AlexGSi's A4 Avant

[AlexGSi2000]

As I am planning on keeping this car for 3 years - I suppose its time to create a project thread.

Im not a massive modifier, so changes will be small and subtle (that's the plan)

I hadn't really planned on purchasing a car but this really caught my eye.
I justified it to myself as my Vectra CDTi was knocking on the door of 200,000 miles.
(I had purchased the Vectra in April 2011 after I wrote off my much loved MK3 Ibiza Cupra)

A lengthy phone conversation later and a 1am bid on eBay granted me the winner of the car - so that Sunday it was off to Scotland to pick her up.

As soon as I saw her I was really impressed - However I didn't let myself fall for it in-case the car had issues.
After I had taken a look round the car I was handed a folder full of paperwork and a cuppa, so I rooted my way through - turns out the car had full dealer service history (with some hefty bills in there), all three keys (including the plastic key code strip) and the original bill of sale.

That along with the condition of the car had me part with my cash - the thing had been cherished by all its owners.

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Car Specification When Purchased;

2.5 V6 TDi 180
Quattro
Votex Styling
K&N Panel Filter
19" RS6 Alloys (genuine)​

There were a few little issues I noticed on the drive home;
- Drivers side of the car only got cold air through the vents (sorted by rebuilding the flapper motor and greasing)
- Car seemed to build boost and drop throughout the rev-range (I purchased a new MAF after logging with VAG-COM, this rectified the issue)

I have a few plans for this car, im not wanting to do much to be honest as its a daily drive & I do a lot of miles, plans on the cards are;

- PipeWerx Exhaust (not to have it loud, I would just like some V6 deep grunt along with allowing the engine to breath better)
- Remap

Depending on how things go - I may have the turbo rebuilt and made a hybrid.

Pictures when I collected her;

Although she was very clean when I purchased her, it was nothing to stop me carrying out a quick detail;
Clayed, two passes of Megs 105, Megs 103 & 205 protected by two layers of DodoJuice Banana Armour.

I have no recent pictures but I have a window regulator to sort out tonight along with fitting wind deflectors, so I will put some up later!

 

[adamss24]

That's very tidy ! I am looking for a quattro as well, thing is i like to buy them with engine problems and sort them out myself- so i know they are done well ! Curently driving a 04 plate SE v6 tdi with "only" 163Bhp on the book ! Turbo Dynamics hybrid is very good but i would make a hybrid out of a allroad turbocharger as it has the larger turbine wheel ! Don't worry about the compressor side, they are fitting gt22 wheels in there ! That will keep it nice and tidy- stock looking as well. Have a decent remap and a set of Bosio PP683 and you'll be smiling most of the time !

 

[bowen]

That is special!

 

[AlexGSi2000]

Thanks for the comments!
I spent the day fully detailing the car, this comprised of;
Clay & 6 passes on three polishes (Meguiars 105, 85 & 205) and two layers of DodoJuice Banana Armour.

I also have the car booked in for a full turbo back exhaust from BCS Automotive on the 4th April - After that will be a remap. Cant wait!

 

[stevegti2]

looks tidy

 

[AudiAndy21]

Hi Bud looks realy clean how much is that exhaust setting you back if you dont mind me asking i would love to get somthing similar.. try get some pics and a video for the sound is a must! lol

 

[AlexGSi2000]

Hi Bud looks realy clean how much is that exhaust setting you back if you dont mind me asking i would love to get somthing similar.. try get some pics and a video for the sound is a must! lol

The first quote I had from the company in post #1 was £950 - BCS Automotive are doing it for £500.
They get good reviews from the Golf owners (a mate of mine has his ED30 booked in for the weekend) I believe one of the managers came from BlueFlame exhausts so the quality should be spot on.
I certainly will get a load of pictures and videos. The car sounds like an asthmatic trying to blow out a candle at the minute.

 

[AlexGSi2000]

Quick update -

Well, since I purchased the car I have done 4,000 miles.
I feel I have had it long enough to address what needs doing - and needs attention.

To be honest, it was mostly simple things that didn't require much effort / time - for example;
- Only cold air from the drivers side (stripped the flapper motor, greased and re-installed)
- Glovebox light - Arm needed re-attaching from the damper
- Alarm siren replacement
- Nearside window regulator replaced

Probably a few little bits I have missed, but basically - everything works as it should (for now I guess)

Even though the car has had full service history, I carried out the following for peace of mind;
- Gearbox oil replaced (only had 1.5 litres in when I drained it - it is so much smoother now)
- Rear Differential oil replaced.

I changed the oil & filter 3000 miles ago, but due to advice being given I have changed the grade to 5-40 - I also installed a magnetic sump plug to catch all the bits the filter doesn't.

Also fitted some wind deflectors - these add to wind noise but you get used to it.

A friend has some DS2500 pads he is giving to me - the car has budget pads in at the minute, brake fade is horrendous on country runs.

Also, I noticed the budget tyres it currently has are splitting on the inside walls! - these are Fullrun tyres that were fitted in February and covered 4000 miles! - will be replacing with some Maxxis MAZ1's within the next week or two.

Just looking forward to the 4th April now when I get the exhaust made!

Few pictures below (only camera phone pictures, a friend currently has my camera!)

 

[AlexGSi2000]

Well - some good and bad news about yesterday.

Bad news is - two of the exhaust fabricators were off ill, so means I didnt get my exhaust made up (I am re-booking again thisafternoon)

Good news is - A local re-mapping company started an offer yesterday which lasts a few days - I took them up.

They arrived at my house around 5 - we then spent 10 minutes driving around whilst he took logs.
When we got back to mine, he took a copy of the standard map from the ECU, played around with it for 45 minutes and then uploaded the new map.

All I can say is - I have had two cars mapped before (both turbos) and not one has responded as well as this engine.
The mapper said it was partly down to the standard map being abit "conservative" - so with the changes made the difference is very noticeable.
I have done around 40 miles on the new map, so far I have noticed the car is easier to drive lower down the rev range, more responsive - flat-spots have all gone (flat-spots I thought were caused by the N75) with a nice increase in power.
The guy reckons I gained around 30bhp and 70NM of torque - he will be adjusting the map for me once the exhaust is on - from the logs he said the standard exhaust was a little restrictive which was probably down to having two cats.
When the exhaust is done he thinks I will add around 4/5bhp and 8NM of torque.

All in all - very happy with how the car responded to the map - I can now overtake in 6th on the motorway without having to drop a cog.

 

[AlexGSi2000]

Quick update - the new pipes are on.

Collected after work thisafternoon and drove all the way back with the windows down (will upload video later)

The two cats were removed (normal & pre) along with the rest of the system and replaced with a single pipe, split in two and silenced at the end.
Sounds really good - not too loud, you can just tell there is something there - cant recommend BCS Automotive enough to be honest - top quality workmanship and good lads, spent a good hour milling about the place.

Pictures;

 

[adamss24]

Looks tidy but i reckon they should have used bigger pipe from the cat back then split it into the 2" at the Y...Like this:

 

[AlexGSi2000]

Video as promised;


(will get some drive-by videos later on in the week)

Yours looks good too Adams - I wont be flowing as much as you though so hopefully mine should suffice.

 

[AlexGSi2000]

These arrived yesterday afternoon;

They need abit of TLC - but the good bit is the discs have plenty of life left in them.

Spent a few hours last night with buckets of water & degreaser (they were both caked in CV joint grease!)
Knocked off the rust on the discs and painted the edges / inside with silver Hammerite, made a start on the flat surface with the dremel so they are ready for paint.

Got a list of parts I need to get for these which I will hopefully be ordering today, the parts include fluid seals, dust seals, new bleed valves.etc

Going to be going for EBC yellowstuff pads for these - I have used EBC green & red in the past and not been impressed, but hoping its going to be a case of third time lucky - any other decent pads are £200+!

 

[adamss24]

I would have kept your own brakes and just upgrade the pads to ferodo ds2500... The hp1 calipers are not that good brakes, the hp2 ones made by ATE are in a different league. Anyway, they will perform well on your car it's just that they are not much of a upgrade. If money were a problem then i would go for s6 front calipers and a8 discs, better braking power but they are rather heavy. I have upgraded to b7 rs4 8 piston calipers, lighter than the OEM brakes and better stopping power. Need some rs6 rear brakes now to bring the bias closer to factory spec. I have fitted them to the allroad but i will probably take them off and fit them to the a6 avant as soon as i sort out the tyres for the 20" s8 wheels...

 

[AlexGSi2000]

I would have kept your own brakes and just upgrade the pads to ferodo ds2500... The hp1 calipers are not that good brakes, the hp2 ones made by ATE are in a different league. Anyway, they will perform well on your car it's just that they are not much of a upgrade. If money were a problem then i would go for s6 front calipers and a8 discs, better braking power but they are rather heavy. I have upgraded to b7 rs4 8 piston calipers, lighter than the OEM brakes and better stopping power. Need some rs6 rear brakes now to bring the bias closer to factory spec. I have fitted them to the allroad but i will probably take them off and fit them to the a6 avant as soon as i sort out the tyres for the 20" s8 wheels...

Really? I wouldn't have thought they were that different - they look pretty similar!
I currently have DS2500 pads in the standard callipers at the minute.
Was just about to order a load of new seals/parts for these calipers, maybe I should sell them on and keep an eye out for some of the ATE calipers.

 

[markos72]

Car looks ace-very tidy

 

[bowen]

Hi Alex,

Great work as usual. Love it.

The cold air from the fans and the flapper repair, how did you do this? I am only getting cold air on my side, blasting the girlfriend with hot air all the time.

Cheers mate.

 

[AlexGSi2000]

Hi Alex,

Great work as usual. Love it.

The cold air from the fans and the flapper repair, how did you do this? I am only getting cold air on my side, blasting the girlfriend with hot air all the time.

Cheers mate.

Its quite a fun one! -

The flapper motor is located behind the dashboard above the pedal box.
I sort of wedged myself so my head was by the pedals looking up. When your in this position the motor is attached to the right on the side of the centre console.
If I remember correctly the flapper motor is held in by 3 or 4 torx screws and looks like this;

I opened up the casing, gave the mechanism a clean, re-greased the moving parts and put it back in the car - its been fine since, touch wood.

 

[AlexGSi2000]

Well, the standard Symphony II head-unit finally got to me. I thought I would be able to live with it, but it had to go.
It just wasn't practical carrying around my CD collection and burning CDA format CDs after being so used to MP3.

I was toying with the idea of installing all my Alpine gear that I have had for a few years, but it just didn't look right slapped in the centre console.

I decided to keep things OEM looking, I was originally toying with the idea of going for a RNS-E Navigation unit, but I hardly use sat nav (when I do its on my phone) so that combined with the cost and the likelihood of it getting nicked I decided to go for either the Symphony II+ or the concert.

The Symphony II+ I believe was only installed from 2007-9 so they are quite hard to come by, I looked for a month, gave up and decided to find a Concert head-unit (I believe the only difference is the symphony having the built in cd changer?)

I found a Concert from a 2009 A4 last week which arrived a few days ago.
I installed the unit last night with a Kufatec wiring adaptor (from ISO to quadlock) - first impressions are great, it updates the centre console, audio is much better (I presume with the better internal amp) and it seems to make use of the standard sub better.
I may also get a 6-cd changer for the glovebox so I can load it up with MP3 CDs.

All in all, im very happy with the upgrade, definitely worth it especially considering the cost.

 

[bowen]

Thanks for the flapper advice and pic appreciate it.

Headunit really freshens things up.

 

[AlexGSi2000]

Well, June was a fun month - lots of money spent (not on mods!)


I was hoping to get the brakes on, but decided due to the lack of pad choices (no DS2500) I am going to stick with what I have and go for the B6 S4 / B7 RS4 Brakes eventually.


After I got to work one morning I noticed one of my tyres was fairly low - pumped it back up but it was low again the next morning, I put it down to a puncture, but when I went to get it repaired they noticed a nice crack around the circumference of the inner sidewall - which was letting air out.


The previous owner had the tyres replaced in February - they still had 6/7mm tread left. They were the cheapest tyres available in that size @ £50 a corner - buy cheap buy twice;

They were replaced with some Maxxis MA-Z1 Tyres which although are still a cheap tyre (£108 in 19") are worlds away from the rubbish that was on there previous;

I had a day off work last week - so decided to carry out a 6,000 mile oil and filter change and refurbish my wheels.
Wheels went well, fillered, keyed with 1200 grit then a few coats of hyper silver and lacquer - look much brighter with no kerb rash.

The oil drain didn't go as well as the wheels unfortunately - as I drained out an engine part - [:O]

.


The part above is called a thrust pad, it goes in between one of the rocker arms and the corresponding valve lifter - meaning something had worn in the top ends
Turns out the camshafts in these 2.5TDi engines are prone to wearing - usually due to longlife servicing (oil degrading) - but this car had been on fixed 10,000 intervals and unfortunately still wore down after 120,000 miles.

Was devastating to find as I knew it would be a costly repair.
I found a rebuild kit from Germany consisting of; 4 new cams, 24 forged rocker arms, 24 hydraulic lifters, 24 thrust pads along with new timing belts & gear.
I had to fish out the loose rocker arm from one of the heads yesterday, as the thrust pad meant the rocker arm was free in the head, you can make out the wear on the rocker;

Came to a total of £1150, that combined with tyres and insurance for June took me close to the £2k mark! - Madness - the credit card took a beating.

I will be fitting the new bits in late July with a forum member who has done a few of these cam changes on the 2.5

 

[AlexGSi2000]

Well, three cams were changed last weekend - I say three due to one of the cams being the wrong one!
(Only found out when putting everything back together again) - so I had to run with one old cam for a week.

Luckily it was the exhaust cam on cylinder 1-3 which meant it was an easy change (something I could do!) and not having to touch the timing belt.

I'm not going to take credit for the work though -John (murran) is a wizard with these engines and knows them well he absolutely flew through the job.
Apart from the issue of the wrong cam we decided that the No3 injector would need replacing too as the needle lift sensor had broken (I was putting off replacing for a while) - but to get the fuel pump timing spot on we needed the sensor working.

So this weekend I managed to swap over the injector and fitted the new cam which arrived on Thursday.

Also took some time cleaning out all the intake manifolds past the EGR valve - they were caked in soot/goo/nasty stuff from the exhaust and were definitely causing a restriction - I fitted an EGR blanking plate to help prevent buildup in the future.
Got some Millers diesel eco-max to help clean out the rest of it.

So far I am happy with the results of the cam work - I wish I hadn't needed to do it in the first place but since I am planning on keeping the car for a few years I guess it needed doing.
On the upside, the car now responds better, its had a healthy increase in power (hard to estimate but I would say around 20bhp), it pulls better lower down the revs, slightly better MPG - the exhaust note also sounds completely different.
Much less soot over the exhaust tips also - which im guessing is good!

Now to pay off that credit card bill!

As you can see - the wrong exhaust cam, it wont mesh with the intake cam.

I also replaced the off-side headlight to match the newer nearside headlight - makes the front end look a lot fresher;

 

[AlexGSi2000]

Finally got round to sorting my front brakes over the weekend.
Originally I was going to fit a set of B5 S4 twin-pot calipers - this changed to RS4 calipers, then to B6 S4 calipers (as I saw the price of the RS4 discs!) - would have been overkill also to have RS4 stoppers on a 2.5TDi

Managed to pick up a set of mint condition B6 S4 calipers off a car that had done 34,000 miles.
Cleaned them up - sprayed silver and fitted - stopping power is awesome compared to the 312mm standards.
They also look acceptable under the 19"s - the brakes previously looked abit silly.

 

[superkarl]

lovely looking car.

 

[mookie]

Lovely thing, just the sort of project I'm anticipating when I get a 1.9... I like the little improvements.

 

[AlexGSi2000]

Lovely thing, just the sort of project I'm anticipating when I get a 1.9... I like the little improvements.

Thanks!

 

[AlexGSi2000]

Gave her another detail and got some pictures last weekend - its filthy again now!

Fitted some "aero" wiper arms - hunted round for arms from a B7 A4 but people know what they are worth as a mod, so prices are usually high.
Managed to find a Seat Exeo that was being broken - so got them dirt cheap!

 

[stuiwhite]

HI Alex! I remember you from the seatcupra.net forum (My old ID - stuibaby)

Nice to see another MK3 owner buying a A4!

Car looks awesome.

Must get myself a ride page done!

 

[glenandem]

Managed to find a Seat Exeo that was being broken - so got them dirt cheap!

hi mate,loving your clean motor!, the wipers im having the same prob trying to upgrade mine,people want silly money for aero arms,are these seat exeo wipers the same fit etc?

 

[AlexGSi2000]

hi mate,loving your clean motor!, the wipers im having the same prob trying to upgrade mine,people want silly money for aero arms,are these seat exeo wipers the same fit etc?

Exactly the same as the B7 arms!

 

[AlexGSi2000]

HI Alex! I remember you from the seatcupra.net forum (My old ID - stuibaby)

Nice to see another MK3 owner buying a A4!

Car looks awesome.

Must get myself a ride page done!

Thanks mate! - Yep I remember yours, had the ottenger chip didn't it?
Have you sold the mk3 now then?

Surprising how many members from SCN are on here!

 

[stuiwhite]

Thanks mate! - Yep I remember yours, had the ottenger chip didn't it?
Have you sold the mk3 now then?

Surprising how many members from SCN are on here!

Correct, the annoying chewing gum Oettinger chip !

I sold the Cupra back in Sept 11 - P/ex with a Glanza as i wanted to own one before growing up and also knew that my current A4 was coming up for sale at work.

Then sold the Glanza in prep for the Audi and the guy decided to hold on another 2 months so i brought my mates Saxo VTR for next to nothing to run up to buying the A4 back in February.

Been happy ever since haha!

She is shown in the thread in my signature.

Liking the look of your brake calipers painted - may have to go down the same route

 

[matty86]

Nice looking motor mate and sounds well, What engine is it?

 

[Av4nt]

I have those similar tyres on my car, fullway 19" and they are ****. Where did you get the maxxis ones and what size are they on the sidewall please ?

 

[AlexGSi2000]

I have those similar tyres on my car, fullway 19" and they are ****. Where did you get the maxxis ones and what size are they on the sidewall please ?

I got them from camskill - can find them on google. 235/35/19

 

[AdamB8]

Great read mate, very nice car... Read this yesterday and then spotted your motor today, was behind you at the Rainhill Stoops.. Chances of that!

 

[AlexGSi2000]

Great read mate, very nice car... Read this yesterday and then spotted your motor today, was behind you at the Rainhill Stoops.. Chances of that!

Thanks! - Small world.
I work up the road from there, next to Tower College.
I'll keep an eye out for your car.

 

[AlexGSi2000]

Quick Update - After two years!
The car is now rapidly approaching 200k - not carried out many modifications since the last update, namely;

• Front suspension arm refresh (Meyle HD)
• Weitec Hicoin GT Coilovers
• S4 Rear Brakes
• Leon Cupra-R Splitter

The rest has been general maintenance, cambelt, replaced seized waterpump, driveshafts, intercoolers.etc
Not spent as much as I usually would do as I moved out of my parents last year along with the purchase of a motorbike.

The thing is starting to show its age slightly now - need to change the suspension topmounts/arb bushes as its creaking, would ideally like to change the car for something newer now - B7 RS4 crosses my mind on an almost weekly basis, but think it makes more sense keeping her for as long as I can so I can save a little.

Few pictures taken last week;

 

[AdamB8]

I'd be worrying about people trying to pinch it all the time if I had an RS4.. What about a four pot petrol B8 and getting it remapped? I've read on here the 2.0 tfsi can produce really good results after a map..

Or if the horror stories about oil usage out you off maybe an S4 or one of the diesel V6?

 

[rob_hawke]

Stunning!