A few hours short of being 2 years since I last posted, kind of forgot about this lol but it's 5:24am and somebody way across town is banging their car off the rev limiter and I'm wide awake bored. The problem I mentioned in the last post ended up being nothing. Over the last 2 years I didn't really do much to the car but drive it when it would work. Life's been using me as a punching bag lately so my priorities had to change every time I made plans for it. Spring of 2015 a friend outside of Boston blew up his auto avant's trans and ended up scrapping the car, the car had a full s4 body swap though so I drove up 2 weeks later and came back with all this.
Fast forward to spring 2016 and I got rear ended twice. Nothing major(these bumper shocks work wonders). Got cut the insurance check to replace the shocks and respray the bumper, my b5 friend with the passat recommended a shop he had 10k worth of body work done at on his mk3 he just got done refurbishing aswell as having some things on his abt Passat sprayed in the past, got a few more recommendations also so I went there to get the rear bumper fixed, and all the S4 body parts tossed on and blended for a great deal and he told me it'd be done in 2 weeks. Ended up getting hurt about 2 months later and was still getting the run around. 3 months of the car just sitting at his shop with maybe half a day of progress with it I told him I needed the car back to get around once I was on my feet again since the buckets in the mk3 aren't exactly practical hugging your body when you have 4th degree burns all over your arms, keep the parts to prep and what not, and let me know when you're ready to toss them on the car and I'll bring them back. After about another month of recovery, I went to reach out to him and the number was disconnected, drove to the shop, and the lot was empty and the building was vacant with a for rent sign on the door. Never got a call or anything. Long story short I tracked him down, he wouldn't respond for months at a time so I had to finally threaten him with legal action and a summons and finally got my stuff back just a few weeks ago. Biggest headache of my life dealing with that scum.
Before I got hurt I was ready to pull a block at the yard and purchase scat rods, bearings, new oil pump, seals, and rings to build a refreshed bottom end but had to divert those funds to medical bills afterwards. Around August I was back on my feet enough and pulled the trigger on a shopping list I put together to get done before h20. I'm fairly new to these 1.8t's and b5's in general so I had a friend who's a 15+ year euro tech stop by and do the timing and help out with a few other things. But after seeing my way around it, it looks like a cake walk to do. I just have to buy a few new tools when next time comes around.
While I was waiting for stuff to come in and was motivated, I tackled the sagging headliner that's been on my to do list since I bought the car 2 years ago. Wanted to do alcantara fabric like my mk3 but to keep costs down I ended up with a very dark blue suede that's subtle and looks almost OEM. I haven't done a headliner since 2004 probably and forgot how much of a PITA it is getting that backboard clean so the new glue will adhear to it. These headliners are way more robust than old vw headliners though so it was much easier to work with since it wasn't suck fragile cheap cardboard. It was almost a plastic fiber blend.
Got the car wrapped up with a week to spare before h20i and chased some BS gremlins like leaks and such to wrap up. 3 days before I leave it starts acting up with it's random stalling while driving when the rpm's fall below 2000 and then no crank no start. It's been doing this periodically since I've owned the car whenever the seasons change it seems but it always happened for a week or so then never happened again until it got cold or hot out again. It's been impossible to replicate but it was straight dead for days this time around. I've had it at 2 different euro shops and of course it would never happen for them. Anyways I racked my brain trying to figure it out for 3 days running around back and fourth throwing parts at it with my buddy. Luckily I used to work at a european recycler about 15 years ago and am still friends with the owners son who now run's the place so I had access to this since ordering online and shipping would of taken to long.
The day of came and I told my friends to go down without me because I was sure it had to be something I could figure out. Friday came and the last friend from the area was leaving so if I wanted to make it down and not loose my money I already spent on the trip I needed to catch a ride now so I swallowed my pride and gave up, hitching a ride down in his GM root's blower vr6 mk3.
H2oi was a great time as always. The b5 turnout was pretty strong.
<~~If the video isn't working let me know and I'll try to fix it. Photobucket has gone to hell the last few years with tracker ad's.
And of course Adam's beautiful Rs4 was in the lot as usual.
Got back from h20i and I still couldn't get it to start after a few days so I pushed it out on the street and called a tow and sent it to the shop frustrated. Met the guy there, and $125 later after he rolled it off the bed of course it started right up
. I nearly put my fist through the drivers window I was so mad. While I was around the car at my house after h20i I noticed 1 upper control arm ball joint had some play and the lower inside bushings and swaybar end links rubber had small cracks on it so I figured it was probably going to be due for a overhaul within the year. Shopping around, researching, I wanted to go with the 034 kit with adjustable uppers but not knowing how much more money I had to throw at this thing before it was running right again, I opted to just get the complete heavy duty RTS kit from GAP after being told I should avoid the stock arms and go for the upgraded HD bushing rts kit or the meyle HD kit. I had been planning to replace the clutch also because it was grabbing pretty high and the stocker wouldn't handle the power once I upgraded the turbo so shopped around to see what was out there before deciding between the RingerRacing and JHM b7 rs4 kit. Mike Hood's kit looked great and I know it's proven but JHM sold me with their customer service and feedback. The ECS kit would of been nice but the holding capacity isn't there with their clutch kits unless you go with a ClutchMaster's disc and I really wanted to retain a full face disc since this is a vehicle I loan out to friends and family when their in town. My younger brother would destroy a new 6puck trying to drive it in a single day probably. Would of been nice to of just put a new disc in but the DMFW was on it's second use already and per SACHS it should be replaced this time around.
So pretty much since November the shop and myself have been playing cat and mouse with the car trying to figure it out. We'll toss some stuff at it, I'll drive it and if it kept acting up we'd throw some more at it since everyone was clueless with the issue. One week I had it back it ran great until it left me stranded in the middle of nowhere at 3:30am when it was 15 degrees out after dropping a friend off after a night out. Of course my phone was dead and I didn't have a single tool with me or my scanner so I had to walk an hour to a gas station and wait until 5am until they opened up to call for a ride. Car wouldn't start again for a few days, had the tow grab it again and drop it back off at the shop. Went in on my next free day with a notebook, and just started removing stuff from a yard car again and replacing everything I could think of that I came across and so far it's been running like a champ again now the last few weeks I've had it back. (knock on wood
) Until I know it's 100% now I'm taking a break from spending anymore money on it. Once spring breaks I've got the control arm kit and clutch/slave/new line to toss in, grab a set of wheels, give her to my buddy to do some paint correction, and that's it for 2017. Getting the body parts sprayed and put on before h20i and some audi events coming up would be nice, but I really have to get a short block built for the vrt this year so money will be tight.
The only gripe I have with the car so far is how expensive Audi parts are and the MPG, coming from an aba that got 480miles/14gal tank of 87.
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Originally Posted by viceprp
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