New purchase - need some mod advice

[Spacecowboy]

Hi guys

You may have read from another post I've sold up the S3 and bought myself an A4 (B5) 1.8 NA circa 1998 in Dolphin Grey as an interim measure. It’s immaculate with only 64k on the clock with full Audi history.

Not one to normally mess with cars originality, this was so cheap I would like to invest some money in decent mods to include but not limited to:

Lowering/improving handling - I see the turbo's have a strut brace? Is that a good retrofit?

Headlight upgrade to later self adjusting Xenons - trying to track down a how to guide on here is proving difficult with all the info! Plus I believe the pre facelifts were all Bosch units and therefore the existing wiring goes straight in. Clarity needed please.

Are the rear lights any different?

Interior wood cappings - although car is immaculate I hate the wood and wish to swap for the grey cappings. Is this an easy thing to do?

Anything else you guys would suggest I consider? The cars at the bottom of the pile in terms of performance i.e. non quattro, non turbo, small-ish cc so anything I can do to make it look good and handle better is appreciated.

 

[docurley]

Loads of how too's here.

http://www.audiworld.com/tech/

 

[rasA4]

Are the rear lights any different? yes there are 3 styles i would say your year are the mid facelift

Interior wood cappings - although car is immaculate I hate the wood and wish to swap for the grey cappings. Is this an easy thing to do?

Depends what you call easy, the door cappings are easier just take door cards off and take off clips from behind. the small drivers bit if fairly straight forward. Now the long strip the whole centre console has to come out, to get at 1 clip right about the centre console. 1 tip i got from THE DOCurley is dont put that clip back as there are enough clips to hold it in place.
Why not get them sprayed gloss black, would look awesome.
Thats what i plan to do if i can find good sprayer for a good price

 

[Spacecowboy]

Thats exactly my plan same as my S3 but not the ones I remove as Im sure imaculate wood effect is worth a bob or two. Any ideas on the lights? Im a bit of a newbie when it comes to halogen, Xenon, HID etc

 

[Blue_Thunder]

You could pick up some Pre-Facelift S4 xenons for a decent price. They should be plug and play and offer an excellent light output improvement over halogens.

 

[Spacecowboy]

Are the pre facelift S4's of the same one piece construction as the facelift A4 lights? Forgot to mention that I'd like to do a front bumper conversion and add fog lights. Is this all a bit too difficult for a non-facelift car?

 

[rasA4]

2 piece for pre face S4, and quite easy to change bumper and add fogs

 

[Spacecowboy]

I do wonder if the previous owner has put Xenon S4 lights on already as it looks that way from the inside when driving at night (only owned it since Monday so not had an opportunity to give it a proper look over).

Fogs sounds good - care to elaborate the how to?

 

[rasA4]

ByzanA4 has done this

 

[Spacecowboy]

Cant find him doing a search?

 

[Broken Byzan]

Assuming you are taking of putting OEM Valeo projectors on, you won't need much to sort it.

One of the main things that people have problems with is getting the wiring sorted, the colours are identical so its a case of matching the colours and splicing the facelift plug onto the end. The hardest bit is conveying to a breaker which part you require,some will hack the end off the loom some won't. The 'new' loom will have all the wires combined whereas the preface loom is in two seperate sections fro the light and leveling motor.

Once the loom is spliced you will need to trim the return off the wing as the facelift headlight won't fit with this 10 mm lip intact.A dremel or similar will suffice to remove this lip. once removed treat the cut edge with paint so you do not get any rust.

The bulb holders for the indicator will swap over IIRC. Once they are all connected to the headlight ,place the lamp ***'y into the hole and screw into place taking care to align them to the bonnet and wing and worry about setting the aim once the headlight is fitted properly

Also if your SE is fitted with fogs in the front headlights then extend these wires and drop them down the bumper to where you want to mount the replacements, be they on facelift or S4 bumpers