Big Sky Euro

Easiest fix ever
Before

After

Boom!

I took a recent trip up to Utah and back and along the way there's several many mile long uphills. I went into limp mode a few times, (key off, key on clears) and read that the 3 most common items could be AFM, vacuum leak or sticking VNT vanes on the turbo.

Starting out with the easy bits I got this in the mail. Oooh nice soft new rubber.


Also, Tim from Don's Repair came down to visit and pick up a car from Copart and helped me diagnois my rattle during braking coming up to a traffic light. (You know Don's is the shizzel for Scooby repair right?)
So check it;
On the shifter linkage cable there's an aluminum heat shield tube. Mine was freely sliding, and most of the time because the cable slopes slightly to the rear of the vehicle it was down in the tunnel wedged up against the underbody heat shield. Under breaking though, this sleeve would slide forward a bit, which allowed the underbody heat shield to vibrate and cause my noise. Temporarily I just pushed the aluminum heat shield tube down, rearward further so it'd be tighter wedged in, but I need to get under there and remove that section of exhaust to properly tighten up the heatshield to permanently fix that issue.

Got the new MAF installed. Also put in a new airfilter since I was there.

Went for a 200 mile drive, and... still does the limp mode thing.
For sale, 1 used MAF, still good, was not the problem

Next I replaced all the vacuum lines. Mmmmm new rubber

Some of the old ones were suspect, cracking and such at the ends

Only one that was a pita was at the turbo. Why this is the only one that gets a clamp I don't know, but it's rather hard to get the clamp to release since it's tucked in the actuator.

Have not gone on a long drive so I don't know if I'm fixed or not.

Car is creaking. Ordered a refresh kit from idparts. New bj, tie rod ends, control arm bushings & anti-sway bar bushings and brackets; I went with the Audi TT solid style vs the oem.

Sunday the car will be home so I'll try to get it all in then.
How cool is it that the ball joints have a torqx fitting on the top? heck yeah!

And this pictogram on the box suggests only use when carrying a very large wrench & wearing a bib and ball cap?

N75?

It did go 'shhhhh' when I disconnected the vac line from it so I think it's good but I should do a specific test on it to be sure.

Sunday I put all the new parts on.

First measured up the threads showing on the tie rods so I could get those back on somewhat close

Of course the nut on the tie rod end wouldnt come all the way off, but it did go far enough i could get a hack saw blade in there, so cut them off.


Old vs new

Ball joints came off with no drama at all. This tool from Harbor Freight is the tits for ball joints

Both rear control arm bushings where cracked pretty bad. When I twist on them you can really see


Got them out with ease. Just a little hack saw action and bobs your uncle.

The front small bushings needed some heat. Got the metal sleeve hot, then pushed it out. With that out the rubber bits come out easy peazy




Pushed the new small bushing in with the vice and liberal amounts of palmolive dish soap

The rear ones were a little trickier. HF POS press some blocks of wood with a hole drilled in them and patience though and I got them in all nice like.



New anti-sway bar links and bushings too. What the heck why not

And... Tada, car no longer squeaks and groans when going over bumps.

in pursuit of my every now and then limp mode I replaced N75. Even though it seemed fine.
Yes… This really is just me procrastinating buying that vagcom sw and tool. dag-gum-expensive



No drama. Two 10mm nuts and she comes off. Since I'd recently done the vacuum hoses, they came off without any issues.


FYI, I found that the most economical place to purchase was on ebay $55 with free shipping whereas IDparts wanted 70 bucks plus shipping. meh

Looks like shit is getting done!

Wow I missed this...nice work!!

This came today.



Now I have everything to do the timing belt. And heck, maybe even diagnose why my ABS and ESP lights are on.
I think my Sunday just got full.

Nice! Best tool ever made.