Wheel alignment troubles

I had the car at a Mekonomen garage a couple of weeks ago for wheel alignment. It took them three visits and the same number of weeks to realize they didnt have the right tools to do the alignment on the Audi. Hmm, couldn't they have told me that when I first asked them? Anyway, I got the car back and a refund of all the money I payed. Good policy, Mekonomen!
So, today I left the car at an Audi garage. They had the right tools, but didn't manage to adjust the camber correctly on the front right wheel. It is off by more than a degree which, with my simple trigonometric calculations, corresponds to about a centimeter at the top of the suspension strut!

The camber should be between -0d15' and -0d55' (d means degrees and ' means minutes or degrees/60). The left weheel is -0d37' which is fine but the right wheel is +0d48' which is 1d3' off.

 

The guys at the garage could not really tell the reason for that, but a crooked suspension strut could cause that much misalignment. I told them I had changed the spindles to ones from a Skoda Fabia, but since the left wheel was OK that shouldn't be the cause, should it? They also told me there is noise from the right wheel bearing meaning it is about to get bad. Not enough to cause wheel misalignment but enough to make noice. Well, I have a pair of used wheel bearings in the Audi spindles ;-) I'll see if I get the energy to change them.

 

The garage managed to get the wheels better aligned then before and the car handles better, but I would like go get the alignment right. I'm afraid it will wear a lot of tires otherwise.

Maybe I can fit racing camber adjusters at the top suspension strut mounts? Maybe they are very expensive?

Brake success!

At last all the pieces came together!
I assembled all the brakes part a couple of days ago and bled the brakes once. My daughter pumped the brake pedal and I opened and closed all the bleed nipples. The first test run was a disappointment! The brakes enganged very far down near the floor. So today I bled the brakes onece again. This time my wife pumped the pedal. I also used a one-way valve and had my wife pump the pedal with more force. More air bubbles came out and on the test drive the brakes felt OK. The ABS seems too work as does the ESP. I didn't want to push the brakes to much since you are supposed to run-in the brakes carefully the first kilometers. The car steers to the right, but this is expected since I have changed the front spindles and also mucked around with the rear wheels. I will have to do a wheel alignment of both the rear and front wheels. Don't know if I can do that myself or if I need a mechanic to do it for me.

It feels great to get the breakes together after two months of work!

Here are some pictures!

The front brakes...

... and with the wheel mounted.

The rear wheel

Detail from the rear brakes. Note the 1mm shim between the brake carrier and the adapter plate and the stuck wrech in the back ;-)

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A snowy A2 after the first succesful test drive

The next step will be to try to fit handbrake cables. Next year...

The misfit

I got the adapter plates from the machine shop this week. I would be lying if I said they fit perfectly :-(
Somehow I must have mis-measured or mis drawn on my CAD drawing almost 2mm on the mounting holes for the stub axle bolts!

Anyway, with a good power drill, anything can be fixed :-)

The left rear wheel is now mounted, with adapter, stub axle, hub, rotor, caliper, and new brake line with a flexible hose in the end. It looks beutiful, doesn't it!

Left to do is the right rear wheel, of course and get new handbrake cables that will fit the brake calipers. The cables for the drum brakes did not fit at all. I am hoping that Biltemas cheap (SEK 129, EUR 15) cables for Audi A3 and VW Golf among others will fit.

I had hoped I would get the car running this weekend. I had all the parts (at least I thought so) and I had the time. Well, it seems like the calipers from the Skoda Fabia which fit the spindles from the Skoda Fabia, which fit the Audi A2 beutifully, maybe aren't from a Skoda Fabia at all. At least did the brake pads for the Fabias C54-II brakes not fit at all. After a lot of trial and error on the Internet with different brake systems for VAG cars I now believe that the brakes are FN 3 from VW Golf V 2005 and later. Maybe they used those brake systems on Fabia and did not include that in the workshop manuals or the scrap yard sent me the wrong parts again. Anyway, since the brakes fit great and I have now found pads form them I will keep them. I'll just change the pads and the mounting kit.
This is what the front looks like with new rotors.

I compared the old and the new brakes. The old rotors weighs 4.9 kg and the new 7.2. Quite a difference! The calipers are also much bigger.

The new rotor to the left and the old to the right

Left: new caliper. Right: old

Ups and downs and poor suppliers

Today I had some ups and some downs.
I got the used calipers for Skoda Fabia from a scrap yard today. It tuns out one of the calipers won't fit the Fabia spindles. That one didn't have a tag so I guess the whole caliper might come from a different VAG car. Just to send it back...

The two calipers. Note the huge difference in distance between the mounting holes. The one on the right fits, the left one does not.

I also started taking off the right spindle without luck. First the screw for the rotor broke so I will have to get a screw remover for it. Next the steering joint came loose before I had unscrewed the nut and the female torx fitting in the bolt went round so it all goes round and round. Ahhhh! I will try to unscrew the nut with a impact wrench or just cut through the nut with an angle grinder.
I haven't got the rotors delivered yet so I can't assemble the whole thing, but I test mounted the one caliper that was right and checked the clearance to the rim. About 7mm! I won't have to buy new rims. Great!

7mm clearance between the caliper and the rim

Finally I test mounted the rear disc brakes, stub axle, wheel hub and rotor on the car and it looks great! This is still with the wooden adapter mockup, I will try to find someone to machine me an adapter in steel next week. Get new break lines with rubber hoses next to the calipers and new handbrake cables and that should be it!

The rear disc brakes assembled. Note the old drum brakes to the left and the old drum on the floor!

Wood is good!

This weekend was more thinking and drawing than building. I designed a caliper adapter plate for the rear brakes and made a mockup in wood. The mockup made me realize that I had measured 7mm wrong. Wood is good!
Later this week I will try to find someone who can manufacture the adapter in steel for me. When I get the steel adapters I will know for sure if I have measured everything right.

The wooden caliper holder adapter mockup mouted on the stub axle together with the wheel hub, brake rotor, caliper holder and caliper

Progress!

At last some progress!
The Skoda Fabia spindles fit perfectly on the A2! Including suspension strut, drive shaft, steering knuckle, spindle joint and ABS sensor. Now I'm going to return the extra A2 spindles and Golf caliper holders I ordered and insted get some calipers and brake discs for these spindles.

The Skoda spindle mounted in th A2. Note that there are no caliper holders. They will be bolted onto the spindle.

Fits great!

Yet another dust bite

I tried my Plan C for front brakes this weekend. It wasn't at all like I imagined it would be. It turns out that in order to fit brake caliper holders on to the wheel spindle of the A2 some serious welding of the spindles is required. My contact at SFRO advice me not to weld in these parts of the car. In order to pass approval I would then have to perform and document weld tests with the spindle and do strength tests of the test welds. Naa, maybe not my cup of tea.

The spindle to the right and the caliper holder in my hand

Instead I turn to plan D!
So, what is plan D?
My friend Björn at the Audi A2 EV Facebook Group showed me a forum where people discuss upgrading the brakes on their A2:s to larger discs. In turns out there is another chassis component used in some VW Polos, Seat Ibizas and others.
I managed to find the same spindle from a Skoda Fabia so my new plan D is to use the spindles from a 2004 Skoda Fabia and the orignial caliper holders, discs and calipers from it. Wish me luck!

I did some dismantling of the rear wheel in order to measure for the adapter plate for the rear disc plates. I will probably do a mockup in wood first. It's tricky to measure right in 3D!

The stub axle between the old drum brake pads and the rear axle behind (just in front of the spring). Between the rear axle and and stub axle is where the adapter plate goes.

Below are som skethes of the original drum brakes and the planned convertion to disc brakes

Swedish to English translation

bakaxel = rear axle

axeltapp = stub axle

nav med hjullager = hub with wheel bearing

bromstrumma = brake drum

adapterplatta = adapter plate

okhållare = caliper holder

bromsskiva = brake disc (rotor)