This website uses CSS3 which isn't supported by ie6,7,8... but will display with modern browsers: Firefox,Chrome,Safari... If you are using ie6,7,8 please try other browsers to expand your horizons, Internet is actually beautiful. Please also install Flashplayer for flash videos.
About
I create this web page to document things I'd done or discovered. I always believe in taking control of everything. It's OK to have money to let other people to do it for you, but if you can do it yourself, you will do it right because you would care about the things you do... more About...
All A8 owners complain about the oil cooler plastic pipe that breaks and leaks after 130k miles. It doesn't matter if it's 32V or 40V engine. The layout and mounting of both of the coolers are a little different, to me, the 40V (2000+ A is a little harder to do. If we plan to do it ourselves, we should buy the plastic pipe, rubber rings (2), rubber ring for the metal pipe (1), "8" shape ring. If there's is oil/coolant mixed in the system, we may need the whole set of rings in the cooler. We did both 32V & 40V without needing the set of rings in the cooler because even with the coolant leak from the broken pipe, coolant doesn't mix with oil in any of our cars.
The reason we should prepare because some stealers like Steven Creek Audi in San Jose would force someone to buy the whole set of rings and refuse to sell the "8" shape ring alone, Carlson Audi in Palo Alto would sell it individually. We ended up with $86 for the use of a few rings. Audi of America should advice the dealers to sell parts according to customers wants and...
My brother in-law's A8 has an overheating problem after the "quick fix" of the oil cooler pipe leaks- He poured the radiator leaks sealer into the coolant in the attempt to seal the leaks-The thermostat stops opening, stuck close. We don't know if the thermorstat ceased to open on its own or with the help from the sealer-The bottom line is the temperature will operate normally @ 1 mark before the red... Too hot. We decided to check the thermostat and replace the oil cooler plastic pipe at the same time. The oil cooler will be another write-up.
The timing belt is like new, so we don't want to change it at the moment, but if the timing belt is out, it will be a lot easier to do. The 40V thermostat is behind an aluminum cover (manifold?) and behind the timing belt which makes it extremely hard to replace, unlike the 32V which placed by itself and very easy to replace. Many people did this without removing the front bumper and pull the radiator assembly out to have more room which I think it's not efficient. It only took less than 30 minutes to remove the bumper and the radiator...
It's been a long time since we've washed our A8, although it's always been garaged, it still had some dirt on it due to parking and driving. The car is still shiny and look at my daughter helping me washing it, I remembered the day we went to get the car, she was just born. It's been an amazing car we've ever had. I wanted to replace it with a newer model one, but the wife likes it so much and it's still driving so well... hmm, we may have to drive it forever...
Well, my A8 was bleeding terribly since it has 162k miles. I decided to change some gaskets where I see possible leaks. Valve cover gasket and the camshaft rear cover seal.
There are references on the internet and especially @ audipages.com where I used the information for this. This is for me to remember how to do it next time or next car.
Order parts from autohausaz.com, free shipping and order on Monday, sure will have them on Friday for the weekend chores.
Take off all the audi engine covers, air duct for fuel injection system, I even remove the air cleaner to have more room to work on. When everything is done, we will have the valve cover with spark plug wires. One good thing about A8 is I only need 1 size 10mm socket for bolts. There are 2 6 or 8 mm hex bolt in the middle that are every easy to forget, SO DON'T FORGET and hammer the the cover away to break it. Remember a little tap in the top left corner would break it loose.
There are things in the way of removing the valve cover, sparkplugs wires, breather hose, two gas return hoses, 2 wires (1 from...
The coolant leaks caused us to believe it was from the water pump, our bad, and we replaced it.
**** The bumper should come out for the radiator to move out to have room to access the front of the engine. It took me less than 1 hour to remove the bumper and the radiator support. Follow the procedure from Audipages.com, it's very clear. Also read the timing belt procedure. Read carefully because it took me half of a day to remove the passenger side timing belt cover because of a hidden bolt and stripped a water pump bolt due to over tightened the bolt (the procedure was 89lb-in ~7-8lb-ft which my torque wrench was in, I try to torque it to 20lb-ft and after 17ft-lb ~ 204lb-in, the bolt was gone and leave me with headless bolt stuck in the block) and this set me back another 4 hours.Here is the video for the whole replacement which including the removal of the oil cooler to replace the $23 part plastic coolant pipe (which was the cause of the coolant leak).
Front End Removal
Remove 2 10mm Hex bolt securing the bumper to the frame shock absorbers
When the car is over 100k miles, running hot or low oil for a while, the oil cooler plastic coolant pipe would break and leaks slowly under pressure (when the car turned of after reaching operating temperature). The leaks appear to be from the water pump but it's not, it's dripping from behind the alternator which is directly below the oil cooler pipe and water pump. Before we assumed that the water pump is leaking, remove the driver side fan (disconnect the electrical wiring), remove the timing belt cover and run the engine to see if the water pump squirting out coolant. The leaks could be from this black plastic pipe here.
If we're doing this job without the waterpump or timing belt, we only need to remove the front end, air filter housing, alternator, drain the coolant. Alternator must come out.
Remove front end of 32V A8
We can check the leaks to see if it's from the water pump by removing the timing belt cover and run the engine to see. On the D2, it may be necessary to remove the fan out of the housing and make sure the electrical cable is DISCONNECTED.
Our A8 has warm weather package, therefore, all windows are double for heat isolation, and because of this, none of the GPS receiver works in the car. We had to install an external GPS antenna for our portable Garmin.
We never noticed about the headrests NOT moving up/down although we can hear the motor running when we press the switch. This is how we fixed ours, they do move up/down for many years now.
Headrest Fix Procedure: This is the way I fixed mine, use it at your own risks since it requires modification to original equipments.
* Use power seat button to move the seats forward as far as we could.
* Fold the back of the seat forward as far as we could.
* We need to remove the back panel, use a letter opener or a screw driver carefully to pry the seams off the back panel.
Use the fingers to pull the rubber seal off the back panel slowly and carefully until it clears the groove.
We need to remove the 2 philips screws 1 on each side of the seat to remove the back panel.
When the screws are out, pull the back panel down and out slowly and carefully.
The motor is on the left side of the seat
There are 2 8mm bolts need to be removed to remove the motor.
When the bolts are out, we can take out the motor from the bracket, just pull the cable straight out, watch...
One of the causes of clunking suspension on the A8 is the lower curve arm, this one will cause the noise when going over bump slowly, backing out of the drive way. This is how we fixed ours.
When our A8 hit 100k miles, the suspension start making clunking noise, one of the cause was from a tie rod end, at least what we thought it was since the rubber boot was torn, this is how we replaced it.
Most old Audis have the CC working intermittenly, our 98 A8 also has the problem, we haven't had time to check into it since we don't use it so often. We accumulated all the links to websites that we stumbled into for our references.
We've had the A8 for almost 4 years and added 40k miles, it's been the most comfortable & reliable car we've ever had (and we have never taken it to the dealers or shops for anything except alignment & new tires). According to the ex-owner records, the spark plugs are over 60k miles old. With the gas prices is hitting close to ~$4 /gallon, it's time for us to tune up my A8, although it's still running solidly. We ordered 8 copper spark plugs from Autohausaz a few months back, we didn't want to get the platinum although it's only a few cents difference. On Saturday 3/8/08 with odo @ 144xxx miles, it's the first time we've touched the engine compartment.
Everything is sealed and covered so nicely. In order to get to the 8 spark plugs, we needed to remove 2 covers using 5mm hex key, we can see the 2 hex bolts on each side next to the 4 Audi rings. The one on the left, need the air cleaner hose removed to lift the cover out.
After the cover is removed, we was amazed at the spark plug wires & coils positions, so beautifully placed.
10 mm socket is needed to remove the spark plug cover and remove it slowly and carefully.
Since the socket is deep, we used 6" extension (I didn't want to use 9" because it's a little long and we don't want to wiggle too much) and a little force over 22ft/lb by specs to remove the spark plug. WE DID ONE AT A TIME.
This is how a 60k copper spark plug in a good V8 look like, still nice looking, it's dark because we didn't warm up the car when moving it out of the garage.
Before we install the new spark plug, we inspected all the 4 electrodes and gaps to make sure they're not damaged from the factory and we always put some new engine oil around the thread to make sure it goes in smoothly thread by thread.
It's aluminum head, so we have to hand twist all spark plugs in thread by thread slowly but surely until they go in all the way. The torque wrench is only used for the last thread and tighten only. Don't over tighten the spark plug if you don't have the torque wrench, don't strip or break anything. FINISH ONE and MOVE TO THE NEXT SLOWLY and CAREFULLY!!!!
While the Air cleaner hose is out, we also bought an air filter to replace it with. We used the high pressure hose to blow out all the dirt, since there is no Oil, there's no grimes on the air filter.
To remove the old air filter, we need to unscrew 4 screws securing the cover, it's very easy to remove when the screws are done. We vacuumed the bottom part to be cleaned from sands and bugs before placing the new air filter in.
While the Air cleaner is out, we can see the throttle body was so dirty, remove the rubber connector and use a clean rag sprayed with carburetor cleaner and let the fingers do the wiggling and wiping, clean the butterflies and body as much as you can. I don't spray anything into the throttle body.
Put everything back and ready to start the car to see if it runs. It did like it should... The idle and acceleration is much smoother and the engine is quieter during acceleration. It did make some difference or may be it's just my feelings? Anyhow, time will tell, my wife will give me a full report on the gas mileage. She did say the engine seems to operate better.
While every covers were removed, I took my time to inspect all the rubber hoses, and they're all good. Believe it or not, these vacuum hoses could cause your car to idle and run so bad that you may have to get a tune up for 1000s of dollars and still wouldn't fix it. This is an example of what a tune up can do, NOT MUCH, with 60k miles old spark plugs, our car still runs great, so next time if your car doesn't start, idles bad, or sluggish in acceleration, check something else, like electrical connection or VACUUM HOSES I heard people also change fuel pump, fuel filter. In all my life driving older cars, I never had to replace one fuel pump or fuel filter... or another one, clogged air cleaner... look at my air filter please, how bad did it look and it didn't stop my car from running fine.
Tools needed: 17mm socket for wheel lugs, 18mm socket for caliper frame, 7mm hex, screw driver, extension 3/8 or ½, long nose pliers, brake piston retract tool.
- Remove wheel lugs covers. - Open the wheel lugs a few turns. - Jack up the car and make sure you have hand brake on and some blocks on the other side rear tire for safety. - Remove all wheel lugs and the tire. Use a screw driver to remove the safety spring at the pads.
- Use 7mm Hex key to remove the brake piston housing bolts in the back.
- Remove the brake caliper and rest it on the lower arm in the back.
- Use 18mm socket to remove the 2 bolts securing the caliper bracket. Remove the bottom bolt, leave the top one intact because we don’t need to remove the bracket totally out to replace the rotor.
- Lift the bracket up to remove the old rotor and place the new rotor. Use a metal brush & compressed air to clean the bracket where the brake pads sliding on. After the new rotor is in place, mount the bracket back with bolts. This is the time to torque the bolts tightly because the caliper won’t be in the way. I secure the new rotor with 2 lugs to the axle for easy caliper installation.
- Now we need to compress the piston to the original position to accommodate the thickness of the new pads. Make sure we remove the reservoir cap for the brake fluid to come up to the top. Remove the brake pads and the sensor cable. Remove the clip to remove the electrical connector. Compress the piston SLOWLY and FIRMLY until the piston reach the end of the caliper (almost flush), while compressing, make sure the rubber housing is folded evenly. - Use a metal brush and compressed air to clean the housing.
- Install new inner pad with sensor cable. The sensor connector has a key, so mount it on the bracket with the key locked.
- Place the outer pad and put back the caliper, tighten the 2 hex bolts, put back the safety spring. The trick is to put the spring hooks in halfway first, the top spring in then use the long nose pliers to stretch the lower one in. Lightly tap the spring hooks and the springs in place TOTALLY. - This is also the time to check the ABS sensor behind the wheel, remove it SLOWLY & FIRMLY (rotate side to side while pulling) and clean.
- Get in the car, start the engine, make sure it’s in park, press the brake pedal a few times to lower the brake fluid level and see if the piston is pushed out and NO LEAK. - Turn off the engine, remove the 2 lugs securing the rotor, put back the wheel, lower the jack and tighten ALL LUGS with correct torque. I estimate mine. Put back all the lug covers.
**** FINISH ONE AT A TIME ****
- Now go to the other side to replace the rotor & pads.
- The rotors for 98 A8 are Zimmerman 312x25 mm from http://www.autohausaz.com for $63.88 each 8D0615301J - The pads for 98 A8 are Meyle semi metallic VWW059023 for $56.71. E3 90R-01 1031.
Well, our A8 has 159k miles now, and the freon doesn't hold any more, every year @ summer time, we have to take it to the shop to get freon charge and each time it's $70.00. Now we do it at home for $4.00.
The only way that you can charge Freon to any car is from the LOW port. You can do this with any car, but for the Audis, they covered the low port with some types of sensors. On my A8, the sensor wasn't there, but the connector is. The location is next to the brake master cylinder and in front of the auxiliary fuse/relay box. Audipages.com will have the pictures.
For Audi A8, you need the adapter like this FJC6016 You can google to find some places that are cheaper with 12 oz freon cans.
The best thing is this device fits perfectly to the threads of the connector and all you need is to connect the can + hose like this.
Turn on the engine, turn on the a/c max, screw the pin of the freon connector hose all the way in to punch a hole in the can, unscrew it slowly until it's totally out for the freon to...
This was the way I did mine, please use the below information as reference only and be safe. The upper Control arms start to loosen when my car hit 120k+, they make clunking noise when you back up while turning, and my car feels loose when you go over bumps. It took me 5 hours because I didn’t know what to do first. In this write up, I recommend some steps that may save time and work. Tools needed are 16mm, 18mm wrenches and 13mm sockets, pry bar, circlip removal tool.
Due to front upper control arm’s circlip on the bolt, we need to remove the shock housing and to remove the shock plate, we need to remove the shock assembly also, there’s no short cut. Remove the splinter bolt and punch the bolt through to remove the front upper CA.
Remove the shock fork bolt and slide it out to the side for assembly removal. Jack the car up on the other side to release the tension on stabilizer, make it easier to move the fork out.
There are 2 13mm nuts holding the shock assembly, make sure use long nose pliers to remove the nuts before the shock housing is removed. You...
This was the way I did mine, please use the information below as reference only and be safe.
When the car makes squeaky noise while driving at very low speed, parking lot or over bumps, it’s normally the ball joint of this straight arm being loose. I replaced the curved arm, it didn’t fix the problem, I replaced this straight arm, and it fixed it.
On the D2 1996-2003 A8, there are two types of straight arms which are not interchangeable, beware and order the correct one for your car. Look under the car and identify it first and ask for the correct one. I believe this only happens with 2000 A8 because there are both types fitted dependent upon the Vin# or when the car is built. Ebay kit sellers can claim very irresponsibly that their kits will fit from 1994-2003 which is false. Yes, may be most of the parts in the kit, but NOT all, this is a pure example.
is a little harder to do. If we plan to do it ourselves, we should buy the plastic pipe, rubber rings (2), rubber ring for the metal pipe (1), "8" shape ring. If there's is oil/coolant mixed in the system, we may need the whole set of rings in the cooler. We did both 32V & 40V without needing the set of rings in the cooler because even with the coolant leak from the broken pipe, coolant doesn't mix with oil in any of our cars.
I heard people also change fuel pump, fuel filter. In all my life driving older cars, I never had to replace one fuel pump or fuel filter... or another one, clogged air cleaner... look at my air filter please, how bad did it look and it didn't stop my car from running fine.
