The Project Pad

Staleale was the previous owner.. I persuaded him to let me come down, sleep on his couch, feed me boca burgers and sell me the car

Very excited.. have a lot of plans for it

I also picked up the largest, most well constructed roof box for $100 off craigslist.. I swear it weighs 100lbs.. and fits an entire black interior in it, minus the seats

Im driving back to portland later today via tahoe and crater lake.. pics to follow!

Epic audi road trips ftw!! Nice buy and have a fun drive!

Awesome! Looks like a clean one. Looking forward for more details. When you don't have an avant, but you want to do avant things you get a roof box for your sedan lol

You bought Mikes 200? Nice. Wondered if he'd ever sell it.
Those interior bits came out of my old parts car.

Oh nice. Not sure if I'll convert to black.

Another night on the road. Love the car so far.. Coming up with a small list of problems to fix, but it is a typ44..

Hiked up to about 10,000ft elevation.. we hit a zone that had some pretty serious slope and we had to stop. This group had ples, crampons and the works.. You can see the slope in this photo










This was taken yesterday

Driggs in the house! Glad to have you in the 20vt fold, kind sir.

Just got home. The car did lovely.

Averaged about 22mpg

Sadly I didnt have full boost, no ac, rough occasional low idle issues, false overheating warning, and no coolant gauge temp. Luckily that mostly all indicates a failed MFTS.

Stopped at my local euro place and picked one up today. Will install it tonight or tomorrow.

After I got home, i replaced the dash speakers with some nicer pioneer ones, installed a gamma deck i had reconditioned, and plugged it in! Now i have 6 fully working speakers. Looks way better than the delta.

Heres some pics from the trip. And one of the stereo too.

Oh, and I installed the v8 rear arm rest that has storage and cup holders.. yay!

And my neverending, current list of things to do
-install mfts
-flush system and put in new coolant
-if mfts doesnt fix ac, fix ac
-loosen all dash and console screws and get the alignment on everything perfect
-finish 3m carbon fiber trim wrap (i really like the one the PO used)
-install rear v8 heated seat controls and wiring
-remove power steering pump and tighten/install intake mani bolts
-remove/rebuild/install power steering rack
-a4 front brake upgrade/throw away ufo's
-swap headlights from my 5k
-swap front end trim from my 5k
-get spare v8 pearl front doors from local yard(if theyre the same.. my doors have some damage on the lower sections)
-remove, polish, reinstall and adjust rear v8 lamps
-install rear muffler (cant take that damn straight pipe! )
-install v8 rear window shade and clips
-replace bulbs in switches

Dang, really nice. It looks like we can learn from eachother on these things. Let me know how the mfts install goes as I'll probably have to do the same thing. With your attention to detail this will be one nice 20vt

Man, this 200 looks fantastic! Great scenery, too!

Was the V8 window shade an option, or does it come on certain years? I need one

In any case, your goals seem very similar to mine, though you'll probably get it done much faster. I'm looking forward to seeing your progress.

Aktapod wrote:Man, this 200 looks fantastic! Great scenery, too!

Was the V8 window shade an option, or does it come on certain years? I need one

In any case, your goals seem very similar to mine, though you'll probably get it done much faster. I'm looking forward to seeing your progress.

My local yard had 3 v8's and all three had shades. So I think its stock.
Probably easiest to pull the whole shelf instead of cutting the 200 shelf. But I didn't have time at the yard

Welp I swapped in the new MFTS and also flushed out the old green coolant :nonod::yikes::razz::cryin:

The MFTS didnt help the problem :(

Unplugged the connector for it, went for a drive and I had AC, so something is up.

Will check the wiring later tonight or tomorrow.

Driggs wrote:My local yard had 3 v8's and all three had shades. So I think its stock.
Probably easiest to pull the whole shelf instead of cutting the 200 shelf. But I didn't have time at the yard

Huh! Our V8 doesn't have one :(

Well i have three shades, and only need one

Another day, another type 44 experience

Took the cluster out, promptly found a bad solder joint which is the pin for the coolant gauge.. huzzah!

Whipped out the solder iron, fixed it and before reinstalling the cluster, I noticed the airbag, cel and open door lights were all missing.. replaced those, installed cluster, started car, and the gauge is now working (albeit doesnt seem like full range, ill diagnose more later by grounding the mfts coolant gauge terminal), but of course the cel is on.. and the auto check no longer works.

Guess ill rip the cluster back out tomorrow.

Irritated that the floor lights dont work, so i replaced the pass side bulb and when i got to the drivers side, the power wire connector is mia. looks like the wire was cut back. Ill have to wire in a new piece which I have.

You give and then you take with these cars.. one step forward, one step back.

Nice work. It sure seems that this one is in good hands. That's what we need! The more T44s with good stewards, the better. Yeah they all have problems, but if they're actually taken care of instead of ignored like many owners do, they will treat you well.

This thing has floor lights? Dang, I didnt know that.

Nice work. Keep it up with the photos and updates!!!

Cant believe you didnt know that.... lolz

Fixed the drivers side light today

Swapped the entire front end with my 5k front end (lights, stainless trim, grilles, etc), and replaced all missing screws i could find. What a nice change having lights that arent full of water and reflectors that are somewhat bright!

Grounded the coolant gauge terminal at the MFTS plug and the gauge didnt full peg.. it only went to about 3/4.. will pull the cluster back off and see if theres an adjustment screw maybe? Or perhaps I need a whole new gauge...

Installed the v8 trunk lid carpet.. missing two screws/tabs which I will do tomorrow.. what a difference it makes. would be nice to find a complete v8 carpet kit and the pill of the carpet is slightly different. And next time im at the yard, when I grab spare pearl v8 front doors i need to grab the struts they put on the rear trunk to offset the weight difference the carpet makes

every day, something little

Looking good Mike!!!! The front end looks a billion times better.

Took the 200 camping this weekend on the OR coast to get away from the heat we had in Portland

Fit a ton of gear, food, an inflatable kayak and a canoe on the roof. still had 4 seats available too.. i love the trunk space!



Hot as a bastard when I got back into Portland. AC blowing ICE COLD though!


Loaded 200 sedan with all my gear and me weighed in at 3950 pounds

That thing looks good! It's always good to see a car like this out and about

Another day, some other shit done

Went to my local yard, and to my horror they got rid of 2 of the 3 v8's :(

odd thing was the two they got rid of were newer to the yard then the other, and had way better parts.. ugh..

Still managed to grab some missing screws , spare door card mounting pieces and a set of v8 illuminated vent tracks so I can add them to mine. I was going to grab the whole vent assem but I am going going to use my own led solution, and I didnt like how much the yard was going to charge for the vents (12$ each).

Also converted my front interior lights to 6000k led's

And after using it for a month now, I am happy with the isimple fm modulator. When I was in the yard i noticed the v8 had a HUGE cubby behind the dash trim where the pass airbag went (or so i assume thats what it was). Once I was home I popped mine off and noticed an equally sized nice cubby hole.. hmm.. this will come in great in the future! but for now, I stowed my isimple device in there, ran the wires down the top of the glovebox and hooked it all back up. Enjoy

The 200's are funny like that! There's evidence that Audi thought about adding some things that should have been there for such an optioned-out car, but for some reason they held off. That compartment is exactly the same as the ones V8's use for the passenger airbags. And if you pull the blank plastic panel under the rear A/C vents, you'll find slots that fit individual rear seat heater controls, but instead they opted for the rather asinine system they have instead. Oh well, makes things easier to retrofit.

Good work, as always! I may take you up on that rear shade if you're still offering

Aktapod wrote:The 200's are funny like that! There's evidence that Audi thought about adding some things that should have been there for such an optioned-out car, but for some reason they held off. That compartment is exactly the same as the ones V8's use for the passenger airbags. And if you pull the blank plastic panel under the rear A/C vents, you'll find slots that fit individual rear seat heater controls, but instead they opted for the rather asinine system they have instead. Oh well, makes things easier to retrofit.

Good work, as always! I may take you up on that rear shade if you're still offering

I have two v8 rear heated seat control assems i will be putting in the car too.

another thing is the outside temp display from a c4 fits in the same location on the 200 (under the dummy warning lights under MFA. But audi decided to use the climate control computer.. but i have a c4 unit im going to retrofit.

and I have a grey shade, and a blue shade. both shades themselves are grey/black, but the housing is grey or blue. but can easily be painted whatever color you want.. and i have the clips for the c pillar

Havent HAD to do much, so thats a good thing right?

Few nights ago I had some free time to assess some potential issues and solutions to my lack of boost (not going above 1.3) and low idle driving issues.. When engaging the clutch, if I dont give a ton of gas, the car will buck. Makes slow driving and stop signs a real pain in the ass.

So first thing first, I ran the ECU output tests... Well i attempted to. I couldnt get the injectors to "open".. So I abandoned that, and went into the TPS.

First step was, it doesnt "click" when opening the throttle.. I removed the TPS and at some point in time, the plastic wedge in the tps had been worn down.. so the tps was actually slightly off in terms of alignment. After some assessing, I figured out that when the car was at 1/8 throttle, the TPS was telling the ECU it was around 3/8.. so the bucking was too much fuel dumping into the engine I imagine.

Took the TPS apart, fixed the idle switch, cleaned things up. Before I took it apart, I was only getting up to about 2600 ohms on the pot.. I know theyre supposed to get about 3600, so eventually I will get a new TPS.

Put everything back together and I cant believe what a new car it is.. Starts better, runs better, drives a million times better. Im having to learn how to drive it all over again!

Still not boosting past 1.4, but for now im happy.. Havent had much time to screw with things, and once I get some time ill do a pressure test to check for boost leaks.