Just Rob's Old Avant Bus.

[Charlie Farley]

Well seems only right to start a project thread , albeit 5 years late for my old avant bus.
I've been meaning to do it for some time but it just seemed to slip by really.
Anyway, starting in a reverse order .
Took some rubbish pics this evening as the old bus stands , still a few things to do but very happy with it to date.
As some of you chaps will recall I've had some ups and serious downs with it over the years , and it is most certainly a Friday afternoon special..
So what started out in dec 2006 as a 2.0tfsi avant s-line quattro special edition mk1 has now changed a bit , more in some area's than others.
I have done some moderate upgrades , nothing really bonkers as yet but there is still time.
Luckily for me the old bus was a good spec to start with from the factory so many of the normal upgrades didn't need doing.

Upgrades ( or downgrades depending on your viewpoint) so far on top of the rather nice factory spec.
Internally .
Alpine ICE
BT
OEM RS4 B7 Flat bottom steering wheel.
OEM S4 B7 Recaro's
New south side vent boost gauge
Cruise Control
RS4 carbon trims
so cabin space is an even nicer place to be than it used too, seriously comfy aswell.

Externally:
Bilstein B8 uprated dampers all round with H&R 45mm drop springs
Brembo 18z big brakes
M-tech vented /drilled and grooved 345mm AMG ML discs
M-tech grooved/drilled rear discs
braided hoses on all four corners.
OEM 19" RS4 alloys ET43 with 235/35 19" tyres.
H&R hubcentic 8mm rear alloys spacing ,5mm front spacing on alloys
OEM RS4 B7 Rear ARB ( was a factory fit )
LCR splitter
Morimoto Xenon bulbs
OEM S4 mirror covers
OEM S4 B7 rear valance
OEM S4 Door Blades
OEM RS4 B7 Front grille
Quad 90mm staggered exhaust tips
Westfalia detach towbar
Front bumper foglamp grille mesh.
Black rear circles
(Rear tailgate was debadged as a factory option.)
Tinted rear windows and tailgate

There have been numerous failed projects such as the DTM bumper that I aborted and the first Hofele RS4 bumper that I sold before fitting, still it is all part of the game.

Been through so many sets of alloys I've lost count..lol

As far as the engine goes, only a few bits as the BUL 220 is very good to start with
034 HFC
034 Silicone uprated intake hose
3" custom down pipe
Rev G DV
OEM R8 coilpacks
K&N flatpanel air filter
Gutted airbox
FMIC, still not fitted it ..
Remapped to 270bhp
Custom made full PCV delete kit my own design.

So that's the bulk of the mods as off today and for the most part they all work very well, not sure some are worth the price tag though (steering wheel for one)

there have been lots of other small stuff , along with continual maintance but that's just part and parcel of ownership.

I will be working backwards with pics etc but some of it this evening.
sorry for the rubbish pics...but more specific ones to come.

 

[ANDY2.0]

Looks spot on Rob

 

[AvantMike]

Very nice Rob!

 

[Charlie Farley]

Was going to upload a good old lot of previous pics and info, then my disk drive failed so will have to do it in a few days now....what a pain

 

[HOGG]

We will be patient. We love a good b7 thread



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[CHEZ]

We will be patient. We love a good b7 thread



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I agree.
I love a nice a B7 avant
A proper fueled one.
I miss mine.
Would have probably still had it if it wasn't for a rattley old oil pump failure prone BLB derv..
Ghastly engine ruined that car it did..

But anywho, Rob's does tick all the correct boxes.

 

[Drewskibon]

Looks very clean and tidy!

 

[BenKH95]

Nice car and inspirational for my own, you've done most of the stuff I intend to do also. Some questions...

- Any rear photos? I'm interested to see how the 90mm tips look
- Did the K&N filter make an audible difference at all? Also what did you gut from the airbox?
- How much did you pay for your RS4 grille and is it a direct fit?

Thanks in advance, looking forward to seeing some more photos

 

[Charlie Farley]

some rears from last week.
K&N didn't really make much difference sound wise, but is much less restrictive , gutted the air box internals so a bit louder there but nothing really special but it does get rid of that messy foam and frame that are pretty well useless after many years.
RS4 grille is a direct fit into s-line bumpers only, so if you have an a4 with s-line or a B7 S4 your fine, if you have an rs4 then you don't need it....lol
Cost wise, I paid £300 for the grille and a pair of matching RS4 log lamp grille covers , all brand new so a bit of a bargain.
pics below.

 

[Charlie Farley]

RNS-E MK2 , S4 Recaro's (before I refurbed them) and RS4 FBSW.

 

[Charlie Farley]

some of these bad boys.

 

[Charlie Farley]

still working on the disk drive recovery , as soon as it's back up and running i'll wack up more varied info on all the bits over 5 years with pics to suit.
May end up being a big old thread.

 

[Charlie Farley]

The first new Rs4 grille I retro fitted on the old bus in Dec 2015, on a black gloss theme.
Loved the gloss black for a while then fancied a change , on my 3rd rs4 grille now and in oem satin silver.

 

[Charlie Farley]

This was my first attempt a year on from purchasing the old bus in 2014
Retro fitting different alloys on the old bus , didn't end well either.
real shame as I really liked them, but they wouldn't fit over oem calipers so they were sold shortly after.
Little did I know this was the start of an annual thing I would be doing..lol

 

[Charlie Farley]

Alloys no3, 2016 fit with oem s-line suspension.
18" reps, nice but still not really wow.

 

[Charlie Farley]

Alloys No4. 2016 now with H&R 45mm drop and oem s-line dampers.
18" ronals and they cleared my 18Z's aswell.

 

[Charlie Farley]

then these 2 sets,neither worked for one reason or another..lol
first set 18" , second set 19"

 

[Charlie Farley]

The old bus slowly evolving into my old bus, mistakes along the way for sure and its still only early days at this point..lol

 

[Charlie Farley]

Then these 19" , really liked them aswell and even had the refurbed 3 times in different colours.
And they cleared my 18z's.
Running Bilstein B8's with H&R 45mm at this point, still with the trusty gloss black rs4 grille.

 

[CHEZ]

Never tempted on 20"s @Just Rob. ?

 

[Ricky Burrows]

Rob you need to invest in photoshop to give you an idea what wheels your happy with before ordering half the stock available for your old bus lol.

I think you love it really just buying wheels for the sake of seeing new shiny things haha.

Looks good though mate, subtle sensible mods executed well, I believe its called “tastefully modified”

 

[Charlie Farley]

yep, bought a set of A8/S8 with a view to fitting a while back, all set to go and left them with the refurbers , got a call back later that day saying after stripping them two were bin jobs and one was border line repairable.
needless to say I lost out big time and just sold them for scrap.
Still hankering after another set deep down, but 8.5j specs ones are really hard to find now.

 

[Charlie Farley]

Rob you need to invest in photoshop to give you an idea what wheels your happy with before ordering half the stock available for your old bus lol.

I think you love it really just buying wheels for the sake of seeing new shiny things haha.

Looks good though mate, subtle sensible mods executed well, I believe its called “tastefully modified”

That's not all of them Ricky just the ones I saved pics of or can access pic so far.
probably 3 more sets that never went on the last set of inovit and the current lemans...I think I like my alloys..lol

 

[Ricky Burrows]

That's not all of them Ricky just the ones I saved pics of or can access pic so far.
probably 3 more sets that never went on the last set of inovit and the current lemans...I think I like my alloys..lol

I love the 19” le mans its by far my favourite audi oem wheel, my first love for audis was a black 2009 audi a6 le mans 3.0tdi avant and I needed 7 seats at the time so was the only reason i went with the Mercedes e320 cdi sport over the a6 and the le mans wheels was the things that made it stand out, love them.

 

[Charlie Farley]

Well this is the last few of the alloy's .
19" inovits were nice , then the 1st 19" lemans cockup where the guy sold me the completely wrong wheels.
so that is it , with my current 19" oem rs4 lemans on as per open pic on thread.

 

[Charlie Farley]

first attempt at dual pcv delete and airbox delete with cone filter, worked ok for what it was but I improved on it a heck of a lot.
Converted a centre vent boost gauge to a side vent..
uprated suspension , Brembo 18z's and some other goodies etc.
034HFC and TIP

 

[Charlie Farley]

OEM xenons seemed a bit yellow so changed to morimoto 65k bulbs and way better , also changed the sidelight and drl's to LED, nice for a while but became very problematic so put those back to oem , just on morimoto's at the moment.
oem.

LED DRL/sidelights and mori's

same again in daylight.

 

[Charlie Farley]

Swapped over the standard s-line door blade for some carlosfandangos S4 blades.
Bought an oem set from germany but one need stripping due to rust but managed a full repair all the same with parts from another spare blade.
Anyway , I do like the wider blades.

 

[HOGG]

And where is the s-line blades



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[Nozrul Islam]

Hello Rob, how come you went back on the rnse from Pioneer, surely Pioneer is much better sound quality?

 

[Charlie Farley]

In hindsight the Pioneer was a much better unit, it may not have been oem but thus far compared to the RNS-E mk2 unit I fitted recently the pioneer was far superior and it was touch screen, something I miss now.

Don't get me wrong the oem RNS-E is great but compared to the pioneer i feel it is lacking in many areas.
I kinda went with the RNS-E to go with the RS4 steering wheel etc but since that's all a bit tits up the whole object of the exercise has been lost really.
As I don't have the MFSW control over the head unit now , I am very tempted to go back with a new pioneer again.
I'm having a think on the subject .

 

[Ricky Burrows]

In hindsight the Pioneer was a much better unit, it may not have been oem but thus far compared to the RNS-E mk2 unit I fitted recently the pioneer was far superior and it was touch screen, something I miss now.

Don't get me wrong the oem RNS-E is great but compared to the pioneer i feel it is lacking in many areas.
I kinda went with the RNS-E to go with the RS4 steering wheel etc but since that's all a bit tits up the whole object of the exercise has been lost really.
As I don't have the MFSW control over the head unit now , I am very tempted to go back with a new pioneer again.
I'm having a think on the subject .

Sounds like it could be a blessing in disguise Rob we all know you only wanted an excuse to upgrade to the latest pioneer touch screen ;-)

 

[Charlie Farley]

It's all down to this RS4 FBSW, more trouble than its worth ….

 

[Charlie Farley]

In my current mood I'm likely to just go out tomorrow and rip it all out , rns-e/ steering wheel the lot......

 

[Ricky Burrows]

In my current mood I'm likely to just go out tomorrow and rip it all out , rns-e/ steering wheel the lot......

Have a think on it mate maybe your see things in another light, failing that turn the stereo off put your foot down and listen to the car

 

[AvantAlexB7]

I opted for the Rnse for full oem functionality, oem looks and an upgrade from the stock symphony unit. With regards to the Rs4 wheel, personally im not a massive fan, looks a little cheap imo, and not full compatible as you said. Im thinking of changing my wheel but for a TT or A3 FBSW like this one

 

[Charlie Farley]

Well after another long think about it, it's all coming out, not sure what is going back in as yet but it wont be what I have at present

 

[Charlie Farley]

So another day and i'm in a better frame of mind , as such the current audi setup may have won a reprieve , I think a solution maybe possible .
Will do some more research into it so for now the rs wheel and current audio setup will be staying, if the solution doesn't work out to be doable then I will be looking at something completely different.

 

[AvantAlexB7]

So another day and i'm in a better frame of mind , as such the current audi setup may have won a reprieve , I think a solution maybe possible .
Will do some more research into it so for now the rs wheel and current audio setup will be staying, if the solution doesn't work out to be doable then I will be looking at something completely different.

Whats the plan Rob?

 

[Charlie Farley]

Can bus adapter.