A4 1.8 Non-turbo Project:- Op Pretender

[MaverickTDi]

Hi chaps,

Not long since taken ownership of a '00 1.8 non-turbo SE.

Came with FSH and 157k on the clock. Paid £850.

Pictures after a good clean;

So far she's been good. Has a few niggles here and there but on the whole ok. Got a long list of issues to fix.

Short term plans;

- LED sides lights and interior upgrade
- Osram Nightbreakers for dipped beam (probably install a HID kit in the future)
- 312mm brake upgrade
- Replace DIS screen in instrument cluster
- Rear tailgate spoiler
- RS4 look front grille

Stay tuned as more to come.

 

[Oranoco]

Looks tidy. Can drill the cold side of the airbag to gain a bit extra induction noise if you like that.

What sort of spoiler do you fancy?

 

[matt66604]

Hope you won't drill the airbag... Lol

 

[Oranoco]

****** auto correct. Typed "Rockshox oil" in earlier for my bike and it changed it to "rickshaw oil" was puzzled by the search results.

Please for the love of God don't drill holes in your airbag.

 

[MaverickTDi]

****** auto correct. Typed "Rockshox oil" in earlier for my bike and it changed it to "rickshaw oil" was puzzled by the search results.

Please for the love of God don't drill holes in your airbag.

Ummmm ops, just did and funnily enough it didn't give a better induction roar!!?

 

[Oranoco]

Really? I did it on my old 1600 and you could hear it a mile away.

 

[slepy]

I think he meant the airbag

 

[MaverickTDi]

I think he meant the airbag

Yes, yes I did

 

[Oranoco]

Sorry between auto correct and moving house I'm not doing well. Lol

 

[MaverickTDi]

Just a mini mod today. Bought some yellow tint off eBay and wrapped the front fogs, here is the result;

Before;

After;

Looks alright I reckon. Tint cost £4.95 for a 60cm x 30cm sheet.

 

[Rich00p]

Love the colour!

 

[Steveijc]

Love the colour!

Same here! Don't think I've seen another that colour before! Very unique

 

[MaverickTDi]

Cheers guys. Colour code is LY1T (Melange Beige), doesn't sound great, but cleaned up she looks good. I've put a birthday prezzie idea of a DAS Pro polisher with the wife, so hopefully she'll have near flawless metal work soon. That said having a beige coloured exterior leaves the interior to be less than desirable, a lovely off brown colour. It complements the exterior colour nicely but I can't imagine there's loads of b5's with that colour interior!?

 

[Steveijc]

You'll have to post some pics of the interior too! Always fancied a dual-action polisher here too. I've tried a few Meguiars products on mine by hand but the German paint seems ridiculously hard to buff scratches out of.

 

[aragorn]

German paint is known to be rock hard.

Brown interior sounds a bit horiffic. TQS/S4 style all black interior is the only way to go.

 

[MaverickTDi]

You'll have to post some pics of the interior too! Always fancied a dual-action polisher here too. I've tried a few Meguiars products on mine by hand but the German paint seems ridiculously hard to buff scratches out of.

All in good time Steve, all in good time

Yeah German paint is notoriously hard but using the correct pad and cutting compound it's no dramas. From experience and general conversation, people are not 100% on the application and as with any good finish the prep is so important. I'd say your looking at a good 6hrs from start to finish to mop your car. If I get my birthday wish I shall post results etc.

 

[MaverickTDi]

German paint is known to be rock hard.

Brown interior sounds a bit horiffic. TQS/S4 style all black interior is the only way to go.

It's not all that bad tbh. I'd prefer the safer option of a black interior but I can live with this one. Plus there's other areas of the car that need money throwing at it before interior. My main gripe with it is the car was previously owned by a smoker, so the interior lingers with that horrible smell. I'm getting a VAX wet vac next week so the interior will be washed within an inch of it's life!

However for entertainment purposes I shall post a few pics of the interior.

 

[AlexA4Avant]

Hi well come to.the non turbo owner club lol same spec as mine very similar upgrades in mine I used ring 120%plus for dipped led interior and licence plate. Will use cone filter for mine

 

[MaverickTDi]

Hi well come to.the non turbo owner club lol same spec as mine very similar upgrades in mine I used ring 120%plus for dipped led interior and licence plate. Will use cone filter for mine

Cheers mate. I've just fitted some Halfords 120% Ultra brilliance dipped beam bulbs and LED side lights today (pics to follow). Definitely see the difference over standard bulb, hopefully it gives me better performance at night? Bit of a shock going from all singing all dancing BMW xenons to standard halogen lights!

In a fairness I'm not wasting my money on the engine as it has rubbish pedigree! If I wanted something to fettle and play about with I'd have got the 1.8t. I may consider a remap but doing online research on this particular car you'll only see a 10-12bhp gain which for the money isn't really justifiable IMO. I'll be sticking to the standard filter set up as these so called 'performance' filters let every type of pollutant besides the kitchen sink through and could cause increased internal wear. Plus ask yourself this, if these performance filters were so good why don't manufacturers use them? Even on the b5 S4's Audi thought a paper filter was good enough so...? Anyway I'm sure this topic has been discussed to death!?

How long have you had your car then?

 

[AlexA4Avant]

About 9 months . I am enjoy ing the car just a bit of dressing no remaps like you said rubbish pedigree. Got drilled and grooved brakes all round from mtec with mintex pads as I do a lot of driving a road and motorway.

 

[MaverickTDi]

LED side lights fitted. All in all I'm happy with them. Come from Germany via eBay.

Dipped beam fitted. From the pics they don't look all that different however, when I fitted the first bulb and compared, at eye level, to the original, there is a difference albeit a small one. I think to make the biggest impact a decent HID is needed.

 

[MaverickTDi]

About 9 months . I am enjoy ing the car just a bit of dressing no remaps like you said rubbish pedigree. Got drilled and grooved brakes all round from mtec with mintex pads as I do a lot of driving a road and motorway.

Sweet, glad your enjoying the car! I've got lined up a 312mm conversion, getting the calipers and carriers from a chap on here then just need hoses, discs and pads. I'm toying with idea of drilled disks but they'd be purely for show as my car will certainly not be gracing any track . Yours perform ok? I'll be replacing the rears at the same time, so hopefully I'll see a big difference in the braking performance as the current are very poor indeed!

 

[AlexA4Avant]

Yer not taking mine on the track. thinking of hel braided lines eventually no rush though. Want to fit eibach springs and anti roll bars got to get them

 

[AlexA4Avant]

What was the eBay number for the lens tint

 

[MaverickTDi]

What was the eBay number for the lens tint

Item - 161107251650

 

[AlexA4Avant]

Thanks

 

[MaverickTDi]

Parts arrived the other day for my 312mm front brake conversion courtesy of Tonya4.

Looking at these pictures;

What do I need to do in order to fit them to my car? They look as though they need overhauling? Apologies for the ignorance, I'm more electrically minded

Thanks.

 

[MaverickTDi]

You'll have to post some pics of the interior too! Always fancied a dual-action polisher here too. I've tried a few Meguiars products on mine by hand but the German paint seems ridiculously hard to buff scratches out of.

To give some idea of the interior colour, here you go;

In all fairness I've seen a lot worse interiors but this is by no means the best! The worst thing about it is the smokers smell that still lingers!

I would imagine that Audi would only allow this colour interior with the exterior colour? VW did a similar thing when I bought a Scirocco a few years back, I could only have black leather with a white exterior despite wanting truffle leather.

 

[aragorn]

Nez's Hibiscus Red S4 has a similar colored interior, so i think it was probably just an option.

Your calipers look complete, just need the pads and bolt it all together.

Maybe nitromorse that yellow paint off and re-do it neatly and paint the caliper too. Black preferably. If the pistons are free they probably wont need rebuilt. Also make sure the bleed nipples will open before you install them, use a good 6 sided socket.

 

[AlexA4Avant]

Interior isn't to bad. There is a thing a tornado 2 that you put a deoderise and you use compressed air and it pushes out the dirt and grime and smells

 

[AlexA4Avant]

 

[MaverickTDi]

Nez's Hibiscus Red S4 has a similar colored interior, so i think it was probably just an option.

Your calipers look complete, just need the pads and bolt it all together.

Maybe nitromorse that yellow paint off and re-do it neatly and paint the caliper too. Black preferably. If the pistons are free they probably wont need rebuilt. Also make sure the bleed nipples will open before you install them, use a good 6 sided socket.

Cheers for the info mate.

How do I test to see if the pistons are free?

 

[MaverickTDi]

Interior isn't to bad. There is a thing a tornado 2 that you put a deoderise and you use compressed air and it pushes out the dirt and grime and smells

Cheers for the vid link mate. There's no audio with the vid you've posted so I have absolutely no idea what he's doing? Never seen anything like it before???

 

[MaverickTDi]

Well after running poorly for the last month she's finally fixed

Brand new downpipe;

I can't complain, the old knackered downpipe was from brand new, had VAG numbers all over it. 158k on a original downpipe, not bad.

Also had an engine flush and oil change. Runs pretty good now.

 

[slepy]

Did you have it custom made?

 

[MaverickTDi]

Did you have it custom made?

No mate, just a standard one ordered against the car reg. It is slightly different to the original but there's 14 yrs between the two.

 

[MaverickTDi]

Whilst the weather was nice albeit a little windy I thought I'd give the old gal a good clean.

Before;

Bit of snow foam action!!!

I then had a little play with my new das6 DA. Given the time spent on it I'm happy with the results. All I used was an orange pad with Meg's deep crystal paint cleaner. If time allowed I would have gone over with a compound then wax. The pad was filthy, so it goes to show no matter how clean you think your car looks there's so much contaminant on the surface.

Being tough German lacquer there were still the few light scratches in the right light but it does look 10 times better!

 

[MaverickTDi]

Well I've started to get to grips with my DA and having bought some Meg's correction compound and finishing wax I thought I'd have a play.

Before;

All in all this process took me the best part of 4 hours to complete but the results were definitely worth it

After;

Some close ups;

As I say I'm really chuffed with the end result, there are still a few swirls but no where near as many than when I started, so maybe I'll adjust my technique next time.

On a different topic I had fitted some new snow boots;

Avon Ice Touring's. Cost me £369 for a set of 5 fully fitted through mytyres.co.uk. I had these on my BMW and they were great, I would highly recommend them.

 

[AlexA4Avant]

Just wondering have you changed the front indicators for chrome ones?

 

[AlexA4Avant]

Makes as lot of differences to the look see my thread to see how it would look if you want to do it to