2003 Audi TT 1.8t (180BHP) quattro

Good evening,

That looks lovely! I have also very recently bought in to mk1 TT ownership and bought a 225 roadster a few weeks ago. Scoff all you want but I haven't had a soft top car for years and just fancied one for a change from my usual comfort zone of Range Rovers and Jags. I took a long drive home a few nights ago with the roof down, nothing quite like it. I am really impressed with the quality of the interior, the design of which has aged very well. Like a few others have said I wouldn't have looked twice at these cars a few years ago but suddenly they look really good to me and the prices are very low right now. I was looking for a similar age Audi S3 but I would have had to pay twice what I paid for the TT for an S3 in the same condition and it seems to be essentially the same running gear.

Picture of mine:


I had a really strange collection of noises on mine when on the move, at all sorts of speeds, sometimes it sounded like a bad wheel bearing, then 2 bad wheel bearings, then a CV joint, then maybe the propshaft. I had a good look at it and a poke around underneath but couldn't find anything wrong mechanically. A few days later and as part of getting the car ready for winter I had a new full set of Goodyear all season tyres fitted and that cured all of the horrible noises and transformed the car. I took a look at the tyres that were removed, 11 year old SUNITRAC tyres that were hard as diamond!

It seems quite nice to work on so far although I haven't had to do much yet, I had to replace the aux. belt tensioner because it was noisy and it looks like the thermostat on mine is stuck open so I'll tend to that this weekend.

I've turned this in to a right old ramble. In summary, lovely car and hope you enjoy it!

Hahaha good shout on the excessive undertray fixings, they really didn't want that falling off did they. In terms of working on it I am coming to this car from 14 months of Citroen BX, which was the single most miserable car I've worked on - imagine an already fairly tight east west engine bay and then cram it full of miles of LHM pipe work all over the place, this TT is a dream by comparison!

I quite like these, I wasn't fussed when they first came out but after test driving a mk1 ABT tuned TT with the DTM kit - amazing little car. yours looks tidy

In between other weekend chores, I wanted to replace the engine oil on the TT today. How hard can it be? I got a Bosch filter and Shell oil from ECP, for a reasonable £46.



I started by taking the undertray off. Whilst it was dirty, there was no evidence of any significant oil staining. The underside of the engine also looked clean and dry. So far so good.





I removed the sump plug and allowed all the old engine oil to drain out. The oil filter is located to the front of the engine / behind the radiator. From the top, it is inaccessible. From the underside, it is visible but equally difficult to access. To make life easier, I removed a hefty bracing bar. To remove the bar, I had to dismantle some more plastic undertrays.





With access improved but far from ideal, I tried to remove the oil filter with my trusty old chain wrench. Having tried to twist the old filter off by attacking it from every possible angle, all I managed to do is deform it. The bloody thing wouldn't budge. I eventually gave up and popped over to my local ECP and bought a suitable removal tool.




With the correct tool to hand, the old filter came off in 10 seconds. Putting the new one back on was nice and easy. Well done ECP for supplying the correct part. It doesn't happen that often!




I cleaned up the undertray but I did not put it back as it's a fiddly job and all being well I will be taking the TT to my mechanic next week to have the cambelt replaced.




With the bonnet up, I checked the condition of the coolant (nice and pink, looks fresh) and there is no evidence of any leaks. Perhaps I've bought a good 'un? Shame that today's oil change had to take 4 hours.

I’m keeping my stock and don’t propose to drive it hard. Hopefully I won’t experience any engine blow ups.

Was it not worth replacing the head gasket?

"Shame today's oil change had to take 4 hours"....... Hah! Exactly! And you had to buy the oil filter tool too It's not just me then..... I can do it without removing that extra hunk of iron though. 3 times now.....

You smarter than me though because you are subbing out the cambelt and saving yourself at least a day long swearathon! Can't believe anyone would do it for £ 225! I wouldn't do it for twice that!

Nick

While you where doing the oil change, it would probably be worth changing over a new oil pick up pipe. The mileage/age on most of these TT's warrants it.

Bit of a weak area on these and worthwhile doing if its not been done as they pick up a lot of sludge and will kill the engine.

Hello again,

That seems a great price for a timing belt and water pump change, certainly cheap enough to let someone else have the fun of doing it.

I found a mouse had been using my cabin filter as a home, couldn't find the mouse but take a look at the mess it left:





Last week I have also replaced the thermostat because it was stuck open and the engine was running cool, not a bad job and can be done without removing the alternator if you ever have to do it. I did manage to break the dipstick tube though in my defence it appears to be a case of when rather than if it breaks, it was very very brittle.

Any other jobs planned for yours?

I think it's nice that you had a pet rodent in your car.

Hopefully no more jobs planned for the time being, nothing major anyway. My TT now has a new clutch, DMF, cambelt, alternator, battery, oil and filter, so hopefully it's ready for daily use duties. I have insured and taxed the TT, fun starts tomorrow.