Johns' Introduction/Build Thread

[redline380]

Also noticed my head gasket could definitely use a replacement so hopefully I can get to that within the week.

How did you determine that?

[Johns]

How did you determine that?

Just oil around the head and I could smell burning oil a bit when I popped the hood

[redline380]

Just oil around the head and I could smell burning oil a bit when I popped the hood

Unlikely it is the head gasket. Look at the valve cover gasket and cam chain tensioner geasket

[Johns]

Unlikely it is the head gasket. Look at the valve cover gasket and cam chain tensioner geasket

Sounds good, also what are some sings of the cam chain tensioner going bad?

[BaseDrifter]

Also oil cooler o-ring and breather system, more likely to be from VC or CCT gasket as mentioned though.

[viceprp]

Loud tapping/clicking.

[Johns]

Loud tapping/clicking.

Anything else? I can only slightly hear tapping but that's only when I'm listening for it.. Not sure if I'm just being over cautious

[viceprp]

It would be loud like a diesel. Very audible.

Check you guides.

[Johns]

Replaced another rear wheel bearing today. Everything went fine but I noticed my hub was considerably damaged. I don't have $300+ for a new rear hub, so it'll have to do for now. Will this cause extreme premature wear on the bearing?



I drove the car back home and locked it up then a few minutes later noticed my alarm started going off. I proceded to make sure all doors were closed properly and locked it again. The lights flash when I unlock it but while unlocking, the lights don't flash and the horn sounds a few seconds later, then after a few minutes the alarm will go off. I've seen discussions on this before but it looks like I'll have to take a closer look into it.

[Johns]

Pulled into the driveway this morning and noticed the engine ticking was very audible at idle. Looks like I'll be replacing the cam chain tensioner.

I'm looking at the Blauparts kit as it appears to be the best value, anyone have any other suggestions?

[Johns]

Another question about the CCT. Will it throw a CEL if it's bad? The ticking isn't exactly audible from inside the car unless you're listening for it. However, it's noticeable from outside the car.

[Johns]

No Updates for a while but I've had some extra money lately to give the B5 some attention.

Installed 5.25" Infinity Kappa's up front. Install was pretty straight forward (bought some adapters from the UK). I think I screwed up mounting something on my driver's door as I'm getting a slight rattle when I really push them. Probably the crossover..

I know everyone says it when they get new speakers but it's just a world of difference.

Anyway, here's pictures to compare.



Similar in depth:



Adapter installed with some adhesive foam the Kappas came with, not sure how much this helped to prevent rattling but why not:



Width comparison:





Installed depth comparison (adapters are pretty thick)





No issues with the depth, door cards went right back on, windows act as usual.

Ordered some Auto-rx to clean up the engine and transmission, I'll try to do my best with before & after comparisons.

Ordered Solowerks but those won't be here until the end of the month.

Hopefully going to pick up a new fender tomorrow, just need to verify the color code.

That's all for now!

[Bordom]

Interested in the audio upgrade. Was thinking of grabbing some things from crutchfield.ca since they come with free adapters. How did you wire them in?

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[Johns]

Interested in the audio upgrade. Was thinking of grabbing some things from crutchfield.ca since they come with free adapters. How did you wire them in?

Literally just take the positive and negative wires from the OEM speaker and insert them into the crossover accordingly, tighten the screws to secure the wires. Extremely straight-forward. I thought I'd have to do something with the stock tweeter since they're co-axials but Ray told me not to worry about it and everything's working great.

Total for the speakers and adapters with shipping came out to $83 and some change.

I'm eyeing some 6.75" Infinity Kappa 3-ways for the rear deck once I feel as though the OEM speakers are on their last leg (which will be soon since I'll be enjoying the enhanced quality)

[Bordom]

Literally just take the positive and negative wires from the OEM speaker and insert them into the crossover accordingly, tighten the screws to secure the wires. Extremely straight-forward. I thought I'd have to do something with the stock tweeter since they're co-axials but Ray told me not to worry about it and everything's working great.

Total for the speakers and adapters with shipping came out to $83 and some change.

I'm eyeing some 6.75" Infinity Kappa 3-ways for the rear deck once I feel as though the OEM speakers are on their last leg (which will be soon since I'll be enjoying the enhanced quality)

That is extremely straight forward and cheap. My rear deck is dead and vibrates on hard bass hits lol

You don't need to spend much money on the rear deck. It's only for ambient sound. A buddy of mine who owns an audio shop told me to spend money on the fronts as that's where you spend all your time.

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[Johns]

Coilovers and new fender are in. Hopefully picking up some S4 seats tomorrow!

I've gotta get these wheels sandblasted so I can prep them for paint. Trying to get them on for the rest of summer.

[rockbeau25]

However, there's still so much to do, the list seems endless. Here's some pictures of how she currently sits (I did the clear corner mod until I have the money for newer projectors)

Sorry to bring up an old topic but where'd you find the clear corners and how hard were they to install? Thanks

[Johns]

Sorry to bring up an old topic but where'd you find the clear corners and how hard were they to install? Thanks

Clear corners are just a modification to non-european spec headlights. Since e-codes (european code) have clear corners, us U.S. people have to to drill out the amber piece of plastic and remove it through the lowbeam hole. A quick search should show some DIY's. I suggest just buying DEPO E-codes. Much cleaner and not too expensive. That's what I'll end up doing.

keep the pictures coming!

Nice work on the 5.25 speaker install btw, been eyeing that off for a while. I stuck with 4" in the front and separately amped 6" on the rear deck with a 12 inch sub, best setup of my life

I plan on getting some 3-ways for the rear and a 12" sealed sub but I don't see that in my budget until the turn of 2016. Something to note though, my passenger's side speaker seems to be defective as it quickly began rattling. Thought it was just the doorcard or how I mounted it but a couple tests proved it to be the speaker itself.

Infinity is covering it under warranty and I'll be getting the shipping label from them within the next few days. Driver's side speaker is fine however, probably just my bad luck.

[down_n_dapper]

keep the pictures coming!

Nice work on the 5.25 speaker install btw, been eyeing that off for a while. I stuck with 4" in the front and separately amped 6" on the rear deck with a 12 inch sub, best setup of my life

[Johns]

Picked up some S4 seats and chrome mirror housings. Paid $220. I'll probably only swap out the front seats. S4 bumper and sideskirts hopefully on Saturday!



Really cool guys too. He's the original owner of his Imola S4 with 156k on it. Also just picked up a noggy S4 avant from which he's selling the engine/transmission because he's got an rs6 engine on the way from Europe.



He somehow scored a set of B8 S4 seats for $1k which he'll be putting into the Imola.

[sadiel100]

thats a good buy and for a good price and the car looks good and manual tranny !

[down_n_dapper]

drool @ the imola owners avant plans

[Johns]

I had never even heard of it being done until he told me of his plans, apparently 2 people in Europe have done it and they both did it differently. He has plans for 700whp+. Tried convincing him to post a build thread for it as he used to be on the forums but he didn't seem too intrigued at the thought.

drool @ the imola owners avant plans

Washed/clayed/waxed today. I'm going to try and install the coilovers before work tomorrow.

Noticed all the imperfections in the paint but I suppose it could be worse. Clearcoat is absolutely shot on the rear bumper but I'll get it re-sprayed when I have my other body work brought to the shop.





Also, what's the best way to approach mounting S4 seats? I know I have to cut out the stock seat bracket but will welding a nut into the S4 mounting areas be necessary?

[Johns]

Attempted to install SS lines but quickly realized it would be a more thorough process. Stripped one of the rears with a flare wrench so I figured I'd better set aside a day to tackle those.

Swapped the brakes all around, no upgrades so nothing special. But I patched up my Passenger CV Joint, lets see how long that lasts



Any idea how to tell if the axle is OEM? didn't really look at it much since it's so rusted.

Also swapped to S4 seats, plan on grabbing matching door cards eventually.



I can't figure out the noisy rear suspension though. Lubed up all the upper control arm bushings and it took care of the squeaking on one side but increased it on the other

Couple questions:
Does anyone know of a good leather repair kit they can recommend? Just a couple cracks and tears I want to cover up (I already fixed the tear itself)
How much should it cost to sandblast & powder coat a set of wheels? Google showed pretty inconsistent results and I was quoted locally $500

[Turbo_B5]

all the quotes I got where to refinish and powdercoat $200/wheel for a stock color or $250 a wheel for a crazy color. $150 a wheel for paint iirc. <all these quotes are what i remember from 6months ago.

[Johns]

Took off my valve cover since my CCT parts will be here tomorrow, much more sludge than I had anticipated .





Timing is a bit advanced as the CCT finally threw a CEL today (P0011).



Also broke an air pump hose in the process (058133785B). Is this hose for a system that can be deleted? Or should I just grab a new hose

[Johns]

Finished everything up, had a couple head scratching moments but that comes with the learning curve. Still have a CEL but I haven't checked what for yet. I'm going to take her back to the shop tonight to address a couple other things (cv joint, speaker mounting, extremely squeaky rear upper control arm).

The oil screen on the old CCT was in better condition than I thought, but I'm still blaming it for it's failure.



Decided to remove the screen before installing the new CCT





What an incredible difference in performance, everything is so much smoother

[Johns]

Car's finally drivable after a week, no thanks to ECS tuning . I ended up getting a retainer clip for my cv joint from FCP Euro since ECS insisted it's not included with the kit.. No pics since I didn't have my phone on me but when I took it for a drive, I thought I really fucked something up. Turns out I accidentally bent the brake shield and it was rubbing on the rotor...

I noticed I need more power to my speakers since they all call for 55 rms and I'm only putting out 20 rms to each. I'm not very familiar with amplifiers and wiring so what might be the best way to approach installing an amp?

[Johns]

This is how bad the cv joint was prior to replacement:



Installed an amp about a month ago, temporarily tucked away the wires along the rear deck, but I don't see myself cleaning it up anytime soon. There's no loose or hanging wires so I don't have any reasons to tidy it up.



Couple shots with my phone since it's not yet DLSR worthy





I've been living with a (VERY) squeaky passenger rear suspension since February and cannot narrow down which bushing is bad. I bought a new upper outer bushing and went to install it today but I inspected the other bushings and one of the lower inner bushings looked MUCH worse that the suspected bushing. I sprayed some silicone on it but didn't do anything to prevent the squeaking. I can't figure it out and I hate drawing attention from how terribly loud my car is.

[DeathKing]

I've been living with a (VERY) squeaky passenger rear suspension since February and cannot narrow down which bushing is bad. I bought a new upper outer bushing and went to install it today but I inspected the other bushings and one of the lower inner bushings looked MUCH worse that the suspected bushing. I sprayed some silicone on it but didn't do anything to prevent the squeaking. I can't figure it out and I hate drawing attention from how terribly loud my car is.

When I picked my car up it was squeaking bad too. SO annoying and embarrassing with others in the car. Lube did nothing.

ECS had a sale on rear upper control arms and I said fuck it. Not to say that's your only option because trust me I really did not want to drop that much money for such a part but hey, it worked.

[Johns]

When I picked my car up it was squeaking bad too. SO annoying and embarrassing with others in the car. Lube did nothing.

ECS had a sale on rear upper control arms and I said fuck it. Not to say that's your only option because trust me I really did not want to drop that much money for such a part but hey, it worked.

I have the upper outer bushing that I'll replace but I just can't find the source of the sound. I don't think it's the upper inners so that still leaves 3.

Hopefully the source is the bushing I have ready to replace!

[Johns]

Replaced another wheel bearing today, didn't replace the bushing because it looks like the only way to remove the old bushing will be on a press.

Developed my first boost leak and it's a big one. I'll have to fabricate something to find the leak within the week.

In the meantime, I'm searching for a set of used 235/45R17's on craigslist so I can get my B6 5 spoke sport wheels on.

[Johns]

Was going to replace both inner and outer tie rods but when I removed the boots, power steering fluid poured out. So I decided not to waste my time with the inners and just replaced the outers. I'm looking at a replacement steering rack from the rack doctor. Not looking forward to the process, but it looks like I'll be replacing it around Christmas.

Since the tires on my stockers were shot, I got my B6 wheels on for the winter. I still haven't decided what I want to run for a summer setup.

[adam044]

Looks good

[Johns]

So I've been getting a bit of water in my engine. I've noticed a good amount of milky residue about halfway up the dipstick. The weather has been extremely inconsistent this winter with some days in the upper 50's and others leaving 2 ft of snow. What concerns me is that I've also lost a good amount of coolant. I know this could just be a coincidence but neither of which were noticeable prior to winter.

Am I looking at a potential bad head gasket?

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

[Turbo_B5]

So I've been getting a bit of water in my engine. I've noticed a good amount of milky residue about halfway up the dipstick. The weather has been extremely inconsistent this winter with some days in the upper 50's and others leaving 2 ft of snow. What concerns me is that I've also lost a good amount of coolant. I know this could just be a coincidence but neither of which were noticeable prior to winter.

Am I looking at a potential bad head gasket?

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

Change the oil cooler and see if it fixes the issue.

[Johns]

Front Passenger's inner CV is going bad I think. Does the joint vary depending on engine code? ECS lists a different joint for AWM. I cross-referenced the manufacturing # with FCP and it brought me to a rear inner CV joint... Obviously I want to buy from FCP over ECS after my last issue with my outer CV joint from them, but I need a part #

[Johns]

First start with $100 exhaust. Smoke is from the brand new HFC.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Tx-...ew?usp=sharing

Can't figure out how to embed the video..

[Bordom]

It's so quiet

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