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Got any cool tools lately?

Built a DIY smoke tester to find a vacuum leak in my daughter's 2007 Audi A3 2.0L. Followed the ideas of several DIYr's on the web. I put a 10ohm 100W rheostat inline with the ~2ft(2 ohm) section of kanthal wire. I picked up the wire ($1.5) from a local vap shop after looking online and seeing 100ft for $15-20. That clerk was trippy, ha.

Parts less than ~$40 ish. The two last pics are the leaks I found with the smoke that starting fluid didn't.

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ramack said:
Built a DIY smoke tester to find a vacuum leak in my daughter's 2007 Audi A3 2.0L. Followed the ideas of several DIYr's on the web. I put a 10ohm 100W rheostat inline with the ~2ft(2 ohm) section of kanthal wire. I picked up the wire ($1.5) from a local vap shop after looking online and seeing 100ft for $15-20. That clerk was trippy, ha.

Parts less than ~$40 ish. The two last pics are the leaks I found with the smoke that starting fluid didn't.

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Just come on to my house in Tennessee and do this on my Jeep. I have to use a HF computer to turn the check engine light off every time I want to put it in four-wheel drive. It says I have complete emission system failure. Last time they did a smoke test they couldn't find the leak. Cost me over $100 for them to tell me they don't know what's wrong. What a joke. So anyways come on to the house lol.
 
jimmyleetn said:
Just come on to my house in Tennessee and do this on my Jeep. I have to use a HF computer to turn the check engine light off every time I want to put it in four-wheel drive. It says I have complete emission system failure. Last time they did a smoke test they couldn't find the leak. Cost me over $100 for them to tell me they don't know what's wrong. What a joke. So anyways come on to the house lol.
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To bad you are 5 hours away. I have an old school shop smoke machine.
 
jimmyleetn said:
Just come on to my house in Tennessee and do this on my Jeep. I have to use a HF computer to turn the check engine light off every time I want to put it in four-wheel drive. It says I have complete emission system failure. Last time they did a smoke test they couldn't find the leak. Cost me over $100 for them to tell me they don't know what's wrong. What a joke. So anyways come on to the house lol.
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Heck yeah! I'll be there next weekend! ;)

I'm guessing that if I took it into a shop or dealer, I'd end up walking out with a $2000 - $3000 bill. Reading threads on a couple Audi forums of people with A3s throwing similar codes (bank 1 lean), replies were that it's an intake leak somewhere and to check this or that hose. Just about every thread someone would ask the OP if they'd done a smoke test. I figured I could hunt it down without doing a smoke test, plus I hadn't had to do one before, so I wasn't set up for it. Once I got the smoke tester put together and hooked it up, within 5 seconds leak #1 was found. I got the parts installed, ran another smoke test, and found leak #2. Installed those parts, ran another test, no smoke. Whew...
 
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ramack said:
Heck yeah! I'll be there next weekend! ;)

I'm guessing that if I took it into a shop or dealer, I'd end up walking out with a $2000 - $3000 bill. Reading threads on a couple Audi forums of people with A3s throwing similar codes (bank 1 lean), replies were that it's an intake leak somewhere and to check this or that hose. Just about every thread someone would ask the OP if they'd done a smoke test. I figured I could hunt it down without doing a smoke test, plus I hadn't had to do one before, so I wasn't set up for it. Once I got the smoke tester put together and hooked it up, within 5 seconds leak #1 was found. I got the parts installed, ran another smoke test, and found leak #2. Installed those parts, ran another test, no smoke. Whew...
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You're lucky, I let two shops run a smoke test on my '15 Jeep Renegade. Neither found a leak. The first one said to just replace the evap canister. They were going to charge me north of $500 so I opted to do it myself. They charged me $100 for the smoke test. I changed the canister with an OE Mopar one from Rock Auto and cleared the code. It was back on in 30 miles. Took it to another shop and they couldn't find the leak and said I needed to go the dealer. That was the end of it for me. Dealers charge way too much and the vehicle drives fine and gets good mileage. That was 2 years ago. The catch with Jeeps is that if the check engine light is on you can't use 4x4. So basically every time I hit inclement weather or need it hunting I have to use the scan tool to clear the code. It's dumb but I've gotten good enough I can check it going down the road LOL.
 
I have a pneumatic one of those from Dynabrade....very useful...
 
TMR makes those toe setting plates, it looks like Summit / Jegs carry non brand versions too.
 
found some on amazon for around the same price...off road anonymous
 
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