JudderMan
Registered User
Hi
Thought I'd make a thread for my car. Having been on the A3 8L board for 2 years, I've switched to the B7 fraternity. Here it is:
Bought in August 2014 for a princely sum...ie. about a grand less than others on the market were so had to snap it up. Sold my A3 for exactly what I paid for it, so really, this A4 owes me very little so I don't mind having to splash a little now to get it nice. But....wow do I miss the Recaros of the A3. Here's a little pic of the A3:
Had a brake light switch fail on me last weekend, causing the brake lights to be on all night (but only an hour after I'd locked it!!) it was like the car was taking the micky out of me. Anyway, new Bosch battery and a new £7 switch and it's sorted. Plus, I wanted rid of the Halfrauds battery (yak) before the winter..
Yay!
Brake light switch fitment, can't be bothered to turn the image, it's not that interesting
Next up was today's escapades...the Rev D diverter valve. OMG what a little ******* that was to remove. I have no idea how small your hands need to be but I certainly couldn't do it. Managed it in the end, after lots of swearing and working completely blind, took about 2 hours. Removed the leaves from the air box and fitted a Pipercross drop in panel filter. Gives a nice little bark at around 4krpm now and sounds more whooshy turbo-wise. The DV made no difference, I can't see any splits. Didn't take any pictures as I scratched my phone screen by leaning on it while it was on the floor and was too annoyed
Which leads me onto another problem I need to sort and have just taken delivery of a CTS (coolant temperature sensor). The temp gets up to 70 degrees and stays there unless in traffic. On the motorway it drops to around 65 degrees. I wonder if this causes the car to feel slow, like a semi-safety/limp mode? I have Torque Pro and 0-60 times were 9 seconds instead of the supposed 7 seconds and certainly doesn't feel like 200bhp! I know it's probably not completely accurate but it was consistent and having done lots of drag racing years ago, I kinda know how to get a good start
Anyway, I've Googled how to swap out the CTS and it sounds like a ******, so gonna get my MOT tester mate to swap out the CTS and might as well get him to throw a thermostat on as well while the coolant it out and some fresh G12.
Noticed some corrosion when you lift the bonnet on the slam panel and above the radiator. Will have to do something about that as I live by the sea so it will spread even faster...Waxoyl or what are your recommendations? Radiator and SMIC have massive hornet/bee things in them and both look pretty screwed now. Might get some new ones, need to look at pricing. I assume it's just bumper off, headlights out (maybe) and swap them out?
Next annoyance were the weak headlights and sidelights. Bought some off eBay and they look OK. Might get some LED sidelights as the 'brighter' ones aren't that different. I'm not a fan of HIDs and 'blue' sidelights just wanted some 4300k white ones. Not 100% sure on keeping these, but what a little ****** that was to replace them. Nearly pulled the wires off the sidelights..Bought some brighter foglights as well but will wait to fit them until the bumper is off as I can't get my hand in (my fog grills are missing but still couldn't get in there).
Bought a cam follower too, which again my friend will have to fit as I've ran out of free time now due to a 3.5 month old baby, running a business and a wife to keep happy Will get Mr MOT to dump the oil (as I always make a mess moving the pan out from under the car LOL), fit a magnetic sump plug, and replace the oil pick up pipe.
Noticed there is a rattle when lifting off the accelerator, maybe a heat shield, but having had my head under it, I can see the exhaust clamps are very corroded and one of the rear pipes is too, hopefully it's not blowing as I see fancy Milltek replacements are £750!! I think I'll stick with OEM...(how much are they anyone?)
Another problem is an oil leak. I've removed the undertray and put some cardboard down so I can see where it comes from as the undertray was misleading. There was some oil on the MAF plug!! So my guess is something turbo related, need to investigate further but can't see anything obvious yet. Having done around 1300 miles, it's needed about 250-300 mls, which isn't anything out of the ordinary for these cars I've been reading about but still, my drive is pretty spotty.
Embarrassingly I bought a rear boot spoiler...I know I know, it'll probably look crap but I kinda fancy it. I'm waiting for my carbon vinyl to turn up so I can wrap the interior trim to get rid of the nasty wood effect, and might wrap the spoiler too. Anyone that knows me, which is none of you on here LOL, knows that a spoiler isn't my thing. I'm very much OEM+ ie. nicer Audi (possibly RS4) wheels, clean bodywork and go faster parts. A sleeper, in other words, but will see how it looks.
New braided brake lines (always prefer them to OEM) and pads will be ordered in a few months. I think the ones on there are fairly new, they certainly look it, but I always like to change them so I know they've been done. For the same reason, all filters will be changed next week ie. pollen, oil, fuel etc and air con regassed.
Once all of the above is done, it will be remap time. I guess that I should have a new MAF before the remap as my last car ate two MAFs in the time I had it.
I think that's it for now. Will update this thread with progress. I've had it a month and still haven't washed it, so that will be tomorrow's task if I get any time.
Ordered an Isofix mount and cup holder from German ebay as mine were missing. I suppose the mount was an option that didn't get ticked.
One last pic, a bit arty, which for me is a rarity as I have zero creativity, taken at the place where we got married as we went back for our anniversary the other week. More better and daytime pics to follow once I've cleaned it.
JudderMan
Thought I'd make a thread for my car. Having been on the A3 8L board for 2 years, I've switched to the B7 fraternity. Here it is:
Bought in August 2014 for a princely sum...ie. about a grand less than others on the market were so had to snap it up. Sold my A3 for exactly what I paid for it, so really, this A4 owes me very little so I don't mind having to splash a little now to get it nice. But....wow do I miss the Recaros of the A3. Here's a little pic of the A3:
Had a brake light switch fail on me last weekend, causing the brake lights to be on all night (but only an hour after I'd locked it!!) it was like the car was taking the micky out of me. Anyway, new Bosch battery and a new £7 switch and it's sorted. Plus, I wanted rid of the Halfrauds battery (yak) before the winter..
Yay!
Brake light switch fitment, can't be bothered to turn the image, it's not that interesting
Next up was today's escapades...the Rev D diverter valve. OMG what a little ******* that was to remove. I have no idea how small your hands need to be but I certainly couldn't do it. Managed it in the end, after lots of swearing and working completely blind, took about 2 hours. Removed the leaves from the air box and fitted a Pipercross drop in panel filter. Gives a nice little bark at around 4krpm now and sounds more whooshy turbo-wise. The DV made no difference, I can't see any splits. Didn't take any pictures as I scratched my phone screen by leaning on it while it was on the floor and was too annoyed
Which leads me onto another problem I need to sort and have just taken delivery of a CTS (coolant temperature sensor). The temp gets up to 70 degrees and stays there unless in traffic. On the motorway it drops to around 65 degrees. I wonder if this causes the car to feel slow, like a semi-safety/limp mode? I have Torque Pro and 0-60 times were 9 seconds instead of the supposed 7 seconds and certainly doesn't feel like 200bhp! I know it's probably not completely accurate but it was consistent and having done lots of drag racing years ago, I kinda know how to get a good start
Anyway, I've Googled how to swap out the CTS and it sounds like a ******, so gonna get my MOT tester mate to swap out the CTS and might as well get him to throw a thermostat on as well while the coolant it out and some fresh G12.
Noticed some corrosion when you lift the bonnet on the slam panel and above the radiator. Will have to do something about that as I live by the sea so it will spread even faster...Waxoyl or what are your recommendations? Radiator and SMIC have massive hornet/bee things in them and both look pretty screwed now. Might get some new ones, need to look at pricing. I assume it's just bumper off, headlights out (maybe) and swap them out?
Next annoyance were the weak headlights and sidelights. Bought some off eBay and they look OK. Might get some LED sidelights as the 'brighter' ones aren't that different. I'm not a fan of HIDs and 'blue' sidelights just wanted some 4300k white ones. Not 100% sure on keeping these, but what a little ****** that was to replace them. Nearly pulled the wires off the sidelights..Bought some brighter foglights as well but will wait to fit them until the bumper is off as I can't get my hand in (my fog grills are missing but still couldn't get in there).
Bought a cam follower too, which again my friend will have to fit as I've ran out of free time now due to a 3.5 month old baby, running a business and a wife to keep happy Will get Mr MOT to dump the oil (as I always make a mess moving the pan out from under the car LOL), fit a magnetic sump plug, and replace the oil pick up pipe.
Noticed there is a rattle when lifting off the accelerator, maybe a heat shield, but having had my head under it, I can see the exhaust clamps are very corroded and one of the rear pipes is too, hopefully it's not blowing as I see fancy Milltek replacements are £750!! I think I'll stick with OEM...(how much are they anyone?)
Another problem is an oil leak. I've removed the undertray and put some cardboard down so I can see where it comes from as the undertray was misleading. There was some oil on the MAF plug!! So my guess is something turbo related, need to investigate further but can't see anything obvious yet. Having done around 1300 miles, it's needed about 250-300 mls, which isn't anything out of the ordinary for these cars I've been reading about but still, my drive is pretty spotty.
Embarrassingly I bought a rear boot spoiler...I know I know, it'll probably look crap but I kinda fancy it. I'm waiting for my carbon vinyl to turn up so I can wrap the interior trim to get rid of the nasty wood effect, and might wrap the spoiler too. Anyone that knows me, which is none of you on here LOL, knows that a spoiler isn't my thing. I'm very much OEM+ ie. nicer Audi (possibly RS4) wheels, clean bodywork and go faster parts. A sleeper, in other words, but will see how it looks.
New braided brake lines (always prefer them to OEM) and pads will be ordered in a few months. I think the ones on there are fairly new, they certainly look it, but I always like to change them so I know they've been done. For the same reason, all filters will be changed next week ie. pollen, oil, fuel etc and air con regassed.
Once all of the above is done, it will be remap time. I guess that I should have a new MAF before the remap as my last car ate two MAFs in the time I had it.
I think that's it for now. Will update this thread with progress. I've had it a month and still haven't washed it, so that will be tomorrow's task if I get any time.
Ordered an Isofix mount and cup holder from German ebay as mine were missing. I suppose the mount was an option that didn't get ticked.
One last pic, a bit arty, which for me is a rarity as I have zero creativity, taken at the place where we got married as we went back for our anniversary the other week. More better and daytime pics to follow once I've cleaned it.
JudderMan
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