hmmm motor is blowing air.. follow that hose. Large hose goes to diaphram OK. Oh thats how we get all those plastic covers off the motor.. Smaller hose comes around the front of the engine, up and back along fuel rail to a T connection.. well one inch short of T connection, Voila! Disconnected hose trouble found and not $350 later.. very nice thank you very much.
Of course then since we were close anyhoo, lets check out the timing belt.. More plastic covers removed. Belt looks to be in fine shape but kind a loose on the upper section. Maybe thats how its suppose to be?? WE'll definitely schedule that for the hopefully springtime beltathon, yes we will.
Anyway (in true Bentley style) re assembly is the reverse of assembly. No screws left over.
Oh I'm so happy.
Now lets pose these Audis for some pics. Paul and Flooris took enough pix to drain their batteries and they will no doubt be appearing here soon. Yes!
Five oclock came before they had opportunity to fix the nav system, but lets save something for next time. ha!
So, add my name to the list of those indebted to PW. Sorry he didnt get a little more time in the S6. Now what'll I do with a quarter tank of racegas?
Thanks so much guys! I owe you one.
BTW Got a firsthand tour of Pauls Doorbell Bosch Tiptronic (PDBT.) Amazing as previously imagined. Toggle switch ..ON
black button upshift, red button downshift.
Oh finished?,, just throw it in the glove box.
Unbelievable. As Flooris pointed out; even the doorbell wire apropriatley done in German flag colors.
Cheers'
Bill m
00 A8 / nice mirrors, no check engine light.

A8-911-Odyssey

Where, how much?

Tom

escapA8

<center><img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/31455/escapa8_three_muska8teers.jpg"></center><p>Yep, that was a great time. Thanks Paul and Bill! I'll post the QuickTime of the instrument cluster hopefully by next week.
I like your version of my name because it resembles "Floor it!". It's actually Floris (Ooops! There goes anonimity...).
By the way, how do you like your neighborhood without mailboxes?

A8-911-Odyssey

One is missing the alu-mirrors.

escapA8

Thanks. Almost froze my fingers off taking that shot!

ryoung

.
a group shot of a bunch of A8's at an Audi Club track event!

PaulW

Bill had a check engine light on his 00 A8, with the fault code being:

2 DTC's Found:
17831 - Sec. Air Inj. Sys: Bank 1: Flow too Low
35-00 - -
17819 - Sec. Air Inj. Sys: Bank 2: Flow too Low
35-00 - -

I had never heard of the air injection pump (The ABZ engine does not have the system, only the 00 and newer cars have it), but we found it in the airbox, on the suction side of the air filter.

<img src="http://www.audipages.com/Tech_Articles/enginemechanical/ai1.JPG">

The Bently says to check the hoses and make sure the fuse is good and the motor works. Hook up the ross-tech software, do an output test and it starts testing all the components in the fuel injection system!

Get to the one for the air injection pump, it pulses 12 VDC to it and you can hear it spinning. But it doesn't seem to have any airflow, like whatever it is discharging into is closed. So we follow the hose and find that it goes here (hose is removed in picture, but the hose was just fine).

<img src="http://www.audipages.com/Tech_Articles/enginemechanical/ai2.JPG">

So we pulled the hose as shown in the picture above and did the output test again, and that air pump was blowin'!!!

So we looked at where it went and found that the diaphrams have to be activated to have the valve open and allow air flow. There is one at the aft end of each cylinder bank. What controls the diaphram you ask?

A vacuum line. So we follow the vacuum line and see that it goes here, which is on the top side of the left cylinder bank, mounted on the aft side of the fuel rail.

<img src="http://www.audipages.com/Tech_Articles/enginemechanical/ai3.JPG">

Guess what??? The vacuum hose was disconnected, for some reason it was too short to reach it, we did a little rerouting of the hose and got it connected again.

We also did an output test of the Solenoid 112 and found it was working. However, with no vacuum supply to the solenoid valve, it couldn't open the diaphrams which allows air from the air injection pump to discharge into the cylinder bank or exhaust or where ever it goes (Randy explained the purpose to us the other day). It's amazing how you stop when you find the problem.

Cost for the repair???

$8 worth of lunch meat for myself and Floris for lunch.

Cost for the repair at the stealer???

Bill was quoted $350 for a new pump and motor, however, it was working just perfectly, some monkey lad must of disconnected that vacuum line along the way, you could tell somebody had been in there before.

Another Triumph!

pw

PaulW

Six weeks or so ago I saw these caps on ebay.de for buy it now for $350, never seeing them that low, told Bill about them and he bought them.

By the time he got them, it was something like $400.

They came with new mirrors and the mirror motor and the bottom black plastic piece. Did not include the mirror assembly piece that mounts to the body, so I don't think you could retrofit them to a 98 and older or possibly a 99 because the mirrors are different on the 99 as compared to the 00 and newer.

<img src="http://www.audipages.com/upgrades/s8mirror1.JPG">

Interesting to see how they are made. They are a casting (of aluminum or stainless) and polished on the outside. There is a very, very small amount of porosity on the outside, but from 1 foot you'd never notice it.

The insides are then machined to allow for proper clearance as you can see in the pictures, the raw castings must have interferance and have to be machined. The 3 screw holes are tapped with a M3 thread, screws can be had at the local Ace Hardware.

The caps are just awesome! About 1/4" thick, about 2 or 3 lbs each versus 1/4 lbs for the plastic OEM caps. Randy, how about reducing the weight of your car, I will get you plastic ones and you give me your stainless caps????

<img src="http://www.audipages.com/upgrades/s8mirror2.JPG">

They are very easy to install (once you have done just about every kind of mirror cap out there), just need 3 screws to attach. The OEM caps have one screw and a bunch of other plastic fittings on them.

Looks nice, huh?

<img src="http://www.audipages.com/upgrades/s8mirror3.JPG">

PaulW

Okay, so I wanted to try out the new "chrome mirror cap covers" that I received from Germany prior to taking Bill's old covers off.

This is for the '00 and newer A8's (and A6's and A4's with the facelift mirror cap). It won't fit the '99.

Here's a picture of the piece that fits on:

<img src="http://www.audipages.com/upgrades/largenew1.jpg">

It's just a plastic chrome cap that is attached via adhesive to the existing mirror cap. It covers most of the mirror cap, but not all.

I taped them on Bill's car and took a few pictures, here they are:

<img src="http://www.audipages.com/upgrades/largenew2.JPG">

<img src="http://www.audipages.com/upgrades/largenew3.JPG">

<img src="http://www.audipages.com/upgrades/largenew4.JPG">

They actually look pretty good. Acutally, I think they look great, the plating job on them is awesome. But it ain't the real thing, just a copy.

I have four sets if anybody is interested. They are $100 and I don't think I'm going to order any more. If you want to see the instructions on how to install them and what the kit comes with, visit the URL below, it's the same kit, just different car.<ul><li><a href="http://www.audipages.com/upgrades/b6chromeaudipages.html">Installation instructions of chrome mirror cap covers</a></li></ul>

PaulW

First, the complete stable including Bill's 95.5 S6 wagon complete with RS2 MAF, 3" complete exhaust, RS2 exhaust cam, RS2 injectors, big brakes, RS2 turbo, etc.

I drove it, with the three of us in the car, I could break the wheels loose once we hit about 5,000 RPM in first! The car has something like 380 HP from a 2.2 litre engine, it's awesome!!

<img src="http://www.audipages.com/gallery/3a81.JPG">

Here's a nice shot of the fronts.

<img src="http://www.audipages.com/gallery/3a83.JPG">

One clean butt, two not so clean ;-)

<img src="http://www.audipages.com/gallery/3a84.JPG">

And finally (drum roll please).......

Battle of the mirror caps! On the left, the plastic chrome plated imposter and on the right, the real deal!

<img src="http://www.audipages.com/gallery/3a82.JPG">