tuffty
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Posts posted by tuffty
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Hi folks... been a while since I was on at all let alone posting an update but... here I am and here is an update
The world that is DSG tuning is an "interesting" one to say the least... the S3 wasn't driven much if at all over winter and with the rubbish weather its not been high on the to do list at all...
That said I have now got the gearbox tune to a point its changing pretty quickly and producing around 15bar of clutch pressure... I have also turned the boost back up and been popping over to Mexico every now and then to tweak it... its still a bit of work in progress but currently its pretty close to where I want it but need to get the car on the dyno and get a more controlled view of the state of the tune and tweak from there...
My boost profile and iMax setup is a little unorthodox as I am trying to produce a strong but flat torque line...
Its mostly there but still needs a tweak and I think that would be best done once I have a dyno reading to validate what the torque actually measures out at
I have a mysterious clunk coming from the front offside suspension somewhere which needs investigating, the exhaust is out of alignment a little and when hot knocks on the rear tow eye bracket, there is a vibration at motorway speeds which I think is a weight that was knocked off the wheel while putting the car back together and I need to replace the the brake lines going to the rear as they are starting to corrode quite badly...
I may wait for that so I can remove the whole rear subframe assembly and refurbish that... I also plan to look at retro fitting an 8P rear diff using a modded subframe to give 8L quattro owners an option for failed gen 1 haldex controllers...
I still need to identify the stepper motor in the controller as I believe this to be the failure point but as yet not been able to test...
I have now also got myself a 3D Printer as I have a few ideas for "things"... that is once I have finished my current project...
The car feels strong through the gears... I have sold my manual box now which will go towards a new clutch pack and I am looking into swapping out the Cxx mechatronic unit for an Fxx one as this (apparently) has a more refined version of TCU/software that aids drivability (again, apparently!)
The box I have works though and for the most part is fine but there are times (when cold for example) its dumb as mud... this could be the software itself of course but it does work so if an Fxx comes up at the right price I'll build that into the spare box with the clutch pack and swap it out eventually
<tuffty/>
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1 hour ago, VauxwagenNova said:
I'm curious about the ignitron ecu and how you feel they compare to other brands.
For most port injection VAG based engines up to 6 cylinders its pretty epic... I have some limited exposure to ECU's such as Emerald, DTA, Megasquirt etc (the typical after market ECU's used in these types of projects) and Ignitron is night and day better... I ran an OE ECU on the 20v for as long as I could putting off going to the typical standalones as despite being far more difficult to tune the OE always drove better than any emerald or other standalone high power 20v I had worked on...
First time I fitted the IECU was a revelation... fired up and idled sweet as a nut out the box (using a combination of the basefile wizard and a couple of tweaks to suite my setup and then you essentially just drive about to tune the VE map applying tweaks to the VE map based off the adaptions...
Getting the VR running was just as easy tbh
<tuffty/>
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The gearbox is now mapped... I am also in the process of building up an XDF purely for shizzles and giggles so I can see if I can understand what the box is doing etc...
The XDF format is what Tuner Pro uses... this is fine and so far its going well... have added a few maps and everything tallies with OLS so far...
Whether or not I will do much more with it beyond keying in all the maps I don't know... having the map pack is one thing but I still need software to read/write and also checksum the files... will see what I can dig up as it would be nice to have the same level of control over my box map that I have over the engine map...
That said it is a pretty dumb version of the DSG TCU being the Cxx group TCU which is a blessing and a curse potentially... but its working fine so far and doing what I want it to... drives nicely poodling about in Drive and accelerating using TIP is epically addictive...
Anyhoo... now that the box can actually take the power I can turn up the boost...
With the stronger gate spring I can lift the top end boost as I wanted to... this will potentially give me the headroom to keep the torque going a bit longer...
My last dyno plot on the 7psi spring running 17psi top end... I was pretty much out of duty at that point... (85/90%)... peak torque is at 5k and drops off after... the gear changes off redline drop rpm to just over 5k so where the torque is dropping off... so I plan to address that...
Now I have hit 18psi at 55% duty so loads more headroom and have tweaked the mapping to try and lift the torque after 5k...
This of course is a rough estimation by the ECU so figures can be taken with a pinch of salt but generally speaking the shapes of the power/torque curves do follow the dyno plots... and this is looking quite flat now so hopefully it will work out like this on the dyno...
In other news... I have been (painfully) recalibrating the gearbox oil temp sensor...
Done a cold start and warmed the engine from idle logging and tweaking the map as the temp rises... its not perfect yet and hit a wall at around 60 deg as really the car needs to be driven to get more heat in... I may have to try and finish it off on the dyno or just give in and buy a more expensive and well documented sensor instead... (but where is the fun in that!!
)
<tuffty/>
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As the weather was decent this afternoon I popped out to wire up the DSG oil temp sensor
Used pin 26 on the ECU as this is spare for the input and earthed it to the distro panel I fitted previously for all the extra relays I had fitted
Double checked the VCDS label file for the definition of the temperatures in group 019 so I could see what temp I need to compare the reading from the sensor vs what the TCU is reading...
G93 trans fluid temp seems to be the sensible one to compare too to checked that on the colorMFA... was miles out!!... checked the measured resistance on the sensor input and at 20deg on G93 it was showing something like 48k ohms!... thats quite a bit different to 2031 ohms as suggested by the 'calibration' chart
So I guess I will have to sit about from a cold start taking measurements at 10deg intervals measured from group 019 on the colorMFA and read out the resistance values the input on pin 26 is seeing... joy
Joys of a cheap sensor....
<tuffty/>
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Small update... the temp sensor for the DSG oil filter housing turned up...
Popped out to the car to fit it and noticed the top of the box was wet... turned out to be gearbox oil... this could only have leaked from two places.. the oil filter housing or the oil cooler... the filter housing had a new o-ring and didn't look wet directly where it screwed in mount so my money was on the cooler and the generic o-rings I used...
Decided to replace everything (as you do) so ordered genuine o-rings and a replacement cooler...
This one is the larger version fitted to the early Mk1 TT DSG box....
More rows, more cooling maybe... who knows but a friend of mine fitted one to his track car so who knows
Was a little awkward to wiggle in but its all in and I just need to do the wiring to the ECU to be able to log the DSG oil temp...
In other news I also took the opportunity to change the gate spring... I was running a 7psi (0.5bar) spring and this was fine but too soft to let me get any boost above 17psi (1.2bar) so using some Gen5 WG45 springs (mines a Gen4 WG45) I attempted to get 10psi (0.7bar) as my baseline... this turned out to be 13psi actual boost which I think is down to the springs being designed for the Gen5 not my Gen4 so I have ordered up a Gen4 10psi spring....
10psi may not seem a lot but I don't intend to go above 20psi (1.4bar) top end and may not actually go that high depending on if I can achieve what I want at less boost...
I will soon find out though as I should be up at Bills this Saturday getting the box mapped... be interesting to see what she can do
<tuffty/>
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Have been driving around a bit getting used to the box... I am feeling less inclined to 'dip the clutch' and snatch the gear lever now... having the paddles makes the transition a lot easier as the muscle memory keeps kicking in using the selector in tiptronic...
I have also now replaced the faulty Febi ball joints with the MEYLE ones and can confirm that the taper was different and the MEYLE ones just fit fine with no dramas...
I managed to grab a ramp at Bill's to do this so I also topped up the DSG box fluid... took another ltr which I expected tbh... and my modded brake bleeder tool did the job perfectly..
I still have this random error pop up...
Not really sure what is generating this... its not the IMMO (the pick up ring on the ignition barrel) as pretty sure that would flash the cluster light... I have a feeling its something to do with the key lock that I don't have fitted (controlled using a wire from the selector to the wheel module and then to solenoid that's fitted to the ignition barrel on 8P and up auto's)... so I might reinstate that wire or perhaps try and recode the wheel module... not sure if I set the gearbox back to manual if it will be happy to still provide an output for the paddles... have to see...
One other thing I picked up to sort out at a later date is this..
Mainly for the sensor fitment on the top do I can hook it into IECU and log gearbox oil temps... its not 'definitive' as there are several sensors measuring temps in the box and I can actually see these in block 019 of the transmission module with the Color MFA but its always nice to log stuff in context
Thought I would at least try a bit of boost and see where the limits were... the box wasn't at all happy
.... so dropped back down to gate pressure (0.5bar/7psi) and will run like that until the box is mapped...
Thats not to say that there is not anything to do in IECU as its a bit of a two way street... not only does the box need mapping but the ECU needs a bit of tweaking to be able to work with the TCU in "harmony"...
The clutches are not slipping (or at least not that I have noticed) but torque limits are being hit all the same...
This will limit the throttle plate to control 'load' and obviously means you are not getting full power potential... I have had a tweak about in the IECU map and improved the situation enough for now....
This will do until the box is sorted then I can fine tune things as needed...
<tuffty/>
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Some good news with the ball joints... seller just refunded me for them which covers the MEYLE ones I have ordered... these have arrived now so will fit them at the weekend...
The CAN gateway arrived today as well... fitted that after work......basically connected power train CAN to the power train and convenience CAN lines... power train CAN is then connected to the back of the cluster along with the DSG selector and DSG gearbox CAN lines...
I also ran the CAN diagnosis lines to the OBD port so I can connect using VCDS directly... having the gateway installed means I can recode the retro fitted CAN modules directly now where before I had to use my test harness...
Fired up Ignitron and made sure the ECU could see the wheel module... which it could...
...then connected to the gearbox and checked block 003 to see if the box could see the paddle inputs....
...which it could
By this time it was getting dark... again!! so will tidy up the modules tomorrow and test the flappies on the road...
Happy days
<tuffty/>
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First job of the day...well... the afternoon...
PAS pipework sorted... for now
Next task was to look at the brand new FEBI ball joints as they didn't appear to be tightening up despite loading them up under the weight of the car with the jack... undoing them and having a look in the daylight (was getting dark yesterday when I was doing them up) I soon saw what the issue was...
Seems the taper of the ball joint is protruding past the nut face and all I was doing was tightening the nut to the protrusion and not the upright... I have sent pics and a video to the seller on ebay and ordered up some MEYLE ones this time...
In order to at least test the car I drilled out the nuts a bit to try and clear the protrusion...
This worked 'better' but was not 100%... but they are tight enough that I can drive round the block when the time came... and talking of which...
Eeep!... I had topped off the coolant and filled the engine with oil... I had run the engine up to temp... no faults, and no leaks at this time... wheels went back on and...
Seems I have an issue with the immo... I think its where I moved the column and its disturbed the pickup wiring or similar pretty sure I have had this before so will deal with that issue later...
Checked the fault on the box and just got the expected one..
Just for a module the 8L doesn't have and its not important so all good...
Feels very odd driving an auto after what feels like centuries driving a manual... currently my paddles aren't working so need to see what the issue is there... the module is coded and VCDS sees them operating so can only think I have got the CAN wiring wrong...
Starter inhibit works, reverse light works and as you can see in the vid the speedo works... as does the gear indicator in color MFA... will sort some proper videos out once I have finished doing the snagging and topped up the fluids... still need to do a final top up on the box before I try anything more spirited....
Popped into Bills earlier this morning too... he has managed to read from my spare DSG box which appears to be the same TCU as the one in the car... this is good news and should mean he can read and flash to my installed box too... I want to get it mapped before I turn the boost control back on... I am currently running actuator pressure to give the clutches an easier time..
Happy days
<tuffty/>
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Flexi for the oil drain finally arrived so Alex welded it up...
Happy days... cracked on putting the car back together...
Yes... the PAS pipework isn't where its supposed to but there is a reason for that...
Some idiot had put a gert gearbox in the way and not told it!!!.. I will need to get hold of the right return pipe at some point to replace this... but in the mean time the disc cutter came out to play
Need to clean up the ends a bit and swage then a little then add the loop bit from the piece I cut off to it... that will do until I have a more permeant solution ready...
Was quickly running out of light but managed to put quite a bit of the car back together... I still need to fill the engine with oil and sort the PAS out... then a spanner check before dropping the car to the ground and topping up fluids...
Home stretch but the weather is not looking too good for the next few days... have to see how that goes... I also picked up the spare DSG box this morning... looks ok and could connect to it using my test harness with no faults other than no comms (to be expected)
Looks like its a later TCU version that uses CAN only rather than K-Line for diagnostics like mine... plan is to do a full clean up on it... strip and clean the inside and inspect the clutch pack... the transfer box on this also has the right drive cup to use a ball type inner... a project for next year I think
<tuffty/>
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As I am still unsure when a replacement flexi will arrive (they are typically made to order) I have decided to try a more available solution... I have ordered up some AN10 fittings.. 2 x stainless weld on bungs, a length of PTFE stainless braided hose and suitable fittings... PTFE hose should be fine for this application as its not got to wind past a hot manifold like a tubular 1.8t one and if it does get damaged I can replace the hose more easily or I will have the flexi to fall back to when it eventually turns up...
This is all due to arrive by the end of the week so I am really hoping to get it sorted this weekend and potentially have the car on the ground next week at the latest...
In the mean time I got onto a job I have been meaning to do for quite some time.... I modded a mirror a while back from a hyundai tucson... basically the same auto dimming mirror found in the newer Audi's but has a green compass display rather than a red one...
To get to the display I needed to split the mirror... used blue masking tape to prevent marking the plastic...
Carefully removed the "mirror" to get to the display which basically has a green filter over it...
Its held on by a couple of sticky strips so can be removed carefully..
I used some red lighting gel I have kicking about for my photography to change the colour...
Its a little darker than the green it seems but tbh thats not really an issue for me... if you try this it may be worth trying a few 'shades' to see how you get on...
All reassembled and looks OE now...
This time I actually wired it up as I had fitted the mirror a while back and never got around to it... I also wired in a 'dash cam' fitted behind the mirror while I was at it...
One last thing... I bought a spare DSG box....
...mainly because VR boxes are a bit thin on the ground, I feel a little happier having a spare of something that is known to be a little temperamental and it was actually very cheap... the other 'upside' is it has the right transfer box drive cup for ball and cage inner joints...
Guess that means I will be selling the manual box after all
<tuffty/>
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The replacement manifold turned up this week... pretty quick considering...
Next job then was to carefully remove the adaptor flanges from the old mani so I (and by that I mean Alex) can weld them onto the new one...
...that went as expected
Bit of clean up required then....
....and bingo...
After Alex TIG welded them I needed to do a bit of porting...
Waved the die grinder at it...
Happy days... so I fitted it
Nearly looks ready to run... but it isn't... as I am still waiting on a replacement flexi sadly... maybe next week...
In other news... I painted the front headlight levelling assembly
<tuffty/>
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Few more jobs done today... refitted the tunnel heat shielding and the front end of the prop... also fitted the left drive shaft as this wont get in my way for anything...
Made up a panel out of 3mm ali to block the hole where the clutch master cylinder passed through...
Fitted brackets for the DSG selector and transfer box...
Fitted the engine bay heat shielding and connected up the PAS pipes...
Built up the front subframe...
...and painted some more things...
The list is getting smaller but still waiting on the mani and oil drain at the moment so I don't want to fit the subframe just yet as it will make it easier to sort out...
Not that its massively difficult tbh but why make life hard
<tuffty/>
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I have ordered a replacement exhaust manifold... yes.. its another Aliexpress special but I am kinda hoping that this one may actually be made of metal this time... I like the manifold, it works (when its not cracking) so will give another one a go and see where we end up...
I am still getting the current one welded... this will be used to get the car back on the road and the DSG tested etc... I will pull the mani off over the winter and sort it then...
Other jobs that got done...
Drive shafts made up, brackets de-rusted and painted... next up... I needed to mod the DSG selector cable bracket... the Polo 6R uses a different DSG box to my DQ250... the hole for the cable end needs to be smaller and the bracket need to sit back a bit so... measured and marked it up...
Found something suitable to weld into the current hole to make it the right size for the 6R cable...
Threw some metal at it using the hot spanners...
...and test fitted it...
As the MIG was out I made up a DSG oil fill adaptor that I can use with a cheap 3ltr pressure bleeder..
The collection of painted parts is getting larger
...and I can't really fit them until the oil drain and manifold is in as it will give me better access...
<tuffty/>
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Things have slowed a bit what with being back at work and the weather but have managed to get a few jobs done...
First up was to drain the oil and remove the exhaust mani and oil drain...
....done... took it up to Bill's and aqua blasted the mani...
Sad face
Alex tried to weld it but...
He has a plan... will see what happens... worst case is I buy another and sort that one out in the hope that they used actual metal this time around... its a shame as the mani is actually rather decent as a 'thing'... needed a bit of modding to suite but it works... apart from the cracking of course... plan 'Z' will be to fabricate a tubular mani but tbh I am happy if I can get one of these just to work...
While that saga continues on I got around to refurbing (painting obvs) some things...
The front drive shafts...
The subframe... wire wheels and Hydrate 80 to sort the rust
Etch primer....
Zinc rich primer...
...and finally Tough Liner as the top coat...
...and the front ARB (R32 one)
Along with the front arms I did a while back they all look loads better and should be a little more resilient to the elements...
Manifold and maybe the oil drain are essentially holding me up at the moment so will have to see what happens with those... hopefully not too long now...
<tuffty/>
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...and now with added electricity
<tuffty/>
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Having a chill day today as my 'holiday' is now over and its back to work tomorrow!! booooo!
Got hold of a length of 3.0mm wire to finish the starter inhibit and a 'U' tube to finish the coolant system off with...
I can start to put the front back together now but will drop the engine oil and remove the manifold and oil drain first...
Also over the past couple of evenings I have been sorting the gear gaiter out... I obtained a spare manual gaiter and re-dyed it black...
Went to try it out and hit another issue...
Seems the indicator panel needed tweaking to allow the trim to fit so had it... and....
W00t!... now articulates from Park to Sport without pulling the gaiter out
Happy days... hopefully the weather stays decent enough to let me crack on with some more this week after work<tuffty/>
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decided it would be a good idea to drain the coolant and remove the rad to get better access to the area by the top and front of the box...
Somewhat of a surprise was how much coolant came out... I collected it all as its less than a year old (changed when I fitted the CFS rad) and wasn't grotty looking...
...yep!... 8 ltrs!!! and I think there is still a bit left in there...
I needed to do something with the coolant anyway to sort the gearbox cooler out but removing the rad has made working on the car a lot easier... (if I ever have to do this again the engine is coming out!!)
Not sure how I would have got to the lower starter bolt tbh if I hadn't....Access to sorting the PAS pipe was a bazillion times better too... once the starter was in it become obvious (ish) where it needed to route...
I had to give some attention to the turbo oil feed pipe too as this was now quite close to... well, everything!...
Attached one of the box cooler hoses, just waiting on a 180 degree hose to sort out the other side and thats the coolant stuff sorted...
I wired in the reverse light to the relay panel and ran the starter solenoid wire up to its relay too... just got to grab some 2.5mm wire to run from the relay back to the starter solenoid and thats the inhibit circuit sorted...
By this time I was done... for the week!... productive week off work... although a little bit of R&R would have been nice I did what I set out to achieve and behold!... the box is in
With the weather being a bit on the iffy side over the coming week or so I am not sure how much I will get done but two jobs I need to sort before I can get the car running again...
Spotted a weep of oil from the oil drain so will be dropping the oil and removing that for a smoke test...
The other more disappointing issue is this...
...a crack... a little surprised at this tbh as the casting is quite thick and my EGT's are pretty low typically maxing out at 750 degrees measured just past the collector in the hotside... not exactly hot in the grand scheme...
Been making a little progress on the selector mods too but will post about that when done...
<tuffty/>
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Weather looked iffy this morning but had cleared up by lunchtime so out I went....
Ended up having a go at fitting the box myself as my mate couldn't get to me until after 6pm and wasn't sure what the weather would be like... figured if it got to a point I felt it needed an extra person then I would wait... If I got it in then winna..
Getting the box onto the jack and centred enough to balance was the challenge... that way at least the jack would be doing the heavy lifting and I can use less effort to keep it balanced and more making sure it was heading in the right direction...
Just in case you are wondering... the angle the jack is over at is within factory tolerances for DSG box installation... probably!!!
I used the lever bar to help move the front of the jack over while positioning the box... and...
..in!!!... phew!... wasn't that hard really in the end... yes... the box is chuffing heavy but work smarter not harder right?
I need to now drain the coolant to sort the oil cooler out plus tbh I want to remove a load of the pipes to be able to make sure the starter is fitted correctly and to route the DSG PAS pipework as there doesn't seem to be any room to do this...
The oil cooler hoses will be easy...
The hose in the top of this t-piece goes to the right of the cooler and I just need to get a 'U' shaped hose to go from the 'T' to the left of the cooler...
I also need to wire in the starter inhibiter and the reverse light as well as redo the selector gaiter...
I will be painting the subframe and shafts hopefully next week if the weather keeps off with the aim to get all that back together soon after...
I have also noticed a small weep from the oil drain so thats coming off to be tested and fixed if need be and I have seen a crack in the exhaust manifold... no white staining that suggests its leaking but will get it welded while the car is mostly apart... bit of a shame that the mani has cracked so soon but not unsurprising given its a 70 quid aliexpress special..
Happy with the progress though... the week off work has been productive...
<tuffty/>
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May have a solution for the short s-tronic gaiter... fitted a spare 8L one I had kicking about and this seems to work perfectly in park and S mode positions... its a bit tatty but I have another one on the way so will look to remod the mod to get that ticked off... part of me actually likes that the lever looks like a manual with no auto display but then I also kinda like that its there for the double take
Went to Bills to sort out the box... fitted a new filter and pumped 6ltrs of oil in which in hindsight was not really the best idea (more on that in a bit)... the box was pretty much empty and should take 7ltrs from dry... I added 2ltrs at a time and used a DSG flywheel to spin the input shaft as it drives the oil pump to circulate oil round... the oil cooler is thermostatically controlled and there wasn't any oil coming up through the ports to the cooler but 6ltrs is enough to get it all running and I can sort out the rest later...
The transfer box has its own oil supply and takes GL5 75W80... this is different to the oil in the DSG of course and is why the newer transfer boxes no longer share oil from the box like the 02M boxes do... however... I neglected to realise that removing the transfer box (as I was going to do to fit the box) was no different to pulling a drive cup that would essentially let the box oil leak out... epic fail!!!... so I guess I will be fitting the box with the transfer box on then... hopefully!!!
While at Bills I also checked if I could use normal inner cv's on my TT drive shafts...
That would be a no then!!... guess I will be doing the drive shaft shuffle at some point when I finally need a right shift lol
After that I went home and pulled the transfer box and PAS pipes off (DSG uses a different line from the pump to the rack)... undone all but three of the bolts holding the box on...
Today I dropped the manual box...
...pulled the old spigot bearing (the engine used to be attached to a DSG, you don't need a spigot bearing for a manual) and fitted the new one supplied with the flywheel...
Popped back up to Bills and flung the DSG into the back of the A2...
Lifting it back out the A2 at home was well... hard!... its soooooo heavy!!... I can lift 02M's all day long but the 02E is another league!
One thing to bare in mind too is that the R32 gearbox mount is lower than the Mk1 TT 3.2 DSG mount...
...so will use the TT one as thats designed for the Mk4 platform... part numbers for ref...
R32 one that came on the JPZ gearbox...
Mk1 TT DSG mount...
After much grunting and swearing I had dragged the box under the car ready to 'plonk' onto a jack... and then it rained!!!...
Much dampness and sad face followed as I rushed about clearing up my tools and wiping them down before putting them away... whilst getting wetter...
So close!!!... maybe tomorrow... or whenever the weather stops being a hole of the rear...
<tuffty/>
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Day at home doing things....
I painted the transmission cooler as it was looking a bit scabby...
Then moved onto the car... first job was to swap out the old fuse box for the inline pump and WMI for a new 4 fuse setup to allow me to fuse the DSG selector power... the fuses have LED's that light up when blown as its difficult to see where I have it fitted and had the fuel pump fuse blow on me a month or so back and only noticed as I didn't hear it running
Redid all the crimps too....
Now for the 'fun' part (said nobody ever!)... to remove the clutch pedal I needed to get to the master cylinder behind the heat shielding, where there was a turbo and a downpipe in the way... so removed them
Much better access... the pipe has a spring clip holding it and you need to block off the fluid feed from the brake reservoir so used an M8 shouldered bolt cut down to size for that...
Inside you need to undo three 13mm nuts and unplug the clutch switch then the whole clutch pedal assembly just pulls out... watch out for fluid as this will drip everywhere...
This of course leaves a nice pear shaped hole... I will need to make up a cover plate for that later
You can remove the brake pedal without having to remove the brake pedal assembly... however you do have to smash the plastic retainer apart to be able to do it...
My TT pedal didn't have one so I had bought a new one anyway...
...but I ended up taking it back out to fit on the servo actuator rod first then fit the pedal and clip the plastic clip into the pedal after...
That's the pedals done...
Next job was the selector... old manual one came out pretty easy but the 6R Polo selector I am using required a bit of modding to fit (go figure)...
A couple of extra holes at the back were needed...
I had to mod the back of the selector to fit under a bracket that the S3 has for some reason...
And cut the rear studs short as they hit the inside of the centre console...
...which needed a little modding to get the nuts on...
But after all that... the selector was in...
Sadly it seems that the lever sits higher than it would in an 8P (or 6R Polo I would assume) as the 8P DSG gaiter I used wasn't big enough (depth) and would stretch and pull out of the trim panel when the lever was moved to extremes...
However it was fine in neutral so left it there for now
Other than the gaiter issue which tbh I wouldn't have known about until I had fitted it I think the selector mods turned out quite well...
Bit more work in the engine bay to do to prep for the gearbox swap now....
Need to remove the transfer box and power steering pipes (I have a DSG one to go on as they are differently routed), remove the starter motor and anything else attached to the box then I can look to bring the DSG box home from Bills and I guess just get on with it
<tuffty/>
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Gearbox stuff done today.... the mechatronic cover was pretty rusty so I bought a new one to replace it with...
Bottom two bolts were particularly difficult and shock (actual) horror!...
...one sheared... yay!.... (said no one ever!)
Probably should have cleaned the box first too as all kinds of nasty was falling in places I'd rather it didn't...
Bit of vacuuming and careful cleanage later and I was ready to tackle the sheared bolt... first job... flatten it enough to get the punch on it...
Drill a hole then insert extractor... apply heat (carefully)... and bingo bango bongo!!!
Phew!!!... I then chased the threads to be sure all was good...
Next up was to drain the oil (what was left at least).... DSG boxes are a bit different to normal boxes when it comes to sorting the oil... manuals are typically filled for life but DSG require "regular" (if you think 40k is regular) oil and filter changes due to the wet clutch setup (much like the haldex)...
Undoing the oil drain plug reveals a plastic (and fragile) filler nozzle used to 'set' the final fill depth... you unscrew this to drop the oil then screw it back in and fill from underneath (again, like the haldex)...
...there is also a process of warming the box up and going through gears etc to do but obviously I am not in a position to do that at the moment and do not want to start the engine once fitted with a dry box (fnarr)... so I plan to put about 5ltrs in to start with and then once I have tested the box is ok go through the process to top it back up...
There are a few ways people say it can be done to ensure the right level... one is the measure the oil volume that came out and replace like with like but there was certainly no more than a litre or so that came out (assumedly drained before being shipped to me) I have no real way of telling how much is actually left in there so will have to make an educated guess then sort it out once running...
Before fitting the new cover I had a go at cleaning up the mounting face as there were signs of corrosion and crustiness so wanted to make the new seal would 'seal'
Bit of scotch bright and brake cleaner later and the face was looking better...
The old cover's seal did not look healthy at all
and neither did the old cover...
Still... new one looks fine...
I think I might add some wax protection around it too as I have seen a few of these now and they all end up looking a bit nasty after a time...
Last job of today was to sort the left drive cup out... I swapped the R32 one over to the Mk1 TT DSG one as it sits closer to the box giving the right distance for the left shaft...
And on the subject of drive cups... I grabbed my mate Alex's transfer box he is using for the DSG/AWD conversion on his Mk4 Ibiza... this one came from a Mk6 Golf R...
It fitted up perfectly which is a good sign at least and has the right cup for a proper inner CV...
The left drive cup from an 02M box (like any S3 manual) will fit onto the box too apparently (not tried this as yet) so if I can get hold of one of these transfer boxes I can use the proper inner joints... one for the watch list given they seem to carry "R" (same as BAM or RS) tax
Plan to try and get the car ready to accept the box tomorrow... strip stuff from the bay to be able to access the gearbox for the swap and remove things like the clutch pedal and swap out the brake pedal too... maybe even get the selector swapped over!!!... makes it kinda real then lol
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Made a start :)
Had to drop the exhaust and the front of the prop to get the heat shielding off the get at the selector...
Now that the shafts were out I could see how they compare to the Mk1 TT 3.2 DSG shafts I have...
Left shaft is more or less the same length which tbh I was expecting based on my previous measurements... I could in fact replace the left drive cup with an 02M cup and use the S3 shaft but tbh I would only want to do that if I could run the right side on a normal inner CV but the R32 transfer box I have uses the wrong drive cup and as its part of the shaft that goes through the transfer box its not just a case of swapping it out...The right shaft is clearly shorter than the S3 one which again is to be expected as the 02E (and 02Q for that matter) transfer boxes are 'wider'..
I have the TT's transfer box but cannot use that as the transfer boxe's shaft is too short for the R32 box... I also have a transfer box from another quattro (not sure which as was sold as spares/repairs) and this has the right cup for a normal CV but the shaft is too long!!... seems very un VAG like to have that many variations of the same thing but I will do a bit more research at some point as I would prefer to use normal inners over the trilobe type...
On that subject... I spent today stripping and cleaning the shafts (fnarr)... the boots were questionable so I really wanted to replace those before fitting them...
The outers looked fine but had to replace the boot on the right shaft so cleaner the outer joint too
The inners on the TT DSG shafts are trilobe... not a massive fan of these but it seems VAG have taken to use these on more and more cars these days so hopefully they will be ok for a while given the power I am running... I do plan to look into converting back to normal inners as mentioned before though...As the R32 transfer box inner is a different pitch to the TT one I had to buy a new inner so it would fit... the design is a bit different though.. (not a genuine joint) but uses needle bearings and not spherical bearing style setup like the OE... not sure if there is any real advantage to this tbh as trilobes are generally weaker (but cheaper to make no doubt)...
Left is the pattern part which is the same PCD as the middle OE one from the left shaft... the joint on the right is the right shaft inner... fits perfectly on the TT transfer box but not the R32 one!!!.. :)
Motivation is coming back now... will be doing a bit more tomorrow and then on Tuesday I hope to get back up to Bills and sort out what I need to do on the gearbox to get it ready for fitting...
<tuffty/>
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Car is now MOT'd so no excuses for not cracking on with the DSG swap... other than lack of motivation at the moment!!... the recent rather warm weather and being a little busy work wise has numbed my enthusiasm some what coupled with spending a good couple of months sorting the body work out I feel I just needed a break...
That break will be coming soon as a week off work in which time I might even build up a bit of motivation to make a start... in the mean time... I bought these...
My car never had them fitted as standard (they were an option?) and have been on the fence about getting some... however these came up at the right price and are for the most part in decent nick... they were dirty obvs and had a couple of scratches on the ali covers but generally nice..
Taking them apart was a bit of a pain as one of the screws snapped off in the casting... I will address this at a later date but its not really made it unusable...
Painted the inside...
And cleaned everything else up... used the DA on the ali cover... which I am pretty sure is anodised... this means that it will make removing the scratches a bit more difficult so will ask a few of my engineering friends for advice on sorting this out...
All looks lots better though...
...and as my car is silver they do not look too obvious either...
Pretty happy with that... although I now have the gear to mod for folding mirrors and the bases won't work with the ali covers... would need to get B5 ones I believe to get it working... and tbh I CBA
Next little job was to sort out the DSG selector... or more the colour of it... I have only been able to find 'grey' leather ones... the S3 8P is black I believe but they typically run to 3 times the amount of a more basic model so decided to dye the leather instead....
I got the kit from the 'Scratch Doctors' and its pretty comprehensive...
Following the instructions I cleaned off the original coating then applied the black dye...
Finished off using the matt clear coat they supply...
For comparison this is the original grey knob (fnarr) against the now black gaiter it came with....
I also found a perforated leather knob (fnarr) that was grey... now black
Put together in the modded trim...
Happy with that
With all that out of the way I moved a load of the kit needed for the DSG swap into the boot of the car... hoping that knowing this is there it will get the motivation going to crack on lol
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Busy few days despite the heat... which is annoying
(I am typically British!)
Finished cleaning the inside of the car...
All the dustiness from the bodywork is gone and I refitted the passenger seat (still chuffing heavy!!)... I left the drivers seat out so I had more room to sort the DSG wiring out...
Attaching the CAN wires and power wires for the selector... I am waiting on another fuse block to replace the 2 way one I use for WMI and inline fuel pump so I can fuse the selector power too
On the subject of wiring... here is my current setup... this was derived from the one a friend of mine originally put together for his TT track car but I have adapted it a bit for my setup..
I have updated this to reflect where I connected things in my car... also as I have retro fitted a MFSW I have added CAN from the module too so the paddles will work... alternatively you can rewire them as switches and use inputs to IECU instead...
The selector wiring is pretty straight forward...
The illumination control wire in case its not obvious where that goes connects to the larger plug of the light switch
...which is labelled '17' and corresponds to the 58d pin on the switch
With the selector wiring done it was time to move onto the gearbox wiring... I had put together a power distro/relay board to handle all this...
This will handle the gearbox main power and power to the various relays I have in place so reverse light (as no switch on a DSG box), starter inhibitor (ideally needed on an auto), gearbox switched power and the two extra relays I use for the brake servo vacuum pump and turbo coolant after run pump...
Power and earth is feed from the 12v battery point I have fitted previously for the battery relocation to the boot and the factory earth point on the chassis leg
A lot neater than having the relays just floating about...
Once that lot was done I ran the loom up past the ECU... I needed to connect a few wires there first... mainly the reverse light output (switched earth), starter inhibitor (switched earth), vacuum pump output (switched earth) and VSS signal to the cluster as the DSG has no speed sensor...
Once that lot was done I ran the remainder of the wires through to the cabin... this was the CAN wires, K-Line wire and speedo signal wire...
With all those hooked up I put the interior back together and refitted the drivers seat...
I need to address the red power cable for the distro though... really messing with my OCD!!
With the car drivable again I took her up to Bills where my box has been residing....
...and connected it up using an extension test lead I made up...
Then tested everything... clumsily... with one hand...
All works
There are a couple of fault codes in the box around missing messages but this is normal for this type of retro fit...
Next job is to clean up the box, swap out the mechatronic cover for the new one I have and I guess its then just a case of slinging it into the car
<tuffty/>
Audi S3 VR6 Turbo
in Members Rides and Event Photos
Posted
Would appear that this forum is now dead... I haven't been able to get my last post 'approved' (still unsure as to why after all this time its decided to be approved rather than just post) so I won't be posting any further progress on here...
Sad times that forums are slowly dying off and Facebook groups are taking over... I will continue to update my original thread on Audi-Sport.net for those interested in following..
https://www.audi-sport.net/xf/threads/my-minor-modding-thread.76389/
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