Ash187's A5 Sportback
- Thread starter Ash187
- Start date
Ash loving the transformation.Question? who does your detailing as you know i'm local to you.Also i would like to update my 2013 maps to 2015.Can that be done just by a new DVD?
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I do my own detailing
The maps can be updated via sd card if you have the 3G unit, or cd for 2g units
- Joined
- Mar 12, 2009
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- 7,567
- Reaction score
- 817
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- 113
- Location
- London and surrounding areas
Well its been ages since i last updated this... been meaning to for a while too!
so where do i start?
Ok firstly a little update... The google maps solution i was working on to get the unit i had online was abandoned but only because a very nice car breaker offered me the actual 3G+ unit for the same price as the 3G high meaning i can upgrade and sell the old unit on and i managed to get some money back in my pocket!
I received the Sim card version MMI unit and put it straight in the car, removed CP and coded up the unit to get it working perfectly
I then went about trying to find a good data sim deal to get the google maps working properly but everyone was either offering lots of data for a lot of money a month or not enough... even the pay as you go services were not good enough since the data only lasted till the end of the month and you had to top up regardless! Ended up going back to EE who i have my mobile phone contract with who offered me a sharer sim that eats away at the data from my phone contract for only £5 a month!
Next problem was that i needed to add an antenna to get the GSM signal, OEM route is to get a new shark fin and wire it all up to a booster and then to the mmi unit, i cheated and went for a cheap GSM antenna and routed it up to the roof... this antenna has to be stuck to glass for it to work instead of metal so i found a nice spot just under the headliner by the windscreen where its on the windscreen glass but not visible anywhere. Works fine there and picks up a half decent reception in most places.
I now have the Google Earth working with Street View and Audi Connect services... only thing not working is the online traffic because my Vin number is not registered for it but I'm still working on a work around for that.
Next thing I've done to the A5 was paint up the brakes. I wanted red to go with the theme but being that i have a weird grey colour car i didnt want the typical bright red brake setup so i looked around a bit and i found some decent brake paint i some custom colours... picked up a couple small tins of Crimson Red and got to work in the unit.
Cleaned up all the brakes while still fitted to the car and just painted them up with a brush, also did the centre caps while i was waiting for the paint to dry between layers:
Next up i found out that Audi released their own projector logo lights for the newer cars. Now I've never really been a fan of these kind of things but the Audi ones looked really decent and good quality plus its a good selling point for the business to have it in my car so i picked up a pair and put them on. They needed the wiring adapting but i now have some adapter kits in for this exact issue.
I chose the Audi Rings to see how they look and i got a quick video of it after i fitted it:
Although i wrapped the door trims in matte black I've always wanted the genuine gloss black trims, but buying them from Audi is really expensive. I managed to find a breaker who was selling the whole trim set from a 15 plate black edition so i snapped the set up along with the whole Bang and Olufsen sound system since my A5 didnt have that either.
I knew the B&O would be a challenge to install but i wasn't going to let that stop me.
Now when i received the trims they came very nicely packed up so i was properly annoyed when i found that the drivers side trim was totally bent out of shape:
I contacted the seller who made it up by giving me another set of parts but it had to be replaced with a brand new one from Audi.
I fitted the rest of the trims and left the original drivers one in place with the matte wrap still on it
Ive since replaced that but not got a picture of it.
To go along with the colour theme i had my engine cover sprayed up which looks much better than the standard black and silver cover
It had been a month or so and i was getting a bit bored of the audi rings under the doors so i swapped them up to the Quattro light which actually looks much better
So this next project has been on my mind for a while now... my daughter doesnt like how dark it is in the car at night and due to the LED lighting in the car the roof lights blind her so i needed to find a way to keep her happy but keep her eyes in good working order, plus it just looks awesome so i went ahead and installed a custom starlight roof!
i didnt get many pics of the install and i had to do it 3 times over to get it right which included ordering a second kit because i cut some of the fibres too short the first time but it turned out really good!
The iPhone didnt pick up the light properly and blurred it out a bit but then again that probably has something to do with the awful case i had on the phone then that had a scratched up camera cover making all the pictures blurry.
I did manage to install the B&O system along with a new AMP from a facelift car since i have the facelift MMI, Can gateway and a host of other bits. The installation took around 6 hours! painfully rewiring the front speakers, adding the new rear speakers and changing all the other ones it actually was worth it. Now i have a crisp clear sound from my speakers... if only it had more bass.
I found a deal on black friday for a set of dimpled and grooved brake disks and pads that i was eyeing up from Adams rotors from USA so a month or so later i had my custom brakes from Adams Rotors delivered, i took them to my good mechanic friend who got them fitted on nicely:
I picked up this baby after christmas which is probably what has delayed this update more
and of course i customised that too
so where do i start?
Ok firstly a little update... The google maps solution i was working on to get the unit i had online was abandoned but only because a very nice car breaker offered me the actual 3G+ unit for the same price as the 3G high meaning i can upgrade and sell the old unit on and i managed to get some money back in my pocket!
I received the Sim card version MMI unit and put it straight in the car, removed CP and coded up the unit to get it working perfectly
I then went about trying to find a good data sim deal to get the google maps working properly but everyone was either offering lots of data for a lot of money a month or not enough... even the pay as you go services were not good enough since the data only lasted till the end of the month and you had to top up regardless! Ended up going back to EE who i have my mobile phone contract with who offered me a sharer sim that eats away at the data from my phone contract for only £5 a month!
Next problem was that i needed to add an antenna to get the GSM signal, OEM route is to get a new shark fin and wire it all up to a booster and then to the mmi unit, i cheated and went for a cheap GSM antenna and routed it up to the roof... this antenna has to be stuck to glass for it to work instead of metal so i found a nice spot just under the headliner by the windscreen where its on the windscreen glass but not visible anywhere. Works fine there and picks up a half decent reception in most places.
I now have the Google Earth working with Street View and Audi Connect services... only thing not working is the online traffic because my Vin number is not registered for it but I'm still working on a work around for that.
Next thing I've done to the A5 was paint up the brakes. I wanted red to go with the theme but being that i have a weird grey colour car i didnt want the typical bright red brake setup so i looked around a bit and i found some decent brake paint i some custom colours... picked up a couple small tins of Crimson Red and got to work in the unit.
Cleaned up all the brakes while still fitted to the car and just painted them up with a brush, also did the centre caps while i was waiting for the paint to dry between layers:
Next up i found out that Audi released their own projector logo lights for the newer cars. Now I've never really been a fan of these kind of things but the Audi ones looked really decent and good quality plus its a good selling point for the business to have it in my car so i picked up a pair and put them on. They needed the wiring adapting but i now have some adapter kits in for this exact issue.
I chose the Audi Rings to see how they look and i got a quick video of it after i fitted it:
Although i wrapped the door trims in matte black I've always wanted the genuine gloss black trims, but buying them from Audi is really expensive. I managed to find a breaker who was selling the whole trim set from a 15 plate black edition so i snapped the set up along with the whole Bang and Olufsen sound system since my A5 didnt have that either.
I knew the B&O would be a challenge to install but i wasn't going to let that stop me.
Now when i received the trims they came very nicely packed up so i was properly annoyed when i found that the drivers side trim was totally bent out of shape:
I contacted the seller who made it up by giving me another set of parts but it had to be replaced with a brand new one from Audi.
I fitted the rest of the trims and left the original drivers one in place with the matte wrap still on it
Ive since replaced that but not got a picture of it.
To go along with the colour theme i had my engine cover sprayed up which looks much better than the standard black and silver cover
It had been a month or so and i was getting a bit bored of the audi rings under the doors so i swapped them up to the Quattro light which actually looks much better
So this next project has been on my mind for a while now... my daughter doesnt like how dark it is in the car at night and due to the LED lighting in the car the roof lights blind her so i needed to find a way to keep her happy but keep her eyes in good working order, plus it just looks awesome so i went ahead and installed a custom starlight roof!
i didnt get many pics of the install and i had to do it 3 times over to get it right which included ordering a second kit because i cut some of the fibres too short the first time but it turned out really good!
The iPhone didnt pick up the light properly and blurred it out a bit but then again that probably has something to do with the awful case i had on the phone then that had a scratched up camera cover making all the pictures blurry.
I did manage to install the B&O system along with a new AMP from a facelift car since i have the facelift MMI, Can gateway and a host of other bits. The installation took around 6 hours! painfully rewiring the front speakers, adding the new rear speakers and changing all the other ones it actually was worth it. Now i have a crisp clear sound from my speakers... if only it had more bass.
I found a deal on black friday for a set of dimpled and grooved brake disks and pads that i was eyeing up from Adams rotors from USA so a month or so later i had my custom brakes from Adams Rotors delivered, i took them to my good mechanic friend who got them fitted on nicely:
I picked up this baby after christmas which is probably what has delayed this update more
and of course i customised that too
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since then i have installed a DAB radio unit. Now being a sportback i don't have the antenna or the wires soldered onto the rear screen so i had to go and get those bits. Now looking in ETKA for the antenna boosters i noticed that there are a couple of boosters for the DAB... one for DAB and another for DAB and Digital TV... seeing as i needed to buy it and they are the same price i bought he digital TV one thinking that i can upgrade to that at some point.
I soldered the 2 wires onto the rear glass (not fun) and after a few hours of getting that all wired up i have DAB!
I also added the drive select buttons to the dash as my OCD was getting out of hand since every time i scanned the car it would show me the charisma buttons not installed error message since i coded the drive select into the car
oh yeah i also added the little Gecko mascot to match the red in the car
I was umming and ahhh-ing about getting the digital tv module even though by this point i had collected all the other digital tv antennas and wired them up with the wires sitting by the B&O amp where the TV module would sit. I managed to wait a whole month where i didnt do anything to the car but then a couple weeks ago i broke and ended up buying the digital tv module and installed that into the car.
The reception is flaky at the moment which i suspect has something to do with either one of the antenna boosters being weak or me not wiring in the boosters to the right ports but its on my list of things to do. funny enough when i drive into london i get a pretty stable connection but it starts dropping out by the time i get to the M25 so there is definitely something up with it.
Its quite cool though having all the freeview channels right there, also has the tv guide too.
Best part is that it now has an external video input which i am going to be working out a solution to be able to get an airplay device connected to so that i can stream live video directly to the Audi screen.
And finally last week I installed memory seat modules from a coupe into my electric sportback seats and with a little coding i have got most of it working. I need to still get the door buttons in the car but for the time being the menu is up on screen and i can move the passenger seat without leaning over.
massive update over... i promise i will try to do smaller updates in the future.
I soldered the 2 wires onto the rear glass (not fun) and after a few hours of getting that all wired up i have DAB!
I also added the drive select buttons to the dash as my OCD was getting out of hand since every time i scanned the car it would show me the charisma buttons not installed error message since i coded the drive select into the car
oh yeah i also added the little Gecko mascot to match the red in the car
I was umming and ahhh-ing about getting the digital tv module even though by this point i had collected all the other digital tv antennas and wired them up with the wires sitting by the B&O amp where the TV module would sit. I managed to wait a whole month where i didnt do anything to the car but then a couple weeks ago i broke and ended up buying the digital tv module and installed that into the car.
The reception is flaky at the moment which i suspect has something to do with either one of the antenna boosters being weak or me not wiring in the boosters to the right ports but its on my list of things to do. funny enough when i drive into london i get a pretty stable connection but it starts dropping out by the time i get to the M25 so there is definitely something up with it.
Its quite cool though having all the freeview channels right there, also has the tv guide too.
Best part is that it now has an external video input which i am going to be working out a solution to be able to get an airplay device connected to so that i can stream live video directly to the Audi screen.
And finally last week I installed memory seat modules from a coupe into my electric sportback seats and with a little coding i have got most of it working. I need to still get the door buttons in the car but for the time being the menu is up on screen and i can move the passenger seat without leaning over.
massive update over... i promise i will try to do smaller updates in the future.
bluemoona3246
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OK Peeps a new update!
Its been couple months since the last update so here is what i have been up to:
So first off lets start with a pic of the car looking pretty and clean:
Ok so now onto the mods... First up i got a bargain on eBay when they were doing the rare 20% off everything and picked up the Blackvue HD Dash cameras. I already had a Dash cam but this is the front and rear set with the newer firmware to allow remote viewing of the footage and live view of the cameras over the cloud via the app.
I wasn't totally sure where i wanted it as its longer than the old camera and its lens is fixed on the left side where as the old camera has its lens on the right side. If i put the camera on the passenger side it wouldn't pick up much on the drivers side so i mounted it up behind the sun visor on the drivers side where it has a nice viewing angle and gets everything i can see.
The rear one was easy to install and is barely noticeable when looking in the rear view mirror.
Next up is a little maintenance... My car just hit 100k so i want to give it some extra TLC as its just wearing in. I was told about Engine Carbon Clean from Cuppa at the last Audi in the Park meet but never got around to doing it. Recently i noticed that the car wasn't doing as many miles to the tank as normal... this could be due to my right foot getting heavier or just that the engine wasn't performing as well so i booked in the carbon clean hoping to get some extra MPG.
The day i got my booking i was at my unit working away on a SQ5 so i left the guy to it and carried on working. I didnt see what he was doing and apparently after the 30 minute clean i was meant to take the car for a spirited run but as i was busy the guy let the clean go on for an extra 10 minutes and then told me to drive it a bit hard on my way home after work. He asked me to let him know what i thought about it so i was looking forward to a nice smooth drive... Boy was i wrong!!
The car is now IMMENSE!!! it pulls like a train and feels like its had a remap... just shows how caked up it was. its much smoother, quieter and quicker... so much for better mpg! i think it regained some of the BHP it had lost over the last 6 years.
Im not making it up, its not the placebo effect.... i have been driving my car for over a year now and i definitely know the difference. In Dynamic mode the car is actually a bit scary in how it can launch itself to 77mph.
Next up... so a couple of my friends have been looking around at getting air ride added to their cars... now my car is a family car and i was really happy with the stance i have with it sitting on the Eibach springs so i wasn't bothered about fitting air suspension onto my car however a new set of alloys would be nice.
I found myself looking more and more at different alloys online and i even contacted a couple alloy manufactures to find out the cost of some alloys but the prices were too much to justify. Vossen, HRE and ADV1 were amongst the list but the prices are way too high for my budget so i kept looking around.
I found some nice looking alloys with a lovely concave and the company had a decent reputation so i rang up to see what the prices were like to be pleasantly surprised. I wanted a bit of a unique colour and when they said they have something in stock that i can look at to make my mind up i thought "why not go have a look". The colour combo was spot on!
Within 10 minutes of looking at these alloys i found myself placing an order which i didnt plan on doing and walked out with a lighter bank balance and a 2 week wait to collect my new shoes.
My car earned a battle scar when a cycle picked a fight with it while it was parked, unfortunately it left the drivers side rear door with a dent.
I also bought some body parts which i was planning on getting fitted that same week
I then picked up new 32GB Apple TV 4 along with a load of adapters and after a lot of messing about I got it working in the car
The Apple TV is really cool! now that you can download apps to it i can log onto my home Plex media server and stream all my content directly to the cars screen, play you tube videos and even play games on the cars screen without the use of my phone. it all works flawlessly and has worked out to be a better installation than i originally anticipated.
Just before the car went into the garage i went and collected these beauties!
While the car was in the body shop i received a couple other goodies
A 64GB card for the Blackvue cameras and a new MIFI device to allow the cameras to stay online even when the car is switched off so that i can remotely view whats going on around my car and be notified of whats going on with my car over the cloud.
A week without the car got me bored so i bought some glossy red key wrap from eBay and did this:
So after the week i got the car back and it looked awesome... now i had something else done while it was in the bodyshop... i got the guys to fit in a new ABS pump and module. I wanted to do this mod since i first bought the car and now that i have had the correct module fitted i could finally enable the feature...
Audi Hold Assist and Tyre Pressure Monitoring
And finally the main update... the new body work.
RS5 rear bumper, Rieger Sportback Side skirts and the Awesome JR11 20x10 Matt Bronze Alloys
Really happy with how it sits and looks.
I have been told by a couple friends that it looks better in person than in the pictures, apparently it looks like its sitting higher in person.
And finally another update i have been wanting to complete for a while... High Beam Assist
I live in a village where there are barely many street lights and I'm always turning my high beam on and off... i sometimes blind oncoming drivers with a slight late reflex or when my hand slips off the stalk and this is the best cure.
Ordered the mirror from Germany and with a bit of wiring and coding i got it all working within 30 minutes. I would have had to upgrade my can gateway but i did that previously when i upgraded the MMI so that part was covered.
You can see the little beam symbol with the A in the bottom left to show its active.
It works really well... dips the beam as soon as it detects light even if its another cars tail lights half a mile away. Only been using it for a couple days now but its so handy!
So I'm not quiet sure when the next update will be, i am away on holiday and then I'm hopefully moving house in a few months so no spare money to do mods... that being said I'm sure the evil modding bug will catch up to me and siphon off money from my wallet for something or another soon enough.
Its been couple months since the last update so here is what i have been up to:
So first off lets start with a pic of the car looking pretty and clean:
Ok so now onto the mods... First up i got a bargain on eBay when they were doing the rare 20% off everything and picked up the Blackvue HD Dash cameras. I already had a Dash cam but this is the front and rear set with the newer firmware to allow remote viewing of the footage and live view of the cameras over the cloud via the app.
I wasn't totally sure where i wanted it as its longer than the old camera and its lens is fixed on the left side where as the old camera has its lens on the right side. If i put the camera on the passenger side it wouldn't pick up much on the drivers side so i mounted it up behind the sun visor on the drivers side where it has a nice viewing angle and gets everything i can see.
The rear one was easy to install and is barely noticeable when looking in the rear view mirror.
Next up is a little maintenance... My car just hit 100k so i want to give it some extra TLC as its just wearing in. I was told about Engine Carbon Clean from Cuppa at the last Audi in the Park meet but never got around to doing it. Recently i noticed that the car wasn't doing as many miles to the tank as normal... this could be due to my right foot getting heavier or just that the engine wasn't performing as well so i booked in the carbon clean hoping to get some extra MPG.
The day i got my booking i was at my unit working away on a SQ5 so i left the guy to it and carried on working. I didnt see what he was doing and apparently after the 30 minute clean i was meant to take the car for a spirited run but as i was busy the guy let the clean go on for an extra 10 minutes and then told me to drive it a bit hard on my way home after work. He asked me to let him know what i thought about it so i was looking forward to a nice smooth drive... Boy was i wrong!!
The car is now IMMENSE!!! it pulls like a train and feels like its had a remap... just shows how caked up it was. its much smoother, quieter and quicker... so much for better mpg! i think it regained some of the BHP it had lost over the last 6 years.
Im not making it up, its not the placebo effect.... i have been driving my car for over a year now and i definitely know the difference. In Dynamic mode the car is actually a bit scary in how it can launch itself to 77mph.
Next up... so a couple of my friends have been looking around at getting air ride added to their cars... now my car is a family car and i was really happy with the stance i have with it sitting on the Eibach springs so i wasn't bothered about fitting air suspension onto my car however a new set of alloys would be nice.
I found myself looking more and more at different alloys online and i even contacted a couple alloy manufactures to find out the cost of some alloys but the prices were too much to justify. Vossen, HRE and ADV1 were amongst the list but the prices are way too high for my budget so i kept looking around.
I found some nice looking alloys with a lovely concave and the company had a decent reputation so i rang up to see what the prices were like to be pleasantly surprised. I wanted a bit of a unique colour and when they said they have something in stock that i can look at to make my mind up i thought "why not go have a look". The colour combo was spot on!
Within 10 minutes of looking at these alloys i found myself placing an order which i didnt plan on doing and walked out with a lighter bank balance and a 2 week wait to collect my new shoes.
My car earned a battle scar when a cycle picked a fight with it while it was parked, unfortunately it left the drivers side rear door with a dent.
I also bought some body parts which i was planning on getting fitted that same week
I then picked up new 32GB Apple TV 4 along with a load of adapters and after a lot of messing about I got it working in the car
The Apple TV is really cool! now that you can download apps to it i can log onto my home Plex media server and stream all my content directly to the cars screen, play you tube videos and even play games on the cars screen without the use of my phone. it all works flawlessly and has worked out to be a better installation than i originally anticipated.
Just before the car went into the garage i went and collected these beauties!
While the car was in the body shop i received a couple other goodies
A 64GB card for the Blackvue cameras and a new MIFI device to allow the cameras to stay online even when the car is switched off so that i can remotely view whats going on around my car and be notified of whats going on with my car over the cloud.
A week without the car got me bored so i bought some glossy red key wrap from eBay and did this:
So after the week i got the car back and it looked awesome... now i had something else done while it was in the bodyshop... i got the guys to fit in a new ABS pump and module. I wanted to do this mod since i first bought the car and now that i have had the correct module fitted i could finally enable the feature...
Audi Hold Assist and Tyre Pressure Monitoring
And finally the main update... the new body work.
RS5 rear bumper, Rieger Sportback Side skirts and the Awesome JR11 20x10 Matt Bronze Alloys
Really happy with how it sits and looks.
I have been told by a couple friends that it looks better in person than in the pictures, apparently it looks like its sitting higher in person.
And finally another update i have been wanting to complete for a while... High Beam Assist
I live in a village where there are barely many street lights and I'm always turning my high beam on and off... i sometimes blind oncoming drivers with a slight late reflex or when my hand slips off the stalk and this is the best cure.
Ordered the mirror from Germany and with a bit of wiring and coding i got it all working within 30 minutes. I would have had to upgrade my can gateway but i did that previously when i upgraded the MMI so that part was covered.
You can see the little beam symbol with the A in the bottom left to show its active.
It works really well... dips the beam as soon as it detects light even if its another cars tail lights half a mile away. Only been using it for a couple days now but its so handy!
So I'm not quiet sure when the next update will be, i am away on holiday and then I'm hopefully moving house in a few months so no spare money to do mods... that being said I'm sure the evil modding bug will catch up to me and siphon off money from my wallet for something or another soon enough.
Last edited:
A5sprint
Registered User
I then picked up new 32GB Apple TV 4 along with a load of adapters and after a lot of messing about I got it working in the car
The Apple TV is really cool! now that you can download apps to it i can log onto my home Plex media server and stream all my content directly to the cars screen, play you tube videos and even play games on the cars screen without the use of my phone. it all works flawlessly and has worked out to be a better installation than i originally anticipated.
Ash - Would like to pick your brains on the apple TV streaming that you have managed to work up, I've been thinking of putting in the android equivalent - Google Chromecast to the car to enable me to mirror the screen on my phone(s)/tablet/PC.....so the big question is what is it that I need to get it all set up? (I'm guessing I would need to start with the digital TV module, although I am not quite so interested in watching digital TV in the car so not bothered about that!)
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send me a direct message and i can sort out a price to fit in the tv and apple tv into your car.
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Fantastic car, love reading threads like this. Quick question. How easy was the grill to swap over ? How did it work with parking sensors. And where did you source it from. Would like to do that on mine if it's a resoably straight forward DIY job.
Looks so good! I'm definitely getting the Honeycomb grill and those Wheels just look superb.
20x10 with what offset? are you still running spacers with them? Great looking A5.
20x10 with what offset? are you still running spacers with them? Great looking A5.
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Thanks guys, the grill is something i supply for my customers.
The wheels come in various offsets but i couldn't get the offset i wanted so ended up with ET40 and am running 20mm spacers all around.
I do have some more updates to post up as some more things have changed in the car but i will update the thread when i get some proper time to go through it.
The wheels come in various offsets but i couldn't get the offset i wanted so ended up with ET40 and am running 20mm spacers all around.
I do have some more updates to post up as some more things have changed in the car but i will update the thread when i get some proper time to go through it.
Great, Think I can get those in ET20 over here in Sweden so it should give the same look!
Can't wait for next spring.
Keep up the good work.
Can't wait for next spring.
Keep up the good work.
Radford212
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Hi Ash just been looking at the work you have done.Colour is awsome wheels really good ,you will have to upgrade them front disks though as they look small .Although i know thats big money,keep up the good work
IceIcePercy
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Ash,
How do you find the ride on the lowering springs? does it feel bouncy/stiff or pretty much oem?
Also what mm where the spacers?
Kind regards
How do you find the ride on the lowering springs? does it feel bouncy/stiff or pretty much oem?
Also what mm where the spacers?
Kind regards
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I am writing up an update... its been a while...
The Eibach springs are awesome! still loving them. sits low but very comfortable considering im running rubber band stretched tyres.
I have 20mm spacers all round
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Hi Guys!
OMG so where do I begin?
I have completely neglected this thread!
its been 18 months since I last properly updated this and I can't properly remember what I have done and when I did it but I will try my best to list it.
To start lets pick up where I left off…
I had just fitted the RS rear bumper, new alloys and side skirts.
JR11 alloys 20x10 with 255/35/20 tyres combined with the 20mm H&R spacers the car is sitting perfect.
Now since the last time I updated this thread alot has happened but somehow I have managed to delete a lot of the photos I had of the mods I had done to my car… probably deleted them as I was cleaning out my phone from all the customer car pics I had
I have tried to find what I could…
The first was this simple mod of the stalks. I was working on a customers brand new Audi S8 and I spotted the glossy black stalks which looked way better than the basic ones we get in the A5… its not a direct swap but I did my best to get them to fit and work in my car:
Next up was another sound upgrade… after I had upgraded the sound system to the B&O I loved how clear the sound now was but it lacked bass… in fact it felt like it was quieter bass than the basic Audi sound system. I’ve had a plan for a long time to add a sub into the car as a stealth build but didnt know how to fabricate it. Luckily I had a customer come in for some lighting upgrades who specialises in sound systems so I ran the idea past him and he said he would be able make up the kit I wanted.
So I started hunting for parts and sent them over to him to fabricate a simplish boot build.
I bought a JL Audio 8W3v3 sub as I was told I could only get an 8” sub into the custom sub enclosure however once the unit was built he told me I could have gotten away with a 10”
I also bought a spare boot side panel as I wanted to keep my original boot panel with the luggage net should I ever want to return the car back to standard.
So this is what I ended up with:
Its wired up to a very small JL Audio amp (cannot remember the model) which taps off the factory B&O sub. This way both subs are on at the same time and I have a custom sub remote for the JL sub to control it should I want to turn it down or off (for those times my daughter in the car) but still leave the factory B&O sub working so the sound isn’t completely cr*p.
I then custom mounted it to the bottom of the climate control panel so its easy to reach while driving and I customised an old mirror switch to give it that factory Audi look
I added some screens to the rear of the car… this was mostly to keep my daughter entertained. We have an iPad holder that fits onto the rear of the seat but moving this back and forth from the wifes car to mine was a pain… plus with the Apple TV I had previously fitted it meant that rear seat passengers could enjoy watching films without trying to look though the seats to the front screen.
All 3 screens are hooked up to the Audi TV tuner as well as the Apple TV. They have DVD players built in so all 3 screens can show one video or 3 individual videos at the same time. They also come with control pads to play games on and wireless headphones.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/1h05bc2jgg5nzma/IMG_9685.MOV?dl=0
After that things slowed down on the modding side… I moved house and the business over to West London, that alone took up most of my time but then I really got involved in doing up the new house… wiring in leds, repainting the kitchen, adding smart tech to the house. I actually really enjoy doing that stuff and it took my mind away from modding my own car… that being said I am modding cars pretty much every day since the Audi Retrofits business has taken off and has got me so busy that I even if I wanted to mod my own car I would actually need to book a day out to do it!
So after months I managed to get together my next mod… another one I had on the list for a while - Memory seats!
The seats in my car were electric front and heated all round… all I was missing was memory seats. The A5 coupe electric seats all have the modules under the seats but the a5 Sportback and likewise the A4 electric seats don’t have any modules under them, the switches are wired directly to the motors, this makes upgrading to memory much harder in a Sportback. I managed to get hold of a pair of seat modules from the A5 coupe seats and the wiring from under the coupe seats and went about adapting that to work with my Sportback seats. Now the factory setup on an A4 or A5 Sportback is that the drivers side only gets the seat module and not the passenger side, where as the coupe gets both sides which allows the driver to be able to move the passenger seat from an option on the MMI screen. I wanted to be able to move the passenger seat even though I have a Sportback so I wired up both driver and passenger seats with the modules, made the necessary changes under the carpet and had to replace the door card to get the memory buttons as they have a different mounting area in the Sportback. I found a brand new door card with the memory button holder on eBay so I snapped it up and moved all the electrics and wiring over:
once that was wired in properly and coded in the memory function works perfectly meaning that I no longer need to mess about trying to get the right setup if anyone else messed about with my seats.
Next mod was the brakes - the standard brakes or even the disks and pads I replaced them with still wasn’t up to the job… brake fade was a major concern and had made me squirm on more than one occasion. I got a bargain on the complete S5 setup, brake disks, callipers, carriers, pads and even metal brake hoses. So I had those upgraded by my mechanic friend but unfortunately I have lost all of those pics.
Then something bad happened… I was driving along the A40 to go to work like any other day, took the slip road on the exit to Uxbridge and got to the roundabout at the end of the slip road… waited for the car ahead of me to pull away and looked over to the right to check for oncoming traffic. I was creeping forward at around 5mph and looked forward again to see the guy who pulled away and past the white lines decided to slam his brakes right in front of me giving me no space but to go into the back of him at 5mph.
This was the result:
As you can see he got away with a scratch while my front was pretty messed up… the aircon radiator had p*ssed out all its gas after the headlight was pushed in and snapped off the sensor. I was pretty devastated but we exchanged details and I carried onto work, I parked the car and just got on with the day not letting it bother me too much as I wanted to see what I could do about it after that job… thing is it actually wasn’t too much damaged and about 10 mins of working on the car this is what it looked like:
The grill had snapped, the headlight slightly cracked and the wing pushed out a little. I took out some bolts and freed the headlight, the wing moved straight back into place with no damage at all and I pulled the grill straight. I did have to replace the aircon radiator but that wasn't a hard job.
I already planned to facelift the front end so it wasn’t too bad but it meant that I wont be able to sell on the old parts.
I have always liked the large flappy paddle extensions you can get and so I removed the RS paddles I had on the car and replaced it with the smaller chrome paddles then wrapped the extensions in the same satin red the rest of my interior was wrapped in and fitted those:
Next up I wanted to do this mod ever since I saw it in an RS6 but didnt know how or who to get it done by. I found by chance a person on Instagram advertising that he can do custom trimming on interior pieces so I had him make me up some red seat belts. I drove over to him, stripped out the car seat belts and left them with him for a couple of hours. When he was done I went back and refitted the belts back in. Again another mod that I have lost the original images to but I did upload a video on instagram of it:
One of the last things I did was have a darkside developments downpipe fitted with a custom tune and a rolling road done. The car is now pushing 300 BPH with 515lbs torque. I asked for the car to not be pushed too hard as my main reason for this upgrade wasn’t for speed but rather sound. I hate how quiet this V6 is! after seeing some of my friends doing similar mods to their cars the sound these cars can produce is amazing. On my friends cars they have done a straight though exhaust which makes the 3.0TDI sound like a GTR.. a lovely noise but too loud for my liking so I am going down a slightly different route. So far the DPF has been removed and downpipe fitted but the exhaust will be done very soon.
There are a couple of mods that are in the works… specifically the facelift. I have chosen some lovely custom parts to do the facelift with but its not yet fitted so I will come back with that once thats complete along with the other few things I have planned… stay tuned for more to come!
I’m going to end this update with one of my favourite pics of my car at my favourite car wash
OMG so where do I begin?
I have completely neglected this thread!
its been 18 months since I last properly updated this and I can't properly remember what I have done and when I did it but I will try my best to list it.
To start lets pick up where I left off…
I had just fitted the RS rear bumper, new alloys and side skirts.
JR11 alloys 20x10 with 255/35/20 tyres combined with the 20mm H&R spacers the car is sitting perfect.
Now since the last time I updated this thread alot has happened but somehow I have managed to delete a lot of the photos I had of the mods I had done to my car… probably deleted them as I was cleaning out my phone from all the customer car pics I had
I have tried to find what I could…
The first was this simple mod of the stalks. I was working on a customers brand new Audi S8 and I spotted the glossy black stalks which looked way better than the basic ones we get in the A5… its not a direct swap but I did my best to get them to fit and work in my car:
Next up was another sound upgrade… after I had upgraded the sound system to the B&O I loved how clear the sound now was but it lacked bass… in fact it felt like it was quieter bass than the basic Audi sound system. I’ve had a plan for a long time to add a sub into the car as a stealth build but didnt know how to fabricate it. Luckily I had a customer come in for some lighting upgrades who specialises in sound systems so I ran the idea past him and he said he would be able make up the kit I wanted.
So I started hunting for parts and sent them over to him to fabricate a simplish boot build.
I bought a JL Audio 8W3v3 sub as I was told I could only get an 8” sub into the custom sub enclosure however once the unit was built he told me I could have gotten away with a 10”
I also bought a spare boot side panel as I wanted to keep my original boot panel with the luggage net should I ever want to return the car back to standard.
So this is what I ended up with:
Its wired up to a very small JL Audio amp (cannot remember the model) which taps off the factory B&O sub. This way both subs are on at the same time and I have a custom sub remote for the JL sub to control it should I want to turn it down or off (for those times my daughter in the car) but still leave the factory B&O sub working so the sound isn’t completely cr*p.
I then custom mounted it to the bottom of the climate control panel so its easy to reach while driving and I customised an old mirror switch to give it that factory Audi look
I added some screens to the rear of the car… this was mostly to keep my daughter entertained. We have an iPad holder that fits onto the rear of the seat but moving this back and forth from the wifes car to mine was a pain… plus with the Apple TV I had previously fitted it meant that rear seat passengers could enjoy watching films without trying to look though the seats to the front screen.
All 3 screens are hooked up to the Audi TV tuner as well as the Apple TV. They have DVD players built in so all 3 screens can show one video or 3 individual videos at the same time. They also come with control pads to play games on and wireless headphones.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/1h05bc2jgg5nzma/IMG_9685.MOV?dl=0
After that things slowed down on the modding side… I moved house and the business over to West London, that alone took up most of my time but then I really got involved in doing up the new house… wiring in leds, repainting the kitchen, adding smart tech to the house. I actually really enjoy doing that stuff and it took my mind away from modding my own car… that being said I am modding cars pretty much every day since the Audi Retrofits business has taken off and has got me so busy that I even if I wanted to mod my own car I would actually need to book a day out to do it!
So after months I managed to get together my next mod… another one I had on the list for a while - Memory seats!
The seats in my car were electric front and heated all round… all I was missing was memory seats. The A5 coupe electric seats all have the modules under the seats but the a5 Sportback and likewise the A4 electric seats don’t have any modules under them, the switches are wired directly to the motors, this makes upgrading to memory much harder in a Sportback. I managed to get hold of a pair of seat modules from the A5 coupe seats and the wiring from under the coupe seats and went about adapting that to work with my Sportback seats. Now the factory setup on an A4 or A5 Sportback is that the drivers side only gets the seat module and not the passenger side, where as the coupe gets both sides which allows the driver to be able to move the passenger seat from an option on the MMI screen. I wanted to be able to move the passenger seat even though I have a Sportback so I wired up both driver and passenger seats with the modules, made the necessary changes under the carpet and had to replace the door card to get the memory buttons as they have a different mounting area in the Sportback. I found a brand new door card with the memory button holder on eBay so I snapped it up and moved all the electrics and wiring over:
once that was wired in properly and coded in the memory function works perfectly meaning that I no longer need to mess about trying to get the right setup if anyone else messed about with my seats.
Next mod was the brakes - the standard brakes or even the disks and pads I replaced them with still wasn’t up to the job… brake fade was a major concern and had made me squirm on more than one occasion. I got a bargain on the complete S5 setup, brake disks, callipers, carriers, pads and even metal brake hoses. So I had those upgraded by my mechanic friend but unfortunately I have lost all of those pics.
Then something bad happened… I was driving along the A40 to go to work like any other day, took the slip road on the exit to Uxbridge and got to the roundabout at the end of the slip road… waited for the car ahead of me to pull away and looked over to the right to check for oncoming traffic. I was creeping forward at around 5mph and looked forward again to see the guy who pulled away and past the white lines decided to slam his brakes right in front of me giving me no space but to go into the back of him at 5mph.
This was the result:
As you can see he got away with a scratch while my front was pretty messed up… the aircon radiator had p*ssed out all its gas after the headlight was pushed in and snapped off the sensor. I was pretty devastated but we exchanged details and I carried onto work, I parked the car and just got on with the day not letting it bother me too much as I wanted to see what I could do about it after that job… thing is it actually wasn’t too much damaged and about 10 mins of working on the car this is what it looked like:
The grill had snapped, the headlight slightly cracked and the wing pushed out a little. I took out some bolts and freed the headlight, the wing moved straight back into place with no damage at all and I pulled the grill straight. I did have to replace the aircon radiator but that wasn't a hard job.
I already planned to facelift the front end so it wasn’t too bad but it meant that I wont be able to sell on the old parts.
I have always liked the large flappy paddle extensions you can get and so I removed the RS paddles I had on the car and replaced it with the smaller chrome paddles then wrapped the extensions in the same satin red the rest of my interior was wrapped in and fitted those:
Next up I wanted to do this mod ever since I saw it in an RS6 but didnt know how or who to get it done by. I found by chance a person on Instagram advertising that he can do custom trimming on interior pieces so I had him make me up some red seat belts. I drove over to him, stripped out the car seat belts and left them with him for a couple of hours. When he was done I went back and refitted the belts back in. Again another mod that I have lost the original images to but I did upload a video on instagram of it:
One of the last things I did was have a darkside developments downpipe fitted with a custom tune and a rolling road done. The car is now pushing 300 BPH with 515lbs torque. I asked for the car to not be pushed too hard as my main reason for this upgrade wasn’t for speed but rather sound. I hate how quiet this V6 is! after seeing some of my friends doing similar mods to their cars the sound these cars can produce is amazing. On my friends cars they have done a straight though exhaust which makes the 3.0TDI sound like a GTR.. a lovely noise but too loud for my liking so I am going down a slightly different route. So far the DPF has been removed and downpipe fitted but the exhaust will be done very soon.
There are a couple of mods that are in the works… specifically the facelift. I have chosen some lovely custom parts to do the facelift with but its not yet fitted so I will come back with that once thats complete along with the other few things I have planned… stay tuned for more to come!
I’m going to end this update with one of my favourite pics of my car at my favourite car wash
Last edited:
Nice to finally see the updates!
When I seen the pic of the damage to the front end I thought straight away the next pic would be a facelift front end fitted lol! The only main mod left really isnt it?
quick couple of questions:
1. are the bright led reverse bulbs w16w's? (i know they are for the pre fl, but are they the same on FL?)
2. how difficult is it to remove the chrome strips around the windows? I'd like to have my done in black to get the black edition look, contemplating whether to A: Wrap them on the car B: Remove then wrap them C: Remove, sand down, prime, paint D: Remove and replace with genuine black edition strips but haven't managed to find any at the moment!
Kind regards
When I seen the pic of the damage to the front end I thought straight away the next pic would be a facelift front end fitted lol! The only main mod left really isnt it?
quick couple of questions:
1. are the bright led reverse bulbs w16w's? (i know they are for the pre fl, but are they the same on FL?)
2. how difficult is it to remove the chrome strips around the windows? I'd like to have my done in black to get the black edition look, contemplating whether to A: Wrap them on the car B: Remove then wrap them C: Remove, sand down, prime, paint D: Remove and replace with genuine black edition strips but haven't managed to find any at the moment!
Kind regards
- Joined
- Mar 12, 2009
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- 7,567
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- 817
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- 113
- Location
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no I still have a few mods under my sleeve...
yes thats correct on the reverse bulbs.. on etka its listed as w16w 12v.
the chrome strips are different on Sportback and coupe models but basically you need to drill out rivets and remove rear side glass to get it out properly. the door strips lift out but you can separate it from the rubber if your careful.
I replaced mine as it looks the best... my advice is either wrap it on the car(easy) or replace for genuine ones (hard)... nothing in-between is worth the trouble.
Quality thread Ash!.. Car is looking amazing so many great mods aswell, literally read this whole thing didn’t even realise the time
lol... Definitely need to upgrade my stereo likes yours, I had what you have now in my a7 but the S5 which I have now has the older setup which is annoying especially when you cant connect via Bluetooth to play music !.. may have to get in touch with you soon for the Apple TV / freeview setup once I get the new unit in.
Keep up the good work fella
lol... Definitely need to upgrade my stereo likes yours, I had what you have now in my a7 but the S5 which I have now has the older setup which is annoying especially when you cant connect via Bluetooth to play music !.. may have to get in touch with you soon for the Apple TV / freeview setup once I get the new unit in.Keep up the good work fella
TexasB8
Registered User
Wow! Really awesome stuff and all really great ideas! I love the lit door stills. How much are those running? Can you ship to the US?
- Joined
- Mar 12, 2009
- Messages
- 7,567
- Reaction score
- 817
- Points
- 113
- Location
- London and surrounding areas
These are no longer available as the company that made them for us shut down
