My Well Groomed A4

Why haven't you been using a wash Mitt and shampoo mate

 

Wanted to see how long I could get away with just doing touchless pre-washes, see how it fared.

 

Scary time. Major oil leak.





Luckily it was only a faulty oil filter seal.

At least the engine had a good flush out with two oil changes in a week.

 

That could have been a lot worse !

 

You were lucky...who did the last oil and filter change? What was the cause of the filter seal fault, as it’s very unusual to have these fail? Did you lose all the oil on the drive/road?

 

Very lucky to get away with this one!

Managed to drive it home, the leak carried on overnight while parked on the drive.

So in the morning I topped the oil up with some castrol and drove it to the garage who originally did the oil change, 2 days earlier.

The garage repaired it for free, of course.

He then showed me the seal which caused the leak when the engine got hot. The rubber had a very small and fine hairline defect on the seal.

I guess we can put it down to a faulty part but these things happen.

Been a few days now since the fix and drives like a dream again, so not to tempted to head for the nearest BMW showroom just yet. lol

 

Engine bay needed a quick clean after it's leaked oil everywhere.

 

Nice

 

Best its going to get this time of year. My winter routine quick wash. All done in less than a hour.


BH snowfoam via a pump sprayer, 1 x 12lt bucket of water with some AG shampoo & conditioner.





It's really ready for a polish but that will have to wait until spring.

 

Had repeat of the oil leak. Off back to the garage it went, after a long diagnosis found to be issue with oil housing seal which had warped.






Common problem apparently, though not read any cases in B8.5 (year late 2014).

The whole part was ordered from Audi.

After a bill of £450 fitted the fault/problem is now fixed. Yeah!

Feel a little disappointed with Audi that this should have been a recall since it is a manufacturer design error. No chance of them admitting this and will say 'wear and tear' on a five and half year old car with 49550 miles on the clock.

****** cars!


Only sign of this now, is the oil stain left on the driveway. Any ideas how to clean this up?


Just need to give it a good spring clean and bring it back to it's former glory.

 

Thanks for the tips @V6_Man @Bristle Hound

I used soil at first, left it for nearly 2 days to soak up the slick but it then started to rain hard. So would have liked to have left it longer and let it soak up more but the bad weather but a dampener on that.

Tried later coca-cola, WD-40 and bicarbonate of soda, all did nothing. (Googled)

I will give Zep a go when next get a dry few days.





Back in love with the car again.

Give it a prewash, wash, towel dry, detail spray and tyre dressed. Nothing else..

 

Bought this for my 17 year old lad, his first car to learn to drive in.


A 10 year old Clio Dynamique TomTom.


It needs some serious work on the paint, let's say more webbing than Spiderman.


This is it after a wash and liquid wax.



A bit better but desperately in need of a machine polish.



With self isolation coming to a district near you, what a perfect time to detail your cars !

So plenty of time to get it up to spec.


Keep safe.

 

Finally got the DA polisher on my Son's Clio.

 

Used these products to try and get it to look a bit better.







The swirl remover polish I've had for ages and never used it, since the Clio had more swirls than a Mr whippy ice cream.
It would be perfect for the job.

And it did improve the paint after a machine polish, reducing majority of the swirls.






It's a vast improvement than before as the previous owners have not neglected the car but would have used mostly car washes and bad techniques.




.

 

Interior now all cleaned up to match the outside.

Used astonish car upholstery cleaner on the seats and carpets.

Took 3 attempts to clear up the stain spotting on the seats which eventually came up a lot better.

See the before and after photo




Dash plastics cleaned with Sonax Matt effect and leather parts treated with Sonax leather cream conditioner.






Just need to do under the bonnet and the car is all done.

 

Very nice, I'm still yet to clean under the bonnet of my car!

 

Having taught both my daughters to drive - keep the Upholstery cleaner handy for those 'follow through' moments - a lucky chap to have such a nice first car. Looks great.

 

Under the bonnet cleaning complete and the car is all done!

Before.


After.

Engine bay cleaned with BH Surfex HD diluted with water.

Vacuumed out the years of decaying leafs and debris. Then washed down the reachable areas with a Surfex HD mix on a mf cloth.

Had 5 litre tub of Surfex HD for years now and will last you for ages. Still got 2 litres left you don't need to use much.

Lad is well pleased.

All yours boyo

 

First polish of 2020 and used some of this Zaino bundle for the job.

Always wanted to try some of the Zaino range on a daytona, especially the Zaino polish.

Bought these:

- Zaino A10 all in one polish

- Zaino Z5 pro polish

- Zaino ZFX Polish Accelerator Addictive

- Zaino Z6 gloss enhancer

- Zaino Z8 grand finale spray seal

- Zaino Z12 clear view glass polish





Firstly tried the Zaino A10 all in one polish, followed by Z6 and sealed with Z8. Not sure on Z8 maybe you need to layer it. The glass and piano black panels were polished with the Z12. This stuff is really good.


Pictures follow of the results from the first detail this year.









Engine bay was letting the side down so it had a good clean also. The faithful BH Surfex used for this job.






Interior dash cleaned with Tenzi Matt effect, leather with Sonax and the cloth materials with astonish.






Wheels polished and tryes dressed to finish the overall look.






Still got to try the Zaino Z5 polish mixed with ZFX.

Next time going to apply 3 coats of Z5 with ZFX, happy to apply the Zaino Z5 polish mixed with ZFX by hand as it says it needs to be applied extremely sparingly.

Not a problem, be a nice break from faffing about with the DA and pads.

Z6 will be applied between coats and finished off with Z8 and then maybe a good paste wax for extra protection.


Like to get this all done before autumn and the car has had 2 polishes a year, which seems enough to keep in tip top shape.

 

Cheers, appreciate your feedback.

Missed this part when applying the Z8 after a polish.

Tip: When applying multiple coats of Zaino polish the same day, especially on darker color vehicles we would highly recommend waiting a couple of hours before applying Z-8.

Think I applied it too early after the polish. We live and learn.

 

@A4A4 - great job matey. Car looks great. I've ordered some Tenzi matt Cockpit purely off your picture above. So thanks for that

What did you use on the wheels? Really like that look.

 

Thanks, the wheels were polished with 'Planet Polish' then sprayed with Ziano Z8. The tyres dressed with 'Autoglym tyre dressing' topped off with a spray of 'back to black tyre shine'.

That Tenzi is really good and just as good as the Sonax matt effect, which I've used in the past. Either are a safe choice.

 

The car is now 6 years old and just passed its 4th MOT without any issues or advisories and continuing its clean sheet on testing.

Over 5 and half of those years the A4 has been in my ownership and overall l have enjoyed looking after my well groomed A4.

Can't believe how long l have owned it, how fast its gone and how I have not got bored with it, yet.

Not without a few niggles but that's what you expect these days with any car. Current one is the alarm siren keeps going off randomly.

But I still really like the way it looks, runs and with only touch over 50k on the clock, may keep it for another 5 years.

Pretty content with it at the moment. Nothing tempting me away yet, will see if that changes when the new A4 comes out in 2021.

The cost also will be a big factor, as I have been enjoying the free motoring, No car monthly payment's. Since it was a cash buy over 5 years ago. So yet another good reason to keep hold of the car.

Here it is, after a celebratory wash and quick detailer spray for its sixth birthday.

 

No need to sell it, lovely clean motor you have there. Added bonus not having to worry about PCP or monthly payments.

 

Really miss not being able to get hold of any Zymol Cleaner Wax in the UK, used this years ago and it was brilliant.

Now can only get/find expensive (OTT) Zymol waxes. Way, way out of my price league.

So was happy to see this from Zymol. Not a wax but a detailer spray.

Zymol Deep Gloss Detailing Spray. For under a tenner, not bad for Zymol product.

Weather looks a bit better tomorrow, so will test it out then on the A4. Since it's been neglected for weeks and needs some TLC.

 

A4 has had its 2 coats or 2 goes with the zymol detailer spray.

Like any product more is less when using it.

Can't really see much improvement or difference from the any other detailer spray l use. Such as sonax, done & dusted, ziano, megs and carpro.

Yes it gives a good shine and its a large size bottle 630ml but don't think it's going to be as durable enough for me. No nice smell either from this and all felt a little watered down. No match to the zymol cleaner wax.

So a little disappointing from zymol would have thought it would have been better and was expecting a bit more. It will get used up but won't be rushing to buy it again and it to be a front runner.

After a down pour of rain some sheet beading appears. Not as tight as l normally get.

Think l missed the window in getting its second polish done this year before the turn in weather for it's winter protection. Wanted to try the ziano zfx polish accelerater but cooler and wetter days are going to make it difficult to do outside. Bit short of space in the garage to move around freely to do it.

If I got a day off work and land lucky with some mild weather and have the mojo to do it, it might get polished.

 

Got to be honest, if using a QD spray....... can't beat Megs Ultimate .

Sent from my SM-N986B using Tapatalk

 

Surprised October has been a total wash out, given no chance of getting a second polish done this year.

Was biting on the bit to try out the ziano zfx polish.

Must admit as the time goes on, it's getting harder to keep on top of it and keep the mojo up. ( talking about car care here, lol)

The A4 will have to wait now until the weather warms in spring. Not the end of the world but the end of my full car detailing one, this year.

 

**** applying anything by hand now....go buy some spray on hydrophobic guff....then rinse off with a pressure washer....towel dry....applying anything by hand at this time of year will never cure....

 

Yep, totally agree with you , it's a write off like most things this year. A year to really wipe from living memory.

Anyways, got plenty of drying aids and spray ons to see me through to spring, until the weather warms and we are all back to normal and hit the reset key.

 

What a funny, odd year, the car has hardly been used, let alone being detailed.


Had the DA out more for glossing the kitchen granite than the car bonnet.


Unbelievably had the ruddy car battery charger out more than a wash mitt this year.


Never thought l would need or use the battery charger so much, since bought it early April. What a good buy that turned out to be and saved on a expensive battery.


Got the smart charger setup yet again on winter mode and left it to trickle charge over the lockdown.

Happy Holidays!

 

Daytona grey is one of my fav colours tbh. Very nice car. Can I ask how you used the Zaino polish? It was one of my favourite several years ago, I use to use their ZPC on the porter cable to remove minor swirls etc and then apply Z2. Then you just layer it. Gave a sharp clean crisp look. Are you applying the new polish with DA? If so what pad you using? Thanks

 

Thanks buddy, got to agree with you on that, love daytona pearl.

I used a megs 6" DFP6 polishing disc with the ziano A10 'all in one' polish in the post above.

Still got to try the ziano Z5 pro polish mixed with zfx additive. When l get around to it in spring next year, think this will be applied by hand first, then buffed off with the DA.

Don't think, on this occasion it will need a DA pad to apply it.

I am expecting the results to be very good. But will have to wait a while now to see.

 

Feels like groundhog day.

Weekly big food shop, park it up, trickle charge, rain, bead, freeze, defrost.

Weekly big food shop, park it up, trickle charge, rain, bead, freeze, defrost.

Seems like I own a electric car not diesel.