Today I did something to my car (volume 2)

Ah right. I can see the appeal but wouldn’t be for me.

My latest car has a plastic sump with no drain bung, what a stupid fûcking idea that is

I did something not to my car, but for working on it. Been looking out for a cheap stand/tripod to hold my work light at a height. Plus, I've been looking for a bit of steel tube to extent the handle of my jack as it's very short for reaching in under the diff jacking point. Spotted a clothes rack in Lidl for €15 and an opportunity to kill two birds, with one clothes rack:)

It's worked out better than expected and lots of handy tubing left over too. I got mine in East Wall but they didn't have them in other branches I checked.

Fire one on the front and have a good check. It's a slightly taller and wider but with a slightly lower profile tyre.

Turn it to full lock in both directions.

New Brembo pads.

Painted calipers.

New Saab wheel badges.

New Vredestein 225/45/17's on the front.

Leather on the seats needed a bit of attention.

After:

Ran out of light. Will do the fabric tomorrow.

Used CarPro Interior (leather & interior) cleaner on the leather.

Will do another pass tomorrow and then finish off with some GTechniq Leather Sealant.

Thanks.

81,000 km / 50,000 miles.

Probably the lowest milage one in Ireland. Certainly for its age.

Heated seats, tiptronic, flappy paddle gears.

Drives like a dream.

I only use Liqui Moly oil and Ceratec engine lubricant. So hopefully it keeps going.

Only problems have been regular headlamp bulb changes. The left side blew yesterday simply because I looked at it! Other than that, broken engine mount, broken spring and seized Caliper.

One previous owner who lived in D4 and traded it in at Audi Ballsbridge at 8,000km.

Rear seats looked like they had never been sat in.

It's been flat out...

Last week was Mrs Pigeons 520d. It sprang an irritating leak and with the temp going bananas at times I got a new stat (and housing) along with this sh*tty coolant pipe (€25 from BMW)

It's a manifold off job to remove said pipe

The pipe had split internally and wouldn't be copped from the outside. Manifold was easy to remove. Cleaning it out wasn't

As some of you may know I used to set fire to the manifolds to clean them properly. Couldn't do that so well here!

New coolant and all back together, the car is much quieter and easier on weasels

Moving to Saturday, decided to start at the back of the E34 and work my way to the front, planning for the jacking points. Had to have a rethink when I scrubbed the boot!

During this it pissed rain on me, so decided to have a look at a friends Passat that was wouldn't start. I'd been at it before, testing the fuel pump, checking lines etc (drove in after a return line sh*t itself and never started again). I then decided to try the cheap solution; fuel filter. Could have kicked myself, the old filter may as well have been made of lead. Fired right up

Cleared any codes it had and after a short drive the remaining faults went away (power steering etc)

Have more planned over the next few weeks, focusing on the E34 mainly as it has an upcoming event next year. Have a clutch change planned for the Volvo too, complete with solid flywheel and D5 gearbox (if you ask nicely I'll tell you what clutch I've bought to get this all to work!) and I may exchange the turbo for my own homebrew setup if I have the time...

Finally sprayed. Back to my place in the morning and straight back up onto axle stands so I can scrub all the crap off the bottom of it.

The Lude life...

Cleaning an engine bay is always so satisfying

It's home, I'm heading off for a good spin.

VAG with error code and check engine light for differential pressure. Reset error, drive around 300km up and down M1 waiting for light to come again and it did. While driving I was monitoring DPF with phone app VAG DPF and ODB dongle. The phone app was showing no differential pressure change, and a second phone app, ODB 11 app also said no change. Car was low mileage so I presumed DPF was ok

Watched loads of YouTube videos and read forums. Visually inspected the hoses and checked the part numbers.

I decided to order an aftermarket sensor from local motor factors who got it same day. Went to fit it and electrical connector was different. Who knew an 04L906051 is different connector than 04L906051G. Panicked as old sensor was off, rang VW and paid 100 versus 60 for sensor but it fitted and was in stock straight away. Performed relearning reset to say sensor was replaced and 400km later light has not come back on.

Fault fixed, I hope. When I asked dealer do they often go wrong, he hesitated and said well we do sell them...

You have an outside ramp???

I'd say so. I'd love that.

Not so much today as yesterday. New engine mounts for the festy, old ones had a good amount of movement in them.

The amount that has to come out to get at the gearbox one is a pain, I also took the opportunity to adjust the gear linkage while everything was out of the way, which seems to have sorted the car randomly popping out of second shifting down after I fitted a short shifter.

Took it for a spin yesterday and felt solid all round.