My S4 thread

[jdp1962]

Filled up yesterday, 322 miles from the tank. I think that's a new PB. What I discovered along the way is I am not cut out for high pressure situations. Had 25 miles remaining on the DIS and the fuel light on. I was a nervous wreck.

Back in the Autumn, we set off on a trip to Northumberland. We filled up at Alnwick, 329 miles after leaving the house.

 

[ub7rm]

Just back from a round trip from Aberdeenshire to Cornwall. Trip computer reckons it did average 34 mpg sitting at motorway speeds whilst fully loaded - not bad.

 

[Bulldog]

It's not like you bought these cars to be economical was it lol ?

 

[jdp1962]

It's not like you bought these cars to be economical was it lol ?

@scotty76 did!

 

[scotty76]

It's not like you bought these cars to be economical was it lol ?

I know but I can't help tracking these things.

 

[scotty76]

The weather's been pretty miserable lately but over the weekend and today I finally got around to some serious cleaning. Bought some Carpro Trix to sort some burnt on tar on the exhaust pipes. Not 100% sorted but much improved. Thought I'd attack the wheels whilst I was at it as there is some light brake dust pitting and found plenty of stuff to react.

Finally washed with Carpro Reset.

 

[feva]

The weather's been pretty miserable lately but over the weekend and today I finally got around to some serious cleaning. Bought some Carpro Trix to sort some burnt on tar on the exhaust pipes. Not 100% sorted but much improved. Thought I'd attack the wheels whilst I was at it as there is some light brake dust pitting and found plenty of stuff to react.

Finally washed with Carpro Reset.

View attachment 96689 View attachment 96690 View attachment 96691 View attachment 96692

If that's not photoshopped that reflection shot is brilliant.

Sent from my Note 4 using tapatalk

 

[scotty76]

If that's not photoshopped that reflection shot is brilliant.

Sent from my Note 4 using tapatalk

Definitely not photoshopped. I can't work the damn thing. It'll be covered in pollen by tomorrow rest assured.

Have you seen the reflections thread on the detailing board? Plenty better on there.

 

[feva]

Definitely not photoshopped. I can't work the damn thing. It'll be covered in pollen by tomorrow rest assured.

Have you seen the reflections thread on the detailing board? Plenty better on there.

Didn't think so but best to check

Seen the reflection section could spend hours in there.

Sent from my Note 4 using tapatalk

 

[scotty76]

Always a laugh a minute when you get back from holiday to see what your black car looks like. Did I mention I'm not having another black one?

 

[Scottyg]

@scotty76 you just pray that someone doesn't drag their finger along it before you get the chance to clean it.

 

[scotty76]

@Scottyg it's the 2 week old bird poo I'm more worried about.

 

[Scottyg]

You've got enough protection on that black beauty that nuclear fallout wouldn't get through it.

 

[scotty76]

I've not updated for a while. Not much to report. A change in job has seen my mileage rise from 3500 to a projected 10k miles a year. I was a bit worried I'd spend all my time at the petrol station but at two years old I'll be in the worst bit of the depreciation curve so changing seemed foolish. I'm happy to report the S4 regularly cracks 30mpg and the S-Tronic is great for traffic which I see a lot of. So it's a keeper. I realise that the DIS lies but mine's never been that far out.

 

[Bristle Hound]

I've not updated for a while. Not much to report. A change in job has seen my mileage rise from 3500 to a projected 10k miles a year. I was a bit worried I'd spend all my time at the petrol station but at two years old I'll be in the worst bit of the depreciation curve so changing seemed foolish. I'm happy to report the S4 regularly cracks 30mpg and the S-Tronic is great for traffic which I see a lot of. So it's a keeper. I realise that the DIS lies but mine's never been that far out.

View attachment 105271

@scotty76 - Impressive
Wish mine would do those sort of figures
Lets not forget these S4's are 3 litre V6's. Don't think the 8V S3 owners are achieving anything like those from a 4 pot 2 litre

 

[Chiefbadger]

I'm still hovering around 20mpg over the last 8000 miles!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[scotty76]

@scotty76 - Impressive
Wish mine would do those sort of figures
Lets not forget these S4's are 3 litre V6's. Don't think the 8V S3 owners are achieving anything like those from a 4 pot 2 litre

Yep. Not bad for a 3 litre V6 supercharged 1700 Kg car.

 

[scotty76]

I'm still hovering around 20mpg over the last 8000 miles!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Around town the mpg is awful. My commute is A road / motorway / A road. There's a lot of traffic in the mornings but occasionally on the way home I get a straight through run. The above was from one such day.

 

[jdp1962]

Just pulled 34mpg on a run from London to Eastbourne. No pics though

 

[scotty76]

Just rolled over 15k miles so thought I'd post a mini update. Long term mpg for those 15k miles stands at 26.7mpg on Shell or Texaco standard unleaded. The car is going to my local detailer in 3 weeks time to be stripped back, any defects corrected and Kamikaze ISM Coat applied. The CQuartz Finest lasted well and is still in evidence but there are quite a few defects needing attention courtesy of a run in with a bush and my works car park! Also like @Bristle Hound I just can't resist trying new stuff. For now a quick Reload topup 3 weeks ago is tiding me over. @Scottyg loves this stuff and it is indeed good. However I have a slightly dodgy batch from 2014 which smears like mad even diluted 50/50. I've used the rest on the wheels which works really well and is a doddle.



Other random stuff. The radio has taken to forgetting that it was left on so that when I come back to the car and start it, it's off. This seems to happen most when playing media from the SD card and turning the ignition off. I need to try and pin it down but not really that worried.

 

[xpoweruk]

How is your battery ?
When mine was low the was doing odd things like that

 

[scotty76]

How is your battery ?
When mine was low the was doing odd things like that

Don't have VCDS so can't check but battery is only 28 months old. I don't do short journeys so should be OK.

 

[Scottyg]

I definitely do love it. Still got Cquartz Uk but need to top up my supplies of Reload!! Total doddle to use.

 

[Dippy]

Don't have VCDS so can't check but battery is only 28 months old. I don't do short journeys so should be OK.

Mines 18 months and 7K miles but has done it a few times. I put it down to a design bug.

 

[Keef]

Just rolled over 15k miles so thought I'd post a mini update. Long term mpg for those 15k miles stands at 26.7mpg on Shell or Texaco standard unleaded. The car is going to my local detailer in 3 weeks time to be stripped back, any defects corrected and Kamikaze ISM Coat applied. The CQuartz Finest lasted well and is still in evidence but there are quite a few defects needing attention courtesy of a run in with a bush and my works car park! Also like @Bristle Hound I just can't resist trying new stuff. For now a quick Reload topup 3 weeks ago is tiding me over. @Scottyg loves this stuff and it is indeed good. However I have a slightly dodgy batch from 2014 which smears like mad even diluted 50/50. I've used the rest on the wheels which works really well and is a doddle.



Other random stuff. The radio has taken to forgetting that it was left on so that when I come back to the car and start it, it's off. This seems to happen most when playing media from the SD card and turning the ignition off. I need to try and pin it down but not really that worried.

Will be interested in your thoughts on the Kamikaze Coating, I see Nick seems to be using it a lot now.
I would like to try and get booked in for another trip soon, but I know he's real busy. I've notice soon terrible stone chips on the bonnet and would like to get them sorted. Finally got round to trying the Carpro hydro 2 lite the other day, sooo easy, so perfect for me.

 

[scotty76]

So my car has been away for 2 days having Kamikaze ISM Coat applied. This was done by my local detailer. The car had picked up a few niggles since the Cquartz Finest coating was applied just over 2 years ago. That's life. I had a great discussion with the pro detailer, Nick, about the current crop of super long life coatings. Despite these seeming like a great idea the car will inevitably pick up wear and tear and need polishing and recoating. With this in mind I'm happy to go for something with a 2-3 year life. Enough chat here's the shiny bits...

@Keef I'll keep you posted.

 

[Bristle Hound]

So my car has been away for 2 days having Kamikaze ISM Coat applied. This was done by my local detailer. The car had picked up a few niggles since the Cquartz Finest coating was applied just over 2 years ago. That's life. I had a great discussion with the pro detailer, Nick, about the current crop of super long life coatings. Despite these seeming like a great idea the car will inevitably pick up wear and tear and need polishing and recoating. With this in mind I'm happy to go for something with a 2-3 year life. Enough chat here's the shiny bits...

View attachment 110292 View attachment 110293

@Keef I'll keep you posted.

@scotty76 - S4 looks fab !
Heard a lot of good things about Kamikaze detailing products
Can't beat a freshly Detailed black car. Nothing better IMO

The challenge is to keep it looking like that now

 

[scotty76]

Can't beat a freshly Detailed black car. Nothing better IMO

The challenge is to keep it looking like that now

Indeed that's always the issue. Did I mention I'm not having another black one?
I looked at Kamikaze Over coat for top ups but it's £50 for 100ml bottle! Must be made of Unicorn tears!

 

[Bristle Hound]

Indeed that's always the issue. Did I mention I'm not having another black one?

@scotty76 - After the wife's black/red MINI JCW I couldn't do another black car. Drives my car OCD into orbit
But without a shadow of doubt black looks fab when clean. Its keeping it clean that drove me nuts lol

I looked at Kamikaze Over coat for top ups but it's £50 for 100ml bottle! Must be made of Unicorn tears!

How much ?

 

[jdp1962]

Still looking great, @scotty76

 

[Dippy]

@scotty76 did you decide to get the new coating based on time since the last or because you noticed it wearing off? How many years are the "super long life coatings" reputed to last?

 

[scotty76]

@scotty76 did you decide to get the new coating based on time since the last or because you noticed it wearing off? How many years are the "super long life coatings" reputed to last?

Based on time and the fact I'd picked up a few paint defects I wanted fixing. Scratches on the rear bumper and a few other wear and tear items. I hate work car parks.

Some of the coatings are now quoting 5 years plus but that won't stop swirls appearing no matter how careful you are.

 

[scotty76]

This week I had an annoying rattle develop from the drivers side rear window. I attacked all the rubber surrounds with my trusty Gummi Pflege rubber care stick (stop sniggering at the back) and problem solved!

 

[Bristle Hound]

@scotty76 - Can't beat a bit of Gummi Pflege !

 

[vaf888]

I need some of that **** too.

Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk

 

[scotty76]

So tiny update. The front tyres finally needed replacing. They are Pirelli P7 Cinturato A0. One was the original factory fit tyre and the other was slightly newer after my bridge faux pas. They managed 16,591 miles. Not bad at all. I've replaced them like for like as I've had no issues with them and none of the tramlining the Contis seem to suffer from. I'm aware you are supposed to replace all 4 at once on a Quattro but I've chosen not to do this mostly for reasons of cost. On my head be it.

I did a quick bit of reading as to what's the difference between A0 and the normal version of the tyres. It seems there are sometimes differences in the compound. As there was no cost difference I've stuck to the A0 version for now.

 

[jdp1962]

I was planning to replace my factory-fit Contis this month. They've done almost 14,000 miles from new and although they've still got around 4.5mm of tread, I hate them and figure they've done enough to justify binning them. They'll be replaced with Dunlop Sport Maxx RT 2s all round, but it won't be this month now.

The other day, my sparkie came round to price up what should have been a simple job of fitting a waterproof socket to the outside back wall; I was expecting maybe £100 tops. When he looked inside the meter cupboard of my 1928-built house, he was horrified. There are no earth trails from the supply box to the meter, or the fuse board or the cold-water supply. The whole house is only earthed because of a connection to a metal-bodied gas supply line. Also, the fuse board itself is no longer compliant so will need renewing. I'll get the quote at the weekend but I'm figuring I need to add an extra zero to the £100 I was expecting to pay for the socket.

So tyres will be next month at the earliest.

 

[Hear-Vier]

Interesting to hear you've stuck with the Cinturatos. Mine has them too and when I collected it I was a bit disappointed/sniffy it had Pirellis and not Dunlops or Contis that I've stuck to in the past. But they are up to almost 19,000 now and I'll consider them again when it comes to replacement time. And no tramlining problems either after I eventually got the tracking sorted that the supplying dealer wasn't able to fix. Swapped front to rear last June so pretty even wear and still a couple of mms left...can't be hooning around enough! How many mms left on your rears?

 

[scotty76]

Interesting to hear you've stuck with the Cinturatos. Mine has them too and when I collected it I was a bit disappointed/sniffy it had Pirellis and not Dunlops or Contis that I've stuck to in the past. But they are up to almost 19,000 now and I'll consider them again when it comes to replacement time. And no tramlining problems either after I eventually got the tracking sorted that the supplying dealer wasn't able to fix. Swapped front to rear last June so pretty even wear and still a couple of mms left...can't be hooning around enough! How many mms left on your rears?

As I said I've had no issues with the Pirellis and crucially they haven't tried to kill me in wet or dry (unlike some other car/tyre combos I've had), so I see no reason to change. They tick all the boxes. If I'd has issues like @jdp1962 I would be swapping. I'll check the tread depth on the rears when it stops raining (so probably May)! The garage said they were "fine" but I'll measure when I can.

 

[Bristle Hound]

So tiny update. The front tyres finally needed replacing. They are Pirelli P7 Cinturato A0. One was the original factory fit tyre and the other was slightly newer after my bridge faux pas. They managed 16,591 miles. Not bad at all. I've replaced them like for like as I've had no issues with them and none of the tramlining the Contis seem to suffer from. I'm aware you are supposed to replace all 4 at once on a Quattro but I've chosen not to do this mostly for reasons of cost. On my head be it.

I did a quick bit of reading as to what's the difference between A0 and the normal version of the tyres. It seems there are sometimes differences in the compound. As there was no cost difference I've stuck to the A0 version for now.

@scotty76 - You got a decent mileage outta those fronts me thinks

My S4 came with Continental ContiSportContact 3's from the factory. I had these on my previous B8 A4 quattro and loved 'em
I love the Conti's & haven't had any probs with mine
Could be down to all our different driving styles me thinks

BTW my old B8 A4 came from the factory with Pirelli P-Zero's which were truly horrendous