General Zod's A3 S-Line Project

[general_zod]

Just picked up an Audi A3 2.0T FSI. She's in Lava grey on an 06 plate. I was lucky to find this example with only 16,000 miles on the clock with one lady owner and full Audi serv hist. Perfect starting point for a 10 year old car!

So as Im planning to do some very popular mods to my A3, I figured it would be helpful for you guys if I started a thread for my project. I know I learnt a lot from others in this forum - time to share the love.

02/03/16
As I'm poor and couldn't afford a car with xenons, the first thing I wanted to do was get rid of my ugly yellow bulbs in favour of some white ones. After a lot of reading about lumens and light beam patterns, I eventually settled on the Philips Crystal Vision 4300K bulbs. I bought two sets so I could switch out both the dipped and full beams.

This specific set isn't road legal but I'll take my chances. The difference in light output is significant, so I actually feel safer with them in, plus they help with looks in my opinion. They're nothing like the xenons I had on my previous car in terms of light output, but I'd rather avoid the headaches I've heard of crappy beam patterns and blow wiper motors with an aftermarket HID kit.

Helpfully, Philips also include sidelight bulbs with these but having fitted them, I thought they were pants (hardly any light) although they were at least white in color. To remedy this, I got some CREE LED based ones from fleabay and fitted them in. The whole job took about 15 mins - would have been 5 if I wasn't taking photos.

Here's the before and afters during the day. Pics don't do it justice AT ALL. I'll post some better shots when it gets dark that will hopefully better show the difference.

 

[general_zod]

Here are the before/after night shots I wanted to take. They still don't do it justice but at least you can see the light temperature difference a bit.

 

[general_zod]

09/03/16
As part of my mods, I really wanted to beef up the brakes. In my previous cars, I've usually switched out the discs and pads for some EBC ones along with Goodrich hoses. This time I wanted to go a step further but don't have the cash to invest in a nice Brembo BBK. After some reading, I decided that a reasonable half-way house would be the S3 brakes.
A bit of scouring the net and I was able to grab a decent set from a guy breaking his S3 and had them shipped over to me. They cam complete with callipers, discs, EBC yellowstuff pads and original hoses. I plan to either refurb them, or just sand and paint them black again and redo the stencils - want them looking nice behind my new wheels that are coming soon. For now they'll wait in the garage until I'm ready to fit them.

 

[general_zod]

11/03/16
My wheels arrived! I decided that I want a fairly OEM looking setup but not for OEM money. I settled on a set of 19 inch RS4 reps which I had fitted with new Continental SportContact 6 225/35 rubber all round. Thanks to @tcardio and @Sayam for helping me pick out the right size for the project.

Although the wheels and tyres were mint, I wanted to clean them up anyway and protect them. For that, I went straight to my most trusted detailer - Motorshine in Letchworth, and had him prepare the wheels and coat them with Gyeon Q2 rim. I've used this stuff before, it has amazing self cleaning (dirt doesnt stick to it) and it lasts a good 6 months or more.
These will go on in the next few weeks - details to follow of course.

 

[desertstorm]

Nice wheels, If you want to keep them clean swap the yellowstuff pads for some redstuff. They produce a lot less brake dust . Cheapest place I have found for EBC pads is usually carparts4less. enter the car details and then click on the performance parts tab.
Had a quick look and I think the Redstuff pads for the S3 come in at £68 with the 10% discount. use promo code fast10.

 

[general_zod]

Nice wheels, If you want to keep them clean swap the yellowstuff pads for some redstuff. They produce a lot less brake dust . Cheapest place I have found for EBC pads is usually carparts4less. enter the car details and then click on the performance parts tab.
Had a quick look and I think the Redstuff pads for the S3 come in at £68 with the 10% discount. use promo code fast10.

Cheers buddy. I really like redstuff as well - these just happen to be on there, I'll be changing them out though. £68 is a good price, thanks for the headsup!

Update: Ordered!

 

[general_zod]

Got the springs fitted at RTec in St Albans yesterday - good service. Very happy with the overall drop. Could be lower but at least there's no rubbing/camber issues. If the arch liner screw becomes a problem I'll deal with it but am just keeping an eye on the edge of the tyre of signs right now.

Parts
H&R 45-50mm lowering springs
19" RS4 reps
Continential SportContact 6 225/35 rubber

Notes
The car basically feels the same as it did before apart from being a little bit more 'planted'. I think the original springs were way too firm for an OEM item anyway, so where lowering springs normally feel firmer, I haven't noticed any difference. Hopefully this will mean the shocks aren't taking too much more stress than with the OEM part either. Will take the car for laser alignment in a couple of weeks once they've settled.
The new tyres definitely feel very sticky and are also very comfortable for daily use - not harder or more crashy feeling than on stock fat 5s.
Wheels? Not much to say there - they're RS4 reps which have been done many times before but I'm wanting an OEM+ look rather than anything too aftermarket. I may consider 5mm spacers to stance it out a bit - what do you guys think? I'm worried that would make the car look even more like it should be lower...

Pics

 

[D9n dk]

nice looking car mate and a good start, you must be close to me im in potton

 

[general_zod]

13/04/16
So car has had a full correction detail courtesy of Motorshine up in hertfordshire. They've worked on my cars before and the results have always been amazing. This time was no different.
As the car had basically been washed by hand during the last 10 years, there was a lot of dirt in places like the engine bay and under the hood. The exhaust was filthy with stubborn soot as well so I went for the whole works, interior, exterior and engine bay. To say that the car looks stunning is an understatement. It honestly looks better than the brand new cars in my local Audi dealership! I'll let the pics do the talking but here's what was done. Total time taken was 40hrs.

Exterior
Pre-cleanse with traffic film remover
Snowfoam with Gyeon Foam
Fine detail brushing
Wash with 2BM and Gyeon Bathe
Gyeon Tar remover
Gyeon Iron remover
Bodywork clayed
Wheels removed and cleaned then protected with Gyeon Rim and Gyeon Tire (did this already)
Paint depth readings taken
2 stage correction polish
Wet sanding of any small scratches
Panels wiped down with Gyeon Prep
2 coats of Gyeon Mohs
Panels heated to help curing
1 coat of Gyeon Phobic
After 24hrs, spray coat of Gyeon Cure

Exhaust tips cleaned and sealed
Glass cleaned
All plastics sealed with Gyeon Trim
All rubber seals refreshed with Swissvax Seal feed
Exterior matt painted panels (B pillars) finished with Swissvax Opaque Wax

Engine & Interior
Engine steam cleaned
Engine bay cleaned with APC
All trims and plastics restored and sealed as per exterior

Interior hoovered and floormats cleaned
Interior panels cleaned then protected with Swissvax Interior Finish
Leather cleaned and conditioned with Swissvax Leather Cleaner and Leather Milk
Glass cleaned with Swissvax Crystal

Pics

 

[general_zod]

nice looking car mate and a good start, you must be close to me im in potton

Not far - Stevenage

 

[D9n dk]

I know it well


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[general_zod]

15/04/16
Another day, another update!
The next step in my project is to beef up the horrible Concert II stereo that came with the car. Even for a 2006 model, I was surprised to see a tape deck in there... So I've been having to rely on the radio unless I'm feeling a bit of Spandau Ballet. Which I'm not.

So, the new system will look like this:

• Pioneer double DIN x8800bt with Android Auto/Apple CarPlay and spotify. This will give me handsfree BT and Sat Nav
• A hundred quids worth of cables to support CAN power on/off, steering wheel controls and amplified antenna
• Hertz 6.5 components in the doors and A pillar tweets
• Rockford Fosgate Punch P3 12" sub and box
• JL Audio HD750/1 750 watt RMS amp running at 4ohms into the sub
• Components powered by new HU internal amp for now, may get a dedicated amp later on
• Reversing camera flush mounted at the bottom of the rear lip
• Power cables, disti blocks, fuses, RCA leads and Dynamat as required

Today the amp and sub turned up. I know that the Punch D2-12 is a dual voice coil 2 ohm affair. For some reason, Rockford Fosgate decided to wire this for 1ohm...not many people have a 1ohm stable amp. Even my JL amp is rated for as low as 1.5ohm. Anyway, as the output of the JL amp is 750 at 4, 2 and 1.5ohm, I decided to re-wire the sub to present a 4ohm load. No need to stress the amp for no additional watts!

The sub arrived very well packaged, surrounded by a huge internal box and polystyrene (thanks autocorrect) that are moulded to the sub box. Hence the coke can to give an idea of size! It also came bagged with a brief manual and a sticker. Happy days.

The box itself is well made. Good quality carpet, steel vent over the port and chunky push down terminals on the side plus a nice speaker surround and a couple of shiny logos.

First step was to remove the allen bolts and take the sub out:

I noticed that the 16 guage wire is soldered together. I broke out the trust soldering iron and removed the extension to install my own 16 guage bridge cable between the 2 voice coils to change the impedance to 4ohms.

Impressed by the build quality of the sub as well. Nice basket and rubber boot over the magnet.

Putting it all back together was pretty painless and the whole thing took about 10 minutes to do. And finally a quick pic of the amp that will drive her:

That's it for now. The whole lot is going to a local installer to be fitted next week. Info and pics to follow!

 

[SaroshM]

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[mookster]

That's come up an absolute treat mate, looks lovely