What a sh1t show with this car!?!! So the hood release cable broke on the hood side. You can get one release and then it needs to be reseated or you end up with 2’ of 3/8” ratchet extensions, a floor jack, and pent up aggression to get it open. I have one ordered, BTW.
So, the oil coolant sensor off the side of the head failed. I grab the one from my GLI to stick in. Remove the coolant reservoir cap before removing the sensor because it was still a little warm. Replace sensor, adjust cable end, and off I go 15 miles to Samsclub. I get there and hear whistling from the engine bay then realize I never put the cap back on. So while I shop, it cools. Swing through Walmart right there for some distilled water since my coolant is at home. It takes a gallon with me burping the upper rad hose. Slam hood and take off only getting about 10 miles of 15 when the coolant low light starts chiming. Pull over and can’t open the hood. …….. Take it home anyway but still had heat so it was circulating, just low. Jack up, pop hood, go ahead and drain water then refill with coolant. FFS, man. Newish platforms for old vehicles suck at first.
Now the radio stopped working and VagCom doesn’t see it. Fuses are all good, too. I made sure of that.
Exhaust leak has exacerbated. So I go to check the torque with 25ft/lbs and 2 nuts/bolt ends snap off. I used the allen head bolts that were in the GLI head but for whatever reason the counter sunk portion decided to snap off. So looks like I’ll be pulling the turbo mani again and installing the longer Audi studs anyway. FML. Can’t win for losing but this would explain the random rich and/or lean codes. Also I’ll open up the tiny port on the rear o2 extension to see if that solves that random heating code. If I can get the Lemmiwinks to run through a USB dongle I’ll drop the warmup enrichment, up the idle RPMs 200 or so, and may as well raise that speed limiter while I’m there. My 1999 Dell with a 9 pin serial port finally died on me.
