The Project Pad

Couple FLAPS guys say it sounds like a slap sound.

Also some good news. I pulled the trunk bulb out of the 5000 and the new battery is still going strong after a month and a half

Nice find on the 5k. Maybe that's where my current draw is from on the sedan.

Well Chris, two sedans, two audis, same chassis codes, two battery drains. Lol its rocket science!

I have the timing cover off and the belt is loose AGAIN. Been having this problem since a few months after doing the belt job. Anyone thing they have a sure-fire fastener fix? 7 ft-lbs ain't jack! Maybe use copper crush washers?

Really? they call for 7 ft-lbs? I'm bad at using torque wrenches. When I tighten my water pump i probably tighten it to at least 20 ft-lbs.
Is that a bad idea? probably. Do my belts come loose? No.

I've always been a sucker for rules (except for occasional speeding and and drifting. F#ck birthday drama ruining my week!

I never even looked for a torque spec when I tightened the water pump. 7 lb/ft seems pretty low though.

Hah and that's for stock power levels too. I know logically that that tension only keeps the timing belt from doing exactly this, but can anyone see this affecting timing? I WILL be checking it don't worry. This weekend I think.
It's still doing the noise but I'm almost positive it's the AC compressor now. Been leaking slowly forever but I haven't put the oil in it in a long time.

I can see it doing more than just adjust timing. I can see it jumping multiple teeth at once and cause a catastrophic timing jump....

It was the GD AC compressor bearings all along. Not gonna drive it until I adjust the belt tension though! Anybody out there think it was that? This car scares the shit out of me sometimes haha

Glad to hear it's the comp. Mine is leaking oil too :( I would rebuild it myself if they made the seal available le but I think they stopped making the one I need.

Oh and I always tighten things by guessing based on how much effort it took to remove lol. And when I do use a torque wrench I usually give it a little extra lol. For example I just set the timing on my adjustable cam gear which calls for about 7 ft lb I think. I definitely went to at least 10 on all of them, and maybe spiked it to 15 lol. I don't trust my torque wrench though. Once you break a bolt of every size you get a pretty good idea what they can take!

loxxrider wrote:Once you break a bolt of every size you get a pretty good idea what they can take!

That gets expensive when you're talking about every_damn PS banjo bolt though lol

Chris you're saying that the three 7 ft-lb WP bolts can handle 20 ft-lbs? Maybe I'll see if the DLR has them today. I'm sure the bolts at the hardware store are a different Rockwell hardness

I never checked mine, but I'm willing to beg mine are between 12-15 lb/ft.

Ok thanks. I will do the same tonight when I get the new bolts.

One good thing came from this. On my birthday when the compressor was even louder, I was parked by a police station and a cop walking by heard me yell above the clatter "this thing sounds like a huge POS!" Hopefully he told his cop buddies

It was like the first week I had the IA chips in and got pulled over briefly for reckless driving. The cop ASKED if it was me and was looking inside my rusty ass car at the dash for what I can only imagine would be a massive RPM-eter
No one suspects the 044!

Also I don't need to fix my IAC now lol. I'll do that next summer when I fix the comp

Is this wrinkly look okay?

Yes, that's a microscopic needle hole in just the surface of the T-belt.
It's probably got no more than 20k on it. Lol broken odo!

I did 19 ft-lbs. 20 seemed tough on the bolts but they were almost 9 rated. I guess I was more worried for the threads.

Only cylinder 4's valve seals are still good. "WTF" just doesn't do this justice. T6 oil always and theyve been in there for about a freaking year! What would even cause this sort of failure considering the guides were also done?

I never meant to imply that you should double the torque rating lol. But as long as they didn't break you should be OK on a part like that which doesn't really see much cyclical fatigue stress.

99 percent of the time I have no idea what I'm torturing to though. I just use "the feel."

Valve seals are bad? How was that determined? Something isn't quite right for sure. What was done to it a year ago? I forget.

And yes that wrinkly look is pretty normal.

In general, unless you're dealing with something where the torque must be specific or uniform like head bolts and knock sensors, you can pretty much get away with varying degrees of "snug." I don't trust my torque wrench in the low range, since it seems to overtighten before it clicks, so I just base the feel on the thread size of the bolt and the material it's going into. If it it's an important part, I'll always pull out the torque wrench to make sure to get it right.

Also, water pump torque spec is 16 ft-lb

Lol ya I had everybody up in arms with my guess of 7. I was thinking of the lower pulley protective cover. Sorry guys hahaha. If you're a harbor freight guy and gave their standard torque wrench, it's fine print says it's only accurate from 25 and up. I invested in an autozone in-lb torque wrench specifically for the lower range.

Good advice tho. Thanks Kevin

I asked the shop next door for a labor estimate to install the passenger side motor mount ive been stressing over for 2 years. I asked LAST Monday and they still haven't given me one. They must not want to work on my car anymore out of fear I will figure out their little donkey/woman show.
Anywho I just ended up doing it myself again sigh. hah!

Is this about how low your guys' wiper arms are adjusted also? If I lower them anymore they get pinned under the hood. ??
My spare DS 5k arm is too low profile to even bolt in

Ha, I just had to adjust mine because of the hood thing too. The Bentley shows how far they should be from the black part of the windshield. Is yours aftermarket? It looks a little different than my windshield. Anyway, I will post a picture of where mine are. (Damn the animal that got my hood dirty out at the rig!)

Here