Hi new B7 A4 SE Quattro owner member looking for a little advice please

[imaca]

Hi everyone apologies for the lengthy post beforehand.I've owned a 2006 A4 SE Quattro saloon for around 4yrs now it's been absolutely bulletproof but it's approaching 100k now and for the last few months it's been 1 niggle after another.nothing major just little things but I decided it was time to get rid and buy something newer before things escalated. I began looking around at various other options but basically I couldn't stretch far enough and everything that I wanted was out of my reach so I began to consider other more affordable alternatives. The Audi is a great car but I've never found it exciting to be honest and always felt it lacked in power but I've always considered the Quattro system to be fantastic so Realising that I've already got a car that's bought and paid for with 4wd that can put the power down I've decided to spend a fraction of the cost of a new car on modifying the Audi instead.
So after lots and lots of hrs of researching and gathering information I've now begun but there's still quite a few questions that I can't seem to find the answers to so if anyone could help me out I'd appreciate the help because this is my first go at modding anything.
Here's what I've purchased so far and were I'm presently at.
Airtech front mounted intercooler (god if only the bumper was as easy to remove as the intercooler was to install afterwards)
Carbonio (probably spelt that wrong) carbon fibre housing for cone filter and silicone hose to intake.
New febi high pressure mechanical fuel pump with a new cam follower and an autotech 10.127.100k high volume kit.
034 high flow cat.
These are the things that I'm planning on getting. resonated milltek cat back system does anyone know how loud this is please? because I don't want to sound like a typhoon approaching.
Yellow stuff front pads do I need to do the rear as well?
New clutch kit. Do I need to upgrade to a performance kit or will a standard one suffice?
Stage 2+ revo software but I've already bought a set of new S3 injectors so maybe stage 3 if I can stretch to a K03 hybrid. I've seen quite a few brand new on eBay priced at around £250-£450 does anyone know if these are reliable? or are they just cheap c**p.
Any advice,suggestions about any of this then please offer it up cheers.

 

[Jon13s]

Sounds like you're in the same boat as me. Only i started off by chancing across a turbo.

I'd defo go the new clutch route. Been looking at sachs performance myself.

I still have a bit of a shopping list myself.

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[Jon13s]

Oh and i have a miltek non res with 034 sports cat and it's pretty loud.

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[Rob Avant]

I also have the 034 & Milltek resonated system... it’s not very quiet. I have the Sachs clutch and housing ready to go on when I get the spare funds for a new DMF, thankfully the standard clutch is still holding on at the moment.
Going for a walnut shell blasting decoke next month, hoping that’ll help find some of my lost horses.

 

[Charlie Farley]

Same here really, I have an 034 sports cat with a custom 3" down pipe fitted to my factory exhaust, not to bad really but certainly has an angry growl when I open the taps.....pretty well works spot on aswell with the remap, milltek's can be a bit loud though but i'm fine with mine at the mo.

 

[imaca]

Same here really, I have an 034 sports cat with a custom 3" down pipe fitted to my factory exhaust, not to bad really but certainly has an angry growl when I open the taps.....pretty well works spot on aswell with the remap, milltek's can be a bit loud though but i'm fine with mine at the mo.

Hi Rob thanks for the reply. I kind of hoped that the resonated milltek would be a lot less angry than the non resonated version but judging by yours and jons experienced comments it apparently isn't. I'm wanting to keep the exterior as original and non attention attracting as I possibly can. I'm aware that it's never going to be a silent affair but I'm only interested in modding my Audi for the driving experience the asthetics ain't my thing really. Do you have any recommendations for alternatives that are a little less angry?

 

[imaca]

Same here really, I have an 034 sports cat with a custom 3" down pipe fitted to my factory exhaust, not to bad really but certainly has an angry growl when I open the taps.....pretty well works spot on aswell with the remap, milltek's can be a bit loud though but i'm fine with mine at the mo.

Hi Rob thanks for the reply. I kind of hoped that the resonated milltek would be a lot less angry than the non resonated version but judging by yours and jons experienced comments it apparently isn't. I'm wanting to keep the exterior as original and non attention attracting as I possibly can. I'm aware that it's never going to be a silent affair but I'm only interested in modding my Audi for the driving experience the asthetics ain't my thing really. Do you have any recommendations for alternatives that are a little less angry?

I also have the 034 & Milltek resonated system... it’s not very quiet. I have the Sachs clutch and housing ready to go on when I get the spare funds for a new DMF, thankfully the standard clutch is still holding on at the moment.
Going for a walnut shell blasting decoke next month, hoping that’ll help find some of my lost horses.

hi

Sounds like you're in the same boat as me. Only i started off by chancing across a turbo.

I'd defo go the new clutch route. Been looking at sachs performance myself.

I still have a bit of a shopping list myself.

Sent from my SM-A520F using Tapatalk

Hi and thanks for the reply. I'm quite relieved now to be honest I was beginning to think I was on my own here and spending loads of money on a car that everyone else has long since moved on from haha.
Gets expensive doesn't it pal but still a far cheaper alternative to the £400+ a month 4 yr finance deals that I was facing for another car that had the equivalent after modding power and drive that I was looking for. I was also considering the walnut carbon clean but I have a good friend who is a vw master tech mechanic and he advised me that unless the carbon build up is at a level that's causing an obvious problem I'll achieve close to 300 bhp with the mods regardless so I thought I'd apply the £500 cost elsewhere instead for now.
What's the best price you've found on the Sachs clutch kit pal?

 

[imaca]

Same here really, I have an 034 sports cat with a custom 3" down pipe fitted to my factory exhaust, not to bad really but certainly has an angry growl when I open the taps.....pretty well works spot on aswell with the remap, milltek's can be a bit loud though but i'm fine with mine at the mo.

Hi rob what remap are you running on pal what was the cost and where from please.

 

[Charlie Farley]

Currently on a safe custom 270 map , cost me £400 and very happy with it, didn't want to fry the clutch on my quattro just yet..lol
Noise level wise on the exhaust , I think my current setup works very well for me. The factory system but with larger dia stainless tips is not much louder when driving normally but with a deeper tone, but with the sports cat and 3" downpipe it does sound awesome when you start pushing on a bit more, a deffinate angry growl , which is very nice , not a tacky boy racer sound either....
Motorways and long drive are really nice and quiet still, a win , win situation really.

Sports cat do change the exhaust tone a fair bit anyway, more raspy and depending on what main system you have the sound can be louder or not, I looked at the performance gains from going the full performance system route and they were not that much more really on the BUL engine, most gains are made at the cat and downpipe stage so a sports cat and 3" custom downpipe was a very good compromise for me.

 

[Charlie Farley]

My old bus looks pretty well standard really its only when you drive it that you notice its a bit quicker than one is expecting , also stopping power is epic now ….I love my old bus.

 

[Charlie Farley]

You would benefit also from sorting out the PCV system on the car too, it does not do your engine any favours to be honest …

I tried the cone air filter induction setup and I cant say I noticed any gains from it , if anything performance was down a bit compared to using a K&N high flow panel filter in the standard air box, there was so much heat around the cone it was just sucking in hot air all the time, which is the opposite of the exercise really, so i have switched back to the oem filter box with K&N panel filter and 034 silicone TIP ,also replaced the old perished foam sound proofing foam with some high density acoustic material.
Works a treat now and my air intake temp is a lot lower than with the cone setup.

I know a lot of guys use the cone setup but on the B7 layout i'm not convinced it has any real benefits to performance …..just my experience on the subject.


On the subject of performance , you mentioned your car never really felt that fast, by any chance did you ever change the DV valve in your ownership, a failing diaphragm will cause a loss in boost and your car will feel really under powered and you wont get any dash errors either .

If yours is a special edition with the 220 BUL engine it should fly even in standard engine tune, my old bus has been a rocket from day one of ownership , and 4 years on and some safe tuning and it goes even better, if I could find a similar spec'd engine estate car as my B7 and that performed aswell i'd sell up tomorrow, but I haven't yet so I will be keeping it for some time to come.

 

[imaca]

Yeah I replaced the PCV around 6 months ago now Rob when I eventually figured out it was the culprit for the constant high pitched squeeling noise by reading the very helpful posts I found on here. I also replaced the dv at the same time but I can't actually remember wether I replaced it with a piston type or a diaphragm so I've ordered a new pierberg piston one anyway just to be on the safe side before going straight to a stage 2+ Revo remap hopefully the weekend after next.
I've had a fair few performance motors over the years. Started off in the early nineties with metro turbo then a mk2 fiesta xr2 then a mk2 Astra gte 16v then a 205 1.9 gti then a Renault 5 gt turbo raider then an escort mk2 rs turbo then a 2wd sierra sapphire cosworth then a Honda Accord type R then a Subaru wrx and if only I'd had the hindsight to garage every single one of them up back Then I'd probably be able to afford to saddle up an Italian thoroughbred now with their present day values haha. The Audi came along quite by chance when my Mrs ploughed the Subaru straight up the **** of a transit at a roundabout and my boss at the time offered to sell me his Audi . I had a look at it and snapped it up straight away. He had owned it from new and it was in near mint condition with only 75,000 mls and full documented Audi history I reckon it was a steal at £6,300 but I never really test drove it hard because (A) he was my boss. (B) he was a 6ft 3" Geordie with a time served proven track record to back up his reputation and I didn't want to run the risk of him pounding me even harder haha. I just presumed that it would be of least the same equivalent power to the cosworth I'd previously owned and maybe even more because of the Quattro system but tbh it was a bit of a let down from day one and I'm really hoping that all the money I'm investing in it at the moment is going to give me the descent return that I'm banking on and transform it into the car it was capable of being and probably should have been when it rolled off the line in 2006.

 

[Charlie Farley]

Is it a special edition with the 220 BUL engine or 200bhp engine.
some of the problem is because they are well made and that tends to to take the edge of the performance if you get my drift , a lot of A3 owners say the same when going up to a4 b7's in that they don't feel very fast, but they are very nippy to be honest it is that you just don't notice how fast you are going...lol

I've had a fair few fast cars, and I do mean fast cars and still have a few and my b7 still makes me grin when I open the taps ...it just goes like stink very easy to loose ones driving licence without really trying..lol

 

[imaca]

Yes it definitely is the special edition 220 bul engine Rob it's just never felt like one haha i dunno Rob maybe your right and it's just more refined than I'm used to so I don't notice. Don't get me wrong it's not slow but I wouldn't be at all surprised if when they take it for remapping They inform me that it's been running under power for what ever reason since the day I bought it. But to be quite honest Rob It wouldn't be the end of the world would it? How good will close to 300bhp and hopefully double the torque feel then ehh ️

 

[Charlie Farley]

My local MOT garage do a lot of work on all models of audi's and B7's especially they have been out in my old bus a few times recently and allways comment on how well the car runs and its very brisk performance......and i'm only on a safe 270bhp .
B7's are solid cars and the s-line suspension aside do handle very well , sound insulation is very good so it can be very deceiving on how well they go really.
Sub 7 seconds 0-60 is not to shabby for a car that weighs a fair bit aswell.

 

[Charlie Farley]

Also after 4 years of driving it you will have become used to the engines performance so it may have become a bit predicatble, more reason now to up the output a tad.

 

[imaca]

To be absolutely 100% honest with you Rob doing what I've decided and set out to do here is going against every grain of experienced knowledge and all the lessons I thought/ hoped I'd learnt over the years about throwing good money at long since spent but I've kinda convinced myself that it's a reasonably well calculated risk because of how little problems I've had with it so far and I'm kinda thinking that a few grand spent replacing the major components like the clutch etc on a car that I know well and trust is a worthy gamble as opposed to £450 a month on either the golf R or the focus rs on pc whatever it is that I would have had to either save enough on top of the payments etc to be able make the final 10k+ balloon payment in order to own and keep the car at the end of the term,renew the same contract for another 4yrs ok I'd get the latest version but I'd still be in the same boat at the end again or I could take the worst of the 3 options and hand the keys back and walk to a bus stop to get home.

 

[imaca]

Also after 4 years of driving it you will have become used to the engines performance so it may have become a bit predicatble, more reason now to up the output a tad.

 

[imaca]

I was pretty much completely decided upon using a revo stage 2+ remap but now that I've seen the power gains claimed by APR stage 2 which are quite substantially more I'm torn between the two of them now.Can anyone recommend the better of the two please.

 

[Rob Avant]

I was pretty much completely decided upon using a revo stage 2+ remap but now that I've seen the power gains claimed by APR stage 2 which are quite substantially more I'm torn between the two of them now.Can anyone recommend the better of the two please.

Can’t speak about APR as I’ve no real experience, my local APR dealer really screwed one of my friends over so I won’t use them on principle. Been running Revo software for the last few years, now on a custome stage 2+ map and love it. Plenty of useable power and bags of torque

 

[imaca]

Thanks for the reply rob . I've been leaning more towards the revo from day one tbh but I just thought a little experienced advice before taking the plunge couldn't do any harm ehh. I fitted my sports cat and milltek system today. Wasn't the simplest of tasks by any means. Not much room under there when all you have available is a pair of front ramps and a couple of rear axle stands. It took me best part of the day around 6-7hrs but I managed it eventually and I'm quite chuffed tbh considering I've no mechanical experience and trained by utube haha. Changed the oil and filter as well + fuel filter and spark plugs. Getting to be a bit of a dab hand at this mechanic business now