Ad Wilsons A3 8P Build

[Adam Wilson]

Couple months back I got my hands on a 3 door A3 Sport - 2006 (55 Plate) - Took very few (awful iphone)photos as it was meant to stay standard.

So, first up I got home and ordered a full set of interior bulbs - Never liked the look of orange interiors and its cheap enough thing todo..

So that was the plan, keep it standard and enjoy trouble-free driving for a while..



Parked up outside work on the Monday morning, saw the horrendous arch gap and ordered a set of coilovers.



That weekend they were fitted and looked like this:

Wasn't happy with the way it sat atall, messed around a little and got it near enough even. Had to slightly stretch the 2 back tyres as they were catching aswell..



Which left me with this:

I was pretty happy with it like that, had it idling whilst I cleaned an

d heard a slight tapping noise from the engine bay.. Back into the garage.. Couple of hours later I was informed flywheel had slight play but wasn't going to cause any issues for a fair few thousand miles. Decided it was easier to just change it there and then so had a new Sachs clutch, flywheel and concentric sent down.



Because of that, I decided I'll definitely be keeping this car for atleast a few months.



Which meant this

Tried on some 17s but they just looked silly to me..

And picked up some LM Reps for the winter, came up for sale locally at a very good price, nearly the exact specs I needed.

The plan is to keep it like this for a short while, will be having the driverside resprayed as someone's keyed it. Also looking for someone to chassis notch in North Wales?

Also, can anyone point me in the direction of someone selling S Line/S3 front bumper?

Many thanks.

 

[OllieBB]

What Coilovers did you end up getting?

 

[Ironborn]

Air Any more pictures of the rs6 alloys on air?

 

[Adam Wilson]

I think the coileys would've been cheap Joms or something, didn't plan on having them for long!

I'll get some more photos uploaded soon as I'm on the laptop again

 

[lisaclio]

Looking good. What bulbs did you use for the interior.

 

[Adam Wilson]

They were mainly LED festoon bulbs, there's a couple of 501 bulbs too. Since changing them I discovered you need to get the higher resistance bulbs so just search for the canbus error free type

 

[Adam Wilson]

Haven't updated this much, had quite a bit done which includes:

- Professional Chassis Notch
- Shorter Rear Shocks

That's where it stands at the moment, just waiting for my S Line front bumper back from the body shop now. Pretty much due a cambelt/water pump change now too so i'll be having that sorted.

 

[lisaclio]

What grill have you got? Looks sweet

 

[Adam Wilson]

Standard grill mate, just sprayed the surround black. With it being normal paint that I used, its just started to flake off so I'm planning on re-doing with Plastikote.

 

[Dubjam]

I do like a build thread, but theres low and then theres daft.

 

[Adam Wilson]

I do like a build thread, but theres low and then theres daft.

You say daft, it's on air so the height is altered in seconds without the need to even leave the drivers seat.

 

[jordann]

You say daft, it's on air so the height is altered in seconds without the need to even leave the drivers seat.

I hope you don't mind me asking but roughly how much did the airlift setup cost you? Ideally i'd like to be static but the work car park says otherwise

 

[Adam Wilson]

Haven't updated this in a while..

Looks like this now:

The air ride kit was bought from www.caraudiosecurity.com - Great guys and sorted any problems I had straight away.

 

[Sayam]

How much was the kit and what was cost of fitting?

 

[Adam Wilson]

I went for a digital kit, came in at £2000 and fitted it myself.. Very simple to fit, but haven't finished the boot build yet.

 

[Adam Wilson]

Haven't really done much with this lately. Had it serviced with all genuine belts, water pump and thermostat.

Dropped it off Saturday to have the drivers side resprayed as someone decided to key it

Also managed to order some different wheels. Should have some kind of updates this week

 

[StatedRain]

Looks awesome sat on air
When you say it was simple to fit just how simple is it? Heard you need to make some sort of chassis mod to make them fit? Saving my penny's for a air ride setup so looking for as much info as I can get before committing to it.

 

[Adam Wilson]

You don't need to modify the chassis at all. With some kits you need to remove the Anti Roll Bar but that's not really a problem. The kit i've got needed me to remove but came with performance struts.. Handles better than the coilover setup I had previously.

Most people do have a chassis notch so the drivers side driveshaft doesn't foul on the chassis leg, that only happens when completely aired out so its up to you. It holds that side of the car up.

 

[Shaun_Mac]

Looks beauty mate can't wait to get air on mine.. I think we've all said this car is staying "standard" and we just can't seem to help ourselves

 

[Adam Wilson]

So a quick update of where I am at now.. I changed my wheels about 2 weeks ago to some genuine BBS RSii 2 piece splits..

But it turns out once they were on I wasn't a massive fan, had a drunken eBay session whilst I was away on holiday and it turns out Id bought some Speedlines.. So here we have:

So that's where Its at now, bonnet it open as I was driving home from work and noticed a slight judder under acceleration, went down to the garage and popped it on the scanner.. Overboosting. 9 times out of 10 with these BKD engines its sticking veins so I sent down a turbo to be fitted, just waiting to pick it back up now

Love how it looks on the Speedlines, so much cleaner and soon as the new turbo is fitted it should drive like a dream again.

 

[Sayam]

Those speedline wheels are sexy!!

What is air ride like compared to OEM in terms of comfort and handling? Is it really stiff like coilovers?

 

[Adam Wilson]

The air is great, its slightly stiffer than OE but not as harsh as coilovers. I had cheap coilovers on before so the ride wasn't great.. These are MUCH better, very firm around corners with next to no body roll at all.

 

[Sayam]

Thank you.

Am I right in thinking the lower the car the softer the setup (less air in the bags)?

 

[Adam Wilson]

Not really no, the lower the car is the stiffer the dampening on the shocks are.