Ahhh yeah I wondered why mine looked different it's the weight I'm gonna do that tomorrow I had an inkling that's how it's done but had to check first thanks again getting loads done with your help lol. Didn't know how to edit my posts and out the picture in with my last comment I'll get the hang of this eventually. Car is looking great in those pictures
now ive got that off... where on earth to i drill a new pivot hole lol and wont taking the weight off make it lighter and less notchy so to say or is your still a nice weighty click in gear change like you have to actually drive it not floaty so it goes it easy lol lol if you understand. haha
Ah, that's an 02A shift tower you have there Sir, as fitted to early 02J boxes ~pre July 98. mine came with that shift tower being an early car, but I binned it all years ago as I just couldn't get it feeling nice and wanted to update to the newer style setup
Yeah I found out late last night after searching. I've drilled the hole and has shortened it feels better but as you say it does feel rubbish. May have to update it for a better feel. Out of my depth choosing what to fit lol. Thanks for all the help mate
EGT issues: I'm using K - type thermocouples from McGill motor sports like this: They work fine for 6 months, then fail quickly over a few minutes. From reading fine, to suddenly starting to give sporadically high readings (900's on idle) then the numbers climb until the display maxes out at 1300+ and displays 'EEEE' for error. Occasionally it jumps back into life with a re untrue readings (800 and climbing on it's own accord with the engine off) the just maxes out again. New sensor in and all is perfect again. Most odd. I'm wondering if it's the wires melting where they pass close to the hotside. Want to get a new sensor with a stainless 90deg bend taking the cable route away from the heat source like this:
Small amount of Pre Goodwood prep from a few weeks ago: I've had a few instances of smoking recently on idle. Never when driving. I don't think it's any huge worry, but wanted to check things out anyway. I removed the oil drain pipe to make sure it was fully clear. It blew through fine, but I decided to push a pipe through it just to prove it was totally clear: I had a very slight weep noticeable on the splitter over time. I had originally thought this was the drain gasket at the turbo end leaking a fraction, as we'd used a 1.8T gasket instead of a TFSI gasket, so I bought the correct one. Difference can be seen here: It turned out to be the sump connection at the bottom of the return, so that got a new gasket as well obviously. Whilst this was off, I took the chance to drop the Oil. A fresh 9n Polo oil filter was fitted, and I re-filled it with Comma Motorsport 5w50 oil on Gareths recommendation, slightly thicker to try and prevent the smoking issues I'd had a few times: Whilst that was draining down, I turned my attention to Victorias Lupo, and gave it a quick once over, fluid checks, checked the plugs, air filter etc, and gave it a wipe down: Good little car that, surprisingly fun for just 75bhp, I can't imagine what Bills must be like with ANOTHER 300bhp on top! All bolted back up and everything looked pretty clean under there: The splitter off the car, currently 9 months old and not looking TOO bad. My glue idea for the brake ducts didn't work so well, so I now just tape them to the air dam once it's all fitted. It makes removal easier too. We also took a punt on a little GoPro style HD camera from ebay. We'll use this mounted in various locations for some aero testing (wool tell tales and film the patterns) and also as a rear facing camera for track days: Last up was the new EGT probe: I slid some heat resistant sheath over the end of the sensor tail, and doubled it up, in the hope that it offers some protection from the heat of the manifold This is where it lives, it gets pretty hot down there! The previous 2 sensors had been soldered on, but seeing as it seems to have a habit of eating the sensors, I decided to fit this one with bullet connectors, so it's a quick and easy swap out IF it eats another one. I'll get another sensor ordered up and keep it with me as a spare
we went to Goodwood a few weeks ago. It was a good day. :thumb: Oddly though, the driving seemed like the most insignificant part of the day. being the day before Steve and Helens Wedding, the atmosphere was fantastic, with everyone knowing everyone it was a great friendly place to be. The day was sessioned, with 4 groups per hour. Which made it even more sociable as we couldn't do our usual long sessions and loads of track miles. We were put in Group 1 with some pretty fast stuff. eek! Being sessioned, and not having time to experiment much, we headed out on slicks straight away. The first session was a bit greasy, and took most of the 15 minutes to learn the grip levels and generate some heat in the tyres. Second session Dad drove, and went really well. getting to grips with the car again seeing as he drives it so infrequently: This was also the first trackday that Victoria had come to, she's not into cars at all, but seeing as it was local and such a sociable event it was great for her to come along and meet everyone I posed by my car for jardo to take a pic Then realised I look like Captain Slow :laugh: A few cool pics appeared from Jason on facebook:
jardo took some pics on my GoPro style ebay camera, these were set at 8mp and shrunk down loads, it also does a 12mp picture, but I didn't realise we'd be using it to take a few pics! Parked up in the pits: Nige's SuperGolf: Some familiar machinery in the pits: After Dads second session, Rich and I were chatting about his 135i (mapped, 420bhp, 500lbft) and I mentioned how much I'd love to go in it one day. To my surprise, he threw me the keys and said to take it for a spin! I don't need telling twice with an offer like that! What an awesome car. So much torque it's unreal. Hugely impressive. Thanks Rich! Our session time came around again, and we headed out. The track was a bit warmer, and I felt there was much more grip on the outlap. I was half way round my outlap when Al Clark came screaming past in his gt3, so I decided that was enough tyre warming, switched to full boost, and gave chase. For one corner brickwall Not totally thinking about the ~60bhp I'd just switched on, a little too much throttle too soon out of the chicane saw the car push wide, just enough to drop 2 wheels behind the kerbs, but what wasn't apparent was the enormous crater just behind the kerbs that we fell into! The noise was horrific, the splitter banging on the serrated kerbs and doing what sounded like all manner of horrible damage. I limped round the rest of the lap, and came in, scared I'd damaged something badly To my surprise, only 1 woodscrew on the air dam had been torn away, and the brake duct trumpet had sprung loose. A screw from Nige and some duct tape, and 5 minutes later it was all well and good again. Only, being a sessioned day, we had to wait another hour until our session time again. ARgh. so frustrating! One more session before lunch and Dad let me drive to try and get back into it asap. The car felt good, although I didn't feel I was totally up to pace, it was smoking a bit (to be investigated), and I had issues shutting my drivers door thanks to a faulty latch that reared it's head on Saturday morning as we tried to leave! Nothing major, but I think a combination of small things, as well an apprehension about Goodwood following a troublesome first visit 2 years ago, had stopped me from going quite as well as I'd hoped to. Lunch was good, lots of chatting and looking around all the other cars, catching up with friends, and intorducing Victoria to more people. Thanks to everyone for being so friendly :thumb: Dad drove the first session after lunch, and was going really well. He seemed to be getting into it really nicely and was learning the lines. Goodwood is a very fast circuit, and takes huge commitment for a quick lap, something I felt I never quite cracked on Saturday. I went out for a session with Nige, in front and behind swapping places. It was great fun, and the cars are in theory very evenly matched, but on the day Nige definitely had a better handle on the track, and the quicker pace over a lap. Here is a rear facing video from that session, filmed on my ebay camera. The sound quality is poor, because I had it in the water proof case. I hadn't realised these kill sound quality so much, so will be running it in the open case when using it in car next. After that session, I had a good long chat with Nige and Tom (Smudger), and we all agreed I'd been braking too early, and not hard enough. This is pretty unusual for me, as braking is usually one of my stronger points, but for whatever reason, it just wasn't happening on Saturday and I couldn't string together a good lap. I went out with their comments in mind, and Dad instantly commented that I was braking MUCH harder. With the harder braking came increased confidence, and with that came later braking, and the laps got faster, and the car started to feel really good. Sadly, after 3 laps going fairly well, the Speedo suddenly dropped off without warning. The fuel gauge started going crazy, and I developed a top end missfire above about 6k. All very odd! We cruised around for another lap, slowly, and aside from the speedo related missfire, the engine felt fine. I opened it up once more to test, only to find as I reached the first corner there was a noticable lack of grip and something felt quite unstable. We decided to call it quits, and instantly headed back into the pits. It soon became apparent what was wrong! 4 or 5 trackdays on that set I think, around 6-700 track miles, so I think they've done REALLY well. That explains the instability and lack of front end grip on my last lap, although it looked fine before we went out, so it's definitely worth checking these things EVERY single session. i wonder how much grip would have been effected running so little rubber left? i certainly never felt I had the same grip I have done on them previously. As for the speedo / fuel gauge / missfire, I found when I popped the bonnet that the speed sensor plug had gone brittle and snapped off! I bodged the plug back on over the broken sensor terminals, and everything was fine again, steady fuel gauge, working speedo, and no missfire! So, some sort of summary? hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. a tough one. If I'm honest, I'm a little dissappointed in myself. I thought I'd be faster, and I wasn't. Something just doesn't quite click for me at Goodwood, and it's a most unusual feeling! I just never quite felt like I was really going as well as I should be. not BADLY, just not quite where I expected to be. In the last session I was braking MUCH later, and feeling 10x more on it, but it was sadly ended early. The Ace Engineering days at Goodwood are fantastic, Nick and gareth do a fantastic job of organising them, and it's great value for Goodwood, but sharing the car on the sessioned days just doesn't get either of us enough seat time to make it worth while, and doing trackdays without Dad isn't an option. This is OUR thing, not mine. We do it all together Still a cracking day, just the highlight for us was the social side of it, seeing friends, chatting to new people, rather than the usual highlight which is the driving. I've got one or two things to address on the car, and a smoke issue to investigate, but hopefully it should all be 100% before Curborough in early september
just 3 weeks to go until the next Curborough Sprint. I've seen pictures of this before, but didn't find the mag anywhere and didn't get round to ordering it. Last weekend, Dad bought up a copy of Julys VW Driver magazine, which featured a little write up from the last Sprint. Odd feeling seeing a picture of yourself in print!
So, the smoke issue! It seemed to be occurring more and more regularly, and i was getting more and more worried about it. i'd tried a few various breather mods to try and cure it, but it just kept happening again. After Goodwood, it was particularly bad, and I realised something had to be done ASAP. Speaking to various people, the suggestion was either turbo, or cylinder head. Gareth said Turbo, Ben who helped me with the conversion last year suspected turbo, as did Eddie (Toyotech), but everything I could find online was suggesting stem seals. I spoke to Dan who built the turbo, and he suggested building up a new core 'offline' and that he'd let me know when it was ready. He said he'd be a few weeks, so not to worry about removing mine any time soon. The next evening, i get a phone call at 7pm ''your core is ready, can you bring the turbo over tomorrow? '' :shock: Eek! All hands to the garage. and by about 21:30, it was out! A quick inspection showed a pretty clear issue, and an apparent design flaw in the Borg Warner design: The compressor housing on this turbo is held on by 4 bolts to the core, with just the washers clamping the housing to the core. Older style ko3/4 turbo's have steel straps between the bolts to spread the clamping load like this: I headed over to Dans the next evening, and we stripped the turbo down to replace the core. When we took it apart, we found that the core had cracked on 3 of the 4 clamp locations. Allowing the compressor housing to pull away from the core slightly, hence giving some end float, and allowing oil to pass between bearing surfaces. Aside from that, the turbo was in absolutely fantastic condition. This was pretty pleasing for a unit that's done around 8000 miles of pretty severe abuse, producing around 100bhp more than it's factory output. the new core has a slightly revised compressor wheel too, with the same inducer and exducer sizes, but it's a 7+7 blade design instead of the previous 6+6. This apparently changes the surge point of the turbo, allowing more boost early on without the risk of compressor surge.
Good spot Murph! We did fit straps like that yes I intended to carry on with the update. It something came up and I never finished it, haha lol
In others news.... I got some more pics through from Goodwood. This time care of Gary Kinghorn at clicku.co.uk Me driving: And Dad driving: Thanks Gary!
Every thursday, browsing facebook at break time, all you seem to get is 'Throw back Thursday' pictures. So, I thought I'd post a few of my own, looking back over the years I've had the A3. 2006 - bought in summer, absolutely stock, 150bhp, 125k on the clock. I was 19, and I absolutely LOVED it! 2007 - Revo remap, 184bhp / 236lbft, an ebay induction kit, Miltek back box, and I'd stolen the TT wheels from my mums A3 by this point: 2008 - A st2 ko3S had found it's way onto the car, along with an FMIC and turbo back exhaust, 312mm brakes, single mass flywheel, and a new facelift interior. It was producing 225bhp / 290lbft, and at the time, was of course the fastest thing in the entire world! Seen here on at one of it's first Castle Combe action days: 2009, and by this time I'd met Jardo. Much of 09 was spent on the Mini, so aside from being considerably cleaner (Thanks J-rod) the A3 hadn't changed a great deal: it did however get it's first trip to the Ring in 2009, which really was the start of everything that's followed since! April 2010 saw it's second trip to the Ring, further cementing my idea that this could potentially make a cracking track car: After that followed an 8 month lay up doing nothing, in desperate need of repair with the miles adding up, it was make or break for the A3. One more Ring trip with Dad in the new daily A3 confirmed it's fate - the 'old car' would be turned into a track car. it was already fast, it already had good suspension, it'd be a cheap project, right? lol Here's how she looked when dragged out of hibernation, rather sorry for itself: Onto 2011, and things changed pretty quickly after that, and within 3 months it was ready for the Combe Spring action day: The cage came soon after: Along with the first step towards adding some more power! 2012 Saw change again, R-tech Livery, ~290bhp ko4 hybrid, a bit of colour coding, and a few bits and bobs: then of course that fateful Ring trip: 2013 saw the car fixed and back to full health, a new engine, producing 353bhp, and the rear wing added, my god it looked silly at this point: Thankfully, with the additional of Plywood, all was made well, in both the looks and the handling department. this is much how it looks to this day: Quite fun looking back at the development over the years. Comparing the first and last pictures I can safely say I never expected it to get this far all those years ago! Long may it continue
Thanks Babbe Which wheels do you mean? I think there are 6 different wheels in the pics above lol The white ones and bronze ones are both Rota Force. the black multi spokes are OZ Supertourismo. the thick solid 6 spokes are Ronal TT wheels, the bigger shiney 6 spokes with dimples are S4 Avus, and the twin 5 spokes are Seat Leon Cupra
