The Project Pad

Hey on a related note... does anyone have photos of B3 sedan front doors with the skins off, or of the back side of the skins themselves?

It would be great if I could get an idea what I'm dealing with here without having to tear one of my doors apart...

If no one chimes in before hand, I am heading to pick up the door I kept from the parts car for mine. Ill snap a few pics for you.

I like the last option URS posted.

Cool... thanks!

There's something worth noting for anyone who wants to try fiberglass work. Steve Meade has released SunFlash resin...work with it for hours, place it in sunlight, and its cured in seconds.

Eric

Well... one thing I bailed on when I did this last year, in order to meet my self-imposed deadline of having the car drivable for winter, was the air conditioning. I figured I wouldn't have much use for it when it was snowing out!

Well it ain't snowing any more! It's actually about 85, with about 150% humidity. Definitely A/C weather. There are going to be a multitude of fit problems, so I randomly chose to see if the condenser would fit. And, uh, NOT!

You can see from this pic that the throttle body clearly needs to be an inch or more farther forward to have condenser happiness:


So I'm bummin... this is not exactly an easily-fixable problem.

Oh well, at least the car's lighter and thus faster without the extra hardware!

Whats the possibility of tilting the radiator back an inch at the top?

It would be tough. I'm using the stock fan... well *almost* the stock fan, it's actually one out of a 4KQ since it clears the upper hose better.

Tilting the radiator back at all makes the fan shroud hit the frame rail. That possibly could be fixed by moving the bottom of the radiator forward, but that would reduce the clearance for the condenser at the bottom and I'd be back where I started.

On my 4KTQ I had one of those skinny aftermarket fans and no shroud - it kept things cool enough and had much more clearance. But I don't think it would move enough air to cool well with A/C (the 4K had no A/C).

Can TB be rotated 90* to clear the condenser? Would point the spring up, and likely wouldn't change the TB cable much, if any.

Eric

Unfortunately, I already thought of that... but the TB is very close to the inlet fitting on the PS pump, and if the TB were rotated it would interfere in a big way.

One thing I'm considering that wouldn't be *too* painful is cut the tube between the manifold and the flange the TB mounts on, and weld in an extra section to extend it a bit, maybe an inch and a half. I think that would move the TB enough to not interfere with the condenser, but the throttle cable mounting might become an issue as the cable would no longer reach.

I totally forgot you live up this way, I'm in Amesbury visiting my aunt this weekend. Quite the hot weather you guys are having here - AC would've definitely been a bonus!!!

Oh, and I've replaced the engine-driven fan and clutch in my S4 with a Derale 2-speed 14 inch electric fan. So far my AC is ice cold and coolant temps stay under the threshold for the 2nd and 3rd aux fan speeds, even sitting in traffic in 100+ degree Texas heat. I ditched the oil-to-water heat exchanger for a sandwich plate and 25-row oil cooler, so I'm sure that helps too. But with a serious electric fan like that, you should be able to adjust the orientation of your radiator to snug in the condensor. The built-in shroud is easily trimmed, and you get some latitude as to where you mount the fan on the radiator.

Thread title got yer attention, huh?

So I've been chasing a rattle when going over bumps for months now. It sounded like something outside/under the car, and oddly seemed to happen regardless of which wheel hit a bump. I've jacked the car up multiple times, checked *everything* underneath for tightness, removed the heatshield under the center driveshaft, all with no luck.

Well today I finally followed up on a hunch I've had for a while. Loosened the nut on the top of one of the front struts and surprise! found the nut underneath (the slotted one) loose about 3 turns. So I thinks I found my problem. In my defense, I will say that when I took the original (coilover) suspension off the car, I found exactly the same thing.

Anywho, this all leaves me with two questions. First, I've always had some doubts about whether there should be any washers or spacers or anything in there. Can anyone verify the way the attaching parts are supposed to go? Starting with the strut rod, I've got the spring seat, the mount, the slotted nut, the car, the piece that looks like a hat, and the locknut. No washers or any other hardware. Is that right?

And second, assuming I'm not actually missing any parts, are there any tricks to keeping those nuts from coming loose? I already took the fronts apart and put them back together with red loctite on the slotted nut and tightened it almost until I thought the tangs were going to break off the tool. But I haven't done the rears yet, and will redo the fronts if there's some other trick that works.

Edit: if it matters, struts are Boge turbo gas, mounts are stock (from GAP), and those items and the nuts were brand-new when I put the car back together about a year ago.

When I swapped suspensions in my car I thought that top nuts seemed a bit loose too.

Well folks, for the 187,000th time I have a question!

The screw that holds the ignition lock assembly to the steering column - it's some sort of tamperproof thing but I can't figure out what! The outside "star" part seems to match up well to a Torx T30, but the tamper-resistance pin seems too large... like it's meant for a T40.

Does anyone know specifically what tool is supposed to be used for this thing? :?

there are torx bits with holes in the middle specialty made fore "tamper resistant" bolts. I got my set at o Reilly's for around 8 bucks

That's the problem... I bought a set but none fit!

Interesting, I used a normal tamper proof t30 when I took out the one to ship the column to you.

I used a Dremel bit to cut a slot.

Eric

Hammer and cold chisel. Hit at angle to get loose, then modify after its out to use a flat screwdriver or use a different bolt that will work. Also works with any rounded allen or triple square for future fyi.

Perhaps an, oh, I dunno, T35?

Well just to close the loop on this, I ordered a different set of Torx bits that contained a T35. And... it didn't fit! But... the T30 bit from that set fit perfectly.

So the moral of this story is if you order a cheesy Chinese tool and it doesn't fit, order a different cheesy Chinese tool and maybe it will!

Major edit: anyone who looked here within the last couple of hours would have seen a photo of a turn signal not lining up correctly with my spiffy new Depo headlights. Well to make a long story short, they actually do line up correctly if you install them properly, and not a little sideways with one of the alignment tabs not in its slot!

Anywho, without further ado, the headlights:

They're nothing too exciting, but they fit well, look good, and function wonderfully!

Part of the wonderful functioning is that they're driven by relays. The Saab relay/fuse box I installed last year had all the provisions for headlight control + fusing in it, including a bulb-check relay (that monitors the high as well as the low beams - who knew?).

I got creative and even incorporated a DRL function into the setup. And unlike a lot of OEM DRL setups, this one only powers the lights when the engine's running - so the battery won't be drained if you leave the ignition on.

It almost looks like you're missing the lower spring tab on the amber light.

Depo clear corners are pretty cheap, $25/pr shipped on ebay.

And there's the edited post... LOL

Yup, I "r" quite the bonehead sometimes! I got a bit of a clue when the other side fit perfectly. 8)