Oh yeah, and I've got a mysterious case of disappearing oil. Still trying to track down the culprit...

 

Valve cover looks great! I have a spare in my shed that I'm planning on polishing but I've been too lazy to actually do it.

 

Thanks! Ship it to me and I'll blast it for ya.

 

Thanks, but shipping to and from the left coast would probably cost more than having it blasted here

 

Hey buddy. First of all I love your Audi. I had a metallic brown a4 1.8 non turbo non quattro was a 97. Recently sold it to buy a car wich uses less gas. I ended up buying a Benz buy now after 2 months and seeing ur thread im certain that im going to buy another b5.

 

Thanks! Hope you find a nice one.

Both my headlights and my fog lights went out the other day. I assumed it had to do with the switch, did some searching, and found the solution.

I've pulled the steering wheel off so many times now it doesn't take but a few minutes. I also found a way to skip a few unnecessary steps I was doing before.

Here you can see where the headlight switch contact was not being pushed up fully into position.





After popping the contacts out, I found the culprit. A bit of melted plastic was keeping the spring depressed.



A little work with a piece of sand paper got it all cleaned up. Fixed! Yay lights.

 

I swear that was the most poorly designed switch ever. Fixed it twice and then replaced it on my old B5 and I've already replaced it on the avant.

 

Really though. Next time I'm up at the junkyard I'll grab a spare assembly. I'm also considering putting a relay in for the fogs to reduce the current going through the switch.

 

Got some parts delivered today...

Blauparts enhanced timing belt kit + new serpentine belt tensioner, Blauparts valve cover gasket kit, Febi cam chain tensioner, and a bead blasted valve cover.

 

The tools I rented arrive tomorrow so I began the tear down tonight. Not so bad! I still had the most trouble getting the bumper off, it's no joke.

When I started to crank it to TDC it kept moving back...until I realized the car was still in gear. I hope I didn't bend anything...











What looks like a leaky intake cam seal to me.



Some buildup around the crank pulley. Although a portion of that is from where I scraped the block.





Ready for tomorrow!