[PhireSideZA]

I figured I'd post up the car that lured me away from Hyundai ownership after a solid 8 years with the FD. But fret not, as the replacement vehicle shares a garage space with another Korean pocket (not) rocket - my wife's Kia Picanto

In all her glory:



The journey has been a long one since I got her back in January, having left me stranded after an oil line came loose, and needing many Randelas in preventative maintenance and repairs. Some examples are a new turbo core, window switches, valve covers, a high-level brake light, a rear wiper arm, a battery, and most recently, new valve stem seals and control arms.

Out with the old, in with the new:



A new 'speed snail':



Puddle lamps were dead, so I found these gaudy-looking ones:

[PhireSideZA]

So I'd thought I'd post up here as there have been some interesting developments with the Audi of late.

After refreshing the front suspension bushings and shock absorbers, I thought I would take it in to have the little bit of smoking on deceleration sorted out. My mechanic quoted me around AU$950 to replace the valve stem seals, do a carbon cleaning of the intake manifold and other small things here and there. I took the car in on the 22nd of August, and it's still not back yet. Fortunately, I work from home so the impact is minimal, but when the engine was opened up, more carnage was awaiting.

Starting from the top, when the head was removed, he found massive amounts of scoring on the cam journals and cams themselves. He took the head in to a machine shop to have it remedied, but they were too far gone to be saved as the scoring and pitting was too bad. We spent about a month looking for another head, as I was not willing to pay Audi SA's ridiculous pricing (AU$8900 + exchange). We eventually found a good used head and a pair of billet camshafts (the original Audi ones are two-part hollow assemblies) for AU$1500, which was much more palatable.

Digging deeper, he found that I had very low compression on cylinder #3, as well as signs of detonation on most of the pistons - likely from oil blow-by lowering the octane rating of the fuel load. In addition to this, the bores were all oval, and all the pistons had sideways play on the gudgeon pins. A set of new pistons, rings, bearings, gudgeon pins and conrods were ordered. While this was going on, the block and crank was sent in to be machined.

Digging even further, it was found that the oil pump assembly (a notoriously over-engineered part as it contains a balancer assembly as well) was seized up, and he reckons that another week of driving would have killed the engine. The pump was still moving, but barely, and the balancing assembly was seized up which broke the balancer sprocket off the shaft and deposited a lot of metallic debris into the oil system. This is what made it's way up the engine and killed the cams and the head. So the plan here is to retrofit another oil pump and delete the balancing assembly altogether. He reckons that the previous owner must have known about the issue as there were signs of engine intrusion (RTV and some bolts were still shiny from being turned on), so it was likely patched up to get it sold to the next sucker.

He anticipates that the car should be done before the end of this month, so I am really hoping that we don't run into any other snags. For those who are interested, the total bill so far is around AU$4000, excluding labour. I'm rather disappointed in the whole ordeal, but excited to have it back soon. At least I've been saving lots on fuel the last while

[Shambles]

  I'd have ditched the car as soon as I saw the deceleration smoke

[PhireSideZA]

  I'd have ditched the car as soon as I saw the deceleration smoke

In hindsight, I should have as well! I'm trying to take solace in the fact that, when it's finished, it should be like a brand new (old) car, at 1/2 the price of a new entry level Polo

[Snookes]

Thank you for your comprehensive post. I’m sorry to hear about your car problems, but yes, it should be like a new car (well, engine anyway) that should be good for many years to come.

[PhireSideZA]

Thank you for your comprehensive post. I’m sorry to hear about your car problems, but yes, it should be like a new car (well, engine anyway) that should be good for many years to come.

No problem! Thought it would provide some amusing reading for those on here. I forgot to mention, but the other thing that was also faulty was the oil filter housing. The vacuum pump that runs off the intake camshaft also leaks, and when they pulled the engine out, they found the hose that connects from the block to the heater core was barely hanging on and also broke off upon removal.

So taking the engine as a whole, the only thing that was still in good nick was the crankshaft (if you can ignore the fact that the sprocket driving the oil pump had a broken tooth) and other ancillaries like the alternator, power steering pump and AC compressor. Which is really sad to think about especially considering how cheap routine maintenance is vs having to rebuild like I did. Unfortunately, regular maintenance is not a common concept around these parts

[Snookes]

Yes, regular maintenance is sadly sometimes skipped in order to save a little money at the time, especially when owners feel the car seems to be going ok anyway. But i agree, that in reality, regular preventative maintenance is cheap in comparison to major work.
Anyways here’s to happy motoring from here on.

[PhireSideZA]

So, the Avant was sold and replaced with something resembling a sportscar since it has a flat bottom steering wheel, a 6-speed manual gearbox, AWD and a turbocharger...but a sportscar it is not