Dennis Moeller
Registered User
God, yesterday was a really bad bad day for my S3...and for me!
Story;
Attended a track day yesterday and had a real blast driving all day long.
The weather was very bery hot so I was careful to let the car car cool down properly (driving two laps after each run at moderate pace nursing the brakes while allowing air to cool the engine). I never drove more than 3-4 hot laps. While in the pit I would let the engine run for 2-3 min in addition to the cool down laps. My newly installed FMIC really showed it's value as it provided enough cool air all day long so the engine never suffered from heatsoak even though it was 30 degrees. The outlet pipe after each run was cooler than cool while the inlet pipe were too hot to touch. Even though I was satisfied with the Billy's n all the other stuff I've installed it became clear that I nedd to upgrade the sway bars. Even stiffer at the rear and of course a new at the front (still OE). And buy slick tires...
OK back to reality. Drove home and was cruising in 6th gir at 3K rpm, suddenly the engine gave a small judder, a faint "puff" and just died. Luckily I was on a straight piece of highway when it happened, otherwise it would have been catastrophic as the steering went REALLY heavy. I came to a stop just letting the speed go down witouth breaking and I tried to turn the engine but just a faint whining noise was to hear. So hazard lights on, out with the triangle, call my buddies who were miles ahead and light a smoke. Thousands of thoughts running through my mind - I was gutted!
Buddies came and we opened the cam belt cover. Belt looked fine. But when we engaged first gear and pushed the car backwards so that the engine would turn over, nothing moved. The cam belt just stood still.
I have a theory that the mechanic who did the job 5 months ago didn't replace ALL parts, used wrong pressure when installin bits and bobs or a production error on some of the parts...
Any ideas what happened...?
Story;
Attended a track day yesterday and had a real blast driving all day long.
The weather was very bery hot so I was careful to let the car car cool down properly (driving two laps after each run at moderate pace nursing the brakes while allowing air to cool the engine). I never drove more than 3-4 hot laps. While in the pit I would let the engine run for 2-3 min in addition to the cool down laps. My newly installed FMIC really showed it's value as it provided enough cool air all day long so the engine never suffered from heatsoak even though it was 30 degrees. The outlet pipe after each run was cooler than cool while the inlet pipe were too hot to touch. Even though I was satisfied with the Billy's n all the other stuff I've installed it became clear that I nedd to upgrade the sway bars. Even stiffer at the rear and of course a new at the front (still OE). And buy slick tires...
OK back to reality. Drove home and was cruising in 6th gir at 3K rpm, suddenly the engine gave a small judder, a faint "puff" and just died. Luckily I was on a straight piece of highway when it happened, otherwise it would have been catastrophic as the steering went REALLY heavy. I came to a stop just letting the speed go down witouth breaking and I tried to turn the engine but just a faint whining noise was to hear. So hazard lights on, out with the triangle, call my buddies who were miles ahead and light a smoke. Thousands of thoughts running through my mind - I was gutted!
Buddies came and we opened the cam belt cover. Belt looked fine. But when we engaged first gear and pushed the car backwards so that the engine would turn over, nothing moved. The cam belt just stood still.
I have a theory that the mechanic who did the job 5 months ago didn't replace ALL parts, used wrong pressure when installin bits and bobs or a production error on some of the parts...
Any ideas what happened...?
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