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The plastic housing must move, no way around it, even if you leave the clasps in place, you need about 1 inch of movement to access the last nut, and that would allow, hopefully, the ability to remove the wire and access the plug.
The only reason I attempted to access the inside of the plastic housing was to gain even a small amount of wiggle room by moving the ECU wires up over it, so I could get to the last bolt from beneath. But damn, the wires run on the bottom and the top, and they are tight, so even undoing the tabs earns you almost nothing. That plastic housing must come off, no way around it.
If I designed this, I would have left the wires in the housing, but allowed access to remove the ECU wires from the ECU and their source so the entire pony tail could come out and the work could be done easily. This is an unnecessary inconvenience. It's as if they built the entire engine and just ran the wires afterwards, like there was no schematic, must bolt everything down.
BTW, that material you see surrounding the bottom part below and around the plug area, not the plastic housing which is denoted with the tabs, is all high temperature foam, and I can tell you this much, it's not going to last forever. It Is actually form fitted to allow a couple of hoses and lines to run inside of a channel. Very odd to use such material.
Last edited by SilverSteel; Jul 20, 2023 at 07:08 PM.
This begs the question: If you take the car to the dealership and/or indie mechanic to do this job, what are the chances they will carefully re-wrap and zip tie and arrange the wiring back into proper place?
This begs the question: If you take the car to the dealership and/or indie mechanic to do this job, what are the chances they will carefully re-wrap and zip tie and arrange the wiring back into proper place?
Isn't that what the $1800 gets you? A couple of neatly positioned zip ties.
Isn't that what the $1800 gets you? A couple of neatly positioned zip ties.
Based on my experience with dealerships (admittedly only in the context of warranty work) that $1800 will get you a bunch of broken clips and loose wires dangling around freely until they are melted by the heat coming off the turbos
The placement and insulation either on or between the wires and heat generating components is definitively present--nothing was left to chance. Nothing. And given the heat that comes off the turbo exhaust area after only two minutes, shocked me.
If I can determine how to move that Mother ECU cable, the rest, at least on the driver's side, should go according to plan.
BTW, that material you see surrounding the bottom part below and around the plug area, not the plastic housing which is denoted with the tabs, is all high temperature foam, and I can tell you this much, it's not going to last forever. It Is actually form fitted to allow a couple of hoses and lines to run inside of a channel. Very odd to use such material.
On the engine? I don't think so. It's about 3/4 inches thick in some areas. I'll ask the Porsche Tech today and get his thoughts on the ECU cable and the foam. Why haven't they used it on other engines, like the 6, or previous models? Odd. With the hood open, the engine is not loud at all.
Last edited by SilverSteel; Jul 21, 2023 at 11:28 AM.
On the engine? I don't think so. It's about 3/4 inches thick in some areas. I'll ask the Porsche Tech today and get his thoughts on the ECU cable and the foam. Why haven't they used it on other engines, like the 6, or previous models? Odd. With the hood open, the engine is not loud at all.
Yes on the engine. Cam covers are significant sources of vibration emission. Especially on the EA839 and EA825 because the cam and its bearings are held in the cam “cover”. Better name would be cam carrier. The outermost engine component visible from the top, known on most engines as the cam cover.
Audi in the 90s pioneered quiet diesels and one action taken was to blanket the engine in sound insulative material.
Italians are as bad as the Germans and locating service items under everything. The engine was incredibly easy to access, though. The belts and hoses could be accessed behind the passenger and driver's seat through a not so obvious panel door.
Last edited by SilverSteel; Jul 21, 2023 at 07:37 PM.
The placement and insulation either on or between the wires and heat generating components is definitively present--nothing was left to chance. Nothing. And given the heat that comes off the turbo exhaust area after only two minutes, shocked me.
If I can determine how to move that Mother ECU cable, the rest, at least on the driver's side, should go according to plan.
Following as I may have to tackle this job soon and tried looking for service manuals but did not come across any. Still trying to figure out how to approach this engine. My previous car, B9 RS5, was tight but definitely doable.
I took several picture from various angles, and am coming to the conclusion that there are additional zip-ties in the back that are largely the problem, in addition, all of the plugs must be removed that come off the ECU mother cable. I think there are about 5 or 6, aside from the coil pack wires, which will also need to be removed obviously, but in order to move the plastic piece, after removing those nuts, the coil packs must be unplugged.
I took several picture from various angles, and am coming to the conclusion that there are additional zip-ties in the back that are largely the problem, in addition, all of the plugs must be removed that come off the ECU mother cable. I think there are about 5 or 6, aside from the coil pack wires, which will also need to be removed obviously, but in order to move the plastic piece, after removing those nuts, the coil packs must be unplugged.
Thanks for doing so much work investigating the steps. I managed to find workshop manual for audi c8 rs6 which uses the same engine. Apparently, manual does list of whole bunch of sensors that one needs to disconnect.
Last edited by Stephen Shi; Sep 28, 2023 at 11:23 PM.
Reason: made mistake in stating the need of removing eco
These engineers really makes it way too complicated to do so simple job. They should be the ones changing the plugs for us and see how they overcomplicate things.
