1993 Audi 80 1.9 TDi project (UK RHD)

Hello guys, newbie here to your very informative forums A friend of mine said you all maybe would be interested in what I've done to my tired and battered old 80 TDi. I hope it's of interest.
I'm a stranger to TDi's in general, but not what they are bolted into Audi wise, being the north east UK rep for the UK based Audi Owners Club.

My current baby of the last four years is a 1995 Audi S2 coupe which I adore, but using it as a daily driver was not only piling the miles on, the currently shocking price of petrol in the UK forced my hand into looking for something a little more economical for my 50 miles round trip to work five day a week. This means the S2 is now a weekend toy or occasional car and I get to spend a bit more time on her.
More economy meant a TDi, and in wanting to stay with what I know of the B4 chassis Audi's, that meant an 80 TDi in either Avant or sedan guise.
I much prefer the look of the sedan so the hunt was on.
I intially wanted just a scruffy work hack, nothing to look at but with good mechanicals. I found one, scruffy wasn't the word, but ohhh how that changed after a week or so when the modding bug got a grip.
(please forgive as I now copy and paste ) The timeline of the posts will be off, but I started the project late Feburary.

....................................................................................................................................................

Ok, to the car itself. It was picked up on the 9th of feb from Coventry for a paltry £250. Caught the train to Tamworth, audifans.net site owner and AOC cheif Andy picked me up and I headed home the next day.
The car came without a radio, so before leaving Tamworth a trip to Halfords and back saw me buy an new RDS tuner headunit with CD-R front loader for £40. Fitted in a crack by Andy, it's not as bad as I thought it would be for £40, radio reception is fine, plays CD's no bother and the sound quality is ok, but MILES away from the Becker headunit recently fitted to my S2, but then that was £300 so you'd expect some difference.
Drive home was great, the car is quiet, VERY economical, brakes are good, engine pulls very well, clutch good, gearbox good. The previous owner had had a bit of a problem with it late last year, he'd posted asking for a good midlands VW/Audi specialist and we'd directed him to a good VAG specialist. They replaced the diesel pump and also did the cambelt at the same time. So I'm not worried about the engine.

Monday saw me with a day off work, so first off was to change a few interior items. The ugly four spoke steering wheel had to go, in it's place a spare 3 spoke sport wheel was put on instead. Most of the small 5mm wedge bulbs throughout the car on things like the switches, the heater controls etc were out. I've replaced all of these, every last one in the car has been replaced even if it was working or not. This means they are all the same brightness and should in theory save me having to pull stuff apart again when another one blew.
Dash binnacle bulbs were out on all but two of them. So they've all been replaced too.
The interior was rank, so the seats and carpets were vacuumed (took "three" hours) and then cleaned with a vax and carpet shampoo. All the trim and dash was washed down with neat Megs APC and then treated to Aerospace 303 trim protectant.
A set of mats were added (ok, coupe ones, but I had them so used them)


A spare genuine used wing was given to me by Andy, it came from his recently sold 80 avant and is in emerald green. I'm also a big hater (personal preference don't forget ) of the standard front bumper, what possessed Audi to design it looking like a speed boats hull I'll never know, so that's coming off. In it's place a spare S2 front bumper from my collection.
With that I'll have to change the headlights or I'll have four front indicators. So a set of face lifted coupe headlights will go in, with some clear indicators and the fogs in the new bumper.
I'll be colour coding the door handles and the wing mirrors, along with the black rubbing strips mid way up the doors. That leaves the rear bumper being removed and replaced with a S2 avant rear bumper recently sourced.
All above will be done by myself, apart from the laser red top coat on the wing and bumper as I can't get the finish I want. £40 is what a mate wants to do this, so I'd rather he did it, than me doing it and always hating it.

Lastly, the wheels. Currently it's on it's original steelies, 195/65/15 with no wheel trims either. I want alloys though. I have a set of 17" five spoke alloys that would look great, but the tyres are really best their sell by date and I'm not keen on 17" after been there with them on my S2. Though after driving this car for a while now, I think the 17's won't be that bad. The S2's suspension is SOOOO much harder than this shuggy boat 80's suspension.
So, as this is a cash saving car, I'm not about to fork out for some tyres. I have a spare set (two spare sets really) of 16" avus wheels with brand new tyres on them. But as we know, 5x112 avus don't bolt to 4x108 hubs. Five stud conversion? Nope, that'll cost money, is not exactly straight forward and so far, not what I want to do.
Hub converters? Hmmm? There is one place that sells them in Belgium, but at 300 euros a set + shipping they are a little expensive. Plenty of 4x100 to 5x100 or 4x100 to 5x130, even a 4x108 to 5x130.
If I can't get them easy, then maybe I'll make some.
Also looking into the possibility of turning my 4x108 hubs themselves into 5x112.
I know I know, some will cry and protest that your wheel will drop off, you'll end up upside down on the motorway with a central reservation barrier embedded in your head, but as the VW boys run with 4x100 to 5x112 or 5x130 converters without really bad things happening, I'll give one of these a shot. But not before carefully planning and weighing the idea up.

Ok, pictures so far.

This is the exterior as it was when I picked it up. Pretty faded with a few knocks and scrapes. Apart from the front driver wing (awful isn't it) they'll all repair with a little elbow grease and time. No rust anywhere else apart from that drivers wing.

First up was to sort the inside.
Bit of hoovering, shampooing and dash trim dressing, it went from this;

To this;

I'm missing the dash badge but they are still available to buy new, not a lot at £7 or so. I'll also keep an eye on ebay for a full length switch panel and some balnks as I'll need to put in a front foglight switch and they isn't space as it is now.

What I intimately want it to look like, and there's no reason to say it can't be done, is to visually look like an S2 saloon (never came to the UK, only 307 ever built) The avus wheels will obviuosly do that, but if that can't be done I guess it'll look like an 80 competition externally.



I'll probably have to lower it, or it'll look like it's on stilts, but I can do that later on this year, possibly tying it up with top mount replacements as I think one is on the way out (got a spring twang going on).

Wing and bumper are done and primed, off to painters on Monday. Should have them fitted "maybe" later this week, definitely the weekend.
I will of course keep the thread up to date as I go.

(Note, I'm editing, copy and pasting from my thread on audifans, so the timeline is a little off, just saves writing everything out again)

Found the foglight connectors already in the loom for the upcoming fog in the S2 bumper One can be seen right down the bottom in the pic below. Just need to see if the plug for the switch is hiding behind the dash, but don't see why not.



Still not the right weather for anthing paint spray related, spitting on and windy so no go on colour coding the trims (booo).

Tidied a few things up, jubilee clips on the windscreen washer pipes junked and replaced with cable ties (they have a habit of popping out when they get old)
Chopped out the expanding foam that had been used to try and repair a leaky bonnet release cable grommet (UTTER madness), it was covering half of the fusebox so I couldn't get in there to replace the dicky intermittent wiper relay (sometimes worked, sometimes didn't, leaving wipers parked anywhere they wanted)
Bonnet cable undone at the slam panel end, new bonnet release cable grommet slipped on and moved around the cable into position in the bulkhead. That's that sorted. Forgot to take a pic of the grommet in position.



Wipers now sorted.

Boot loom had been butchered by Sweeny Todd in the past, so repaired that today.
16 rolls of red inslutaing tape removed, wires extended properly, joints soldered and heatshrinked, removed a terminal block and covered the repaired loom in two long sleeves of heatshrink, cable tying the loom out of the way of the rubber boot seal as before it had been getting jammed in there, enough to damage it.

Bumper and wing back from the painters. Not bad for a favour and bung
Painted in good old two pack, none of this water based nonsense.







Fitting at the weekend, again and as always...damn weather permitting.

Weekend just gone. This was Saturdays job (01/03/2008)

Weather held out, sort of. Not raining bit still extremely windy. Bonnet blew shut a few times, one of them on my hand. Nice big chunk taken out of three fingers and blood all over the shop

Still, thoroughly enjoyed doing it.
So, wing, bumper, headlamps, fogs, side repeaters and indicators are fitted. Also adjusted the drivers door, now has a nice easy click on shutting, rather than a clank and bang.

It would have been rude to do the whole thing without snapping some pictures, so took a boat load while doing the lot.

First up, out with the old headlamps and indicators; Being supervised by my trusty dog Oscar. He soon got fed up and legged back into the warmth of the house, the big girl he is :lol:



Next up was to remove the bumper; Bloody hell, now that is one mother of a radiator :yikes:



Off with the wheel so I could remove the arch liner;



Shockingly bad rust on the wing. VERY poor quality pattern part wing;

And the wing off the car;



Next up, adjusting the door while the normally hard to get to bolt is nicely exposed.
The door had dropped, so that meant I needed to adjust the bottom hinge out. I temporarily refitted the wheel and dropped it back onto the floor, as the body is twisted with one corner in the air, no use doing this with the body twisted.

Loosen the 13mm bolt circled in white, don't remove it, just loosen it off enough so that the hinge can move later (the hole is slotted)
Open the door and remove the 13mm bolt on the bottom hinge. Behind that you'll see a 12mm allen headed adjuster. You need to tighten this in, (clockwise) it winds in and pushes the bottom hinge out, moving it away from the door jamb. I didn't have my good set of allen keys with me, left the buggers at work, so solution was the find a bolt with a 12mm hex head, tighten a couple of nuts on the end of the threads and use this to turn the adjuster. Worked a treat.
Don't go crazy with the adjuster, just a bit at a time while keeping a check on how the door closes. Once happy, put that 13mm bolt back in a tighten it up. Then tighten the 13mm bolt you loosened off.
As someone will no doubt ask, yes it's exactly the same procedure for the Coupe, the Avant, the B3 80, the 90, and the cabriolet.







I didn't have the U shaped brackets needed for to hold the bumper to the other brackets that are used. Did have those thankfully, so just made the others out of some 2mm ally that I had. That saw the wing on and the bumper fitted on the front fixings. Fixed the bumper to the arches.







Next up putting the fogs, indicators, trims and headlamps in.
One side done;

Then the other;





Done;



Still stuff to do tomorrow. Start to machine polish the car, currently looks three different shades of red. I "may" have to get the drivers door sprayed as it was previously sprayed along with that pattern wing and is ever so slightly a different colour. Got some new number plates on order, will stick them on rather than being fixed on with ugly screws.

One last thing. The removable black trim on the 80 front bumper. It can be removed and fitted with another trim that allows front fogs. I thought I'd pull said black trim off, see what is was all about. Just being nosey, as you do.
Look what was behind it :yikes: :scratch:
I pulled the drivers side trim off, but this was a passenger side fog. Not fixed in, just loose.
Question! Where in the name of god did that come from? why's it there? how long has it been there?
Thought I'd see if the other side had one...Nope, empty. :?
At least we now know that the fogs used when you fit them to an 80 bumper, are the fogs we all know.
Bit of a curve ball that one. Stood and scratched my head over that for a good few minutes.



Oh, I've deliberately not shown a shot of the new wing. I'll do that tomorrow after the car has had a good while under various lake country pads and some Menzerna IP and FF.

Off for a blood transfusion

04/03/08
Well, as usual our great climate called an end to the day. Has been spitting on and off all day, but progressively longer and heavier rain spells put an end to play.
Managed to get the whole front end and the whole drivers side done, apart from the rear bumper as I'm not touching that. A nice S2 avant rear is on it's way.
Started making progress down the passenger side, but half way down the passenger front door I had to quick sharpish stop and pack away as the rain was getting too heavy.

Used a whole green Sonus clay bar and nearly a litre and a half of Megs last touch as lube, the most tar spots I've ever seen, There were tar spots on top of tar spots and all other manner of bonded on contaminants, mainly on the lower flanks.
Just about destroyed one Lake country 3" cutting pad so far, even though the Menzerna Intensive Polish is good stuff, I still had to do three rounds on each panel before moving onto some Menzerna Final Finish compound on a 3" medium pad, the paint was that scratched and oxidised.
Haven't had time to put any LSP on (last stage product) but I'm on late shift all week so I can get a good bit done each morning.
The drivers door as said previously, looked a slightly different colour. I thought as it had obviously been sprayed along with that old wing, that it had a clear coat on top as it wasn't faded like the rest of the car.
Nope, it's a flat colour too, and after spending what seemed an age on it, it's come up a lot better than I thought. Still ever so slightly the wrong shade, but I think for the time being I'll leave it as is.
The bottom leading edge of the bonnet and both headlamp trims were a PITA too. I may remove the headlamp trims and rub them down and repaint. They came up shiny, but have a LOT of stone chips.

Ok, pictures, Tried to keep them in some sort of order. I'm well chuffed with the colour match of the new wing and bumper to the bonnet and the nearside wing. Well happy with it.
REALLY needs some alloys, ANY alloys as long as those black steelies go. Amen.

Still very much a work in progress, but I'm so far pleased at how it's coming along. A fruitful if wet and windy weekend.

Planning ahead to the badging on the rear of the car.

New "Audi" badge bought for the nearside, new rings for the centre and new 1.9 badge for the offside.
That left the TDi part which I thought I'd change to something a bit different.
The car certainly in no way deserves a red "i" but seeing as it's a bit more green than a usual diesel with it's veggie oil power, I thought a green "i" would look quite cool.
So purchased a TDi red i badge in the correct font, and will paint the red i green.

This is the one I purchased, messed around in a paint program to show you how it'll look.



Also a picture of the five spoke 17's I have, Have been offered four tyres, new but a budget make, for not a lot.
Still can't decide if I like them though.
They are polished and lacquered.
Maybe a bit bling. Will try them on one side of the car and see what they look like.

04/03/08

Popped those 17's on this morning. Hmmm!! can't make my mind up if they suit.
Tyres on them are all wrong though, they are 215/40/17's where they should be 225/45/17 for a perfect rolling match to the original 195/65/15.

08/03/08
Just couldn't sit around all day doing nothing to it.
So braved the strong winds and biting horizontal rain to remove the wing mirrors, so I could paint them.
Gave em a rub over with a scotch pad, rubbed down with cellulose thinners and then primed with three coats of red primer.
Finally, four top coats of Laser Red with about 20 mins in between coats. May not be the correct way to paint things, but it works for me.

Will let the paint cure until tomorrow, then get the machine on it to shine it up a bit more.
Really has got a strong orange tint to Laser Red in the right/wrong light.

09/03/08
Again to windy to spray anything, grrrr.
So, finished off all the paintwork over at my dads place.
Not touched rear bumper as it's getting replaced, or the bootlid as it needs rubbing down and spraying.

Passenger side and roof done. Then Klasse sealant glaze and Collinite 476s on top. Also rubbed down the rear tailpipes, they were a bit black.
Oh, adjusted bootlid too, was sitting a bit low when closed.

Still left to do, As mentioned above, rear bumper replaced, bootlid rubbed down and resprayed, new rear badges, trim line and door handles colour coded, sort the dent in the rear offside door and sort wheels eventually. Still waiting on bumper grilles from vagparts.
The wheels will stay on there for now, they are better than the steelies, just!!


My dad just couldn't get over the difference, me neither really come to think of it. Has come up rather well.

09/03/08
Got given another TDi badge and thought, "Stick it on the front grille" It's funny looking at the B4 grille without it having a badge at the side :hide:
So made a mount for it, stuck the lettering onto the mount, painted the white plastic of the mount that was showing through the lettering, satin black.
The mount was fashioned out of some white plastic material left over from when I had some UPVC windows fitted. It slots into one of the grille slats and I'll keep it in place with some JB-weld on the reverse. (note, that's just a spare front grille)
Going to pop into a graphics/sign writer place tomorrow after work and see if I can nab an offcut of green vinyl to turn the red "i" green.

09/03/08
So far, it's turned out pretty well for a spend of around £580 "including" the car

11/03/08
Apart from number plates (looks like ANOTHER ebay item lost in the post ), the front end is finished.

21/03/08
Things have slowed somewhat over the last week on the project.
Two slipped discs have seen me laid out over the last four days. Fourth time in six months and it's getting to be a pain in the arsss...e................back.

Have managed to rub down and paint the S2 avant rear bumper, that in itself was is huge task for someone who knows little about painting large items like this, not to mention trying to do it while not being able to move, but the exercise will do me good.
Even with an offer off my bro of fitting it, doesn't look possible for the next two days at least with the weather YET AGAIN throwing a huge spanner in the works.
No worries though, it's not like I'm in a rush.




Dog approved respray

24/03/08
I'm still laid out with two slipped discs, so my bro gave me a hand doing this

Spot the difference




As usual, Audi throws a curve ball.
FA states that the two big alloy retainers that slot into the two holes on the rear panel, are different between S2 avant/saloon and the rest of the 80 saloon and avants.

WRONG! they are the same. Apart from the black cap that pops in the end, one having a sort of rubbery skirt, the other didn't but they switch over, both alloy brackets are 100% EXACTLY the same. Even the same part number.
I'd fretted about this and had sourced some if needed, then when I picked the bumper up from Andy's, was relieved they were there. Just as well I didn't go buy some new ones, they are around £50 each!!!.

Only parts I needed to buy, where two plastic retainers that are secured to the body work on the sides. You remove the old ones, fit these and the S2 bumper secures to it with two pop rivet type plastic inserts (you can use the old ones you pull out)

To remove old bumper, remove two plastic pop rivet type plugs in the wheel arch, remove two lower self tappers too, remove circular cover cap in the black trim in front of the lock catch, remove the self tapper below it, remove four M10X100mm bolts in the boot floor (two either side) pull back on the bumper, go round each side and pull back and down on each corner to unclip it from the retainers and pull the whole bumper back and off.

There's a black plastic trim the runs along the top edge of the old bumper, that you need to remove and swap to the new one, it's just clipped on.
Then it's just a case of offering up new bumper, slotting the alloy brackets into the holes (slightly unbolt and they move up down left and right if needed), secure the self tapper in the centre and pop the circular cover back on, popping in and tightening down the four bolts in the boot floor and popping in the plastic rivets in the wheel arch, followed by the two lower self tappers.

Pictures are in no particular order, sorry.

Hoping soon it'll look like this; Car is getting lowered 40mm with a spax spring kit.



Side trim, door handles and boot to do next.

13/04/08
Weather killed last weekend, this weekend has been about the S2 mainly, getting some much needed TLC.

The 5x112 converters are not possible, well they are, but at the expense of being safe in the knowledge that they won't fail.
Rear 5x112 hubs from a FWD Audi 100 have been sourced and paid for, V6 front driveshafts "had" been sourced, but seller has now done a Lord Lucan and disappeared, thankfully not with my money.
Just need to source said driveshafts and S2 front hubs with hub carriers.

Did manage to do something on the old tractor today, thought I'd give it's engine a bit of a spruce up.

Before;








After;

31/05/08
Lots been done over the last month. She's lowered now NO! tell a lie, she's damn well slammed :lol:

Picked up a full set of front and rear struts with lowering springs fitted, got them through the post to find one rear spring snapped. In fairness to the seller, they were mortified that they'd not spotted it and set yet another complete rear setup FOC.







In any case, didn't use any of them as I spotted a set of brand new Spax springs on the bay. Only problem was the seller didn't know how far of a drop they'd give.
Bid on them, won them (brand new don't forget) for £10.50. Ebay had given me a voucher for a tenner so they only cost me 50p. AOC members relayed them up the country from Bristol to Brum, I picked up from Birmingham so shipping wasn't a problem.
Only thing was to fit em and see what the drop was. Erm, 60mm

BEFORE!!


AFTER!!!

Bought a secondhand boot lid, the one on now has lots of peeling lacquer from a previous to my ownership bodged job at trying to combat the dreaded fade. Also has a nasty dent on the bottom edge.
New Boot has been painted, what a total arsé off a job that was, as the paint kept on reacting with what was probably silicone.
Took five attempts to get it right. Painter has now told me to f*** off and leave him alone :lol:
I'll be fitting it today, so will nab some pics. Had a poll going on audifans to see which badge setup the rear should have, Think I'm going to go for just the fourring badge and that's it. Keep em guessing.
With having Coupes in various guises over the last 12 years and two 80 2.8 quattros (both 80's had window aerials) I've not been used to having to remember to raise and lower and old fashioned aerial. Yup, forgot to lower it and found it one morning looking like a coat hanger. Little sh*ts
So bought a black based, black masted electric aerial that raises and lowers with switching on and off of the headunit.
Had five minutes of fun with "aerial goes up, aerial goes down, aerial goes up, aerial goes down" got bored then and moved on :lol:
Friend of mine bid on and won four S2 avant doors, the red avant that was breaking last month.
All four doors have ZERO dents, best thing is they have the centre door trim and handles already colour coded. Picking those up next week. Cost to me? £28 and some front struts
So fingers crossed, it'll be looking like this below next weekend. REALLY hope it's done by next saturday as I've got a show to attend in Scotland and would like to have it there.

Ahh, but how are the Avus going on?? read on..

Ok, five stud wheels on a four stud setup.
Decided at long last that converters just weren't going to happen. It could have been done, but at the expense of being safe in the knowledge that the car wasn't going to be overtaken by four rogue wheels that had just come loose from the hubs.

That means a five stud hub setup.
First hurdle is the rear, Can't use any S2 gear as it's FWD. I bought two rear five stud hubs from C4 Audi 100 2.6 FWD, they fit the rear no problem, BUT! I just could not find any info anywhere of a suitable rear disc. Wasn't going to start messing with looking at different rear callipers either.
Step forward a german friend of mine "Wolfgang" who showed his Coupe's rear setup. This route involves using 1995 - 2000 B5 A4 1.6/1.8/1.9 TDi FWD rear discs.
Beauty of these is that the disc IS the hub. The wheel bolts to the disc itself The same wheel bearings and rear ABS rings as the 80 TDi is also used on the A4. So all is required is the A4's discs, new bearings (two each disc, inner and outer) pressed in, new ABS rings heated and pressed on. That's the rear sorted.
Now the ballache that is the front.
This TDi uses 75mm wheel bearings ojn the front, the S2 front hubs press into 82mm bearings as we all know. So S2, 7A or 2.8 carriers would be needed. So you fit the carriers (no need for me to worry, my struts have 14mm bolts holes) but then my TDi driveshaft won't fit, too small as they locate into smaller wheel bearings. S2 driveshafts are a no go, this 80 is FWD, meaning unequal length driveshafts even if I fitted the correct flange on the box.
Bit more headscratching. Coupe 2.8 FWD shafts would work. IF I could find any.
Step forward a friend of mine Mike. He kindly located two 2.8 cq front driveshafts and I'm going to remove their outer CV joints and fit them to the end of my TDi driveshafts. Lots of extremely boring internet searching and cross referencing parts, have told me the end of my TDi driveshaft is 24mm in diameter and has a tooth count of 30. I've measured the size and tooth count of the 2.8 CV's and they match. The outer splines of the 2.8 CV match and fit in the S2 front hubs which were sourced from another friend James.
New CV boots and a host of new bolts/nuts and washers also sourced.
Going to try and do this little lot of Sunday. Fingers crossed that my boring hours searching on the net pay off and the 2.8 outer CV;'s fit on the end of the TDi shaft.

AH, brakes. Mike also grabbed the G60's from the wrecked 2.8cq, BUT, as said earlier in the thread, I'm well happy with the brakes as they are now on this 80, instant bite and lots of feel, WAY more feel than the 996's on the S2 as it happens. Probably down to the "no bomb" servo assistance. They fade if really pushed, but this car isn't about being pushed to within an inch of it's life. It's about the mpg on derv and veggie oil and it's looks.
So, two new 280mmx10mm solid discs have had a 5x112 pattern drilled in them. Stock setup then remains.

The A4 discs I bought off ebay came with a set of pads too, but there was a change with these, so you had to choose from one of two options. I had to cross reference part numbers between the 80 and the A4 then cross reference the correct part number needed from my chassis number to the only place I could find a picture. Luckily the pads I need are the same as those fitted to the rear of an S2, so Mikes site provided the picture I needed so I could tell the seller which pad I needed. It's all to do with the pad spring on the top. See pic below, I needed the top set with the flat spring.

Bearings pressed into the disc/hub (two per disc, inner and outer) and new ABS rings pressed onto the rear of the disc/hub.

Boot fitted.
You can see the mess on the old one. Dented, weird smudge marks and lots of peeling lacquer.
Relatively straight forward, will let the pictures do the talking.

BEFORE;