Sorry but for what its worth why on earth would you try to 'bodge' a repair, put your hand in your pocket and buy the correct replacement part, I cant understand why people buy these cars and continually moan about the cost of OEM parts, if you cant afford them then maybe get another car?

No one said anything about bodge and you make yourself sound a bit stupid by saying so. The car was designed and built 20 years ago! In that time new things get created, there could very easily be something out there now that is far better than an OEM piece that was designed 20+ years ago. Also it is pretty well know that Audi often totally rip you off with replacement OEM parts with massive profit margins on some bits. I recently enquired about a pipe that come off the crankcase that I needed to replace, just a short plastic pipe, nothing special at all, they wanted £50 for it! All the other places like euro car parts and other places we get bits from, £10 - £15 same part, same make. £5 if you wanted to take the ebay route.
Or how about the thermostat, yes you go OEM from Audi for that really, but they do not even provide you with a new o-ring for it, if you want that it is another £2 please. £2 for an o-ring when you have just bought a part for £60+, they wont even throw in the o-ring... why do you think they have the nickname 'stealers'....

Not to mention that our TT's are not new, they are not worth £50k, they are often worth £2000, maybe £3000. So spending out £300 for a part that cost about £2 to make and is sold by everyone else for around £60, is just stupid. £300 would be more than 10% of the value of my car, for a pipe that Audi are taking the piss with.

 

No disrespect but you sound very unhappy about the cost it takes to maintain the car with the correct parts, so as I have previously mentioned if you cant afford it.......

 

Hi, jumping in a bit...... I've just ordered a pressure pipe from Audi, yes at the handsome price of approx. 315 quid.

In 'a different life' ran a Fiat Tipo when the H/P pipe burst. A little shocked by the oem price I had a pipe made up from braided/reinforced hose.

With the Audi, the pipe is pretty convoluted, and the fitment on the car tight enough to leave little room for manouvre ( only my opinion having spent yesterday morning getting the pipe off the car!)

With the cooling element in the design plus the 'tight' placement under the bonnet have chosen to go for oem and not last because of the work to remove (don't fancy s/h part failing anytime soon)

 

Hi, jumping in a bit...... I've just ordered a pressure pipe from Audi, yes at the handsome price of approx. 315 quid.

In 'a different life' ran a Fiat Tipo when the H/P pipe burst. A little shocked by the oem price I had a pipe made up from braided/reinforced hose.

With the Audi, the pipe is pretty convoluted, and the fitment on the car tight enough to leave little room for manouvre ( only my opinion having spent yesterday morning getting the pipe off the car!)

With the cooling element in the design plus the 'tight' placement under the bonnet have chosen to go for oem and not last because of the work to remove (don't fancy s/h part failing anytime soon)

????? it is easy to remove and to replace. You can get them for £70, exactly the same. Does it not occur to you people that a lot of the time parts come out of a factory and are sold to lots of different companies, including companies like Audi, who then slap an Audi sticker on it and mark the price up by 1000% for sale in places like the UK. Probably a lot less in somewhere like Croatia. The part will also be bought up by massive resale companies like parts-direct who will sell it direct for a lot less money. Then there are manufactures who will take the OEM, manufacture their own version out of just as good quality pipe, maybe sometimes better (Forge for example) and still sell it for less.

Sure you go to Audi for some parts, always good to check, just got a new gasket from them for less than I could get anywhere else, but you do not have to get every single bit OEM from Audi, especially when it is a fairly simple bit and their price totally takes the piss.

 

No disrespect but you sound very unhappy about the cost it takes to maintain the car with the correct parts, so as I have previously mentioned if you cant afford it.......

Oh dear, you have found me out.. Your are clearly a genius....

 

No disrespect but you sound very unhappy about the cost it takes to maintain the car with the correct parts, so as I have previously mentioned if you cant afford it.......

Oh dear, you have found me out.. Your are clearly a genius....

To be fair, a new OEM power steering cooler pipe probably costs less than your fancy caps... :lol:

You really don't want to remove the cooler.
It's only a length of metal pipe, so would be easy and cheap to fabricate a replacement if you can't stretch to the OEM part. It would cost considerably less than the short flexi pipe you linked to earlier..!!

 

No disrespect but you sound very unhappy about the cost it takes to maintain the car with the correct parts, so as I have previously mentioned if you cant afford it.......

Oh dear, you have found me out.. Your are clearly a genius....

To be fair, a new OEM power steering cooler pipe probably costs less than your fancy caps... :lol:

You really don't want to remove the cooler.
It's only a length of metal pipe, so would be easy and cheap to fabricate a replacement if you can't stretch to the OEM part. It would cost considerably less than the short flexi pipe you linked to earlier..!!

"You really don't want to remove the cooler." ???? Has to be removed to be replaced.
I can just buy one online for about £50 if i need one. If you buy it from Audi however it is gold plated!!!

 

Hi, jumping in a bit...... I've just ordered a pressure pipe from Audi, yes at the handsome price of approx. 315 quid.

In 'a different life' ran a Fiat Tipo when the H/P pipe burst. A little shocked by the oem price I had a pipe made up from braided/reinforced hose.

With the Audi, the pipe is pretty convoluted, and the fitment on the car tight enough to leave little room for manouvre ( only my opinion having spent yesterday morning getting the pipe off the car!)

With the cooling element in the design plus the 'tight' placement under the bonnet have chosen to go for oem and not last because of the work to remove (don't fancy s/h part failing anytime soon)

????? it is easy to remove and to replace. You can get them for £70, exactly the same. Does it not occur to you people that a lot of the time parts come out of a factory and are sold to lots of different companies, including companies like Audi, who then slap an Audi sticker on it and mark the price up by 1000% for sale in places like the UK. Probably a lot less in somewhere like Croatia. The part will also be bought up by massive resale companies like parts-direct who will sell it direct for a lot less money. Then there are manufactures who will take the OEM, manufacture their own version out of just as good quality pipe, maybe sometimes better (Forge for example) and still sell it for less.

Sure you go to Audi for some parts, always good to check, just got a new gasket from them for less than I could get anywhere else, but you do not have to get every single bit OEM from Audi, especially when it is a fairly simple bit and their price totally takes the piss.

Thanks for the advice re when/when not to go oem!

Accept that you're must be a better mechanic than I am (found the pipe removal a bit of a pain in the backside) but that's me!

 

"You really don't want to remove the cooler." ???? Has to be removed to be replaced.
I can just buy one online for about £50 if i need one. If you buy it from Audi however it is gold plated!!!

Your earlier recommendation was to replace it with a short rubber pipe...!! :lol:

 

"You really don't want to remove the cooler." ???? Has to be removed to be replaced.
I can just buy one online for about £50 if i need one. If you buy it from Audi however it is gold plated!!!

Your earlier recommendation was to replace it with a short rubber pipe...!! :lol:

Never recommended it. I mentioned it and asked what people were using as in maybe others had used such a hose. I also said I used one on my first TT quite some time ago when I was a TT newbie, pretty much a mechanic newbie also. It was actually suggested and installed by a mechanic. Have learnt a fair bit since then, seems you have to with a TT unless you have plenty of cash laying around.. As for that hose, must have had it on for 6 months at least before the car was sold, never had a problem with the steering.

Like it was pointed out though, if you can find that hose for sale on ebay or somewhere it costs just as much as an OEM style pipe anyway. So that is what I will buy if I do need one, not sure I do, just someone mentioned it was looking corroded when they were under the car trying to fish out a dropped bolt.

 

I'm replacing my power steering hose(s) with this

 

I'm replacing my power steering hose(s) with this

Guessing some kind of steering rack.. never seen one myself, so... what is it?
Is it some kind of upgrade/improvement?

 

I know that genuine parts from the dealers are expensive, but don't forget that they are not cheap to design and develop and put through a full test programme to make sure that they perform as required. It can cost thousands just to test a simple trim piece, much more for safety critical or regulatory parts such as steering or suspension.

Aftermarket parts can sometimes be made from similar material to nominally the same dimensions although not necessarily to the same tolerances, but they are unlikely to be tested in the same way as the genuine parts which is why they can be so much cheaper. Agreed, you can get parts which come from the same supplier as the genuine parts just with the Audi logo ground off, but these are not always exactly the same as you would buy from the dealers, I've found that out the hard way in the past.

 

I'm replacing my power steering hose(s) with this

Guessing some kind of steering rack.. never seen one myself, so... what is it?
Is it some kind of upgrade/improvement?

Electrically assisted power steering rack.

 

I looked into this a while ago
Someone on eBay was selling a short flexible pipe replacement.
As mentioned there is a cooling aspect
But the cooling aspect is designed to cover a lot of markets Audi sold the tt in
Which covers some a lot hotter than the uk
I figure in the uk we're generally a bit cooler so probably get away with it if you don't do a handling course on the hottest day of the year?
But a TPS lookie likely part was't too much money so I figured I go down that route?
My 2 cents!

 

Electrically assisted power steering column. This one is a Corsa C - pretty common conversion on rally cars, sports racers (Radicals I believe) and many others.

All power steering hoses and pump removed (almost done) apart from a small bit of pipework to keep the rack lubricated.

I'm replacing my power steering hose(s) with this

Guessing some kind of steering rack.. never seen one myself, so... what is it?
Is it some kind of upgrade/improvement?

Electrically assisted power steering rack.

 

I'm replacing my power steering hose(s) with this

Guessing some kind of steering rack.. never seen one myself, so... what is it?
Is it some kind of upgrade/improvement?

Electrically assisted power steering rack.

No fluid then? No cooling pipe needed?
I assume it must need some alterations to fit it as there is no power system designed to power it already in our TT's?

 

Electrically assisted power steering column. This one is a Corsa C - pretty common conversion on rally cars, sports racers (Radicals I believe) and many others.

All power steering hoses and pump removed (almost done) apart from a small bit of pipework to keep the rack lubricated.

Sounds great, beyond my skills though. What sort of money does this mod set you back?

 

It'll need new steering column brackets fabricating (but the dash bar is going anyway so something needed doing) , some fiddling with the lower half of the column and a bunch of electrical work.

Not too difficult when the car is stripped bare and not hugely expensive. The columns are about £40 and the adjustable controllers about £70 (or make your own). £10 for a bit of power cable and a large fuse. The cost is in the fabrication - I'll hopefully knock up the brackets and tack them on but get them welded by somebody better at welding than me!

 

So 600 - 800 then? How does the quick rack action work?
The ones in the punto failed.

 

So 600 - 800 then? How does the quick rack action work?
The ones in the punto failed.

I reckon about £250/£300 and that's with a new steering wheel / boss. The car will not be road going so I don't have to worry about steering column locks, indicator / wiper stalks etc..

The rack will operate as normal. I will probably fit two new (low pressure hoses) into a reservoir just to ensure the rack remains lubricated although filling it with oil and capping off the holes would probably be fine.

The Corsa B/C column is widely used (as well as the Renault EPAS columns) and not known to be problematic.

 

To add my 2p on this:
As I have done a lot of work on the car with new parts, most of the time Audi *is* overcharging from X2 to X10 compared to buying the same part, from the same manufacturer who makes it for Audi's behalf. And that includes any discounts I can get from Audi which are usually 15-20%

Examples:
Engine mount, made by Febi/Bilstein 60eur compared to 450eur from Audi
Oil level sensor, made by Hella 43eur compared to about 90eur from Audi
Aircon compressor, made by Sanden Japan, 210eur, Audi 500+

Parts from other manufacturers can be way cheaper but they are equivalent, not the same part. See below; its the same part made by Hella and the Audi/VW rings have been ground off.

My worst purchase was rear calipers (both) rebuild kit from Audi 38eur. The same part is made by TRW sold for 5eur. But the Audi part had a sachel of red brake specific lubricant and a paper telling to soak the rubbers for 30' :roll:

However these cars are getting expensive to maintain properly [smiley=book2.gif] . If someone can't handle or afford it, they should probably look for alternatives.

 

A new power steering pipe :lol:

 

Hi, jumping in a bit...... I've just ordered a pressure pipe from Audi, yes at the handsome price of approx. 315 quid.

In 'a different life' ran a Fiat Tipo when the H/P pipe burst. A little shocked by the oem price I had a pipe made up from braided/reinforced hose.

With the Audi, the pipe is pretty convoluted, and the fitment on the car tight enough to leave little room for manouvre ( only my opinion having spent yesterday morning getting the pipe off the car!)

With the cooling element in the design plus the 'tight' placement under the bonnet have chosen to go for oem and not last because of the work to remove (don't fancy s/h part failing anytime soon)

????? it is easy to remove and to replace. You can get them for £70, exactly the same. Does it not occur to you people that a lot of the time parts come out of a factory and are sold to lots of different companies, including companies like Audi, who then slap an Audi sticker on it and mark the price up by 1000% for sale in places like the UK. Probably a lot less in somewhere like Croatia. The part will also be bought up by massive resale companies like parts-direct who will sell it direct for a lot less money. Then there are manufactures who will take the OEM, manufacture their own version out of just as good quality pipe, maybe sometimes better (Forge for example) and still sell it for less.

Sure you go to Audi for some parts, always good to check, just got a new gasket from them for less than I could get anywhere else, but you do not have to get every single bit OEM from Audi, especially when it is a fairly simple bit and their price totally takes the piss.

Just a mention, your pipe you pictured and (possibly) thought the same pipe burst on my car are in fact entirely different patterns. Its(your) layout does look reasonably straightforward and I can see how an alternative length of flexi rubber hyd. hose would substitute. The '06 1.8 2wd is pretty much a different kettle of fish-but then again possibly those more adept might have little problem replacing even this !

 

This place is starting to look a lot like pistonheads. You used to be able to ask a question, get some good replies, and decide for yourself which route to go without getting critiscm for it.

If you wish to keep your car as Audi intended, fine. But don't sound off at those of us who wish to modify ours. For whatever reason.

For me, the original pipe was a compromise by audi. Why go to the length of running a cooling pipe all the way round the front of the engine bay, only to pass it up beside the exhaust manifold and heat the oil again? Something was compromised during the design process. So I came up with my own compromise that cost a fraction of what audi want, and is a better compromise as far as I'm concerned.