An up and down couple of weeks with the B7

[mike beech]

Its been an expensive couple of weeks running my car which I thought I'd share with you guys! One dose of excellent customer service and one I'd rather not repeat

Firstly I managed to completely destroy the clutch and dual mass fly due to a dodgy downshift on the motorway which left me £950 out of pocket and no audi for almost a week.

I made the mistake of taking it to a friend of a friend at a local garage who quoted me £500 cash to swap the clutch over (due to it being a quattro and much more labour intensive). Fair do's I thought so I booked it in and dropped it off, three days later still no word on the car (I had been left with a beautiful 1998 vintage maroon honda CRV with authentic wet dog smell in the meantime so it wasn't all bad), the garage owner confessed when questioned that the car had been shipped out to a clutch specialist rather than them doing the work, then he phoned back later saying the wrong clutch had been supplied to this clutch specialist. I then got another call telling me the dual mass was wrecked as well and the only place they could get the clutch was from the main dealer.

To cut a long story a bit shorter the car was returned with a functioning clutch and a huge repair bill. So kids, don't downshift from 3rd gear to 2nd gear at 50 odd miles an hour if your 2.0T isn't pulling enough, just be patient and wait behind the lorry whilst joining the motorway!

The second part of the money spending was much more rewarding, I took the car to Pendle Performance in Barnoldswick in the Lancashire/Yorkshire hills who re-mapped the car most fantastically for £245.00 all in. WHAT A DIFFERENCE!!!!!!, the guy there told me the car now has an extra 50 bhp but I swear there's more power been crammed under the bonnet than that. The difference in pulling power is immense, I've had many car's remapped before but never with such a night and day change, it just pulls and pulls right round to the redline. And another bonus the fuel economy seems to have improved some what according to the MFA and the fuel gauge although time will tell, I only had it done on friday.

I'd recommend this company and his services to all and urge anyone with a 2.0T FSI to get it mapped if they are thinking about it. The fella also had a rather tasty and not too sane 650 bhp Porsche 996 turbo project car that I'd have loved a go in whilst I was waiting.

The next mod will be either an induction kit or better panel air filter to help the intake a little. Any suggestions guys? I've had good results with a BMC CDA in the past on my old 225 TT but have been told to retain the existing air box and just fit a k & n or similar panel filter in my car.

Sorry for the long post but I just thought I'd better get everything off my chest...

 

[Cupramax]

Dont quite understand how you can trash your clutch/flywheel just be changing down to second at 50mph??? You should be within the rev limit (just) for second so what happened? Sounds a bit weird to me...

 

[Marrow]

Ye Martin is a top man he mapped my FSiT about 3 months ago and the difference is alot more than the stated 40-50bhp it drives like a different car really animal loves to rev and so much low down torque !
Can I ask how your car is running scine the remap ? Mine is not good in a morning when its stone cold its very jerky until warmed up fully I think this is down to the plugs just wondered if you have had any probs ?
Air filter wise I just put a pipercross panel in for now seems ok I am not sure if there are any power gains though might get an evoms intake at some later point but they are costly.

 

[mike beech]

I'm not sure what happened with the clutch TBH, I didn't think I'd done anything too out of the ordinary other than change down because the car wasn't pulling .....it might have been nearer to 60 though than 50!! but it wasn't pullling too well in third at the time. I guess it was just waiting to expire? The car has done 68k and I can't vouch for how the previous owner treated it, i've only had it a couple of months.

The other thing that flagged up when the remap was done was a fault on the N249 boost pressure control valve, i think thats the same thing that Forge do a replacement for. If it wasn't for the possible malfunction of that part maybe i wouldn't have had to change down a gear and I'd still be happily driving around on the original clutch.

Yeah, really happy with the remap Marrow, I know I was banging on about it yesterday but its awesome. I was messing with this app on my iphone today called dynolycious which measures acceleration against weight and g force etc to give you a bhp figure. I was on a private stretch of dual carriageway and from a standing start it gave me a 0-50 time of 4.34 secs and 0-60 of 5.91 secs which certainly feels plausible from the drivers seat. It also gave an estimated power output of 283 hp which I will take with a large pinch of salt until I see it confirmed on a rolling road!

I was chatting Martin about air filters and he said he'd done quite a lot of testing of diff air filter combos and recommended a k&n in the std air box, said that gave the best gains? for what they cost, I'll stick one in and give it a try. I promised the other half not to mess with this car too much, its the baby carrier after all.

Can't comment on the cold running yet really, it possibly feels a tiny tiny bit jerkier but hard to say. My car has just been serviced at audi as well so all the plugs etc have just been renewed. Might be worth a try.

 

[Marrow]

Yes about 6 to 60 seems very possible even for my front driver it a very rapid estate now as many a chav has discovered lol !
Air filter wont hurt mate I have ordered some plugs today Martin suggested one grade cooler so ordered some NGK will see if there is any improvement and let you know.

 

[Dazmo]

Go with an ITG panel filter very nice peice of kit and will never need cleaning!

 

[The_Golfather]

I'd avoid K&N personally as they come treated with oil which isn't great for the MAFs and for that reason avoid all gauze filament filters. I've heard good things about ITG but what's the real gain here - not much.

Free-flowing exhaust and sport-cats will release the extra ponies and help the car breath very freely and pull stronger.

 

[mike beech]

An ITG it'll be then! Yeah, I know the air filter won't make much difference, its just more that my concience (sp?) worrying that I'm strangling the engine with the std fit paper filter.

She might be treated to an exhaust if she's lucky but I'm saving my pennies for a new toy next spring which will have the cash thrown at it and the audi will be donated to Mrs B

 

[steve123a]

That doesn't seem to bad for a clutch and flywheel, I have had 2 independants quote me £1250 with labour using audi parts, apparently you can only get the clutch and flywheels from Audi if the car is less than 5 years old! Parts alone are £855 from the dealers

 

[Marrow]

An ITG it'll be then! Yeah, I know the air filter won't make much difference, its just more that my concience (sp?) worrying that I'm strangling the engine with the std fit paper filter.

Thats why I fitted the pipercross made a slightly deep engine note too thats worth the 30 quid it cost !
I would like an exhaust but the stock set up looks and sounds ok a good after market like miltek cost so much I cant justify it. Would rather spend the cash on suspension and 19`s TBH !