The Project Pad

I just stuck these back on the other day, Proof that they can be re-used

Hey thanks for the tip on the Passat trim... I'll look into it! I did do some poking around ETKA for other Audi models, but gave up when I realized they usually don't state the width of the trim (although they do for the 80).

I thought about deleting the trim, especially as it looks a little dated, but I like how it protects from door dings. As of now (knock on wood) my 24-year-old car has *no* door dings and I think that trim gets most of the credit for that.

mr_aj_johnson wrote:I just stuck these back on the other day, Proof that they can be re-used

Wow, that looks nice!

Did you remove the metal from inside them? It wasn't very clear to me how to do that.

Mine are *wicked* rusted... on the passenger's side there's even rust seeping out the bottom of the "Audi" badge. :(

elaw wrote:

mr_aj_johnson wrote:I just stuck these back on the other day, Proof that they can be re-used

Wow, that looks nice!

Did you remove the metal from inside them? It wasn't very clear to me how to do that.

Mine are *wicked* rusted... on the passenger's side there's even rust seeping out the bottom of the "Audi" badge. :(

Yeah, I did. and just 3m taped them on, there was a tiny spot of the beginnings of rust behind one of them and I figured I don't ever want to deal with that, so out came the metal.

So on a completely different topic...

The master cylinder I'm running on the car (from a 100 IIRC) looks like it started out life with 4 ports, but it's effectively a 3-port unit with the 4th port occupied by a bleed screw. As far as I know, it came that way from the factory.

When I install the ABS in this car (it *will* happen eventually! ) I'm going to need to block off one of the ports on the master, as only 2 lines will connect to it.

So my question is, can I just get another bleed screw and put it in there to block off the extra port? Or does anyone else know a creative way to block one port on a brake master?

I do have a "plan B"... I have a master from a UrS6 - the same car the ABS system came from. But its ports have a 12mm thread which means I'd need weird brake line fittings or adapters. Plus it's that much more work to swap out the master, and the one that's in the car works fine.

On a related note, does anyone know of a source for brake line nuts that aren't made of barely-zinc-plated steel that will probably start corroding 10 minutes after they're installed? I'm going to be using "cunifer" brake line, but it seems kind of silly to use corrosion-resistant line with cheesy steel nuts. But I've searched all over the place and can't find the right ones in brass or stainless.

I would just swap the MC and re do the fittings on the brake line

Yes, you can use another bleeder in your open port. Or just determine the thread pitch and use a fresh bolt.

In terms of better than FLAPS brake lines, go to Pirtek or whatever your local equivalent hydraulic shop is. They make hydraulic hoses and lines to your spec while you wait, and you usually have a few options to choose from in terms of materials (braided, rubber, etc). Aside from being fast, they are affordable. If ever you need a new $150 clutch line, get a custom one from them for $30 instead, made with better materials, too. Yes, they have metric fittings. Yes, they have metric bubble flare fittings, too. No, don't let the dork behind the counter of AutoZone or Advance try to sell you "double flare" parts - its not the same as bubble flare.

If you don't have a hydraulic hose shop like Pirtek nearby, a full a service motorcycle accessory/repair shop can make you braided stainless lines to your spec as well, though they won't have the choices of options Pirtek would offer, and they may need to reuse certain parts of old lines to make your new lines.

Failing that, if you head to the junkyard, mk4 VWs have nice braided stainless lines from the mc to the abs pump.

Oops, I kind of got ahead of myself there.

Find stainless tubing nuts here, towards the bottom of the page:

http://www.hoseandfittingsetc.com/produ ... tube-nuts/

Hey thanks for the info!

I actually thought of the bolt trick, and do have some M10x1.0 bolts, but the ends aren't very well machined and I suspect they wouldn't seal too well.

I'll definitely look into the flex lines - I knew some cars had them but didn't know which ones.

And the stainless nuts... after I posted I actually found those, but they don't say what flare type they're for. I emailed the manufacturer and they're for SAE flares, not DIN. :(

FWIW I've never had issues with rusty line nuts. If you're worried about it, just spray them with undercoating...

I've used bolts in the past with thread sealer with good results. Now as an adult, I have more resources and common sense, so I'd probably buy the right part too.

http://www.brakeconnect.com/product/male-plug-m10-x-1mm

Okay I'm done with brakes. Can I just go and not stop? :frustrated:

Remember about 2 months ago when I discovered one of my rebuilt-2-years-ago calipers had seized and it turned out it had been spewing fluid? Well I'm getting deja vu all over again here.

A few days ago the brake warning light flashed on and I looked and found the fluid in the reservoir low. A couple of days later, I noticed a puddle of liquid near where the right front tire sits when the car is in the garage.

I bet ya can't guess where I'm going with this... yes, I've got another leaking rebuilt-2-years-ago caliper. This one's a Centric, and I guess I shouldn't complain as it was dirt cheap - $35 on Amazon with no core charge. I guess I got what I paid for! :(

Now I'll head off to GAP's website to order a "brand new OEM" one and see if I get an "oh we can't actually get that part" email like I did last time...

Just buy some good calipers from someone here and "rebuild" them yourself... Most of the seal kits are $6-$8, and it's not difficult at all. Unless you're trying to rebuild rear calipers with parking brake mechanism, then stuff gets a little crazy.

What calipers are you running? G60s?

I have a solid pair of 54mm ATE single pistons off my 2001 TT 225 you can have cheap... $40 for the pair shipped. They're even powdercoated grey from the factory.

Yeah I'm running G60s from a CQ.

My big problem with rebuilding calipers is this: most people consider "rebuilding" calipers to mean replacing the seals. But about 300 years ago when I worked as a mechanic, I pretty frequently took apart bad calipers. And on probably 80% or more of them, I'd find places on the pistons where the chrome plating had worn or flaked off and there was pitting due to corrosion. And if you reuse such a piston, when the pitted area meets up with the seal you're going to get leakage. I haven't taken apart the last caliper that leaked on my car (mainly since it's a rear and I dread trying to take it apart) but I'm 99% sure that when I do I'm going to find a corroded piston.

So IMHO in order to properly rebuild such a caliper, you have to replace the piston(s). And that means you have to be able to get the piston(s), which is not always easy or possible. I actually spent several hours digging around yesterday and finally found a supplier that claims to have G60 pistons - I ordered a pair and we'll see if they actually show up and what their quality is (they're not OE). If they're not chrome-plated, they're going in the trash, not in my car.

And with that I'll get off my soapbox... :-)

Truth be told, when I said "rebuild" I meant disassemble and replace seals. Calipers that see regular use and have been maintained properly (greased pins, fluid changes, etc.) Obviously, if they aren't in good shape you shouldn't put them back together.

For what it's worth, new OEM G60s are still available from the dealer, though for a significant price - $375 each.

Lucas-Girling G60s without the VW/Audi symbols are available new on fleabay for a little (but not much) less:

895615124A - right caliper, $225

895615123A - left caliper, $293

And if you prefer to roll your own, you can get new pistons, p/n's 146.40014 and P405301 for the 40mm pistons and 146.40002 and P455301 for the 45mm pistons.

Well in this case GAP came through... presumably what I'm going to receive (I'll know tomorrow) is Lucas/Girling and it's only costing $208 shipped.

Those "146." part numbers - those look like Centric pistons for a UrS4? Interestingly, I'd looked up Centric pistons for the CQ and found the 146.40014 but got 146.45002 for the 45mm one. I wonder what the difference is? In any event, the fun part there is finding someone that actually has them. Carid claims to and I actually placed an order last night, and a couple of hours ago I got an email saying they were backordered until the end of July.

Whose numbers are the P405301 and P455301?

Don't have my contacts in so I cant read, but I thought I'd share that there were two different piston sizes for the b3 rears a 36mm and a 38mm piston. Not a huge upgrade but since youse in there...

Frenkit, a European company. But sometimes you find their stuff floating around stateside, like NOS pieces from a parts hoarder's collection or a small eccentric Euro repair shop going out of business.

I may of, in my haste, transcribed the typ44/C4 p/n for those pistons instead of the typ89...

Funny, CarID has listings on fleabay for both 146.40014 and 146.45002, too. I wonder if you tried getting them that way you'd get the same response? I hate that crap. Why bother listing them if you don't have them?

It's more than "why bother"... at least here in Mass. it's illegal to advertise something for sale when you don't have enough on hand to meet expected demand. I think in almost anyone's book, 0 on hand would qualify as "not enough".

Even better, the reason given in the email for the backorder: "Manufacturing delay (build to order part)". So they should have known they could not ship immediately.

But I'm sure curious about the fact there are two different G60 pistons that are the same size! I wonder what the difference is?

mr_aj_johnson wrote:Don't have my contacts in so I cant read, but I thought I'd share that there were two different piston sizes for the b3 rears a 36mm and a 38mm piston. Not a huge upgrade but since youse in there...

Well this week it's a front caliper that's spewing fluid... but I've already got the 38s on the rear. :-)

Okay, folks, it's time to play "guess the part"! The fun and exciting contest where players compete to win exciting prizes, like the knowledge that they managed to identify an obscure homemade part of an Audi!

Here's a photo of the part in question:


Okay, maybe it's not that exciting...

But it's a bit exciting for me: that's the bracket for my ABS pump! The photo shows it rotated about 90 degrees clockwise from how it gets installed in the car - in other words the large U-shaped sheet metal piece faces upward. The pump mounts in the 3 notches in that part. The long "arm" pointing to the left in the photo rests on and is bolted to the engine mount bracket on the car's frame. The shorter bracket below it goes to a bolt on the wheel well (a stud, actually, that I think is part of a bracket holding the brake like in the wheel well). And the one pointing toward the rear of the photo with the bend in it connects to one of the bolts holding the brake master to the booster.

The whole thing is made of 304 stainless around 1/8" thick, and I'm proud to say I welded it myself:

Okay - those maybe aren't quite world-class welds but they get the job done. And I think it's pretty good for someone with crappy skills and a MIG welder that cost just over $100.00.

Oh and to circle back on the last crisis: GAP *did* come through with a shiny new caliper for me. And I'm getting another one to replace the other crummy rebuilt on the front, so hopefully I'll have happy brakes for a long time. :woowoo:

Looks good Eric! That should hold that pump quite well.

Hey I've got another goofy question for you all... the ABS harness in a B3... where does it run inside the car? Yeah I know it goes under the carpet, but where specifically? :?

I'm thinking probably beside the driver's side rocker panel or beside the driveshaft tunnel but I'd like to know which.

Well this time I wouldn't say I have huge progress to report, but this thing is progressing in baby steps...

Today I got the ABS pump bracket mounted in the car! Here's a view of the bracket itself:


And the pump on it:


So now all I have to do is install the ECU and sensors, and install and connect the wiring harness, and fabricate and connect the brake lines. That should take like an hour, right?