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Since I think these are everyone's favorite posts I thought I would save this until today. I bought my car off of Ebay last August. Long story short it was very misrepresented. However I felt the bones of the car were strong. My mechanic estimated that it had probably been in storage 5 to 10 years. Needless to say this has been a process. Just the short list of what we have done is the following:
rebuilt the top end. new vacuum hoses and fuel lines. transmission service. new battery. new brake pads and rotors. new tires. all fluids changed. The list is much longer but these are the items that come to mind. I could go through the many receipts from roger for a more exact list. I have spent the last three days detailing the car. Compound, polishing, sealing, and waxing the paint. Cleaning and treating the interior. The car has come a long way. Tonight I spent my first night driving around and it was a real joy. There are just a couple of items left to check off the list. Any direction would be appreciated as I can't seem to find any working links. Mainly I can't tell if my central locking is working. I seem to be arbitrarily setting off an alarm every now and then that I have no idea how to shut off.
Also the console and interior lights. Only a couple of the switches are illuminated. I need to know how to change the bulbs in the instrument cluster and the control ***** for the A/C. I especially want to thank Roger but also Sean and other members of this board who have been so helpful.
Very nice! Thank you for posting your car's metamorphosis. I also recently purchased an S4 that would required a long check list to be done. It really helps to know that there is often light at the end of the tunnel.
Dwayne's Garage Page has a very informative section on instrument panel R&R and also HVAC **** and such. Check it out. It's priceless.
Let's say "great save!" Very nice car now! Congrats!!
What I don't understand about so many of these cars used for sale is that they might have relatively low miles but they look awful. How doest that work?
I'd suggest not reviewing the receipts and totalling up the cost, unless you really want to know. Somethings are better left unknown.
Dwayne's writeups on Pod removal and Odo gear replacement will cover the light bulb replacement too. Nicely done, lots of pics, easy to follow.
Central locking is pretty simple to figure out if it's working or not. If you unlock a door (either one) does the other unlock too? Same with locking. There's a button on the dash that will lock/unlock the doors too. What happens when you push it? Actually diagnosing and fixing it is a different game.
The alarm is switched with the lock cylinders (all three - hatch & both doors). Turning to "lock" arms it, turning to "unlock" disarms. Hatch is left to arm (does nothing to the hatch), right to disarm (opens hatch). If the alarm is armed, opening a door, the hatch or the hood will set it off. There's a couple pretty good writeups on the switch that is in the lock cylinder & how to sort it out.
This one is more about re-keying the lock, but has some good stuff on the alarm switch:
05-24-2015, 12:45 AM
before and after
