50 Shades of Yellow

[Ronin]

This is a diary of work being done to the 'yellow turd'.

It's not my car, but I've offered to help the owner, an influential investor in transporting and storing the car till she can make room for it in her collection.

An early 1999 facelift S8 in Yellow, or many shades of it:

1.jpg

1 (2).jpg

Stay tuned for more!

[Spannerrash]

Is that an original colour?

[Ronin]

Yes.
If i remember correctly one of 2 delivered to UK in this colour, and the only one surviving.

I will post an update later today as I'm just about to start working on it.

[Spanker]

Looking forward to this

[Ronin]

I'm not sure where to even start, so I'll let the pictures do the talking.

This pic alone sums up the whole car:

wiper blade.jpeg

Ultra rare factory black trim with a screw through it:

black trim ruined.jpg

The car was apparently stored in a unit, it must have rained in there quite often:

wet footwell.jpg

ECU box saved at the last minute:

wet electrical box.jpeg

Botang's hole leaking as the mirror relay is wet, and mirrors can't be unfolded:

wet mirror relay.jpeg

Odd bolts on number plate:

number plate bolt.jpeg

numberplat bolt 2.jpeg

Lots of signs of an extremely bad paint job:

no words.jpg

[Spanker]

Sticker.png

The "Ultra rare factory black trim" is noted on the spec sheet as "4ZB Bright decorative trims" as opposed to "4ZE Black decorative trims".
The previous owner told me that he scratched one and it was silver underneath.

But not only that...
When he had the car painted by his friend that owns a bodyshop (who did a "pretty good job"), those black trims were painted yellow. He didn't like it so took them back to black. You can see the yellow trims in this photo that was taken when the windscreen was replaced (and subsequently cracked again).

So I think those trims have had quite an exciting life.

Screenshot_20250310_055203_Messenger.jpg

[Ronin]

Very impressive info Dean, thanks. The windscreen that's on the car now appears to be a pre-fl windscreen as well.

Few more pics:

I think this car has killed a cat, maybe a dog. I found this un the scuttle panel:

name plate.jpg

When I removed the footrest to to get to hvac drains I found the stud to be broken off as well as the fang that securest the footrest to the transmission tunnel. Footrest itself was also broken, and held together with basically the lining:

footrest.jpg

[Spanker]

How gruesome.

I guess that gives a new meaning to the phrase "dog rough".

[Ronin]

So the scope of my work is to basically make the car 'storable' outside and prevent it from breaking more than it already is.

Current to do list is:
Diagnose no start - no lights on cluster after transporting the car back to my secret storage facility
Clean all the drains including orange hvac drains
Seal up botang's hole
Inspect and repair ECU box cover/threaded inserts
Fix broken off scutle panel securing tab
Replace driver's door lock and reassemble the door properly
Replace 2x indicators
Replace faulty mirror relay
Repair seized boot lid lock
Repair 'collapsed' gear selector button
Investigate long-running central locking pump on lock/unlock
Investigate ESP warning message
Investigate headlight levelling error
Investigate aux belt pulley noise

[Ronin]

No start was easy, reseathing the 3 cluster connectors at the back did the trick.

All the drains including sunroof have been cleaned using strimmer line.

2x Orange HVAC drains have been cleaned, the 'tit' part of it cut off and then reinstalled with jubilee clips. I did this exactly the same way on my 2.8 5 years ago and its still nice and dry.

blocked orange drain.jpg

fixed orange drain.jpeg