11x10 - Audi TT

[bunniefuu]

This time on Wheel Of
Dealers, I go in search

of a concept car that
made it to the open road.

Oh lovely!

The Audi TT was a
designer's dream and a smash

success, but today you can
bag one for under three grand.

Trouble is, there's usually a reason.

Please tell me when I turn the
key over it's not going to fall apart.

It's a six speed gearbox, two of
them didn't show up for the party.

You've bought an Audi
TT with two gears missing.

I go looking for cars and Ed does his best
to turn them into something we can sell on,

hopefully for a profit.

Audi surprised everyone
back in 1998 by taking

a concept car straight into
production and selling it to the public.

TT had a radical body
and a designer interior,

making it the car a choice for
fashionable people everywhere.

With proven golf mechanicals
giving it bulletproof

reliability, optional
Quattro four wheel drive

and engine grunt up to 225bhp,
the TT had pace to match it's looks.

It's even had four seats, making it a more
practical choice than some of it's rivals.

Today there are bargains everywhere
and I think it's time we got in on the act.

So many TTs were sold that the second hand
market is absolutely flooded with them and

there's a great choice of cars out
there at bargain basement prices.

Trouble is even good early cars start at
just £3,000 and that does give me a problem

because I have to do
something really clever

if we're ever going to
earn a profit out of one.

There are plenty of cars selling at around
the £2,500 Mark but by the time we fixed

up a car like that it'll probably owe
us £3,000 and that means no profit.

I need to find something out of
the ordinary, something really cheap.

Now there is one car that's coming up
that might be just what I'm looking for.

It's the more powerful 225bhp Quattro.

It's in black, it's got the full
black leather interior, plenty

of kit but it's the price, just
£2,000 they're asking for it.

But rather worryingly
it does say it's missing

a couple of gears but
then I have got a very

good mechanic so maybe
I should give this one a call.

Hello mate, do you still
have the TT for sale?

Yes I do.

I'm going to cut straight
to the chase, it says

in the advert there's a
couple of gears missing.

What, you pull away in third gear
and you've got fourth, fifth and sixth?

What's it like, other than that?

Where exactly are you?

Cornwall?

Well listen, I'll ping you an email, get
your address and make arrangements.

Thanks a lot, bye bye.

Now it may seem a
little bit mad but that

could be the car for
us, so I'm heading west.


so let's hope it's worth it.

Well it's a gamble that's for sure but
I'm kind of hoping that a car with missing

gears will put off other punters and I
could end up walking away with a cheap TT.

There it is, look at that,
a little TT, very nice.

You Ed?

Yes I am.

Ed how are you doing,
I'm Mike, nice to meet you.

Nice to meet you.

So this is the one?

Yeah this is it, 2001
Audi TT Quattro version.

Lovely.



Do you know what,
it actually looks a lot

better sitting here than
it did in the pictures,

except for one thing, as soon as I turned
up I noticed that the headlamp here has

gone milky and it's gone
milky on this side as well.

Bit of a problem really,
it's nice and straight,

lovely, yeah very good down
the sides, original paintwork.

So how long you had it?

Not that long really.

I bought it off a friend, she had a few
problems with it, took it off her hands

just to ship it on quickly
really, make a few quid.

So what was the problem she had with it?

Obviously the gearbox.

Did you ever look at it
yourself to see what it was?

I didn't look at it, it would
engage first and second

gear but that's about it, it
was no drive out of them.

So you can put it in gear but
nothing comes out of the gearbox?

Yeah, pull away in third.

Can I have a look inside?

Yep, certainly, full
leather interior on it.

Oh yeah, look at that, that's a nice spec
car, it's got the leather, leather steering

wheel, got the cruise
control, big stereo in it as well.

Fully loaded really.

It is fully loaded, yeah it's very good.

What a shame though, there's
this problem with the gearbox.

Okay so you're saying the problem is when
you put it in first gear or second gear,

take your foot off the
clutch, there's nothing there?

No, no drive at all in first and second.

But you've got third, fourth,
fifth, sixth and reverse?

Yep, nothing wrong with those, worked fine.

Okay, 140,000 miles, electric windows.

Passenger one don't work.

It did work.

Well it doesn't work now.

Okay.

Can I start it up, can I
see what it sounds like?

Yep, certainly.

See that LCD screen there?

Yep.

There's some pixels missing.

That's a problem, that'll need replacing.

Okay.

That's another thing.

Please tell me when I turn the
key over it's not gonna fall apart.

No, certainly not, I'll run like a dream.

Now that is good.

Sounds nice, doesn't it?

That does sound right, actually.

Can I take it for a test drive?

Yes, take it away.

All right, lovely.

So you're saying just put it in third gear,

slip the clutch.

Off you go.

Come on, you can do it.

There you go.

That's indeed, I mean
it's a bit of a compromise

not having first or second
gear on the test drive.

You have to slip the clutch
to get it away in third gear.

But once you get this little TT
wound up, oh, it's a little flying machine.

That's what's good about these cars.

It's got a surprising turn of speed out
of a little 1.8 litre four cylinder engine.

This is the more sporty model.

This one's got 225 brake horsepower.

Now, if I had all the gears,

this car would get from 0 to 60

in around six and a half
seconds, which is pretty quick.

At the moment, I might
be doing anything like

that because I don't
want to break the clutch.

But I'll tell you what, it
feels good and sure-footed.

You can really feel that quattro four by
four system just kicking in and making sure

that this car feels absolutely
planted on the tarmac.

I'll tell you what, it may be a high miler,


feel like it from behind the steering wheel.

Feels like it's only done


Oh, and it feels quick.

Really quick.

Ha-ha!

Oh, I love that little noise you get from
the engine when the turbo winds itself up

and it makes this car get
down the road really quickly.

Very good, this car.

You know, I've loved these
ever since they were launched.

They are like a concept car
that's made it into production.

They look really good on the outside
and they feel really special on the inside.

Whoever went and bought
this car back in the day

really did tick the options
box because it's got everything.

It's got the nice big stereo,

leather upholstery, leather steering wheel.

Unfortunately now it's
showing signs of age.

We've got a few pixels
missing on the LCD screen.

The leather's looking a bit
beaten up, but you know what?

For someone like me, all of that is good.

because it means I've got an excuse

to negotiate the price down.

So the big question is, do I want this car?

Normally it's very difficult
to make a profit out of a TT,

but with this car, at
least there's a chance.

But it's a huge gamble
because of that broken gearbox.

But if I can fix it,

I can definitely see a
profit on the horizon.

Let's go back, see if I can get it cheaper.

That was a bit of a surprise, that car.

It was a challenge
driving it without first and

second gear, but once
this car does get up to speed

in third, fourth, fifth,
and sixth, it's great.

It just comes down to price.

How much do you want for the car?



Just too much money
for what is wrong with it.

And I really want to be cheeky with
you because this car is a huge gamble.

What about 1,000 pound?

No chance, not even close.

I know you can do better than that.

I'll give you 1,200 pound.

No, 1,700.



Yep.

I could be walking away from
this one and it doesn't matter if I do.

But I'll give you 1,500 pound for it.

What do you say?



Yeah, you'll get it off the driveway.

You can spend the money on something else.

Go on then.

Yes!

Cracking.

I just bought myself a TT.

I've just bought myself the
cheapest TT in the country.



Just goes to prove you can get
concept car looks for peanuts.

But then again, it was cheap for a reason.

You've bought an Audi
TT with two gears missing.

I know it's not a deal.

Margins are tight on TTs.

Can we fix the broken gearbox
without busting the budget?

The Audi TT has got to have the
best style to pound ratio of any car.

Oh, very nice.

Oh, lovely.

These things are still head turners,
but now they're as cheap as chips.

What do you say?



Go on then.

Yes.

Cracking.

I just bought myself a TT.

Trouble is, there's
very little profit in

them, unless you do
something really clever.

So I bought a car with two gears missing.

I mean, it's a bit of a compromise not having
first or second gear on the test drive,

but only ever will be able to
tell if that really was clever.





It just goes to prove you can
get concept car looks for peanuts.

And the car, it does
drive, engine wise at least,

as good as it looks.

It's just the fact that I've
got no first and second gear,

which makes slow driving
a little bit of a challenge.

But once you get this
turbocharged pocket rocket

up to speed, it really
gets its skates on.

It may look like a car for posers,

but actually underneath the dress,

this car goes really well.

So my plan for this car is pretty
much a straightforward one.

It's a high mileage car that's a bit rough
around the edges and all that can be fixed.

The big question Mark
has got to be this gearbox.

If I can fix it,

then I can definitely
see a potential profit.

If you can't,

then I may have just bought
a very stylish piece of junk.

Let's get it back to the workshop,

see what the big man thinks.

Ha ha, it's a very stylish TT.

Hey, how you doing?
I thought you'd like that.

It's not too bad. It was quite quiet.

It didn't exactly kind of roar up.

No, that's because I know
what neighbours are like

and want to keep it
nice and quiet, low-key.

Really? And there's nothing wrong with it?

Just take it in. It's a stylish Audi TT.

The first thing I've noticed already is
that the headlights are quite cloudy.

Again, you go right to
the negatives, don't you?

You're missing the positives.

But admittedly, when I see the car, I
went straight to the headlamps as well.

So they do need to do it.

But take it all in, Edward.

Especially this, the engine department.

Look at that.

Very tidy.

Nice little five-valve turbo engine.

Nice. Very good.

And this is the more fruity of
the two 1.8 flavors out there.

This is 225 brake horsepower,

coupled to that amazing
Quattro four-wheel drive system.

And even on sheeny wet roads
like this, it literally grabs the road.

It really is good.

That does sound good,
but so what's wrong with it?

Why has there always got to
be something wrong with it?

Look at the paintwork.

Nice and straight and black.

Yeah, it's quite a tidy outside.

Look at the interior.

Look at that.

But what's wrong with it?

Sit down.

You need to be sitting down.

It's that bad.

Nice.

In there is the six-speed gearbox.

Very cool, yep.

Two of them didn't show up for the party.

You've got an Audi TT
with two gears missing.

I know it's not a dual,
but don't worry about that,

because other than that, it drives alright.

Once you get it up to speed in third gear,

you can get it down the
road and it's really good.

So you've been driving around in
this car without first and second?

Yeah, I've been slipping the clutch,

but I'm an experienced driver.

So is the clutch any good anymore?

But I told you I'm an experienced driver.

Other than that, you have
to look at the positives.

Black leather interior,
base surround system,

it's got the leather steering wheel,

everything works except
for the passenger window.

Sorry, that's another little job to do.

And also you've got loads of
pixels missing on the screen, so nice.

Yeah, there's a few pixels missing on the
dash, but it's all fixable, isn't it, eh?

It's always fixable.

Yeah, come on, say, smile.

Well, you don't know
yet what I paid for it.

Okay.

It's a bargain.

How much of a bargain?

A real bargain.

So what did you pay for it?

£1500.

That is actually a really
good bargain, but of course it

also explains why the car
doesn't actually work mostly.

Yeah, but I know that it was so
cheap that if we get it right and

fix it up properly, we've got a
real chance of making a profit.

I suppose I've got almost zero
budget to actually fix it up in?

I wouldn't do that to
you, but if you can do it

for less than a grand,
that'd be really handy.

Okay, fine.

Let's get it in the workshop.

But nothing ever changes with you.

What do you mean nothing ever changes?

Think of the money, Ed, think of the money.

I never get to spend the money, do I?

No, because you're
trapped in here, but think of

the money anyway,
because, you know, I'll spend it.

Mike has managed to bag us this
TT for a bargain price, principally,

that doesn't actually
have first or second gear.

Now obviously I'm just
going to quickly fix that,

but it's much easier said
than done, particularly

on a car with a 4x4 system
as sophisticated as this.

Sometimes when you can't select gears,

it's the linkage between the
gearbox and the gear stick that's failed.

But if the linkage had snapped,

all the gears would have gone missing.

As it is, we're missing just two gears,

so the problem is likely to
be inside the gearbox itself.

As you'd expect, you've got your engine,

you've got your gearbox
to the side of that,

and then you can see you've got
the front wheel drive shaft there,

you've got a transfer box here,
and now I can just about see

the beginning of the prop
shaft just through there.

And if I follow that through,

it's above the exhaust here,

so it's really hard to get to.

You work all the way down here, you can
see it comes down to the rear differential,

and again you've got your
drive shaft coming off either side,

going to your rear wheels.

Now obviously it is quite a complex system,

very effective of course,

but now what I need to do is work out
how I'm going to fix our gearbox problem.

And the thing is,

this lot is going to have
to come out somehow.

The TT isn't a large car, but it's
absolutely packed with mechanicals,

including the turbocharged
intercooled 1.8 litre engine,

and the Quattro four wheel drive system.

So while removing the
gearbox isn't that hard,

getting to it means moving an
awful lot of stuff out of the way.

Right, the next big
chunk of work I have to do

is remove the front suspension subframe.

Now obviously that gives me
much better access to the gearbox,

but a couple of things
I have to worry about,

I've got the steering rack
attached to the top of this,

and I am going to undo it, but I'm going
to leave the steering rack in position.

I'm also going to leave in
position the suspension struts,

they're going to stay attached to the
top of the wings, which is wonderful,

but pretty much everything else is
either going to be undone or removed.

And if you were to get somebody professional,
if you like to take out the gearbox

and put it back in again for you, it's
probably going to cost you around £360.

Removing the subframe will
leave the engine with nothing

holding it in place, so I'm
fabricating a temporary support

to hang the engine from
while the subframe's out.

Now you can buy engine
supports in the shops,

they're just going to span the engine bay,

they sort of sit on the
flitch panels either side,

but actually sometimes it's just
nice to make something yourself.

With some careful measurement
and just a bit of welding,

I've saved myself the cost of
buying an off-the-shelf support.

All done.

I hook the support to
the engine's lifting point,

then I can remove the subframe.

drain the oil from the gearbox

and take off the drive shafts.

Now, annoyingly, there are quite
a few bits that have to be removed

just to get a bit more
access to the gearbox,

the turbo intercooler
pipe being one of them.

It does give me an
opportunity to have a look

inside and check the
condition of the turbos.

As you can see inside
there, it's all nice and clean.

If there was any sign of any oil at all,

then I'd be worried.

But actually, like the rest of
the car, it all seems rather good.

Next, because this is
a four-wheel drive car,

the transfer box needs to be
disconnected from the prop shaft.

And then removed from
the side of the gearbox.

Now, this is the main reason why it's much
harder to get a gearbox out of this car

than a conventional
two-wheel drive vehicle.

Basically, this device actually splits
the power coming from the gearbox.

You've got 50% of the
power going to the front axle,

and 50% goes to the prop shaft which
ultimately ends up at the back axle.

Finally, the engine and gearbox
can be lowered far enough

for me to be able to unbolt the
gearbox itself and completely remove it.

Well, that is a lot of faffing around just
to get a gearbox out, but here we are.

Now, obviously, we know
there's a problem with it.

Two gears are missing.

Now, I could fix that problem
just by replacing it with

a brand-new gearbox, but
that would cost about £4,000.

I could, of course, replace
it with a second-hand one.

Wouldn't know the history,

but that would only cost me £300.

But of course, Mike is always
concerned about his bottom line,

so perhaps the best thing
to do is actually just take

it apart and have a look
and see if I can fix it myself.

I'm certainly not a gearbox engineer,
and if I find something I can't deal with,

then there's a risk I'll
still have to cough up.

But if I can repair the gearbox myself,

we're going to end up
with a fully drivable TT.

that's still cheap, so wish me luck.

Now, while Ed tries to find the
missing gears in the TT gearbox,

I thought I'd grab the
instrument binnacle and try

and find the missing
pixels in the digital display.

So I've come to a company that specialises
in repairing broken instrument clusters,

let's see if they can help me.

This looks like the place.

Hello, how you doing?

Hi Mike.

Yes, your name is?

Alex.

Alex, nice to meet you.

This is what we spoke about on the phone,

the instrument binnacle out of my TT.

TT, OK, yep.

The screen in the middle,

some of the pixels have disappeared.

Not a problem, it's a very common issue.

Follow me, I'll take you to the workshop.

Wonderful.

Hi Ethan.

Hi, this is Mike.

Mike, this is Ethan.

Ethan, how you doing mate?

You alright?

He's a technician that'll be
working on your TT cluster today.

Ethan is the one where
the pixels have gone.

I'll leave you guys to it.

Thanks, Alex.

Cheers.

Alright, what's the first job then?

OK, the first thing I'm going to do is test
the unit and see what's actually foggy.

So you've got like a little wiring harness
that recreates the power from a car?

Yeah, just to power it on
and just have a quick look.

As you can see,

your LCD display is pixelated.

Yeah, loads of lines are missing
and that part will need replacing.

Straight in there, Ethan.

You've done a few of these, haven't you?

Yeah, it's quite a common
problem now, these TTs.

I always think, see, with cars,

the electrical thing is
probably the last thing to break,

but actually it's probably one of the
most precious things in the car, isn't it?

Definitely, definitely nowadays.

It's like having a PC in your car.

I've noticed you're
using these black gloves.

These are specially
formulated anti-static gloves.

So if I did walk across the carpet,

raise static in my body,

touch one of these components,

that's it, the instrument cluster's gone.

Seriously?

Yeah.

There's a lot of delicate parts.

As you can see, I've
just removed four gauges.

They need calibrating on the way back in.

You've also got glass LCD displays.

You've got a very delicate speaker.

Here you go, Mike.

That's your defective LCD screen.

We'll be desoldering that screen
out and putting in a new one.

Brilliant.

That looks delicate work.

Is there any binnacle.

that's a little bit harder
to do than any other?

There's a procedure and
step for every single one.

So as long as you follow the
steps correctly, you should be fine.

Just want to test the unit now
and make sure everything's okay.

We can put it all back together.

Fingers crossed.

Bingo.

Look at that.

That looks great, doesn't it?

It should now last the life of the vehicle.

Job done.

Audi won't repair this,

but they can sell me a replacement one.

Will cost over 700 pounds though.

But one trip here,

and it only costs 100 quid.

And you can't say fairer than that.

With a 225 brake horsepower turbo motor,

quattro four-wheel drive,

and a leather interior,

our Audi TT looks like a steal.

But with two gears still missing in action,

Ed's trying as hard as he
can to fix the fault himself.

Now, fixing your gearbox
isn't for the faint-hearted.

If he fails,

our stylish coupe might
be consigned to the

breaker's yard, along
with any chance of a profit.

Our Audi TT has a problem.

I've got no first and second gear,

which makes slow driving
a little bit of a challenge.

But with margins so tight,

we've got to do everything
we can to keep costs down.

The best thing to do is
actually just take it apart

and have a look and
see if I can fix it myself.

I've just got to hope what Ed
finds inside our broken gearbox

isn't going to k*ll our
chances of a profit.

Now, fixing your gearbox
isn't for the faint-hearted.

It's a specialist job that involves specialist
tools, which is why most of the time,

people would go for perhaps a
reconditioned box or even a brand-new one.

But on this occasion,

it'd be really great if we
could save some money.

So to that end,

I've undone a hard load of bolts

and removed couplings and things, and
we're now ready to split this thing in two.

This is the moment of
truth, because either I'm

about to find something
broken but fixable inside,

or I'm about to get on the phone to Mike

and ask him to find me
a replacement gearbox.

Now, the first thing I'm going to check.

is this little magnet down here
at the bottom of the gearbox.

The idea is this picks up
any kind of chunks of metal.

that might have actually come
off or been broken off the gears,

and there's almost nothing
on there, which is a good sign,

which means there's nothing too
serious actually wrong with the gearbox.

Now, a common problem I've
heard of with these gearboxes

is that one of the selector
forks just kind of breaks off.

It shears off where it's supposed to be,

and that would explain why
Mike could drive around without

first and second gear because
the other gears were working OK.

Now, it's a six-speed box with reverse.

You've got one, two,
three, four selector shafts.

You've basically got two gears on
each of the shafts plus the reverse,

and, of course, how you select
those is through this device here,

and, of course, that's operated
by this mechanism at the back.

Now, that is obviously what's
connected to our gear stick inside the car.

So, looking in along this shaft now,
you can see there's a selector fork there,

and then it looks like
there is one missing,

so I might have actually
already found the problem.

Let's just go and look at the other two.

So there's another fork
there, and then look at that.

That is nuts.

There is our missing selector fork.

So that should be up here.

Now, bear in mind, this is the top of
the gearbox, so it's somehow sheared off

and dropped all the way to
the bottom of the gearbox,

but it's just incredible that it hasn't
somehow got mashed into all the gears.

Can you imagine,
these things are spinning

around, they're
transmitting loads of force.

If this was to get inside
there like a mangle,

it would literally just
burst the gearbox asunder.

It'd be a real mess.

So, all I've got to work
out now is how to fix this.

The problem is going to
be re-attaching the fork.

I could buy a whole new selector shaft

with the new fork attached,

but changing the part would mean
stripping down the whole gearbox.

Now, just looking at how this actually
works, you've got this steel selector fork,

and that is attached to this
brass selector down here,

but it's got these two
little pins which locate it

in position, but it's
actually clamped into place,

just like that, by a steel rivet that
goes from one side through to the other.

But that's actually sheared off, and
you can see it's quite a clean break.

I could actually save quite
a bit of time and money

if I can actually re-attach
this back on to that selector

in situ, rather than
take the whole lot apart.

But obviously, before I can do that,

I'm going to need to remove
the last vestiges of that rivet.

That won't be easy without
removing the selector shaft,

but I've had an idea which
involves fabricating a special tool.

The idea is I can use that screw
there just to kind of drive out the rivet,

and it's going to get clamped
to our little brass selector there.

Otherwise, of course, there'll
be no force applied whatsoever.

I've got to be extremely careful

not to lose the end of the
rivet down into the gearbox,

so I'm using a magnet to
make sure that doesn't happen.

With the remains of the rivet safely
removed from the selector shaft,

all I need to do is tap out
the other end from the fork.

There is no way I could repair
this by putting in a new rivet.

I just haven't got the
space inside the gearbox.

But thankfully, there is a way I can
actually k*ll two birds with one stone,

and that is by using a
high-tensile bolt with a nylon nut.

And amazingly, even though
the nut and bolt cost just 50p,

they're actually stronger
than the rivet they're replacing.

Just make sure that's
super tight, and obviously,

the nylon in the nut
is actually going to

hold the bolt in position,
hopefully, forever.

So now, let's see if
we've got first and second.

That is fantastic, and effectively,
we're actually £4,000 better off.

Result.

Ed, you all right, son? All right, son.

How are you doing?

That was very stylish, but cheap German.

Do you know what? I still can't
believe we only give 1,500 quid for this.

Well, I still can't believe you bought
an Audi TT with two gears missing.

I gather it ain't going well, then.

No, it's actually going OK, but
just taking out a gearbox, fixing it,

popping it back in again
isn't exactly quick and easy.

So is it working now?

Well, the gearbox is going to work,
but it's just not back in the car yet.

Well, maybe I've got
something to cheer you up.

I sent you a little bit lower.
I've got you some presents.

So you say presents. Do you mean
just loads more work for me to do?

Presents. Works better for me. Fine.

OK, look, there's the dashboard binnacle.

I've had the LCD bit repaired.
Oh, that's cool. OK.

Ready to go back in the car. Nice.

And I spent £300 on those lovely headlamps.

They do look great, and
they're going to make such a

difference to the vehicles and
make it look much, much tidier.

All you've got to do is fit it all.

So our gearbox is now complete
and ready to go back into our TT.

But before I do that, it makes
sense to change the clutch,

because if I do it right
now, it's only going to cost

me the price of all the
parts, which is about £150.

If I was to put the gearbox back in the car

and get somebody else to do it later
at a main dealer, it's going to cost £800.

The first thing I need to
replace is the sl*ve cylinder,

which, in this case, is a
concentric design and fits around

the first motion shaft inside
the bell housing of the gearbox.

This part is just £33,

so it would be mad not to replace it now.

Next, I need to get under the car.

to remove the old clutch
cover and clutch plate.

Well, this is our worn clutch.

Obviously, we don't know
how long the car's been

driving around without the
benefit of first and second,

but we do know there's bound to
be a little bit of extra clutch wear,

particularly as Mike's just
been doing a test drive.

So just compare the
old one with the new one.

You can see there is a
reasonable amount of meat on there,

but clearly this one's much better.

Now, if you actually look
at the top of the rivets there,

on either side, you can
see how close they are

to the top surface of
the friction material.

But another telltale, you can
see on many clutches nowadays

they have these little
grooves all the way around,

and you can see that they've
actually worn away at the edges.

So you could also use
that as an indication.

Some steel locating
dowels need to be removed

from the old clutch cover and
tapped back into the flywheel.

And then I use my Emery cloth to
remove any glazing on the flywheel itself.

Now, as always, when fitting
your clutch back together again,

it is important you get
it in the right position.

You can see there's quite
a lot of margin for error

here, so you're just
weighing it up any old how.

When it comes to fit
the gearbox, it's just not

going to line up and
potentially won't fit at all.

So we use our little clutch alignment tool,

and this one comes out
of a kit, cost about £30,

will cover lots of different cars.

There you go, so that is now in position.

So now we put the top cover plate on

and hopefully everything
will be beautifully in position.

With the clutch correctly aligned,

the gearbox can be safely
reattached to the engine.

The transfer box refitted,

and then everything
that I took off to get the

gearbox out has to be
carefully put back onto the car.

Well, the transmission on our TT
is now in pretty reasonable state.

We've got a gearbox with all of
its gears and a brand-new clutch.

And because it's a four-wheel-drive system,

there is one more component
that needs attention.

The Haldex coupling is an
electronically controlled clutch

that sits between the prop
shaft and the rear wheels.

Now, in normal operation,

this car pretty much behaves
like a front-wheel-drive vehicle,

with most of the engine's
power going to the front wheels.

But because of the way
the gearbox is designed,

the prop shaft, just
here, is always spinning.

So, should the front wheels actually lose
traction, that's when the Haldex kicks in.

The computers actually
notice what's going on.

They energise the
clutches inside the Haldex.

And, of course, that can then share

up to 50% of the engine's
power with the back wheels.

So you get your four-wheel-drive, but
most of the time it's front-wheel-drive.

The special oil inside the
Haldex should be changed

every 20,000 miles and
the filter every 40,000 miles.

But getting to the filter isn't that easy.

They actually invented a
special tool, just to get to it.

It only cost £21, so it's well worth
it, considering how mad it would be,

only to have to make that, but also to
try and get in here with anything else.

And even with this tool, it's quite fiddly.

Audi say the last record they had

of the Haldex service for
this car was 30,000 miles ago.

So I'm playing it safe in
changing both the oil and the filter.

A little oil on the O-ring
ensures a good seal.

Now, this next bit requires
a little bit of dexterity.

The official way from Audi of actually
filling up our Haldex coupling with oil

is to make a kind of a
syringe out of their oil supply.

This is exactly the right
amount of oil that I need.

I want to squish all that oil into position
and then, once I've finished it all,

I then somehow have to try
and take that out really quickly

and pop in the drain plug
to stop any of it draining out.

Now, it is a bit nuts, but here goes.

In goes the oil.

Sometimes the obvious way is the only way.

All I have to quickly do is get
this in and not cross the threads.

Phew.

It's jobs like this that
mean we can be absolutely

sure that mechanically
this car is now sorted.

Having taken a dangerous gamble
on a car with a broken gearbox,

it looks as though we might
just have got away with it.

Ed solved the problem for
the price of a nuts and bolts

and put a new clutch
in just for good measure.

But with good TTs only worth a few thousand
pounds and plenty of work still to do,

is all this effort going
to bank us a profit?

That's not so good.

We bought a super stylish
Audi TT for just £1,500.

It just goes to prove you can
get concept car looks for peanuts.

But the car came at a price.

It's a bit of a compromise
not having first or second gear.

You have to slip the clutch
to get it away in third gear.

Now, thanks to Ed, the gearbox
has a full set of gears again.

But the passenger window is
broken and the headlights need sorting.

There's still plenty of work to do
to stand any chance of a payback.

The small jobs are just as
important as the big ones

when it comes to trying to
make a bit of a profit on our car.

So the first thing I'm going to do

is reinstall the instrument
binacle that Mike had repaired.

Mike fixing the display
is really only half the job.

Now, I've got to get that
binacle back in the car.

Ask a main dealer to do this for you

and you'll be looking at
about £150 labour charge.

So all the connections are
back in place, which is great.

Let's just see how good a job Mike did.

Look at that.

Looks like we have all the
pixels we need, which is fantastic.

Now, of course, I had to take an awful lot
of stuff off just to get access to here.

But there is another
problem I need to look

at before I put everything
back into position.

Mike told me the passenger's
electric window isn't working.

But because the TT has frameless windows,

the glass needs to drop automatically
as soon as the door handle is pulled.

If that doesn't happen, the glass
could shatter when the doors open.

That's really interesting.

When you open the door, the
window drops and the motor's operating.

So that leads me to
believe that probably the

problem is with this
little switch down here.

Trouble is, as with many modern cars,
it isn't obvious how to open up the door.

But a quick search of the Internet and
I've managed to find some instructions.

All I need to do is remove a bit of trim,

undo the bolt that's hidden behind it.

and lift off the whole door panel.

Simple once you know how.

Well, there's a switch.

Let's get it out.

Actually looks OK, really.

Oh, hang on, hang on.

There's a little heat blister just there.

So it looks like something may
have blown inside the switch.

I mean, the wires all look OK, actually.

They'd normally be your
first sign, they'd be melted.

But this actually looks all right.

So the next thing to do is use a
multimeter to check the switch.

OK, so just going to turn the
multimeter on to continuity.

There we go. So that's a closed circuit.

I'm hearing a beep.

With the switch in
the lift or drop position,

the multimeter should show
a zero for a closed circuit.

But in fact, I'm getting a reading of one,

which means a completely open circuit.

Or in simple English,
this switch has had it.

Luckily, a new switch is just £16.

OK, so ignition's on. Here we go.

That's not so good.

Because the switch had
burnt out on the passenger side,

it is possible that it's had a
knock-on effect on the driver's side.

So we need to get inside that door too.

Once again, the multimeter
shows there's no continuity

in the passenger window
switch on the driver's side either.

So it's another £16 for another new switch.

And this time the window does drop,

so for the princey sum of just £32,

RTT has fully functioning electric windows.

Result.

Well, everything is pretty
much sorted except for

one thing, and that is those
sad and faded headlights

that we need to replace with the
lovely shiny ones that Mike bought.

Mike's done well to pick up his pair
of aftermarket headlights for just £300.

Audi originals would
have cost twice as much.

However, they still need to be fitted,

and unfortunately that involves
a surprising amount of work.

Now, despite how
cutting-edge the design of

this car was considered
to be back in its day,

I have to say I'm not completely convinced

that having to remove
the whole front bumper

just to be able to replace the
headlights can be considered progress.

But once it's out of the way,

swapping the headlights themselves
is actually pretty straightforward,

with the new units simply
bolting in place of the old.

So let's see if our new
headlight units actually work.

So, ignition on, lights on,

hazards on, and even the high beams.

Look at that, we have a full set.

Now, when you think about it, this
car is an awful lot of car for the money.


drive, full leather interior,

and now we have a face to match,
and hopefully that should give them, like,

a fighting chance of
getting some kind of profit.

Ed, how you doing, son? Are you all right?

I'm good, sir, I'm good.

Look at the TT. Look at the headlamps.

They look absolutely fantastic.

They transform the car.

I must admit, though, I was a
little bit worried about the gearbox.

Well, you took a bit of a risk
buying a car with two gears missing.

It could have cost us
an awful lot of money.

OK, this is the damaging part.

How much?

Are you ready for this?

Not really, but go on, give it to me.





There can't be a thing in a
TT gearbox that costs 50p.

Well, as it happens, there is now a
little bit of metal and a couple of screws.

You're serious? Mm-hm.

Oh, mate, Ed, you've
got to surpass yourself.

That is fantastic.

I'll tell you what, if I scrap a lot round.

Look at that.

Well, thank you, sir.

I mean, obviously, there
were a few other things

I had to do, and they
did cost a couple of

quid, but much less
than you might imagine.

OK, I'll take that back, then.

With its concept car good looks,

the Audi TT caused a sensation
when it was launched in 1998,

and 15 years later, it still turns heads.

Differences today, you
can pick them up for beans.



Yes.

I just bought the TT.

We paid just 1,500 quid for ours,

but then it was missing a couple of gears.

I've got no first and second gear,

which makes slow driving
a little bit of a challenge.

Stripping the gearbox wasn't easy.

If this was to get inside the ditch and
just burst the gearbox, it'd be a real mess.

But Ed's come up trumps again with a repair
that actually only cost us a few pence.

That is fantastic, and effectively,

we were actually 4,000 pounds better off.

At the same time, we fixed the clutch,

serviced the Haldex
coupling in the Quattro system,

fixed those dodgy electric windows.

Result.

Found the missing
pixels from the digital

dash display and updated
the cloudy headlamps.

Look at that, we have a full set.

It's been a lot of work, and even the
best Mark 1 TTs don't make huge money.

But, hopefully, we've done
enough to bank a profit.

On top of the 1,500 pounds purchase price,

we spent just 50p repairing the gearbox,


clutch and Haldex service,





and 300 quid on the new headlamps.

Ed came in at well under the


and the whole car now owes
us just 2,153 pounds, 50 pence.

Surely there's room for some profit there,

but before we find out, there's
time for one last test drive,

and I've got the perfect plan.

It may be a beautiful summer's day,

but with four-wheel
drive and designer looks,

the Audi TT is just the car to
take on a trip to the ski slopes.

Ed, are you convinced
we've got enough stuff?

I mean, what were your
ski jacket, your boots,

these great big skis, are
you sure you're happy?

You said come prepared,
and obviously I have done,

but of course a man of my stature
does need a full-size set of skis,

but I'm actually quite impressed
because they do fit in here okay,

it's a small car after all, and it's
actually still quite comfortable.

I loved this car in the first
place, but now I love it even more,

because you do get so much value for money.

How do you find the extra gears?

The extra gears are really working for me.

You know, before this car was a
struggle to get away in just the gear,

but now I've got all the
gears in the gearbox,

it drives wonderfully, and I'm in
no danger of blowing the clutch,

so well done.

Well thank you sir, that's a good thing,

because it's got a brand new
clutch now, so be gentle with it.

I will.

But where are we going?

Well, you know, this
is the kind of car that's

bought by young,
adventurous, stylish people.

You know, they're the kind of
people that would think nothing

but the weekend of throwing
in the skis, doing a bit of skiing.

Okay, so we're going to go
down maybe to the Alps perhaps?

Not quite.

Okay, maybe, I don't know,
the Pyrenees, Dolomites?

I think more closer to home.

The Cairngorms.

It doesn't even look like the Cairngorms.

Well Ed, the Audi TT is a car that
today can be bought for peanuts,

so I brought us somewhere
that's fitting for our budget.

Welcome to Milton Keynes.

Oh, it's not exactly what I was expecting,
but at least we've got real snow.

Yeah, I know it is real snow.

Our quattro four-wheel drive
system copes with it brilliantly.

That is very true.

Now what kind of money are we hoping
for, for this little piece of design chic?

This car was cheap in
the first place, just £1500.

But now, thanks for
your hard work, it looks

absolutely fantastic, and
it actually does do the job,

but if somebody wanted to
buy this car and genuinely

drive down to the Alps and
go skiing, they really could.

So why don't we ask a very modest £3750?

Sounds good, actually.

Good, right, now, what
do you like on a button lift?

Come on, Würzbrun der
Technik, as they say in Germany?

I'm not sure I really want to be advanced
by that particular kind of technology.

You'll be fine.

Follow me.

Grab the button.

I think I cracked it.

Well done, son.

Thank you, sir.

But enough of the fun.

Now it's time to get
serious and get our TT sold.

I always knew it would be tough to
make some money out of the Audi TT,

but Ed's done me a right favour.

By repairing a gearbox for just 50p,

he's left me with a decent
chance of making a profit.

Now, I've advertised the car for £3750.

This guy behind me,
Steve, he's been for a drive.

Let's see if he's willing to do a deal.

Right then, Steve, you do like it, yes?

Yes, definitely.

So is it for you?

That's for my wife, actually.

What a cracking little
car for it to buzz around in.

It's a bargain, this car, £3750.

Come on, what do you reckon?

I'd be happy to give
you a three and a half.

Three and a half thousand pounds?

Not a chance, no.

No, I'm not letting it
go for three and a half.

It's too nice a car, and
I can sell it quite easily.

I'll give you £100 off.

I'll let you have the car for
£3650, what do you say?

Oh, £3600?

£3600.

Hold out your hand.

Yes, you just bought yourself an Audi TT.

Thank you.

Some people may have thought I was crazy,

buying an Audi TT with two
missing gears, but not us.

We don't walk away from problems like that,

and I'm glad we didn't,

because we managed to fix the car
and bag ourselves nearly £1500 in profit.

And you can't say fairer than that.

If you want to see more modern
classics being turned around by me and Ed,

then join us again soon
on Wheel Of Dealers.

Ta-la.