B8.5 S4 Avant hits Southern California

[Shawn@PacificGerman]

Hey Audizine!

Recently a client dropped off his B8 Avant for a good looking over. The car was experiencing some oil consumption issues, and we presented him some options. We could have rebuilt what he had, sourced a used replacement, went for a dealer re-manufactured unit, or converted to an S4 3.0... Naturally the latter option made the most sense [wrench]

We then sourced a 2015 S4 Prestige as a donor. This car had a minor rear end bump that was enough to total the car but not enough to damage any components that were needed for this conversion.

Getting down to details:

2012 A4 Avant S-Line
2015 S4 Prestige - All options except for adaptive cruise: 4x,xxx miles
Full conversion to the wagon - S4 drivetrain, S4 interior with all technology, B8.5 facelift
Since the S4 has ADS, we transferred that over and then fitted the car with KW HAS to retain the comfort/sport shocks but also have a nice ride height.

This is a California Smog / State Referee legal conversion. With the vehicle completed, we have prepared the client with all paperwork needed to visit the state referee and have the car BAR/CARB certified as an 3.0 S4 emissions compliant conversion. This is why the conversion also remained tame without any upgrades so that it will pass emissions.

Of course this is not a complete build thread but we took some photos along the way to document the procedure. Let us know if you have any questions!


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[Morritse]

WOW

[autologic]

Interesting, wasn't quite sure on the steps with the State for this kind of conversion, nice too know.

[Turbocoop]

Badass

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[fstr n u]

Approx how many hours/people were involved with that swap? Beautiful car.

[Shawn@PacificGerman]

Approx how many hours/people were involved with that swap? Beautiful car.

We had 2 techs on the car, one for tear down assist and one for reassembly. 100 hours roughly went into the swap including extensive wiring, programming, and coding.

[Dr GP]

Nice job and I really like it, but at what cost? Only thing better would have been if it was a 6MT!

[ItsCAvalos]

Would you happen to know if ripping out the whole dashboard and wiring is necessary if it was a B8.5 to B8.5?


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[SconnieRoadie]

Jellin' hard on these s4 powerplant ports... I would love to put my MT and 6cyl into an A4 wagon... All the wagon with all the power!

If only someone would rear-end my S4 (not!).

Sconnie

[Jwill]

Wow! Awesome [hail]

[DG7]

How she sits today:

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20191119/527fce2c9fea2ccc7a62b3a754a37200.plist

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[Solarsuplex]

Didnt want to crack the lights open and toss in some clear corners like he had done on the b8 lights? [:D]

Great work, love to see this happen. 100 hours is actually pretty amazing. Those guys moved fast.

[G-Can]

We had 2 techs on the car, one for tear down assist and one for reassembly. 100 hours roughly went into the swap including extensive wiring, programming, and coding.Total cost, not including donor car?

[Bikel]

Didnt want to crack the lights open and toss in some clear corners like he had done on the b8 lights? [:D]

Great work, love to see this happen. 100 hours is actually pretty amazing. Those guys moved fast.

Yep, have to agree... The orange corners definitely devalue the whole project! lol

Bravo... Great work here gentlemen! Bravo

[DG7]

The previous headlights were e codes while these new ones are not. One thing at a time. I JUST got the car back last week. [:D]

[blackfunk]

Am I the only one to notice the client goes in for an oil leak and comes out with a new car? LOL. Life must be good. Clearly I'm in the wrong line of work.

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[makisupa]

Am I the only one to notice the client goes in for an oil leak and comes out with a new car? LOL. Life must be good. Clearly I'm in the wrong line of work.

Sent from my SM-N950U using TapatalkThis is what everyone with a B8 with consumption issues should do lol

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[blackfunk]

I can totally picture them trying to convince the significant other that it's the same car. I mean technically it is. LOL.

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[makisupa]

I can totally picture them trying to convince the significant other that it's the same car. I mean technically it is. LOL.

Sent from my SM-N950U using TapatalkNothing to see here......

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[Smooremin]

Total cost, not including donor car?

I would imagine that it would be greater than 100 an hour, and, you can get an idea from that...


This has me all up in my thoughts.... [hail]

[G-Can]

I would guess with paint job to be 15k.

Author can chime in on this.

[makisupa]

$15k before paint

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[Bikel]

can we really put a price on a unicorn?

[RWD2quattro]

Nice swap but dang I see a bad ass Audi Sport R8 in the background. Any pics of that?
How about a V8 TT swap from an S6 or RS7 into an S4 6MT, is that CA state referee legal or a DSG has to be installed?

[SteveYem]

The end product looks awesome. Perfect OEM+ look with those split 7 spoke A5/S5 wheels. And if I may - I like the orange headlight corners. It gives some nice contrast to an otherwise monochromatic color scheme.

[snolvr]

https://i.imgur.com/t13yEW2.gif

[Dr GP]

I like everything about this car(except the lack of 6MT.) .But I have a hard time believing that the customer will ever get back the money spent to do the conversion, or anywhere close to it, if and when he sells it. But for some, the idea of just having something desirable and unique is worth the money spent. Plus probably costs a hell of a lot less than a 2020 RS6 Avant, Will the car have a reconstructed title?

[makisupa]

I like everything about this car(except the lack of 6MT.) .But I have a hard time believing that the customer will ever get back the money spent to do the conversion, or anywhere close to it, if and when he sells it. But for some, the idea of just having something desirable and unique is worth the money spent. Plus probably costs a hell of a lot less than a 2020 RS6 Avant, Will the car have a reconstructed title?Personally, I wouldn't be worried about recouping the cash. It's about having something that not many others in the NA market have or can get. But I do see your point.

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[hardfive]

Avant - 11k pre work. Maybe a lot less since its consuming oil.

Costs (estimated)
s4 doner - 8k?
swap - 10K? 100/hr x 100 hours. Definitely some room to negotiate labor rates or total cost here with the shop.

All in is the car worth 28K with a clean title, California compliant, b8.5 front end? Probably to someone with deep pockets. Will be an easy sell whenever he decides to move on. BAT material all day.

[G-Can]

I like everything about this car(except the lack of 6MT.) .But I have a hard time believing that the customer will ever get back the money spent to do the conversion, or anywhere close to it, if and when he sells it. But for some, the idea of just having something desirable and unique is worth the money spent. Plus probably costs a hell of a lot less than a 2020 RS6 Avant, Will the car have a reconstructed title?Money wasn't an issue here obviously, and whoever paid for this doesn't care how much he's gonna get for the car when and if decides to sell it. Longer he has it, less he'll get for it.

If this was built to have 500hp and avant at it, then yeah, it might hold value.

Like this, I just can't justify to have an avant next to regular cr.p load of S4s on the road.

Is that trunk worth the work :D

I kind of think it would of been cheaper to cut sedan S4 and drop avant rear end on it.
Especially that S4 was damaged in the back.

[Shawn@PacificGerman]

I like everything about this car(except the lack of 6MT.) .But I have a hard time believing that the customer will ever get back the money spent to do the conversion, or anywhere close to it, if and when he sells it. But for some, the idea of just having something desirable and unique is worth the money spent. Plus probably costs a hell of a lot less than a 2020 RS6 Avant, Will the car have a reconstructed title?

The status of title has not changed, it leaves the same way it came in.



Nice swap but dang I see a bad ass Audi Sport R8 in the background. Any pics of that?
How about a V8 TT swap from an S6 or RS7 into an S4 6MT, is that CA state referee legal or a DSG has to be installed?

V8TT can be done. Extensively more work than the S4 conversion, but we can do it. However the only way it will be referee legal is if its an Automatic. This sounds crazy, but when the referee looks up the vin from the donor, if the donor has a auto transmission module that must also be present. All S6, S6, RS7 in the USA were auto as you may know.

And here is a photo of the R8 [cool]

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