The dad wagon project

[TOM.S]

Hello Gents.
just wanted to brag a little. after several years of being here in the B7 club, I'm replacing my beloved 2.0t manual quattro sedan with a 2.0t tiptronic quattro avant.
Pick up this avant just yesterday for reasonable money and will be restoring/upgrading to a acceptable level.
I have exported this UK spec sedan to my native country upon my return home in hope, that I can legally register and use it on EU roads, but as you may guessed that didn't turn out as expected. So plan B was to get another car but this time an avant. As it seems the 2.0t petrol engine combined with the good old torsen quattro is a rare find in central/ eastern Europe it took me 20+ moths of search to have finally find another 2.0t quattro and in the so much desired avant version.
So the sedan,which was the S line version and had quite a few smart mods will be taken apart and used as a part donor for the annoyingly standard and neglected SE avant.
Ihere's a quick teaser, and I'll be posting more in the what have we done to our B7 today section I guess.
Gone from this >

and gone to this>

 

[Charlie Farley]

So let the mods begin as they say.
Good luck chap , will keep an eye on your progress, looks like the avant needs some updating compared to your saloon.

 

[Nollywood]

Very nice buy.

What color is the Avant? It’s not a common shade, very striking. I bet it looks awesome in bright sunlight.

It seems a shame to pull apart that nice Sedan though, but I can fully understand your reasons for doing so.

 

[Sandra]

@TOM.S good luck with the avant. Look forward to your progress

 

[TOM.S]

Very nice buy.

What color is the Avant? It’s not a common shade, very striking. I bet it looks awesome in bright sunlight.

It seems a shame to pull apart that nice Sedan though, but I can fully understand your reasons for doing so.

Hi the color is a dark red, almost maroon I would say, officially it's stated as: Audi garnet red pearl LZ3F
and indeed it looks good at bright sunlight
the sedans soul will live on.. as the bus will be done in the same way as the sedan was, most of the usable parts will be swapped.

 

[Dan_Avant]

Wow, that's quite a change. Hope the Avant ends up looking as good as your old saloon mate. Good luck

 

[TOM.S]

Started the overhaul process.
changed the fuel, cabin, air filter, checked all the fluid etc, changed brake discs from the old girl and added fresh pads, but didn't managed to paint the calipers yet, replaced the crappy oem a4 se rear anti roll bar with the rs4 one. when i saw the difference I could't believe how basic , degraded these SE's are.. 16mm in diameter compared to the 22mm rs4.
put the 19'' on just to see how it looks with the se suspension, well see for yourself looks like a *** tractor
So will have to tackle the suspension in the very near future too.
Also looks like I need to replace the power steering pump, or at least flush the system as I'm getting a whining noise from behind the steering wheel, and the power steering fluid is a dark brown ,almost black in color instead of the expected greenish.
also stripped the sedans interior, ordered the rnse retrofit kit which arrived today so next couple of days will be swapping the centre console,mfsw,rnse, the s line seats doorcards etc..etc..
Whilst I will be taking the interior apart U came up with this great idea of color coding the interior too. most of the interior panels will be sprayed black, including the headliner, some smaller bits will be highlighted in the cars garnet red to contrast with the all that black.

 

[TOM.S]

update time, got a few little things done: air filter recharge & maf cleaned, blown exhaust replaced by a restored old one. pcv valve ditched to f*** hell..
Throttle body cleaned,seats replaced, interior upgrade started too gone from 1 din to 2 din with the RNSE, MFSW, interior bits sprayed garnet red color to match the exterior. hopefully more to come soon.

 

[AvantMike]

Love this! great work

 

[Ricky Burrows]

Looking forward to seeing how this goes, to be honest you have started with the full on all options ticked grandad mobile so im intrigued to see how it turns out, im sure it will be night and day difference

 

[Charlie Farley]

making good progress chap, but you really need a catch tank in that setup as all it is doing at present is passing all the crankcase oil laden air through the valve bypass passage and straight into you turbo again , filling up you IC's with oil residue and manifold etc.

 

[Ricky Burrows]

making good progress chap, but you really need a catch tank in that setup as all it is doing at present is passing all the crankcase oil laden air through the valve bypass passage and straight into you turbo again , filling up you IC's with oil residue and manifold etc.

Ive put off fitting my fmic for that reason, its all a bit confusing to me, i may just bang on a delete kit.

 

[Charlie Farley]

The basic idea with a pcv delete is to redirect the oil vapour etc from the 1st oil separator mounted close to the sump and then the 2nd oil separator in the valve cover.
By redirecting that vapour to atmosphere( not really the best for a road car) , or recycling through an effective catch tank arrangement , most of the nasty stuff you don't want in the engine or more specifically intake system and then combustion cycle , will be filter out into the catch tank or tanks.
No system is 100% effective but the more you can filter out the better, therefore a full pcv delete is the most effective method ,part deletes only do a minimal job at most , and all the time the valve cover is still part of the system there will be a much larger proportion of contaminated air being recycled directly back into the intake via the turbo return point.

 

[Charlie Farley]

The oem setup was designed to fullfill numerous functions including strict emmisions controls , so it doesn't do the engine any favours by any means, it does the job it was designed to do at that's all.

 

[TOM.S]

making good progress chap, but you really need a catch tank in that setup as all it is doing at present is passing all the crankcase oil laden air through the valve bypass passage and straight into you turbo again , filling up you IC's with oil residue and manifold etc.

Hi Rob, thanks for the hint
Yes, eventually I will go catch can route, either as described in your thread, or something simmiliar (something simple that involves the least amount cutting,joining,fixing weldign etc..) but I´m not there yet.
The reason I gone for this part delete is was dirt cheap and my oem PCV valve was failing anyways. might aswell drill n tap 2x threads into this aluminium bit later on to fit to a catch can.

 

[Ricky Burrows]

Yeah I understand what a catch can does but i mean the one on these tfsi’s seem to be an exaggerated version of your typical catch can set up and thats the bit i don’t get as in i don't know where and how to fit one, ill have to have another read through your sticky about the full pcv delete my mind starts wondering when im reading a long thread i can sit there with a cup of tea but once i hear or see something im like a puppy i get distracted easy i need to get my back to school head on sit there and really read not just glance through looking at pictures lol.

 

[Charlie Farley]

it's very simple really Ricky.

 

[TOM.S]

Looking forward to seeing how this goes, to be honest you have started with the full on all options ticked grandad mobile so im intrigued to see how it turns out, im sure it will be night and day difference

Grandad mobile indeed
hence argued the price down to just over 3K (these b7´s still go for in the 5K-8K euros price range based on specs,mileage and technical condition.
It was neglected and basic as F... which made a perfect resto car project and a fun bus to drive when it will be done.

 

[Ricky Burrows]

Grandad mobile indeed
hence argued the price down to just over 3K (these b7´s still go for in the 5K-8K euros price range based on specs,mileage and technical condition.
It was neglected and basic as F... which made a perfect resto car project and a fun bus to drive when it will be done.

In some ways its better transforming a car that basic into something special and something it never intended to leave the factory as, i bet your looking forward to putting your touch on it even if that means sacrificing the saloon

 

[Charlie Farley]

Any special reason why you went with an auto or was it due to lack of a manual variant in your location.

 

[TOM.S]

Just Rob:
There were barely any manuals on the market, let alone with this engine and the quattro drive combination, so after long few months of search a gave up my hopes for the 6 speed manual and settled in for this tiptronic.
in all fairness it's not as bad as expected, but still use the semi auto mode often

 

[Charlie Farley]

 

[Pie-eyedpiper]

Just Rob:
There were barely any manuals on the market, let alone with this engine and the quattro drive combination, so after long few months of search a gave up my hopes for the 6 speed manual and settled in for this tiptronic.
in all fairness it's not as bad as expected, but still use the semi auto mode often

I loved the tiptronic coupled with quattro in my old A6 2.5tdi quattro sport, great for drag racing from the lights. It turned out to be it's Achilles heel though.
Was a very sad loss, most will be reliable surely.

 

[TOM.S]

since I got too much time on my hands these days,
I gone search the net a found myself a deal.. second hand thule roof bars and box combo for 80 euros.
so this afternoon a fiddled with it and quite like the outcome. Now I know, not everyone will like this, but I think an avant with the added roof box looks the business.
Not sure what car we're they meant to be on, but doesn't look bad at all, maybe if i could find some shorter bars...

 

[Charlie Farley]

I have a roof box for my old bus but only use it on the odd occasions now, I have never managed to get hold of oem audi roof bars either but a set of bars from my old 2006 merc E320 elegance fit perfectly.

As far as looks, i'd prefer it without the box to be honest but all down to our old friend " personal preference" so if it works for you Tom then that is all that really matters.

have a good one.

 

[Pie-eyedpiper]

I've got genuine A4 bars and Thule aluminium Aero bars for mine (A4 bars have my top box permanently attached). And to be honest the Thule bar feet are far easier to attach, just using the end cap to tighten the clamps.
For the Audi bars a Torx key is used and this can be a right bummer to get tight
The ends of the bars can be cut off to prevent the over hang and subsequent head banging.