My Monsoon Grey B8.5 (Re)build

[19birel]

So I decided to give leatherique a try on my interior. I was a little skeptical given the hype surrounding it, but was very impressed by the results.

I slugged every piece of leather inside the car with the rejuvenator (I got the smaller bottle and used the whole thing) and let it dwell for 48hours


Then I used the pristine clean to wipe it off and here is the final result (gave the rest of the interior a tidy too of course)



The leather in this car has never been cleaner or felt as buttery soft before, my only regret is not having used it sooner. Because leatherique is designed to sit on the leather and soak in (don't try this with other products) it penetrates the leather much deeper moisturizing it to a far greater extent. I'll keep my Griots around for maintenance conditioning but leatherique will be a yearly ritual from now on.

I also picked up this C7.5 A7 S-Line Competition bbk the other day with only 5k mile on it. Only difference between these and standard C7.5 3.0T brakes is that they're factory powder coated red.

Feat. my snazzy garage rug lol


My original plan was to repaint the rears yellow and put them on the A4 to complete my C7 bbk, but I can't bring myself to remove the factory powder coat. Since I wouldn't be installing them for a while anyways I might just list the whole set for sale and buy an unpainted set of rear calipers...or swap from yellow to red haha

[eljay]

Nice rug!!

Yes, Leatherique is amazing. I have used it in all my cars and it brings back to life some really bad leather as long as it's not physically damaged.

That bbk is nice and tempting! But I think that yellow looks better with Monsoon Grey.
Is it a direct swap to B8.5?

[19birel]

Nice rug!!

Yes, Leatherique is amazing. I have used it in all my cars and it brings back to life some really bad leather as long as it's not physically damaged.

That bbk is nice and tempting! But I think that yellow looks better with Monsoon Grey.
Is it a direct swap to B8.5?

Haha thanks, and yeah I think my driver's seat would have worn much nicer had I started using Leatherique when I got the car. I'm going to order more to do the GTI's seats since those are still near perfect but in need of a good clean & condition

I have become pretty fond of my yellow calipers as well, if I didn't already have the C7 front calipers I'd consider switching to the red, but looking back at the car this morning as I walked into work confirmed to me that I need to keep the yellow haha.

And yes, it's a direct swap! They bolt right onto the B8.5 and you can even retain your original brake lines if you choose. You just use C7 pads and the C7 356mm front rotors and 330mm rear rotors. I've been running the front upgrade for a few years and I really like it!

[eljay]

Haha thanks, and yeah I think my driver's seat would have worn much nicer had I started using Leatherique when I got the car. I'm going to order more to do the GTI's seats since those are still near perfect but in need of a good clean & condition

I have become pretty fond of my yellow calipers as well, if I didn't already have the C7 front calipers I'd consider switching to the red, but looking back at the car this morning as I walked into work confirmed to me that I need to keep the yellow haha.

And yes, it's a direct swap! They bolt right onto the B8.5 and you can even retain your original brake lines if you choose. You just use C7 pads and the C7 356mm front rotors and 330mm rear rotors. I've been running the front upgrade for a few years and I really like it!

Thanks!
It's something I'll consider down the road as I think I should first turn the Allroad into Avant (i.e. lower suspension) and then improve the brake looks. I'm also thinking about Q5 Brembo calipers as it seems that rotors and pads cost about the same between the A7 and Q5 setup and 345mm Brembo kit should be a little lighter too for my couch racing! :)
But having the calipers already painted factory red is appealing for a quick bolt-on without disassembly etc.

[19birel]

Thanks!
It's something I'll consider down the road as I think I should first turn the Allroad into Avant (i.e. lower suspension) and then improve the brake looks. I'm also thinking about Q5 Brembo calipers as it seems that rotors and pads cost about the same between the A7 and Q5 setup and 345mm Brembo kit should be a little lighter too for my couch racing! :)
But having the calipers already painted factory red is appealing for a quick bolt-on without disassembly etc.

Yeah the Q5 Brembos would probably be a little lighter, the larger A7 calipers and rotors look really good behind the wheels though haha I think stopping power between the two is probably comparable. Can't go wrong either way!

Avant suspension would be great on the Allroad, the factory S-Line suspension is the perfect height IMO

[JLAllroad]

Yeah the Q5 Brembos would probably be a little lighter.

For reference Q5/Macan 4 piston Brembos are 11.4lbs loaded with pads. What do the A7’s weight?


Sent from my iPhone using Audizine Forum

[19birel]

For reference Q5/Macan 4 piston Brembos are 11.4lbs loaded with pads. What do the A7’s weight?


Sent from my iPhone using Audizine Forum

They're a little hefty at 16.9lbs haha this includes pads
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[JLAllroad]

They're a little hefty at 16.9lbs haha this includes pads
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Thank you for sharing.

I know in SQ5 runs this caliper in 380mm flavor and you can definitely feel the weight in the wheel.


Sent from my iPhone using Audizine Forum

[19birel]

Thank you for sharing.

I know in SQ5 runs this caliper in 380mm flavor and you can definitely feel the weight in the wheel.


Sent from my iPhone using Audizine Forum

I've had my yellow set on the car for so long I can't remember how the steering felt prior to installing them. For aggressive street driving these are fantastic, they bite hard and also look awesome because their size fills up the wheels nicely. For track use the Brembos would be a better choice because they're lighter and 4 piston, these would work fine, but wouldn't be as well suited.

[19birel]

Took the car for it's annual state inspection yesterday and it failed for the exhaust being rusted to the point of have a couple small holes in it. Not surprising, it just means that the S4 exhaust conversion is happening now instead of this summer.

They also pointed out that my RMS was leaking, which sent me into a spiral while I waited to pick up the car as it was replaced last year with an IABED unit. My patience with this car has worn thin over the past year and that was about to be the final straw but luckily a quick poke around under the car revealed that it was my DV spacer spewing oil from the PCV system everywhere. The GFB VTA ran a little cleaner so I'm going to clean everything off and swap that on (I got a warranty replacement from ECS and never installed it). Simple fix and a relief my new RMS hasn't already gone bad hahaha

Anyways, the S4 exhaust I have is in good shape, but to prevent it from rusting out like the stock unit, I decided to paint it with some high temp "Flame Proof" paint from VHT.

Partially primed


Fully primed


Painted with their satin silver

I'm stoked with how it turned out, looks like new hopefully prolongs the life of this exhaust. Next thing to do is remove the stock tips so I can install my AWE ones. All the hardware to fit the exhaust is on order, and I have a Stone Carbon S4 style diffuser on the way to accommodate the quad tips.

[eljay]

Nice!
Can't wait to "hear" how that sound on an A4 as I've been contemplating a similar conversion on the Allroad. I just wasn't sure whether it would make much of a difference.

[19birel]

Nice!
Can't wait to "hear" how that sound on an A4 as I've been contemplating a similar conversion on the Allroad. I just wasn't sure whether it would make much of a difference.

Yeah I'm curious as to how it will sound as well as a lot of folks that have done the conversion have muffler/resonator deletes, and this will just be OE sans my test pipe.

[19birel]

So my Y pipe for the exhaust arrived but it won't fit so I'll need to have an exhaust shop fab this up. Unfortunately since I don't have a valence yet I have to wait until that arrives to have everything fabbed so the shop can make sure the tips line up properly (at least this is what I assume, correct me if that's wrong). It sucks this will be perpetuated for like a month while the valence gets shipped from China but it is what it is. (China valence is my only option because the only non-SLine bit on my car is the rear bumper and no one sells a quad tip valence for those stateside). I also discovered that in addition to my stock catback being toast, my downpipe has holes in the resonator so I'll have to replace that too, fingers cross that doesn't make the car too loud.

Anyways, whilst we wait I knocked out swapping the DV spacer for the GFB VTA.

Out with the old
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In with the new
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Boost control is far better and it sounds pretty good too, no more compressor surge! Hopefully this one doesn't seize up like the first one did because I like the way the car feels with it.

Blasted the engine bay with degreaser and brake clean trying to clean up the mess from the dv spacer and she got pretty smoky haha
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I've also been messing around with the pedal tuner. On a highway drive where I consistently get 22mpg, I turned the pedal tuner off and averaged 25mpg, which was a little skewed by me getting into it with a new S5 Sportback (and getting slaughtered lol). I think my averaged dipped by ~2mpg because of that, and I have a roof rack too so I think that's my issue. So for road trips, the pedal tuner will either be off or "Stage 1" which averaged 24.5 mpg on the return run of that experiment.

[19birel]

**Bee beep ba dee beep** Minute by Minute update!

Scored a great deal on an IE hfc+3" downpipe combo. I thought about a new CTS dp, but this was the same money and gives me a shot at having my exhaust tips not be perpetually blackened so I'm game.

Plan is to fit it this weekend to the stock catback, then when i got to a shop to have the S4 catback grafted on it's already there. I'll tell them to sleeve it for easy serviceability.

Speaking of the S4 catback, the primary roadblock to having that installed was lack of a rear valence as reference to get it properly aligned. Well, guess what showed up already!


I feel like this needs to be gloss black to match the front grill (this grey is the same color as the OEM S4 grill, but my S-Line grill is gloss black rather than grey)

I was planning on using superwrap for this but their website is down and I question whether they're still in business, so I'm thinking of using hyperdip from DYC. Why not paint? the bottom of my sideblades are chipped beyond belief after this winter, if the valence chips up like that it will look awful. (You can only tell on the blades if you get on hands and knees and look underneath) I think this may be more resiliant and won't require me to sacrifice the original finish to apply it.

Plan is to do an annual service this weekend (everything arrives tomorrow) as well as a surprise mod, and hopefully the hfc/dp that way just mounting the valence and provisions for quad exhaust are left to do.

[JLAllroad]

You will still have Black tips, but with a test pipe you’ve already seen the worst it can be.

Ceramic coat your tips on your new exhaust, helps with clean up.


Sent from my iPhone using Audizine Forum

[19birel]

You will still have Black tips, but with a test pipe you’ve already seen the worst it can be.

Ceramic coat your tips on your new exhaust, helps with clean up.


Sent from my iPhone using Audizine Forum

Thanks for the tip I'll give that a try! I have a set of AWE BlackDiamond tips to put on the S4 catback so they also won't look as dirty since they're already black haha

[19birel]

Making some progress

So Superwrap is our of business and DYC is out of stock on Hyperdip...luckily my dad had two can of gloss black superwrap left over from when he did the grill on his truck

Before


During


After ~8-10 coats


Mocked up- right as rain!


Next Emmaline got a much needed annual service, spark plugs, cabin filter, oil change


Still my favorite way to do an oil change


So I don't have to dig through old pictures on my phone cross referenced with when I ordered the oil to determine when my next oil change is due haha


Cabin filter honestly wasn't bad but I couldn't remember when I last replaced it


Old plugs looked fined after ~16k (most tuners reccomend ~15k miles for plugs on these cars when tuned) the gap was still steady at .028. This plug was from cylinder 4 and has a little oil on it indicating a slight weep of the valve cover gasket, this has been the case for at least the past two plug changes and it hasn't worsened so while it's something I monitor I'm not overly concerned at this stage.


I got this fancy plug gapping tool which was nice, NGK is pretty good at pregapping everything to .028 but either way, for $20 this was nice to have


I also decided to finally bleed the clutch, as luck would have it this can be done from the top without having to jack the car up

11mm wrench for the bleed nipple on the slave cylinder


Room to place the bottle in there


Powerbleeder making life a little easier!


Back together and tidied up!

the clutch feels 95% better, I can do a pull with a couple aggressive shifts and the clutch now feels mostly fine instead of like total crap. Sooooo much air came out when I bled it, it made sense why it felt as bad as it did. I think I'm going to bleed it one more time just in case.

I also think I found a shop to fab up the exhaust, going to call them this week and get something set up. Downpipe and HFC still need to go in, that's on the docket for this week assuming i have time after work, still have to get tyres for the 19s too but one step at a time haha I feel like I'm making reasonable progress on my page 8 list haha

[19birel]

The A4 got some more TLC this weekend, started with the easy stuff and replaced the engine start button. It wasn't bad but I've caught my finger on it a couple times and it was a cheap fix.
[url=https://flic.kr/p/2oAAky1]

Gotta tear up the console a little to be able to reach the plug, but this take only couple mins. If you haven't taken this stuff apart before it's way less work than it may appear
[url=https://flic.kr/p/2oABwZg]

Much better
[url=https://flic.kr/p/2oABQo7]

The car has been a pain to wash because of all the crap inbedded in the paint, so I gave it a quick clay bar. The paint looks and feels so much better with just the clay, I still need to go back over it again when I do the paint correction, but this will allow the car too look halfway decent in the interim.

This was just the driver's side front fender lol
[url=https://flic.kr/p/2oAzwGn]

Cleaned up and sealed with Meguiars Hybrid Ceramic Wax (not really ceramic, just a nice spray on sealant but works well for what it is)
[url=https://flic.kr/p/2oABx5S]

Now for the heavier lifting, my rear subframe was looking crusty so I wanted to prolong it's life before it got bad.

Before
[url=https://flic.kr/p/2oAzvAQ]

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2oAzwJG]

Blasted off the loose paint and larger chunks of rust off with a flapper disc on my trusty angle grinder and then painted it with POR15
[url=https://flic.kr/p/2oABPj3]

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2oABPor]

As far as the exhaust goes, I hut a roadblock because I needed a new reducer for the IE downpipe and couldn't fine one locally that was the right size. Emailed IE and they sold me one so that should be here this week allowing me to installed the dp. Ordering new tyres this week as well, and hopefully getting the new catback on next week, but we'll see.

[19birel]

Admittedly I have had little motivation to work on this as the GTI has occupied my attention but I need this thing road trip ready next month so I've told myself no installs on the VW until ole Emmaline is sorted haha.

Today I tackled the new (to me) IE downpipe

DNA test pipe and stock DP out


Quick review of this setup, great value and sounded fine (before the resonator on the stock dp rusted and cracked) and the smell never bothered me/wasn't noticeable (until the stock exhaust disintegrated lol)

The IE setup has a HFC and deletes the resonator








Quick review is that, due to the first resonator being busted, the car is no louder than it was before although the pops are a bit deeper now. Still need to do the S4 catback as my secondary resonator has a couple holes in it too, but we have progress. In terms of performance, boost seems to come on smoother, I don't know if it's any faster bit we'll see eventually.

Also replaced these pitted mirror caps the other day with a fresh set


Afterwards I cleaned out my kayak that had been sitting since last fall and went to the lake to relax after my afternoon of work, love the way this looks with stuff on the roof rack.

Edit: I forgot to mention but as you can see we're back on the A8 wheels wrapped in fresh Michelin Pilot Sport A/S 4s. Thought about switching to something like Vredestein but I got more mileage out of the Michelins than any other tyre I've tried and they handle incredibly well for an all-season so as the old adage goes, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it"

[19birel]

Made some progress on the car, looks like motor mounts might not happen before I leave for vacation but oh well.

So first, the exhaust. I was all set to put the S4 catback on but I was having a heck of a time finding an exhaust shop to make a Y pipe to join it to the single outlet downpipe on the A4. The only shop I could find gave me an estimate of $600-700 and told me I'd need to make an appointment for a quote so he could see the exhaust and the car, and another for the install which would take at least a day. It's a bit of custom work, and he wanted to take his time to make it right and based on my very basic knowledge of fabrication and him itemizing approximations of what went into that total cost I could understand how that could be a reasonable number.

That said, it was too much for me to justify spending on a free used oem catback, and the time investment required to go that route was too much, so I ordered a CTS dual exit catback from ECS. It arrived a couple weeks ago and I took the car apart and got ready to install the first section but nothing was lining up. I looked at the packing slip and it showed the correct order, I look at the little sticker on the box and what do ya know they sent me a system for a B9 I lost about a week between having to send them the B9 exhaust back and receiving the correct unit, ECS processed the exchange as quickly as could be expected but my car was on jacks the entire time and I was kinda disappointed that i received no discount for what was a pretty decent screw up on their part, but whatever.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2oLhnts]

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Fitment leaves a little to be desired and I had to get creative with where it connects to the downpipe as I have the IE unit (no fault of CTS I'm sure it fits with no modification with a stock or CTS dp) but overall I'm happy. Chasing a small leak at the aforementioned downpipe connection, but overall it sounds great, not too loud but still noticeable with nice tone. Compared to my swiss cheese OEM catback it's actually quieter haha.

Next I did an APIKOL blue (street) diff bushing insert. I think this is the only part APIKOL makes for our cars, they're way more popular with the older models, but I remember really wanting an APIKOL diff insert when I had my B5 so that's why I went out of my way to get one over another brand. That said, it's fantastic, no added NVH and a big reduction in drivetrain slop, aggressive gear changes are far smoother too. Once the motor mounts are in she's going to feel just about perfect.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2oLnSyh]

Install was cake, took maybe 10minutes
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[19birel]

So the car made the 1,200+ mile round trip to and from the Outer Banks without a hiccup. Fuel economy was good (relatively speaking) at 25-26mpg after making a wastegate adjustment prior to setting off (undoing an unnecessary change I made chasing a different issue a couple years ago). Keep in mind I have a roof rack on and was averaging ~80mph most of the time. Without the roof rack I think I would have been around 30mpg-maybe I'll pull the racks for my next trip for science lol

The small exhaust leak was fixed, just did a quick bolt check to snug everything up and we were all set, hoping to get it inspected this week so I'm legal again haha. Next job is still the motormounts, then a full detail. My only gripe on the trip was no carplay, I used the android phone I tune my GTI with for waze (I hate having my phone on the dash) and it wasn't ideal so maybe RSNAV or similar is in my near future as I'd like to do at least a couple more trips in this car this year.

Pics for Clicks



Quad-tips coming soon

[Hafstad]

Reliable roadtrips are the best :)

[eljay]

Nice job getting the exhaust decision done and installed.
I've had that happen as well where the car is all apart, and you reach for that replacement part box, and it's the wrong thing. It's especially painful if you just paid a hefty overnight shipping cost for another part that was needed for the job because you thought you'd be done in one weekend!

That last picture looks great! Something about the color temperature of the background makes it work

[19birel]

Reliable roadtrips are the best :)

True that! I broke down on my way back from NYC last year (my fault for using a rubber furniture leg cap to delete my charge pipe sound box) and it was not fun. Fortunately a MacGyver style roadside repair got me home that time lol

Nice job getting the exhaust decision done and installed.
I've had that happen as well where the car is all apart, and you reach for that replacement part box, and it's the wrong thing. It's especially painful if you just paid a hefty overnight shipping cost for another part that was needed for the job because you thought you'd be done in one weekend!

That last picture looks great! Something about the color temperature of the background makes it work

Yeah it was a shame it didn't make sense to use the S4 system, but it was free and I'll get a few dollars scrapping it and the stock exhaust haha

And thanks! It's the first time I've photographed this car with my real camera in a long while she deserved a couple good ones haha

[19birel]

Happy Thanksgiving all!

Just wrapped up my latest mod, and android headunit! After my trip to the beach earlier this year I got fed up with using waze on a little phone screen, and I've only become more spoiled by the carplay in my GTI since then. I have next week off before I start a new job so I've been contemplating another roadtrip, so I went ahead an ordered what seemed to be a promising unit from aliexpress for $250. It's designed to look like the screen in the B9.5 A4 lending to the OEM+ look. Why not RSNAV? I just couldn't quite justify the $600+

Now here's a shot of the fun part, the wiring was a little messy and the direction provided by the seller consisted of a 45second video in chinese, and 3 screen shots. Nevertheless, between that and some videos for similar units I was able to work it out.



Many units have all the brains contained in the screen but this one had a separate control box which made things tight, but workable.

Test to make sure it all works before I put it back together


My side quest during this was wrapping the dash trim, it's the only piece in the car this color and it kinda bothered me


Not the world's greatest wrap job by any stretch but it's passable. Maybe down the line I get another one to paint, but for now I'm happy.


All installed!

Everything seemed to work well except the audio quality was dreadful, I messed with the DSP setting in the android unit which helped only marginally, but the sound was still so bad that I wouldn't listen to anything outside of a podcast on it. Realistically it could have been worse, but I love music and couldn't handle listening with it. My solution for the moment is simply to switch the phones audio output to the OEM audi bluetooth. The few tests I did while parked up in the driveway yielded a sound I could live with (still not as good as my SD cards, but I can deal!). Hopefully I don't run into issues with that disconnecting but time will tell.

I'll report back with my findings after I've had the chance to live with it for a few days!

[eljay]

Looks good!

Unfortunately, my experience with all of these units from those starting with Windows CE OS to the latest Android is that they all have very bad audio processing. And I'm not an audiophile, but it's still not passable even for me.
I mostly listen to news radio, so I could get by.

[19birel]

Looks good!

Unfortunately, my experience with all of these units from those starting with Windows CE OS to the latest Android is that they all have very bad audio processing. And I'm not an audiophile, but it's still not passable even for me.
I mostly listen to news radio, so I could get by.

I suppose that's a reason to cough up the extra cash for RSNav which supposedly sounds pretty good. Though I will say the bluetooth streaming through the Audi AMI has me perfectly content in that aspect. The only issue with using that route is that if I try to have Carplay read me a text, it switches the phone's output to carplay from bluetooth and then you don't hear it play the message. Probably my least used feature in carplay so I'm not particularly miffed about it, but I could see it really bothering some.

Did some more roadtrip prep- oil change w/ceratec additive and a fresh batch of 56% homebrew meth (HEAT+subzero washer fluid). Happy to report the dipstick didn't move a bit at 124k+ miles! Going to send a sample to blackstone labs for analysis

Then I added some sound insulation to my trunk to hopefully reduce some resonance from the exhaust, it's not bad at all but I figured it might be an easy improvement. Time will tell on this one

Just the usual roadtrip prep left to go now, (tyre pressures, washerfluid, checking my spare tyre, and shoving some basic tools in the back) then we're off to Vermont tomorrow morning! Going to do Land Rover experience which has been on my bucket list for years and make a special stop on the way! I'll post some pics of the adventure when I return from the ~1,200 round trip!

[19birel]

Another great trip with the A4 in the books! ~1,200 miles made a quick stop in Rochester NY and then headed up to southern Vermont!

VT pics








Did Land Rover Experience whilst I was up there, 10/10 recommend!






Love a nice layer of roadtrip dirt!


Having the carplay for this trip was also game changing, made the trip much more enjoyable!

[19birel]

Welp, time to come up with the game plan for this car heading into 2024. The car has been really reliable (all I had to "fix" last year was the exhaust), so I feel like I need to reward it with some TLC to keep it that way. On a tired 127k mile car there's a lot I could do so I'm going to try and prioritize the best I can

Drivetrain
-Motor mounts- I have had these in my garage for like 18months, I have had the engine support tool still bnib for the same time First nice weekend I get free I'm knocking this out haha

-Fuel Filter- it's original so after 11yrs and 127k miles it's probably due to be replaced

- HPFP, particularly when it's cold I hear what I believe to be the hpfp chattering a bit so I feel inclined to replace it

-Figure out clutch issue- the clutch pedal goes soft and releases slow after a few pulls. I don't think I got all the air out of the line system whenever I bled it a while back so I'm going to start with flushing the fluid and making sure all the air is evacuated, I'm pretty sure that's my problem

Cosmetic
-Replace the undertrays I ripped off this winter lol

-Repaint sideblades, they're CLAPPED

-Refresh exterior- Paint needs help, I'd either like to redo my fenders, paint correct, and re-ceramic coat it OR DIY vinyl wrap the car. Ideally I'd like to do the wrap, but realistically I think I can achieve better results revitalizing the actual paint, so we'll see. a Few other smaller bits I want to do related but you get the picture


Suspension
This is the scary one just because every time I start pricing it out, between control arms and dampers etc it's a couple grand worth of parts Might start refreshing some stuff at the back and save the front for later to spread out the cost.

All pretty manageable stuff, but with the GTI build progressing, and me wanting to get my MK4 roadworthy this summer we'll see how far we get haha Stay tuned!

[19birel]

Got the A4 inspected the other day and it passed with flying colors so I decided to FINALLY treat it to the new engine mounts I've had in the garage for the past year and a half.

Removed the old ones and to my surprise they hadn't split and leaked fluid, the rubber did show signs of cracking though


Side note, when I pulled the fender liners I was met with a lovely pile of crud caked in there! This is your sign to pull your fender liners and do some spring cleaning!




My BMC air filter was looking a little dirty after ~25k miles so I cleaned it up and oiled it


after

Lastly I did a brake fluid flush with Liqui Moly Dot4 and bled the clutch.

Although the mounts look ok, they were 100% clapped. The car is worlds better to drive now, the reduction in NVH is insane. In fact there was so much vibration going on before that the car was probably pulling timing, we'll see how she feels next time I go WOT. Clutch feels ok, but I need to do a couple WOT pulls to test whether or not the bleed did the trick. I didn't see a ton of air bubbles come out so I'm not going to hold my breath on that one but we'll see.

[eljay]

Very nice!

My Allroad didn't pass with flying colours due to a broken spring. :(
All fixed now.

How many miles do you have now?
Still looking very fresh and young!

[19birel]

Very nice!

My Allroad didn't pass with flying colours due to a broken spring. :(
All fixed now.

How many miles do you have now?
Still looking very fresh and young!

Ah that sucks, glad to hear she's all sorted though! I'm due for a suspension refresh this summer haha

And thanks, she's just about to hit 129k miles! She's starting to show her age in a few spots admittedly but nothing I should have that mostly rectified soon!

[19birel]

Quick project this weekend repainting my sideblades. This winter really took a tole on them and they had become an eyesore. Not the greatest before pic, but the paint was literally peeling off them

Masked them up on the car


A few coats of duplicolor universal chrome with some satin 1k clear over top


And now she's right as rain! simple but made a big difference visually in my eyes

[19birel]

Plugging away with some more progress getting this things ready for some summer adventures- Fresh oil change with some M0S2 additive, and I sent a sample of the old oil to Blackstone for analysis.

Also installed a new transmission mount and replaced the upper bushing with an 034Motorsport density line unit whilst I was in there



Pretty easy install! The 034 bushing is noticeably stuffer than new OEM, the lower bushing that's integrated into the mount also felt noticeably softer compared to the new one.

Here you can see some wear on my lower insert , this tells me there was a bit of movement here and the original rubber was worn out

Driving impressions are that the drivetrain now feels 110% tight as a drum, shifts are super crisp and smooth and overall it's much better to drive. There is a slight amount of NVH from the 034 bushing, I really only notice it on decel and it's very minor so I'll likely forget about it quickly.

For reference my current setup is stock engine mounts- 034 Density line transmission mount rubber w/Hypertune (ebay) billet lower insert- Apikol Blue rear diff mount insert.

My weird clutch pedal issue is MOSTLY eliminated, but still present. I might try to bleed the clutch again since it's easy- I was reminded these cars have a clutch delay valve and I'm thinking perhaps that is the issue. It was awful on my GTI and I deleted it immediately, but idk we'll see. All in all though the car is much more enjoyable to drive and I'm very happy!

[JLAllroad]

I have had that 034 trans mount sitting in a box for years, I feel like I know with the ZF8 and the AC on that stop lights will annoy me…or winter when everything is cold and stiff, sigh.

I’ve already done the diff mounts, was a noticeable and welcome improvement.


Sent from my iPhone using Audizine Forum

[19birel]

I have had that 034 trans mount sitting in a box for years, I feel like I know with the ZF8 and the AC on that stop lights will annoy me…or winter when everything is cold and stiff, sigh.

I’ve already done the diff mounts, was a noticeable and welcome improvement.


Sent from my iPhone using Audizine Forum

Yeah it seems like the automatic cars transmit more nvh with these sort of mods too so there's definitely a trade off to an extent. If you don't have it already, the aluminum lower insert for the trans mount might play nicely though, I noticed no nvh when i added that on it's own years back. Takes 30secs to remove too if you don't like it.

[19birel]

So anyone that has a B8.5 S-Line with the gloss black grill is familiar with how they start to peel and look horrendous. Some may remember I had this happen a while ago and vinyl wrapped the grill, then my car got backed into and I got a mint replacement grill from another AZ member. Well now that grill is peeling too so I had to rectify it.

So first job was to peel off the rest of the failing gloss black finish- simple as grabbing some really sticky packing tape and using that to peel off the old finish




fully stripped


I still had a can of superwrap left from the SFaux rear valence project so I decided to try that this time rather than the vinyl. As such I had to mask up!


Really sucks this stuff is NLA, I love it!


And the finished product! Just need to let it cure overnight before i reinstall the front plate and accompanying bracket

I'm not the best vinyl wrapper but the old grill turned out pretty decent, that said I'm way more pleased with the finish of this superwrap spray. Why not paint it? I have little faith in the idea it wouldn't get chipped up in short order and look like crap again, if that happens here I can simply peel it off. I would 100% use vinyl wrap for this if I didn't have this lone can of Superwrap available to me. Fingers crossed it lasts!

[eljay]

Nice job and nice touch! Looks great!

I'm still searching for a matching spray can to fix some scrapes on my Allroad flares. I just cannot find a match. :(

[19birel]

Nice job and nice touch! Looks great!

I'm still searching for a matching spray can to fix some scrapes on my Allroad flares. I just cannot find a match. :(

I wonder if a paint shop can scan the flares and mix a custom aerosol for you. I've seen a few places that do that but don't how common it is tbh

[eljay]

I wonder if a paint shop can scan the flares and mix a custom aerosol for you. I've seen a few places that do that but don't how common it is tbh

The weird part is that an auto paint shop that mixes spray paints according to paint code refused to do it when I gave them the paint code. They said they cannot mix a spray can of this semi-gloss sheen or something like that.
I have tried a can of Dupli-Color that I picked up at a store using my tow cover hook to find closest match on the cap. It was a Ford grey, but it was too dark.