Jumping on the bandwagon: OEM+ 2013 Monsoon Gray Allroad Build Thread

[JettaGetUpandGo]

I figured it was about time I made a thread to document the progress of my 2013 Allroad. This is my first Audi, but not a stranger to the VW/Audi community.

My summer/fun car is a 2005 Jetta GLI which was purchased new as a daily driver and grew into a project car over the course of many years. I was on the fence between a 2011-12 Touareg TDI and 2013 Allroad when I purchased my last daily and ultimately went the route of the Touareg. While it was a great vehicle, it wasn't a lot of fun to drive. Fall of 2015 I started looking for an Allroad and plans were immediately put on hold due to uncertainty with the TDI class action suit.

I searched off/on hoping to find the perfect Allroad. 11/29/16 at 2:00am I received an alert matching my criteria on Autotrader: chestnut brown interior (black headliner), sport seats, nav, advanced key, and under 45k miles. As an added bonus, this one was was gray, only had 24k miles, certified pre-owned, happened to be two hours away, and B&O was icing on the cake. I was fairly certain the class action suit for the Touareg would lead to a buyback and called right away as soon as the dealership opened. The salesperson sent a number of detailed pictures, I placed a deposit, and drove down on 12/3 to pick it up after the dealer had a chance to do the CPO certification and clean the car up. The Audi Exchange in Highland Park, IL was excellent to deal with. It was truly a painless buying experience.

I don't have any big plans for the car. Similar to my Jetta expect a number of OEM+ upgrades, although keeping this one a relatively comfortable daily driver is important. (1/18 update: Things got a bit out of hand. K04 installed. Now it's a relatively comfortable daily driver with some balls.)

Jetta project:


Allroad day 1:


Allroad today:


Car: 2013 Allroad Premium Plus | Monsoon Gray/Chestnut Brown | 60,000 miles
Navigation Package
Bang and Olufsen
Advanced Key
Sport seats

Engine:
APR/Carbonio Intake
Spulen silicone inlet hose
APR K04
APR intercooler
OEM R8 oil cap
OEM R8 coolant cap

Exhaust:
APR downpipe
Milltek 4" GT100 exhaust tips

Brakes:
Stock

Suspension:
Bilstein B16 Ride Control coilovers with iRC module
KW 30mm rear spring spacers
Eurocode Alu Kreutz chassis brace
CR-15 strut tower brace
Hotchkis front/rear sway bars

Wheels/Tires:
Summer
...OEM RS7 wheels (20"x9" ET35)
...12.5mm ECS spacers
...Continental ExtremeContact Sport tires 255/35/20
...OEM gray lug bolt covers
Spring/Fall
...OEM RS5 wheels (20"x9" ET26)
...Continental DWS06 tires 255/35/20
...OEM gray lug bolt covers
Winter
...OEM Euro A6 Peeler wheels (20"x8.5" ET45)
...20mm H&R spacers
...Nokian Hakkapelitta R2 tires 255/35/20
...OEM gray lug bolt covers

Exterior:
OEM Plateless front grill
Replica S4 aluminum mirror caps
OEM autodimming aspherical blind spot mirror glass
OEM Roof base carrier bars
Colormatched Thule Motion XT Alpine cargo carrier (occasionally)
OEM S-line hatch spoiler
Cuts by Caschy Allroad sport badge insert
IGL ceramic coating

Lighting:
Automotive Lighting Ecode headlights
LED front turn signal bulbs
Phillips LED fog light bulbs
OEM puddle lights in exterior mirrors
LED reverse bulbs

Interior:
OEM RS4 carbon fiber inlays
OEM RS4 door handles
OEM Leather armrests, black stitching
OEM Piano black cluster/MMI trim
OEM S4 cluster faces/needles with S-line badge and white LEDs behind needles
OEM Flat bottom steering wheel, smooth leather, extended paddles, black stitching, s-line badge
OEM European visors (no airbag labels)
Replica S4 pedal covers
OEM Red trimmed start button
Bilstein Ride Control button mounted in ashtray
OEM Under seat storage bins
LED bulbs throughout
OEM Warning triangle in hatch
DIY trunk mat/cargo organizer
OEM all weather floor mats (summer)
WeatherTech floor liners (winter)

Electronics:
OEM interior monitoring system
OEM auto hold parking brake switch
Doug Robling hatch module (close hatch with remote control)

VCDS/Green Menu Tweaks:
Remote control windows/sunroof
Needle sweep at startup
Current gear display in cluster
Allroad MMI splash screen at startup
Disable nav/phone warning entering data while moving
Enable interior lighting option
Disable amber sidemarker lights
Dim DRL with turn signals

Coming Soon:
Voshmods brake kit, 390mm Front, 356mm dual caliper rear (ordered)

Future Plans:
FIS-Control MMI
Silicone intercooler pipes
RS4 seats/door panels? (a man can dream)

[JettaGetUpandGo]

The Allroad didn't have any type of mat covering the rear floor when I picked it up. Every weekend I throw open house signs/flags in the back which are frequently muddy and like to slide around. The OEM rubber mat doesn't help with cargo sliding and a carpet mat is difficult to keep clean. I decided to make my own!

I started out by tracing the spare tire cover onto an 1/8" thick piece of hardboard then measured/laid out the rest of the trunk floor:


Cut everything out:


All the edges were stained black, then I glued a utility mat to the board:


The L-shaped blocks in the back are leftover from the Gorilla Gear mat in my Touareg. The bottom of each block is lined with the rough side of velcro which sticks well to the utility mat. The hardboard adds rigidity to keep the mat from lifting up while removing the blocks and also keeps the mat from folding over on itself when holding cargo in place. It was simple, cheap, effective, and doesn't look too bad either.

[petraman]

Allroad is beautiful but MAN is that GLI clean. Talk about a survivor.... Very nicely done.

[JettaGetUpandGo]

Allroad is beautiful but MAN is that GLI clean. Talk about a survivor.... Very nicely done.

Thanks!

Under seat storage bins were the next item on the list. These were standard in the Touareg and I was happy to find out they were available for the Allroad too. These bins are a little bit smaller than the ones in the Touareg, but I can still get a small umbrella in one of them (it's an OEM umbrella designed to fit in the umbrella door pocket of a B6 Passat) and my VCDS cable along with a pair of gloves during winter fit in the other. Genuine Audi Parts seemed to have the best pricing.
​
Parts required:
4 - N 907 371 05 - Screws (2 per side)
4 - N 900 880 03 - Speed Nuts (2 per side)
2 - 8K0 882 601 C 4PK - Storage Bins in black (1 per side )

The install wasn't too bad. There is a guide here which is fairly thorough: http://www.audienthusiasts.com/ProjectUnderseatbin.html. I did not remove the seat to install the bins. I simply removed "bin" part from the bracket (one screw on the side if I recall), raised the seat up all the way, then reattached the bin after the bracket was installed. The only other thing worth noting is if you have WeatherTech floor liners, the bottom of the bin will interfere with the lip sticking up on the mats. The seat must be raised ~3/4" from its lowest point to clear the mat.

If you have manual seats instead of power, the bins are significantly smaller due to the handle to slide the seat forward/back. I would recommend not even installing these at that point as I'm not sure what you could possibly fit inside them.

[JettaGetUpandGo]

With spring around the corner, I purchased a set of RS5 rotors. The seller assured me there were no bends and only one had been lightly refinished. Perks of dealing with untrustworthy people online. It turned out that one was bent, two were poorly refinished, and the last one looked like this:





There isn't a company in the Milwaukee area that does decent wheel repairs. Wheels America in Chicago was decent, but they closed their Chicago location. I found Wheel-Tech (https://www.rimrepaircenter.com/) in Highland Park, IL and coordinated one of the trips down with the Chicago Auto Show. They weren't cheap, or quick, but aside from some very minor imperfections in the powdercoat the quality of work was great. They had a number of different wheel samples in various shades of silver to get the closest match to the original finish. $861 later, they looked as good as new:





I love the look of the S4/S5 mirror caps, but couldn't justify the insane cost of OEM. I didn't see any posts on this forum about them, so I took a gamble on eBay and ordered a set from a US seller. Despite showing electroplated mirror caps in his pictures, they were just aftermarket caps painted metallic silver. They quickly went back and I took a chance on a seller from China. He had real pictures of the product and they were clearly electroplated. The seller's name was warrior_age.

The quality isn't perfect, but for the price (~$140ish) they were more than worth it compared to $800 for OEM:



The fitment of the turn signal on the inside of the driver's side cap and the small ball of plating material in the upper corner of that cutout were the only imperfections that I found. The passenger side cap didn't have this issue:

[redavant]

Subscribed. Love the look and the trunk DIY. Look forward to seeing more updates from you.

[JettaGetUpandGo]

The interior was the next area to get some attention.

I thought I would be content with the 3-spoke sport wheel that came in the Allroad and I would have been until I drove an RS5. The search began for a for a flat bottom steering wheel with extended paddles, smooth leather (hate perforated leather), and black stitching to match the rest of the interior. I wasn't even sure if such a wheel existed, but I found one:



I hoped for one with the trim to accept an S-line badge, but that was easily fixed:





The harness that plugs into the back of the left buttons was loose which caused an intermittent issue with the left buttons not working. I needed to take the airbag off a few times trying to figure it out. My screwdriver kept slipping off the clip, so I made my own tool. It's just a small flat head screwdriver with a groove cut into the tip with a Dremel, but it worked like a charm:





Moving on, I located a set of carbon fiber trim on ebay.de. The seller had it listed as RS4 trim, but when it arrived the door/dash pieces were Carbon Atlas from an S4 and the center console piece was the RS weave. We worked it out and I got a matching Carbon Atlas center console piece. I'm a little bummed it wasn't all the RS weave, but I'm just glad that it matches. The same seller had the piano black cluster/MMI trim, then RS4 door handles, leather armrests, and the red trimmed start button were sourced from a variety of other places.



Apparently in Europe the door handles do not have a space for a lock switch (except the driver's door handle). There is just a recess blank molded into the plastic. To make the RS4 handles work, they must be swapped into the US handle housings. It was interesting to find that the stock handles are plastic (felt like metal to me until they were apart), with a pretty weak spring and a plastic pin holding them in place. The RS4 handles are solid metal, have a much heavier spring, and a solid metal pin. To swap the handles, the press the pin out with a hammer and punch, swap the handle and spring with a temporary pin (a nail cut to length worked well), then tap the new pin back in. This picture just shows the difference between handles. Both are installed in Euro housings without the space for door lock button.



Everything in:









For the pedals, this was another area where it was hard to justify over $300 for the OEM. A number of reviews on this forum said the replicas from China were good. If there were imperfections, they're always dirty and they're in the dark footwell. For $30 it was worth the gamble. The quality was pretty good and the fitment was perfect. Don't mind the Weathertech mats half covering the dead pedal. It was still winter:

[bakedziti]

Great color combo, I love those seats!
I am glad to hear that you didn't have to remove or unbolt the seats to add the storage bins. I have been sitting on a set of bins since last August, partly because I have been too lazy to unbolt the seats. Maybe I'll take a crack at just raising the seat later this week.

[audiipolak]

Looks great! Loving all the mods thus far!


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[NathanGreatScott]

Looks great! Loving all the mods thus far!


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Love that interior combo. Great choice! I wanted the brown/black interior in my car, but had a hard time finding it when I was buying used. Planning on getting Sport or S4 seats eventually and wrapping them in that color if I cant find a set already done. Digging the upgrades you've done so far

[Wagoon]

Allroad looks great man, I'd really love some RS4 door pulls for mine to finish up my interior.

[earhythmic]

Looks great! I've gotta get on that Doug Robling module pronto.

[JettaGetUpandGo]

Thanks everyone! More to come as I sort through more pictures.

I have been too lazy to unbolt the seats. Maybe I'll take a crack at just raising the seat later this week.

Separating the bin from the bracket is critical if you don't take the seats out.

Allroad looks great man, I'd really love some RS4 door pulls for mine to finish up my interior.

I was going to tell you that BKS TUning had the best price on them, but they were $260 at the time and now are up to $312.

Looks great! I've gotta get on that Doug Robling module pronto.

I'm a couple of posts away before I get to that one, but it will be up soon with a number of pictures.

[bakedziti]

Separating the bin from the bracket is critical if you don't take the seats out.

How hard was it to get the torx screw back in on the side next to the center console? It seems from your image that there is more room that I anticipated when I pulled these bins out of my spare room this evening. Thanks!

[JettaGetUpandGo]

How hard was it to get the torx screw back in on the side next to the center console? It seems from your image that there is more room that I anticipated when I pulled these bins out of my spare room this evening. Thanks!

I have one of these for using screwdriver bits in tight spaces: https://www.amazon.com/VIM-Tools-HBR...ds=bit+ratchet

You could probably get by with a standard ratchet with a 1/4" socket and putting a bit in that. Worst case you could just use a 1/4" wrench with a bit and keep your finger on the end of the bit to keep it from falling out. I could get 4-5 fingers between the head of that screw and the side of the dash.

[JettaGetUpandGo]

Thanks to Photobucket I spent the last few days transferring 1500+ pictures over to Imgur. What a nightmare. All of the pictures in this thread already have been updated. Back to the regularly scheduled programming...

The orange reflector in the original headlights had to go. Wrapping the reflector looks cheap to me and simply swapping out the reflector for the clear one from the European lights leaves a gap that exposes the LED sidemarker in the NA lights. A full set of Ecodes was the only option in my eyes. Automotive Lighting/Magneti Marelli makes the lights for Audi. I found these on my own then saw a well known vendor here selling "OEM" lights for a little more and decided it was worth it for OEM. When they arrived they were the aftermarket AL/MM version. No obvious differences between these and the OEM lights, but still pissed that they were misrepresented and I paid more for nothing. Water under the bridge at this point...

[JettaGetUpandGo]

With spring fast approaching the snow tires needed to come off and I needed to do something about the suspension and tires for the RS5 Rotors.

For the suspension I was initially leaning towards a cup kit of some sort until I saw there really isn't anything out there for the Allroad. The H&R springs available didn't go low enough for me and springs/cup kits I saw for the B8 Avant didn't sit level. Coilovers were the next best option, but i was concerned about comfort for daily driving. My Jetta has KW Variant 3's and the ride is harsh. I attribute some of that to upgraded control arms, camber plates, motor mounts, and subframe bushings, but it's unbearable for daily driving. The Bilstein B16 ride control coilovers intrigued me. They have electronically adjustable dampening and can be set to either sport or comfort mode. I didn't see much information out there regarding these, but assumed the coilovers in comfort mode would be good enough and took a gamble.

I've done multiple suspension installs on my Jetta, but this time around I didn't want to deal with it and working 7 days a week I didn't have time to. I've worked with a local tire shop (Big Bear Tire) in the past that does suspension installs for $250 provided the suspension is purchased from them. Their price on the coilovers was within $50 of the best price I found online. After a little bit of convincing that these would in fact fit the Allroad, they were open to doing the mechanical install and were ok with me doing the electronics since it was out of their realm of expertise.

For tires, I was pretty set on the Michelin Pilot Super Sports except the local shop was not a Michelin dealer (though they would mount them) and they were backordered everywhere I looked. The shop recommended the Continental Extreme Contact Sport as a comparable option. It was a new tire this year, but initial reviews seemed favorable. They were a bit cheaper than the Michelins which helped solidify the choice. So far I've put 3-4k miles on them and they've been great.

Wheels loaded up the night before:



Installed and on the alignment rack:



All done. The rears are raised all the way here and I lowered the front a little bit more a few days after this to match the rear:



With the car home I started on installing the electronics. Keeping an OEM look was critical. I was set on running the wires along the OEM harness wherever possible and wanted the switch located somewhere accessible, but hidden. It's about the size of a lighter socket/power outlet which worked out nicely:



The coilover installer offered to let me run the wires through a body plug while he had the fender liner out for the strut install. I fished the harness through hoping to find it later, but chose poorly. I think the plug was towards the front of the wheelwell and just below the height of the trunk floor between two panels. I pulled it all out and found another grommet further back that I could get to from the inside:



The front wires run along the factory harness and into the cabin. I planned ahead a little bit and ran two wires to the ABS control module for the auto hold parking brake switch. Pro tip: make sure the connections for the washer fluid pumps are fully seated before refilling the reservoir. My fender liner was back in already and I thought the spout just wasn't rengeaged inside the fender. I worked so hard to save the fluid when I drained it the first time:



Not pictured, but the control module is mounted under the steering wheel and two circuits were added to the fuse box on the left for constant and switched power:



Overall impressions of the coilovers are really positive. I believe they're just the PSS10 coilovers with an electronically controlled valve that sets them to either full soft or full firm (no in between). The "sport" mode is actually perfect for me. It's firm but not harsh. Comfort feels a little too soft and I would argue it may even feel softer than the original suspension. If the roads are exceptionally bad or I have other people in the car I switch it to comfort, otherwise it stays in sport all the time.

I found an iRC module here on the forums for a great price which adds an "auto" mode. Based on acceleration/deceleration/cornering forces it will automatically switch from comfort to sport and vise versa. The trigger point is adjustable, but I honestly haven't bothered to calibrate it yet since I enjoy the feeling of sport so much.

[S2Gilly]

:drool: i want your allroad. :thumbup:

[JettaGetUpandGo]

For some reason I really like the gray cluster faces on the S4 cluster. It’s kind of ironic replacing the gray cluster/MMI surround with piano black then replacing the black cluster faces with gray, but that’s the joy of modding. A user on the forum was selling the faces for a reasonable price, so I bought those before realizing the red/orange needles would look out of place on the gray faces. With some diligent searching I tracked down a complete B8.5 S4 cluster for under $100:



To cover up the S4 logo I found an S-line badge on eBay for a few dollars. It was labeled as a steering wheel badge. I planned on ordering an OEM steering wheel badge, but this was thinner, much cheaper, didn’t require trimming clips off the back, and already had double sided tape applied:


Before/after:





To go along with the S-line badges on the steering wheel/cluster and now the more aggressive exterior with the wheels/suspension I ordered the sport badge insert from Cuts by Caschy. Some up close pictures I had seen didn’t fit well. I contemplated making my own out of a solid piece and cutting a notch in the back of the “a” to sit on top of it, but figured this would hold me over. Mine fit surprisingly well to the point that I don’t plan on making my own anymore:

[redavant]

To cover up the S4 logo I found an S-line badge on eBay for a few dollars. It was labeled as a steering wheel badge. I planned on ordering an OEM steering wheel badge, but this was thinner, much cheaper, didn’t require trimming clips off the back, and already had double sided tape applied:

Wow!! This is so clever! Love it man.

Can you please share the link to the S-line badge you bought on eBay? Thx a lot!

[JettaGetUpandGo]

Wow!! This is so clever! Love it man.

Can you please share the link to the S-line badge you bought on eBay? Thx a lot!

The seller's name is xab2011: http://www.ebay.com/usr/xab2011?_trk...72.m2749.l2754

Here is a link to a current listing: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Auto-Metal-S...kAAOSwTY9ZZJBL

Shipping was from China, so it took a while.

[dubjager]

Great to see everything you are doing to the AR!
Mind sharing who you bought the mirror covers from?

[A4 Centaur]

Great work!

[redavant]

Shipping was from China, so it took a while.

Thx a lot!

[avantagg]

This Allroad build is progressing quickly. Great work Brian! That white LED solve was brilliant. Looks like an OEM illuminated cluster.


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[JettaGetUpandGo]

Mind sharing who you bought the mirror covers from?

The seller's name was warrior_age

This Allroad build is progressing quickly. Great work Brian! That white LED solve was brilliant. Looks like an OEM illuminated cluster.

Thanks! I'll get to that in a little bit in this thread. It definitely turned out better than expected.

[JettaGetUpandGo]

One of the things I really missed about the Touareg was the ability to close the hatch with the key fob. If my hands were full I could carry everything into the house then close the hatch/lock the car from inside. I was definitely a first world problem that I could have lived without, but if it’s possible to adapt it to the Allroad, why not?

While searching for solutions I ran across a guy named Doug Robling that makes a module for the Q5 and Q7. Given the similarieties between the B8 platform and the Q5 I started digging deeper. He gave me the wiring instructions then I compared wiring diagrams between the Q5 and Allroad. Everything looked good, so I ordered a module. I’m not affiliated with Doug in any way. I purchased the module as a risk and thankfully it worked out.

This is what arrived. Typically he has the connections crimped on the the wires already, but he made the wires longer than normal incase I needed the extra length:



Since I haven’t seen anyone else with an Allroad I put together a guide of sorts for anyone else interested:

Pop out the hatch close button and disconect it. Use something thin to depress these tabs on the side of the button.





Remove the light in the hatch and disconnect it. There is a small notch to indicate where to pry from.



Remove the 4 screws holding the hatch panel in place. There’s 1 behind each taillight access panel and two in the slot that holds the warning triangle:







There are 10 spring clips holding the panel in place, 4 across the top and 6 across the bottom. I won’t lie, getting this panel off was the most difficult part of the project:



Here you can see an overview of the hatch with the panel removed. The two connectors that get tapped into are the latching mechanism at the bottom of hatch and the hatch close button which is dangling to the left of the latch mechanism:



The red wire taps into the green wire with the red stripe (pin 4) at the latch mechanism pictured here:



The black wire taps into the brown wire (pin 3) at the connector for the button and the green wire taps into the gray wire with black stripe (pin 2) at the same connector:



There’s a nice cutout under the passenger side taillight to mount the module. It comes with double sided tape applied to make instalaltion easy:



Rather than using the crimp connectors I pulled back the harness tape, soldered/heatshrunk the connections, and wrapped the wires in new OEM tape. There’s nothing wrong with using the supplied connectors, I just prefer the soldered connections:





Here is everything in and wrapped nicely:



I later went back and added an OEM 3-pin male and female connector to retain the ability to remove the harness from the hatch completely. The foam was originally wrapped around the connector at the power outlet in the front console which I pulled out for the Ride Control install:



Here’s a video of the module in action:



If you want a module let me know and I will give you Doug's email (rather not post it here without his permission). You can google his name too and it will bring up a post with his information on a competing forum that I'm not allowed to link. I gave him the length of wire that I needed for each connection, so he can make a module for the Allroad now with proper length wires and the crimp connectors already installed. The cost was $115 shipped within the US.

[treginginco]

That is slick!!! Well done.


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[S2Gilly]

Aaannnddd now i wish I had a powered hatch on my avant.


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[JettaGetUpandGo]

That is slick!!! Well done.

Thank you sir.

Aaannnddd now i wish I had a powered hatch on my avant.

I'm sure we can figure out a way to retrofit it. ;)

[JettaGetUpandGo]

Special thanks to V70R and dropshadow for sharing this. ECS had the OEM S4/S-line spoiler for under $50 (https://www.ecstuning.com/b-audi-zub...8k9071640a9ax/). The Allroad needed some sort of spoiler at the top of the hatch, but the RS4 didn’t do it for me (too aggressive for the lines of the Allroad). For the price, I didn’t think this could end badly and placed the order.

The S-line spoiler is essentially the same shape as the top of the hatch but extends roughly an inch further out the back. It’s very subtle, but perfect for me. A local higher-end body shop charged me $200 to paint it and I installed it myself with double sided tape and adhesion promoter from Amazon.

3M Tape - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1
3M Adhesion Promoter - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Here is a test fit before it was painted comparing spoiler/no spoiler:









Painted and installed. Fitment was perfect:

[JettaGetUpandGo]

Perks of sitting on a bus for 6 hours this morning. I have some more updates!

Revisiting the cluster, I liked the look of the white needles when the car was off. With the car on, the red LEDs behind the needles made them look pink. At night it was fine, but I couldn’t handle it during the daytime. I started by cannibalizing the spare S4 cluster I had hoping to salvage the OEM white LEDs for a perfect color match.



Once they were soldered in some were brighter than others and voltage drop was inconsistent between each LED. Note the different brightness between the left and right needles. I have a feeling the LEDs were damaged when removing them from the S4 cluster:



red4life5 posted a guide for swaping the LEDs (http://www.audizine.com/forum/showth...d-LED-Swap-DIY) and used white LEDs from Oznium. Since I couldn’t find new “OEM” LEDs I tried these and found them to be far too bright and blue relative to the rest:









I continued looking for for the OEM LEDs, but searching the markings on them I couldn’t come up with anything. Oh a whim I remembered I had two sample lighting filter sample books from theater lighting many years ago in high school. It took a while to find the best match. I’m not proud of this fix, but the results were exactly what I was looking for!

The best match was “Chocolate” from Roscolux. This film only allows 35% of the light to come through which solves the brightness issue in addition to correcting the color:





I cut very small squares of the film to cover the LED and used a dab of hot glue on two sides to hold it in place. In the future the hot glue could be peeled off without damage if needed:



Here are the final results. If you didn’t know it looks 100% OEM:

[shonseb]

Wow, really enjoyed reading through this build. Love what you've done so far and looking forward to more! Subbed!

[JettaGetUpandGo]

While searching for parts on the various European eBay sites for the interior monitoring retrofit I stumbled into Euro visors without the airbag labels:



Long term I plan on a big brake kit of some sort. Since I just bought new snow tires for the original wheels this past winter, it’s hard to justify anything that doesn’t fit under them. The Q5 upgrade doesn’t do it for me. I had access to an RS5 and the general consensus was that they needed 19” wheels to clear the brakes. Turns out that’s not necessarily true. There’s not much space left, but they do clear without spacers:







Realistically, I will find a set of nicer wheels for winter (19 or 20” peelers?) before I buy a brake kit because I won’t like looking at the car for 4-5 months lowered with the stock wheels. The RS5 kit is still at the top of the list since I can get S4 calipers and matching rotors from an RS4 for the rear. The only other option at this point is the JHM 19z kit since they have matching rotors for the rear (S4). ECS is out of the running. I hate the look of their drilled/slotted rotors. I’m OCD. Matching front/rear rotors is critical.

[JettaGetUpandGo]

I didn’t take many pictures of this and I should have, but I finished the auto hold parking brake switch. This is the guide that I followed: http://www.audienthusiasts.com/Project_HillHold.html

As mentioned earlier when I did the suspension wiring I ran two wires up to the ABS control module along the factory harness. To gain better access to the connector I partially removed the coolant reservoir and tilted it out of the way. Even though the line towards the front of the reservoir is at the top, some coolant still spilled out with the hose upright (and poured down onto everything below before I noticed).

Connector opened up and wires inserted:



After everything was connected I wrapped the harness with new OEM engine harness tape:





On the inside of the car I removed quite a bit to run the wires to the switch as closely to the OEM harness as possible. After years of doing this I finally came up with this method for organizing screws. It sure beats throwing them all in a cup holder or magnetic tray and trying to remember where they go later!



Switch installed:



Despite verifying my Allroad had the 1AT PR code before starting I ran into issues when I went to do the coding. VCDS states not for PR code B34 (Legal Requirements - US) or B35 (Legal Requirements - Canada). I couldn’t find anything that explains these PR codes any further. Despite this, the system works. When I come to a stop with the system enabled the brakes hold the car in place without my foot on them and a green icon pops up on the cluster. What I can’t figure out is I have no way of knowing if the system is enabled or not until I come to a stop . I think it defaults to off and the button must be pressed each time you get in the car, but traditionally there’s a yellow light on the switch to show the system is enabled. My Touareg did this and the manual for the A4 shows it should as well. Maybe there is a difference with the ABS control module in the Allroad? Perhaps I have a bad switch? It was purchased new and stated to be OEM. Maybe I’ll try another at some point.

[JettaGetUpandGo]

Now might be a good time to talk about my wiring supplies for all of these projects. Years ago I would buy repair wires from the dealership which would come with a short wire with a terminal on each end. Over the years the cost of repair wires has skyrocketed from a few dollars to $20+ in some cases. In order to use them, the wire would need to be cut in half and soldered to a wire extension.

There was a thread on TDI Club a number of years ago discussing the source for individual terminals that could be crimped on to any wire for $0.25-0.40 per terminal (http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=400909). The majority of connectors in our cars are made by TE Connectivity and are a subset of their AMP line. I have seen a few connectors made by Delphi, but there are compatible TE terminals for those connectors as well. Some of the pins were cross referenced with the VW part number froun the TDI Club thread. Others I found by searching through connector and terminal drawings from TE and comparing them to terminals in the car. Terminals vary by wire size too. Common sizes are .35 mm, .5 mm, 1.0 mm, 1.5 mm, and 2.5 mm. Online Components used to be my go-to source. They now require a $50 minimum order. Digikey is a great alternative.

Here is my collection of terminals at the moment and seals for any connections in the engine bay or outside of the cabin:



For tools, I started with this ratcheting crimper a few years ago and recently switched to a non-ratcheting style. I personally like the non-ratcheting style a bit better. It’s easier to control and easier/faster to align the terminal on the end of the wire before crimping. Everyone has their personal favorite when it comes to wire strippers. I like this pair from Irwin. Gerdner Bender has a similar pair without the depth stop. Aside from just stripping the ends they’re great for spreading a section of insulation in the middle of a wire to make a soldered splice.

Ratcheting crimperframe (no die included): https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Die for ratcheting crimper: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Non-ratcheting crimper: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Wire strippers:
https://www.amazon.com/IRWIN-VISE-GR...irwin+stripper

Wire varies. I typically get stranded primary wire from a local hardware store or sometimes Amazon. AWG wire in the US doesn’t directly translate to the mm/^2 wire used in our harnesses from the factory. I find the closest size available for what I need and round up to the next closest gauge.

Tesa is the (or one of) the OEM suppliers to VW/Audi for harness tape. You can buy small rolls of this stuff from the dealer for $20/roll or spend considerably less for larger rolls on Amazon:

Engine harness tape: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Interior harness tape: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I hope some of this helps anyone thinking about retrofitting or repairing anything electrical in our cars. This obviously isn’t a complete guide, but maybe enough to pique your interest. This should go without saying, but proceed at your own risk. I’m not responsible if you short out a $1200 cluster or control module.

[JettaGetUpandGo]

Next up was retrofitting the interior monitoring system. If the windows are down and someone reaches into the car the alarm will go off. I don’t park with the windows down very often, but if someone were to break a window and reach in it would set the alarm off too. As with the auto hold parking brake, I followed David’s guide here: http://www.audienthusiasts.com/Project_Alarm.html

I started with marking off where the switch needed to go and taped off the panel to avoid damage:



This was the nerve wracking part, but a Dremel made quick work of it. I cut the hole a little small then test fit/trimmed a little more and repeated until I got a good fit. It’s not perfect, but the edges will never be seen:









With the door panel off I started with the wiring there. The guide stated two different switches depending on B8 and B8.5. The earlier switch has two separate buttons to disable the interior monitoring and tilt sensor. The B8.5 switch just disables interior monitoring. There is no tilt sensor button. Per Audi’s wiring diagrams the wiring is the same between B8 and B8.5, but the B8.5 switch doesn’t have pins for some of those wires. Odd.

I started at the switch and ran everything to the door control module with some extra slack, wrapping the harness up as I went:



Everything wrapped up. You would hardly know this wasn’t factory:



Moving onto the sensor, I ran a wire down to the fuse box for power, then tapped ground and CAN signal at the homelink connector:



Everything wrapped up again:



Here is the sensor installed and harness ran. While trying to determine where the tilt sensor actually is, I discovered that it’s built into the interior monitoring sensor. Since I ran the wiring in the door already, I bought a switch from a B8 to see if enabling the tilt sensor in VCDS will work.



Here is the system in action. There is a short delay between locking the car and the system becoming active. It can be disabled by pressing the button in the door panel when exiting the vehicle:



That pretty much brings us full circle to where the car sits today. A few things from the list on the first page I haven’t mentioned because I didn’t take any pictures (APR/Carbonio intake, CR-15 brace, etc.). These items are common enough that it didn’t make sense to go back and take pictures.

If anyone has any questions feel free to let me know and I’ll do my best to help out. As I continue progress I will update this thread. Outside of brakes/turbo I’m out of ideas at the moment. Both of those items will be a ways down the road. I did order the Alu Kreuz from the current group buy, so that will be an update in the near future. Maybe sway bars too, who knows… I have a hard time leaving things alone.

[JettaGetUpandGo]

Took the Allroad "offroad" for the first time. There were a few butt clenching moments on the dirt roads to the campsite, but we made it!



When I got home I had the interior monitoring switch with the button for the tilt sensor as well from a B8 waiting for me:



Despite having the tilt sensor installed as part of the interior monitoring sensor and having all the wires run per the factory wiring diagrams the tilt sensor didn't work after coding it in VCDS. With the interior monitoring button a red LED lights up on the switch when the button is pressed indicating the system is disabled. That doesn't happen with the button for the tilt sensor. I tried rocking the car back and forth, jacking the car up from each corner, and jacking the entire front up with no positive results. I'm assuming it's a control module difference between the B8 and B8.5. That doesn't explain the wiring diagrams though. When using the B8.5 switch (interior monitoring only) some of those wires go to positions on the switch that don't have contacts/pins.

It was a cheap experiment. I'm a little bummed it didn't work, but since Audi changed the switch from B8 to B8.5 I didn't really expect it to work. The B8.5 switch went back in and I have the B8 switch for anyone looking to add this to a B8.

[Shimmy]

clean bro! loved seeing your mk4 build too over on vortex

[JettaGetUpandGo]

clean bro! loved seeing your mk4 build too over on vortex

Thanks!

My tedious search for larger winter wheels finally paid off. I located a set of 20"x8.5" peelers from an A6. The offset is a bit higher than the Q5 peelers (ET45 vs. 33). I'd need spacers either way and the only other difference is a little less concavity which I'm fine with for winter wheels. The wheels were brand new, OEM, and only $1400 shipped. No center caps, but the caps from the RS5 wheels will transfer over.

At first glance I assumed these were reps due to the price and generic pictures (http://www.ebay.com/itm/4x-New-OEM-E...p=mtr#shpCntId). The seller's other items appeared to be OEM. Searching his username led me to his account on TDI Club and his website. He's well established and has a lot of good feedback through the forum. I talked to him this morning to confirm they were OEM and placed the order through him directly. Based on the variety of items I have a hunch he frequents the VW/Audi parts outlet site, adds a markup, and resells them.

I'll test to see if they clear RS5 brakes with/without spacers, but now will more likely go with the 380mm kit from JHM. Hate to say it, but I'm almost excited for winter now...