What have you done to your car today?

Repositioned the steering wheel, changed the Air filter, and put about 3 quarts of oil in my 1992 Tracker. 2012, bring it on!
 
I got new filter and plugs then some tires and decided to go with the MB seven Xs for my Rx7. Now I just need to figure out how to paint them, flat black or gloss.
 
Well I attempted to get my love back on the road, but she turned around and B!$¤£ slapped me.

Car is an 86 Audi Coupe GT.

This goes out to all Audi techs.
The car will run pretty good for about 10 minutes then after that it stutters then sputters and idles. If I try and give it gas it just falls on it's face.

Recently brought to my attention was the multi-function-temperature sender. I read that if this goes bad or is going bad that it can cause exactly this. I switched out the one that was in it with one I had off the old motor (had to do a swap when I got the car due to the previous owner neglect) and went for a test drive. I made it ten minutes and it stuttered, but recovered. I knew it wasn't fixed, but maybe better. NOPE! I was sitting on the side of the road trying to not let it die (battery was near death) while it was running on one cylinder! After the idle smoothed out I tried another trick I read online. I unplugged the multi-function-temp sender and the other sensor above it. This puts the computer in a fail safe mode of sorts. When I unplugged the multi-blaaaa I heard the exhaust change a little, but only for a second. No benefit from this trick at all. I managed to limp it home and pull it back in the shop. There she awaits my next interrogation.

I'm thinking,
1. A knock sensor is tweaking out on me making the computer think it needs to retard the timing except that since it keeps getting this signal it constantly tries to retard the timing even if it's already too far.
2. That the computer is bad. it's supposed to run about 5-10 minutes in a standard "warm up" program then after it's done cycling it starts receiving gibberish from the rest of the ecu.
3. That something is physically out of adjustment in the fuel injection. In 86 Audi used the weirdest injection ov ever came across. It's a mechanically ran fuel injection. As a vacuum pulls a plate up (as rpm's rise) it tells the injectors how much to inject. That plate might be a little too far up, but that does not explain why it runs good then goes to crap.
4. The "new" motor I got could be bad. I drove it for a year before it went to crap. If that's the case I'm going to cry like a man. It's a scary site.
 
Hmm, I doubt it is bad, if the engine goes sweet until this happens. It most likely is something to do with the ECU / Sensor side of things. Have you tried pulling power to the ECU when it starts to go to crap and restarting it straight away after replacing the fuse? Does it smell like fuel when it happens, ie is it running pig rich? Or do you think it is the timing having the retardation? /Borat voice.

If you pull the plugs are they full of carbon? Is the engine controlled by an air flow meter or map sensor?

EDIT - your suggestion regarding the ECU - I doubt it has a "warm up cycle", it will be based on temperature.
 
Not necessarily a warm up cycle, but a standard tune untill it gets warm. Then it starts taking information from the monitoring systems.
About the plugs, most confusing thing ever, when I pulled the plugs after it had new ones for ten minutes they were blacker than black and fouled. Here recently it got new plugs again. I pulled them after about two hours of idling and attempted driving and the plugs were fine.
The car seems to do whatever it wants and it seems to not know what it wants 👎
My friend is coming over tomorow with a bunch of parts off of anther I5 Audi so we can trail and error what's wrong with it.

I5 = straight five. It's so weird/cool/cute. It sounds like half of a small bore Viper! :dopey:
 
My power steering pump is dying, slowly. So today, I decided to just take off the belt and run it without.

Racecar.


Then I took my car for a ride and somehow ended up on a smooth, twisty, gravel road. 13b + LSD

Rallycar.
 
painted my VC and changed the gasket.
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Test fitted my borbets today, fronts are fine but Ill have to roll the rear arch and maybe get the dishes diamond cut as they were in pretty bad shape when I got them...











 
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They look pretty good. I would prefer a small spacer on the front myself, maybe 5mm. The car also needs lowered so that poke doesn't look so out of place. With lower comes camber that will help tuck the tops of the tires in. And definitely roll your fenders. Lower the rear an inch or more, the front about 2 inches, and it should look pretty gnarly.
 
Thanks for the advice im a novice with stance and all that getting it perfect etc, a few people have told me to go lower too! But the mid pipe is hanging a bit low already and the way the fitters welded it if i got smaller rubbers parts of the exhaust would start hitting the underside :grumpy: ...
 
Finished up my buddy's Bronco, just got to make sure all the new connections are tight and then time to road test it. After that I had one of my other friends bring in his Silverado, which needs some work. Replaced the gas tank today, needs new bushings, ball joints, idler arm, tie rods and a few other things. Won't take real long to do, but could take until next Friday when limited to 2 hours a day 5 days a week.
 
Woke up to a flat tire today. Put one of my summer tires on and took it by work (the dealership). Thankfully it only needed to be patched and with staff discount only $20.
 
Not quite my car yet, but I still like to think of it as mine. Today, I took some pictures of it. :)
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Thanks for the advice im a novice with stance and all that getting it perfect etc, a few people have told me to go lower too! But the mid pipe is hanging a bit low already and the way the fitters welded it if i got smaller rubbers parts of the exhaust would start hitting the underside :grumpy: ...
Exhausts can be a pain. I have a big resonator under mine, right in the middle of the wheelbase, and it tags the ground in my school's parking garage every time.

Have fun with the wheels. They're pretty sweet and you got pretty good sizing already. EP3s look super awesome with tight fitment.
 
DIY arch rolling like a baws.. 1st time doing it, I had a heat gun and it was going well but i think one panel has been resprayed as paint started cracking on the inside, no biggy... also something else unexpected, after rolling the arch we noticed like a vertical bulge developing on both rear quarter panels ahh well :s




Also hate my friend for this, randomly pulls out a BBS rim from his garage, slaps it on my car and it actually looks really good in person, now im confused on what to do...
 
Helped my mate gut the back of his Mustang GT California Special, installed racing seats and a new exhaust. Sad to see him and his dad put their names on the back window..
 
Mom's car got washed yesterday, so I took advantage of the opportunity to take some pictures of it. Also got to drive it around the neighborhood last night. Man is that little car responsive! :dopey:
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Replaced the ECU yesterday with an upgraded version. Idles a little better now. I also adjusted my trunk so it shuts tighter. Hopefully that will fix the leaky trunk issue.
 
Thought replacing a couple bushings for the steering rack was going to be easy. That was the first mistake. Turns out it wasn't so I quit halfway through with the MR2 on jackstands in the middle of the driveway.

To make myself feel better I put the Momo shift knob on.

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And the Civic was super clean so I took the liberty of parking like a dbag in my driveway since the MR2 isn't in its usual spot.

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Put a serpentine belt back on that had popped off last night (went through a snow drift on an unplowed road and the belt got wet; cost me $50 to have it towed back to my house since I didn't have the tools to do it on the side of the road), fished out a couple sockets that had fallen down underneath the false floor of the trunk, and attempted to fix a loose side window.
 

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