January 2000
Following on from the service, new rear discs and pads were purchased. Since most of the braking on the car is
done by the front brakes, I didn't see the need for enhanced parts. German & Swedish were the suppliers this time.
Total cost of the parts was a resonable £65 including delivery.
These were fitted by myself and no problems were encountered. I did have to buy a piston windback tool. The one
which was easily available was the Sykes Pickavaent version.
April 2000
The Audi Owners Club trackday at Curborough on April 8th was something I had looked forward. It was the first time
I had been to any track other then Knockhill with any car. It also would give me the chance to test the performance
discs with EBC green pads.
I thoroughly enjoyed the day and got a bit carried away, completing a total of 16 runs. By the end of the last session,
the pads were smoking and the outside edges of the tyres were completely worn away.
The drive home was interesting to say the least. With the rain, the car was trying to aquaplane if there was any surface
water. There was also a strong vibration from the brakes.
First suspicion for the vibration was the discs. I contacted GPC who offered me a second set of discs,
this times the 40
grooved version being recommended due to type of use.
Upon inspection, I found the pads were the reason for thr vibration. Both of
the outside edge front pads had started to crack down the middle. The discs were not purchased, yet (more
on this later).
Due to the price of the pads, I didn't want to spend the same money again for the same thing to happen so I tried a
different brand. Pagid Fast Road pads were chosen due to a decent price and the fact they were available immediately.
These were only £40 + vat so were half the price of the EBC.
May 2000
The Pirelli P6000 tyres which were on the car when purchased, had been ruined by the track day at Curborough.
A bonus from work meant I was able to replace all 4 tyres with my preferred choice - GoodYear F1. These are, in my
opinion, the best all round tyre you can buy. They are excellent in wet conditions which is the number one priority
when living in Scotland. They give reasonable grip in the dry - when they do lose grip it is progressive and they
make plenty of noise telling you they are losing grip. They also wear quite well. Typical life expecancy is 20-25000
miles on the front which is more than adequate considering the abuse they receive. The downsides are noise levels
and price. Total price for all 4 tyres was £340 fitted.
September 2000
A very significant month. Monday September 4th 2000 and I was at the Nurburgring for the first time. This was
the first leg of a German tour which would see myself and my friend driving about 4000 miles each in 8 days.
We were only at the 'ring for 1 day. We each bought a 6 lap ticket and spent the whole day at the track.
We did everything wrong by not knowing which corner was coming next and using the wrong side most of the time
but it was great fun. We vowed at the time we would defintely return.
You can read more about the German trip of 2000
here .
By the time I returned from Germany the 90000 mile mark was passed and this resulted in an intermediate service.
This is a basic oil change service plus annual
inspection. The service was straightforward enough. The inspection was something else.
The rear wiper had been playing up slightly and was intermittently working (no pun intended). By the time the car
was going in for service it would work once and once only. This means I could switch it on but could not turn it back off.
I drove the 15 miles to the dealer in bright sunshine with the rear wiper intermittently wiping every 8 seconds.
So to be told by the dealer servicing the car I needed a new rear wiper motor was a shock. Especially at the price quoted
of £79.20 + vat. I was also told I needed new rear lights due to water ingress plus the pcbs for the bulbs. There was
absolutely nothing wrong with the rear lights - they were damp on the inside but a hair dryer could fix that.
The rear lamps are expensive at £72 for one and £65 for the other.
They also wanted to fit a new rear caliper and a new auxiliary radiator. The total parts price for all these parts
came to over £600. On top of that would have been labour as well. I made my excuses, paid the bill and left.
Yet another case of a dealer trying to make money by charging customers for parts which are not required.
I spent the rest of that day fixing the mess they had made of the rear lights. Driving home I had no indicators,
no rear lights and one brake light. 1 hour later I had all the electrics working again but the dampness problem
would definitely need fixing.
1 week after the service and I'm in Warrington visiting my girlfriend. The fan had been coming on more than usual
so I put it down to the warm weather (unusual for Warrington) and the stop and go traffic. A multi storey
car park is probably the worst place possible for a radiator to dump its contents but that's where it happened.
The problem with a multi storey is that a flat bed cannot enter the car park due to the height restriction.
The AA were very helpful and I basically had the car filled up with water so that I could drive it out of the car park.
I only just made it and the water was all gone. It then was taken to the local Audi dealer. I was down for the weekend
and this was Friday afternoon. The only alternative was to get flat-bedded home and waste a weekend.
The dealer doing the work was Hartwell Audi. I was given a price up front of £327 all inclusive which I didn't think was
that bad considering it was a main dealer doing the work. This upfront price was important because they hit a few
problems and had to get extra parts. When I went to collect the car they tried to bill me for over £500.
I quoted the agreed price and this is what I paid. They never argued much so they must have known I was
not going to pay the higher price.
October 2000
The car had performed quite well in Germany but the brakes had taken a pounding. There was severe vibration
and it was not pleasant to drive.
Perfect timing as I was contacted by The Global Performance Centre.
In my 1999 diary
I mentioned about brake discs which I thought were warped. They had ordered these replacement discs and were
offering them to me at a reduced price of £118 + vat. This is roughly £80 less than they should have been so I grabbed
them. These were the 40 grooved version of the
Tarox disc
When fitting these new discs, I took the opportunity to refit the EBC Greenstuff pads. The Pagid pads had suffered
from the multiple high speed stops and were severely cracked with the pad material coming away from the backing plate.
November 2000
I was still having problems with the rear wiper. It was working intermittently as described previously.
I found the relay under the rear seat. Opening up the relay revealed the reason for the problem.
The main track down the edge of the relay had been blow open. I suspect this was caused by power surges - source
at this time unknown.
I was able to source a second hand relay from a company called
Audi Only .
The relay was only £10 compared to a new one at three times this price.
Fitting the new relay worked but only for a short time. Within about a month, it was back to its old tricks again.
Unfortunately, I was distracted by other electrical gremlins so it was going to have to wait. I could live with it
as it was. The rear window design of the Audi Coupe is superb. The screen only needs to be cleared once
if on the move. After that the screen will stay clear. Since the wiper would work once from cold, I could clear the screen
and then switch off to disable intermittent mode.
The coolant temperature gauge had stopped working
all together. It had been going intermittent but while in Germany it had worked perfectly. I can put this down to
the exceptionally warm weather we had - it was frequently in the high 30s Celsius.
I obtained a new sensor - part number 034 919 369 C. This is a 3pin device, whereas the original device removed
was a 4 pin. The missing pin is a ground. The new style 3 pin sensor uses the body of the sensor to get a good
ground connection. It is therefore important that the mating face on the manifold is clean before fitting
the new device. Replacement takes about 1 hour. It is not difficult - just fiddly due to poor restricted access.
A 32mm spanner is useful for removing the old sensor and with it being upside down remember to turn clockwise
to loosen it. At the time of replacement, no digital camera was available. Now that I have one, an article
will be posted soon for this procedure as it a common failure.
After fitting the new sensor I then had a problem with the gauge reading very low. On the motorway, it would
struggle to get to 50 degrees. I therefore bit the bullet and decided to change the thermostat.
Part number for this was 069 121 113. The required O-ring which is an ALWAYS replace item was N 901 368 02.
You can see what they look like
here
This was a particularly fiddly and awkward job, not least of all because of restricted access. The S2 engine bay
is particularly bad. I was able to squeeze my hands through to gain access to the two 10mm bolts which secure the
housing. This job took the best part of 3 hours purely because of the poor access. I've since done it on my other
car ( a Coupe quattro) and it only took about 40 minutes. Same situation regarding pictures although I'm not so sure an
article will appear. I don't fancy doing that job again unless I really have to.
