Back Again... Noggy B5 S4

[S4 Muzza]

Absolutely stunning work! This is exactly what I’ve been planning over the next year on my B5! Do you still
Have your old parts for sale?


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Thank you mate appreciate it. Think they’re all getting to this stage now where they need some tlc to get them back to their best/keep them road worthy. Seen a few adverts recently for B5’s claiming ‘not a spot of rust’ to which I call total bs! This has been garaged for the last 7 years, barely seen any rain, and it’s a comparatively low mileage example, and it still needed a good bit of work.

Sent you a message about all the parts!

 

[S4 Muzza]

Been getting on with sorting my niggles.

Car has been in to Cal-tek Systems in Ayr to have the exhaust adjusted so the tail pipe is no longer rubbing the rear bumper/diffuser.

Yesterday I took the car to Kenneth Brown Motor Engineering in Hillington to get a full geometry set up. Not cheap but he knows his stuff. Had the car on and off the ramp and out on the road 5 times making small adjustments to get it perfect. The car drives great now. He was very complementary of the underside of the car, said I'd done a great job. Didn't have the heart to tell him my involvement went as far as spending an obscene amount of money on the parts.

With my laptop having kicked the bucket I still haven't had a chance to scan the car to see what's causing my ABS light to pop on intermittently. Did about an hours driving yesterday on the way home from alignments and nothing. Could the fact it hadn't been properly aligned since the underside work have been causing it?? There seems to be nothing definitive to set if off, its totally random. I'll get to the bottom of it eventually but its no causing any problems for now.

And I still haven't traced my little rattle. I asked Callum at Cal-tek to have a look while the car was in and he couldn't trace it. I also asked Kenneth to have a look while doing the alignment and again he couldn't find anything. He actually seemed a bit annoyed he couldn't find the source and fix it for me! I don't fancy my chances of locating it if 2 people with 4 posters can't, but I will continue to try!

Got the CH's back with the weather picking up. New brakes look good behind there.

 

[S4 Muzza]

I had another bash at locating my rattle. I got under the car and started at the back - noticed the heat shield above the back box was loose. It has crumbled away around the mounting points and was no longer being held securely. Bingo I thought...

Couple of washers and a new nut and it was nice and tight again.

Took the car out and no change, so back in the garage it went and I retired in a mood.

After consulting the guru himself Jimbo, he suggested checking the rear brake shields. He had noticed when fitting them that old bolts had previously snapped in the lower most mounting holes in the uprights. I bought the rear uprights refurbished and hadn't noticed this before. Sure enough, he was on the money - I took the rear calipers and discs off and the lower corner of the shield on each side was rattling off the upright!

With the hub now in place it's impossible to r-tap the hole (you can't get the angle to hit it straight on) but I sure as hell wasn't taking it all apart again. So I set about coming up with what can only be described as a bodge.

I superglued a plastic washer to the back of the brake shield where it meets the upright. That alone would probably so the job but I also whacked a bunch of seam sealer between the plastic washer and the hub.

Took the car out and this has 100% solved my rolling rattle. No more tinny rattling noise over rough ground. Hopefully my solution will last, it's not exactly a high stress part. All back together again.

I do still have a small rasp/rattle off the exhaust which I've been unable to pin down. A job for another day. At least something has been fixed today!

A better shot of the full underside since all the work was done: