It’s been a while since my last update so I thought I’d write a short post about what I’ve been doing lately. Little was done during the summer as I was doing summery things in addition to it being way to hot to be working in the garage…
A couple of weeks ago, I got the urge to start the project as it was just sitting in the garage collecting dust.
The car was stripped of all interior parts so this was my first mission. I also decided to upgrade the heater core to one of newer date with the upgraded controls.
Climate system upgrade
The car, being a 91-model had the first generation electrically operated climate system. I got a salvaged second generation climate system when I bought the car so I decided to install it. This project required me to rewire the entire system as even though the connector was the same, hardly any one wire was wired to the same feature on the car. I spent hours and hours trawling through schematics to identify which wire should be connected where. I ended up connecting almost all pins on the new system, but there were some pins which I did not connect. I think some of these were the rev-counter and full throttle wire which should be connected to the ECU. It was a little scary to connect the battery after rewiring and fitting the new heater core, but everything seemed to be working fine. The only thing that needs to be fixed is the display on the heater-controls as some of the segments does not work. This is not important for the main functionality of the climate system so I’ll try to fix it at a later time.
no images were found
Refitting the interior
Roof lining
I did get all the parts for the interior spread amongst several boxes and containers so the next job was to install it. The first thing I did was to rip off the old roof liner as it was dirty and had almost fallen off by itself. The original color was light gray-yellow-ish, so naturally, I decided to go for black. The first attempt failed miserably as the fabric managed to glue itself to itself… With that lesson learned, I recruited help from my wife and tried again, with a much better result! I did get some wrinkles, but I decided not to do it a third time. Finally I used a couple of jack-straps to glue the roof liner assembly to the roof of the car.
no images were found
Dashboard and plastic trim
After installing the upgraded climate system I put the dashboard back in, the roof carpet, the plastic trim, the seats and the rest of the bits and pieces needed. No real difficulties here except fitting the small compartment below the steering wheel… Too many wires… I got it in there, but it is not fitted exactly as it was from the factory.
Boost gauge
As this is a turbo car, it needs a boost gauge. I don’t understand why Audi didn’t fit a boost gauge from the factory, especially on the S-models… I’ve seen many others fit the boost gauge in the middle of the three air vents in the center of the dashboard so I decided to do the same. I have many air vent fronts from the previous owner, so I wasn’t afraid to destroy one to build the boost gauge frame. I wires the lightning for the boost gauge to the light controls such that it has light when the main light switch is on (same as the rest of the gauges in the dash). To get the manifold air pressure to the gauge I fitted a y-piece on the hose to the ECU.
no images were found
Front bumper
I test-fitted the front fender just to see what I had to work with. The fender is not an S2 original, but some sort of aftermarket RS2-copy of some kind. One of the fog lights were broken so I had to find a new one in order to pass the requirements for registering the car. The fog lights were the same as an old Porsche 993 and I was lucky to find a pair on eBay which is noe en-route in the mail.
no images were found
Suspension and sub-frame upgrades
I decided to upgrade the suspension as I saw some rotten bushes and rusty parts on the rear subframe. I disassembled the entire rear subframe of the car and started ordering parts. Currently, this is what will be replaced/fixed/upgraded
- KW v1 coilovers
- Poly-bushes all over
- Whiteline rear anti-rollbar
- New wheel bearings on all four wheels
- New steel braided brake lines
- 034 motorsport density line differential mounts
- 034 upgraded rear control arms
- New strut tower front bearings
- New steering control arms
- New guide joints all over
I’ve added an album with pictures from the suspension and subframe work so far.
no images were found