D3 A8/S8 horn replace--fishmouth and no front end service position hassles
07-09-2015, 07:19 PM
#1
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D3 A8/S8 horn replace--fishmouth and no front end service position hassles
I noticed last month my low horn had completely died when I went to use it a time or two during a 250 mile tow. Since I was in the middle of no where often, I tried it and found the mid (high) horn would also crap out after brief use.
Got some replacements but as usual with the fish mouth cars I have to deal with how to get practical access to the area in front of the radiator and behind grill issue. You can pull the upper grill on a pre fish mouth I guess (like my prior C5 A6 4.2), but not a W12 or other fishmouth.
Bentley basically says, step 1 pull bumper cover, service position blah blah blah. Nope, not happening. Owned my C5 for 14 years and never did it once, including full timing belt and belt drive changes (with the prior extra clutch fan no less!) and a cylinder head pull. Ditto on W12 so far in any service, including when I changed the outside temp sensor.
So, like temp sensor, I first looked inside grill slats. Yep, can see horns, but zero access. Pulled fog light grills. Nope can't reach there, let alone get tools in. So, like temp sensor pulled top trim and pried open the space. This time I came prepared with the shade tree 2" blocks of wood--finely finished to size with a hand ax...--and got them in. The grill area plastics are flexible enough to take the stressing. Nothing cracked or tore.
Presto, space opened up. It was tight but do-able with my hands-- XL man's glove sized. Picture 1 shows general blocks in place to open space, and picture 2 shows one of the horns and also the outside temp sensor. Another chance to do a blind release on the Audi connector---push in first as usual. Got a small 10mm typical Craftsman box end wrench in there and got the one retaining nut off for each horn. Blind reach and need to be good/experienced/lucky at not dropping nuts and also starting them blind on threads in those situations.
Total work time, maybe just over an hour. I was actually in the front area more for water pump and hose reasons--the bigger task I will post soon. The horn replace was an add on job while waiting for parts/tools of various sorts on water pump job.
Got some replacements but as usual with the fish mouth cars I have to deal with how to get practical access to the area in front of the radiator and behind grill issue. You can pull the upper grill on a pre fish mouth I guess (like my prior C5 A6 4.2), but not a W12 or other fishmouth.
Bentley basically says, step 1 pull bumper cover, service position blah blah blah. Nope, not happening. Owned my C5 for 14 years and never did it once, including full timing belt and belt drive changes (with the prior extra clutch fan no less!) and a cylinder head pull. Ditto on W12 so far in any service, including when I changed the outside temp sensor.
So, like temp sensor, I first looked inside grill slats. Yep, can see horns, but zero access. Pulled fog light grills. Nope can't reach there, let alone get tools in. So, like temp sensor pulled top trim and pried open the space. This time I came prepared with the shade tree 2" blocks of wood--finely finished to size with a hand ax...--and got them in. The grill area plastics are flexible enough to take the stressing. Nothing cracked or tore.
Presto, space opened up. It was tight but do-able with my hands-- XL man's glove sized. Picture 1 shows general blocks in place to open space, and picture 2 shows one of the horns and also the outside temp sensor. Another chance to do a blind release on the Audi connector---push in first as usual. Got a small 10mm typical Craftsman box end wrench in there and got the one retaining nut off for each horn. Blind reach and need to be good/experienced/lucky at not dropping nuts and also starting them blind on threads in those situations.
Total work time, maybe just over an hour. I was actually in the front area more for water pump and hose reasons--the bigger task I will post soon. The horn replace was an add on job while waiting for parts/tools of various sorts on water pump job.
Last edited by MP4.2+6.0; 07-10-2015 at 08:05 AM.
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