What did you do to your B9 Q/SQ5 today?

[phillyquattro]

Are you running resonated or nonresonated AWE setup?

Resonated. Noticed something in the exhaust system is a little loose today after about 100 mile trip and some bump roads. So that could be a cause of why it's soo much louder than expected. Gotta tighten things up and see how it is afterwards. Definitely can feel a little power difference and the upshifts, downshifts, and just letting off the gas all make much much more aggressive pops/burps/crackles. Love the noise on the outside, not so much a fan of the noise on the inside but I'll see if I can address that in a couple ways.

[4-ring-sleepers]

Comfort mode in 8th gear is worst. Pop into S. Avoid 8th gear. Or stay in dynamic. I did not buy/modify my sq5 for best gas mileage!

Resonated. Noticed something in the exhaust system is a little loose today after about 100 mile trip and some bump roads. So that could be a cause of why it's soo much louder than expected. Gotta tighten things up and see how it is afterwards. Definitely can feel a little power difference and the upshifts, downshifts, and just letting off the gas all make much much more aggressive pops/burps/crackles. Love the noise on the outside, not so much a fan of the noise on the inside but I'll see if I can address that in a couple ways.

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[phillyquattro]

Comfort mode in 8th gear is worst. Pop into S. Avoid 8th gear. Or stay in dynamic. I did not buy/modify my sq5 for best gas mileage!

I've never bought a car based on efficiency ratings/needs. Totally agree that 8th gear in comfort mode is brutal. Right around the 2100-2400RPM mark seems to be the anti-sweet spot. I'll give it another go after I tighten things back up. Something in the system got so loose that the rattle was creating a high pitched howl/screech at certain speeds/RPM ranges. Felt real bad for my dog in the car with me. I think sound dampening, especially in the trunk, maybe in the door panels, will help get things back to where I'd like them noise wise. I have to say tho that this is definitely the biggest noise increase I've experienced when adding an HFC to any car.

[Makes Centz]

I've never bought a car based on efficiency ratings/needs. Totally agree that 8th gear in comfort mode is brutal. Right around the 2100-2400RPM mark seems to be the anti-sweet spot. I'll give it another go after I tighten things back up. Something in the system got so loose that the rattle was creating a high pitched howl/screech at certain speeds/RPM ranges. Felt real bad for my dog in the car with me. I think sound dampening, especially in the trunk, maybe in the door panels, will help get things back to where I'd like them noise wise. I have to say tho that this is definitely the biggest noise increase I've experienced when adding an HFC to any car.

Imagine you got a HFC, i have stock exhaust with resonator delete and a catless downpipe, shit is retarded loud. I put back on all 3 resonators and its damn near perfect. In comfort mode it sounds close to what stock dynamic sounded like, and in dynamic it sounds pretty nice at idle. Pops and crackles are very nice as well. that stock cat is huge and heavy, replacing it with a empty can really woke things up.

cold starts are loud af toobut whatever. :)

The butt dyno has determined its worth every cent.

[phillyquattro]

Imagine you got a HFC, i have stock exhaust with resonator delete and a catless downpipe, shit is retarded loud. I put back on all 3 resonators and its damn near perfect. In comfort mode it sounds close to what stock dynamic sounded like, and in dynamic it sounds pretty nice at idle. Pops and crackles are very nice as well. that stock cat is huge and heavy, replacing it with a empty can really woke things up.

cold starts are loud af toobut whatever. :)

The butt dyno has determined its worth every cent.

LOL. Yeah man, cold starts are insanely loud. I park in an underground garage and it's deafening when starting it up. Once it warms up tho it sounds pretty vicious tho.

Anyone have experience with sound dampening mat? Thinking about starting with just lining the trunk and see how much of a difference that makes seeing as it's just exposed sheet metal under the carpet/spare area. Was thinking Dynaliner might be good for that area as it's .5" thick, but not actually sure it would fit in some spaces.

[SurfTek]

After testing out many height settings with the CETE for weeks. I have landed at a "sweet spot" for my liking. Dynamic mode /Front 34 /rear 30 seems to be the best combination of ride quality and stance (pretty bad roads near me). I took the car in for an alignment (sweet spot height), it very much needed one after the drop and wheels. They were able to get all four wheels in the green, so no uneven tire wear, but not completely back to factory spec. For those with the CETE, did you have a similar experience in regards to alignment?

[4-ring-sleepers]

I've never bought a car based on efficiency ratings/needs. Totally agree that 8th gear in comfort mode is brutal. Right around the 2100-2400RPM mark seems to be the anti-sweet spot. I'll give it another go after I tighten things back up. Something in the system got so loose that the rattle was creating a high pitched howl/screech at certain speeds/RPM ranges. Felt real bad for my dog in the car with me. I think sound dampening, especially in the trunk, maybe in the door panels, will help get things back to where I'd like them noise wise. I have to say tho that this is definitely the biggest noise increase I've experienced when adding an HFC to any car.

are u talking about a sound that seems like a rock stuck in brake caliper? like the car is possessed? i had an issue with my AWE bracket sitting to close to the xbar support and had my tech add some washers as spacers to keep it a little bit further from the metal on metal contact. i got it really bad when it rained and got hot exhaust wet. sounded insane.

[phillyquattro]

are u talking about a sound that seems like a rock stuck in brake caliper? like the car is possessed? i had an issue with my AWE bracket sitting to close to the xbar support and had my tech add some washers as spacers to keep it a little bit further from the metal on metal contact. i got it really bad when it rained and got hot exhaust wet. sounded insane.

Coincidentally it had rained that day off and on but at the time of the noise on the highway it had been dry long enough that the exhaust was definitely not wet. The only other time I experienced that type of noise was the first few days after I got the AWE system installed and that was because the tech forgot to put the spacers in place for that crossbar you're mentioning. I don't know if I've ever had a rock stuck in my brake caliper, but I can imagine the sound would be very similar. It was like a high pitched wailing. Lasted like 20-30 seconds until I remembered what caused that type of noise previously. Switched it from S to D for a bit and then back to S and things were fine from then on. I haven't been on any extended drives since it occurred so I haven't heard it again yet.

When installing the HFC, the tech noted that the sealing ring from the vband flange that needed to be reused didn't completely seal on the new HFC and that there was a bit of leakage. The plan was to drive it for a week or so, let things expand/contract a few times and see if that gets it to seal properly and bring it back this week to check and tighten things up. From the crazy rattle screeching happening, seems like quite a few things likely need tightening up...which I'm not entirely surprised about.

Will be doing some sound dampening next week. Going to start with the trunk and lift gate and go from there. The rear quarters look like a bitch to get into so I'm going to hold off on those for the moment.

[Makes Centz]

Coincidentally it had rained that day off and on but at the time of the noise on the highway it had been dry long enough that the exhaust was definitely not wet. The only other time I experienced that type of noise was the first few days after I got the AWE system installed and that was because the tech forgot to put the spacers in place for that crossbar you're mentioning. I don't know if I've ever had a rock stuck in my brake caliper, but I can imagine the sound would be very similar. It was like a high pitched wailing. Lasted like 20-30 seconds until I remembered what caused that type of noise previously. Switched it from S to D for a bit and then back to S and things were fine from then on. I haven't been on any extended drives since it occurred so I haven't heard it again yet.

When installing the HFC, the tech noted that the sealing ring from the vband flange that needed to be reused didn't completely seal on the new HFC and that there was a bit of leakage. The plan was to drive it for a week or so, let things expand/contract a few times and see if that gets it to seal properly and bring it back this week to check and tighten things up. From the crazy rattle screeching happening, seems like quite a few things likely need tightening up...which I'm not entirely surprised about.

Will be doing some sound dampening next week. Going to start with the trunk and lift gate and go from there. The rear quarters look like a bitch to get into so I'm going to hold off on those for the moment.

What seal ring on the v band? mine had a small divet (thats what i call it, like a square dowel type of thing) on the cat that needs to be lined up so the faces can mate flush,....that v band wont even go on properly unless they are flush.

If you had leakage there, you would definately know it....your car would sound like a nasa rocket :)

Does your look like this?

Aftergrinding.jpg

[phillyquattro]

What seal ring on the v band? mine had a small divet (thats what i call it, like a square dowel type of thing) on the cat that needs to be lined up so the faces can mate flush,....that v band wont even go on properly unless they are flush.

If you had leakage there, you would definately know it....your car would sound like a nasa rocket :)

Does your look like this?

The seal ring I'm referring to can be seen here in the 034 HFC install guide. It seems the O34 HFC comes with a new seal ring. I don't think I've seen any other HFCs/test pipes that come with a new one. When the HFC was first installed and on that first startup there was a tiny leak at that connection point. I imagine with some heat cycling that issue is completely gone as I haven't noticed it again, but I'll let my tech confirm that as well when he tightens everything else up.

The key lock you noted needs to be lined up or yeah, the things don't sit flush and it would leak like crazy. You would definitely know that was the case instantly, assuming you could even get it mounted somehow like that.

[TaroBaapG35]

are u talking about a sound that seems like a rock stuck in brake caliper? like the car is possessed? i had an issue with my AWE bracket sitting to close to the xbar support and had my tech add some washers as spacers to keep it a little bit further from the metal on metal contact. i got it really bad when it rained and got hot exhaust wet. sounded insane.

THIS HAS HAPPENED to my car soo many times. None of the techs I've taken the car too here (even the ones who installed the exhaust) have no idea what the noise could be. I've got AWE Track W DPs on my S4 and during rain seems like the rear passenger area makes this extremely loud screeching sound; hella scary.

Thanks 4-ring-sleepers for the fix on this!

[4-ring-sleepers]

That was quick! Hybrid Turbo! 20200605_114358.jpeg20200605_114409.jpeg20200605_114613.jpeg20200605_114630.jpeg20200605_113801.jpeg

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[Serpent]

Drove it in the rain

[phillyquattro]

That was quick! Hybrid Turbo! 20200605_114358.jpeg20200605_114409.jpeg20200605_114613.jpeg20200605_114630.jpeg20200605_113801.jpeg]

Damn that was quick! Can't wait to see the gains you get from this.

[Chris.green]

After what was probably way to much back and forth and questions to Mops I ordered a set of BC Forged :) looking forward to my first set of modular wheels 😬

[dad_sq5]

Congrats bro

[Andor]

Finally received the RS style grill and did the install yesterday.

Wow was everyone on the forums correct, what a PITA it was to install it.

Everything went pretty smoothly other than getting the fender well trim off.
Had to be extra gentle to not break off any of the clips. First side took me an hour, 2nd side 20 minutes.

Love how it looks!

FC12A22E-42E2-4B08-942F-E1EDD0D84C1D.jpegBDDF1D04-AF44-4804-987A-27323A643E67.jpg1195A534-A8EA-44CD-A181-DDCAD6D4CB0F.jpg3ACF08D7-A84A-47D7-8594-31A966EB1652.jpg

[phillyquattro]

Finally received the RS style grill and did the install yesterday.

Wow was everyone on the forums correct, what a PITA it was to install it.

Everything went pretty smoothly other than getting the fender well trim off.
Had to be extra gentle to not break off any of the clips. First side took me an hour, 2nd side 20 minutes.

Love how it looks!

FC12A22E-42E2-4B08-942F-E1EDD0D84C1D.jpegBDDF1D04-AF44-4804-987A-27323A643E67.jpg1195A534-A8EA-44CD-A181-DDCAD6D4CB0F.jpg3ACF08D7-A84A-47D7-8594-31A966EB1652.jpg

That looks great. I've been debating getting and RS grille for a while and the more pics I see the more I start to lean towards yes. Did you have guide you followed for getting the front bumper off?

[Mops@Nemesis]

That looks great. I've been debating getting and RS grille for a while and the more pics I see the more I start to lean towards yes. Did you have guide you followed for getting the front bumper off?

Yeah, exactly the same with me. Thinking I'll order one this evening. I love how it looks on my S4, and imagine I'll like it even more on the SQ. I can order yours too if you like.

Looks great @Andor 👌🏼

[Andor]

That looks great. I've been debating getting and RS grille for a while and the more pics I see the more I start to lean towards yes. Did you have guide you followed for getting the front bumper off?

I was looking for a guide but there really wasn't any.

Had to somewhat figure it out as I go but wasn't too difficult tbh.

Had all the screws off from the bumper in 20 minutes but then took me a solid 1.5 hrs to get the wheel well trim un popped as there are around 5-6 clips being held onto the front bumper.

I was going slow to avoid snapping them but after the first one, I noticed that the clips were more like rubber bushing-ish so you can can pull harder without worrying of snapping them off and on an angle.

Once off, taking off the grill from the bumper is pretty straight forward.

One no one tells you is the grill has like a 2nd grill behind it, bolted onto the grill itself. I believe it's purpose is to hold the parking sensor wiring harness. The RS Grill has holes to mount this onto the grill but then it would be somewhat visible.

I referred back to other pictures and many had that behind it, visible even though I never noticed it.

I decided to ghetto rig it and not sure it so it would look cleaner and compressed the parking sensor wiring harness in a gab on the grill and used the clips already on the harness to clip it to the sides and I believe it'll hold up fine.

I don't have front camera so didn't have to do anything with that.

[1S32K16]

Fresh wash and first pics since installing the BC Forged RZ39's I picked up from Mops a few weeks back. Also had the car lowered at Pacific German using the factory scan tool; pretty satisfied with the ride quality but wish it was a tad lower. Now to find some time to take some good photos. I am super happy with the Michelin PS4 SUV tires 295/35/21

[Mops@Nemesis]

The wheels look great Sam! The color works well with QG


Mops on the Move

[phillyquattro]

I was looking for a guide but there really wasn't any.

Had to somewhat figure it out as I go but wasn't too difficult tbh.

Had all the screws off from the bumper in 20 minutes but then took me a solid 1.5 hrs to get the wheel well trim un popped as there are around 5-6 clips being held onto the front bumper.

I was going slow to avoid snapping them but after the first one, I noticed that the clips were more like rubber bushing-ish so you can can pull harder without worrying of snapping them off and on an angle.

Once off, taking off the grill from the bumper is pretty straight forward.

One no one tells you is the grill has like a 2nd grill behind it, bolted onto the grill itself. I believe it's purpose is to hold the parking sensor wiring harness. The RS Grill has holes to mount this onto the grill but then it would be somewhat visible.

I referred back to other pictures and many had that behind it, visible even though I never noticed it.

I decided to ghetto rig it and not sure it so it would look cleaner and compressed the parking sensor wiring harness in a gab on the grill and used the clips already on the harness to clip it to the sides and I believe it'll hold up fine.

I don't have front camera so didn't have to do anything with that.

Awesome. Thanks for the tips! Definitely helpful to know about those clips/bushings.

[phillyquattro]

Got my first CEL today after some very spirited driving. Scanned the car with OBDeleven and pulled the following codes, which I assume are related to me swapping out the stock cat for the HFC.

P049F00 - Exhaust Pressure Control Valve "B"
Intermittent

P014100 - O2 Sensor Heater Circ.,Bank1-Sensor2
Malfunction

[Makes Centz]

Got my first CEL today after some very spirited driving. Scanned the car with OBDeleven and pulled the following codes, which I assume are related to me swapping out the stock cat for the HFC.

P049F00 - Exhaust Pressure Control Valve "B"
Intermittent

P014100 - O2 Sensor Heater Circ.,Bank1-Sensor2
Malfunction

Im running catless DP and i only get "catalyst system, bank1, efficiency below threshold.
fault code P042000

Did your codes reset and go away?

[phillyquattro]

Im running catless DP and i only get "catalyst system, bank1, efficiency below threshold.
fault code P042000

Did your codes reset and go away?

I cleared them. I'll see if it throws another CEL here soon and then see if it's the same ones I listed above or perhaps the one you mention.

[Chris.green]

Gave it a good clean, and started playing around with photoshop. It’s been years since I used it, but I do enjoy getting back into it.

New%20Project%202020-06-11%2019:35:12.JPG


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[Mops@Nemesis]

That wheel is so nice haha!!

[Chris.green]

That wheel is so nice haha!!

Lol Im confused

[phillyquattro]

Lol Im confused

He really likes one of those wheels. Not sure which one, but definitely one of them. I'm guessing the front one.

[Bezlar]

He is just flirting with you. Soon he will be kissing your baby’s and stealing your wife.


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[Makes Centz]

I cleared them. I'll see if it throws another CEL here soon and then see if it's the same ones I listed above or perhaps the one you mention.

Cool, ill continue to share my experiences....hoping you and all others do as well. There's not much info out there right now......

[phillyquattro]

Cool, ill continue to share my experiences....hoping you and all others do as well. There's not much info out there right now......

Will do for sure.

Added sound dampening mat to the trunk floor, quarter panels, and lift gate. Cabin is definitely better now and the HFC noise increase is more manageable. I'll probably do a few more sections as I'm pretty impressed with how much it cut the noise already. Still can be better, but I'm pleased with the result thus far.

[1S32K16]

Anyone running a DP with the stock cat back? I am trying to gauge how my wife will react. I had a catted DP and res delete with stock cat back on my S3 and she wasn’t pleased on longer road trips with the noise.


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[phillyquattro]

Anyone running a DP with the stock cat back? I am trying to gauge how my wife will react. I had a catted DP and res delete with stock cat back on my S3 and she wasn’t pleased on longer road trips with the noise.

Makes Centz is running a test pipe with I believe the full stock cat back with all resonators still in tact. I know he initially removed all the resonators and slowly added them back to get the noise level manageable. I'm running an HFC with a resonated AWE system and it was definitely quite loud without the sound dampening I just added (I'll also be adding more). Totally understand what your wife felt on the S3. I had a HFC with the Dinan non resonated cat back and it was pretty obnoxious on long drives.

[subaruski]

Where have you dampened so far? Trunk and easy to access areas? What product are you using?

I'm running an HFC with a resonated AWE system and it was definitely quite loud without the sound dampening I just added (I'll also be adding more).

[phillyquattro]

Where have you dampened so far? Trunk and easy to access areas? What product are you using?

Trunk floor, quarter panels, and lift gate. I took it to an audio specialist near me to have done. I did it to my trunk and trunk lid on my S3 and it was a pain in the butt and took me far longer than I want to spend doing this type of shit...so this time I just paid the experts. They used Stinger Roadkill mat. Sadly there's only enough space for a single layer in all those locations. Cabin sounds much better now under normal conditions around town. On the highway tho at certain RPM ranges it's still a bit annoying so I'll be adding some more to hopefully address that.

[phillyquattro]

Where have you dampened so far? Trunk and easy to access areas? What product are you using?

Trunk floor, quarter panels, and lift gate. I took it to an audio specialist near me to have done. I did it to my trunk and trunk lid on my S3 and it was a pain in the butt and took me far longer than I want to spend doing this type of shit...so this time I just paid the experts. They used Stinger Roadkill mat. Sadly there's only enough space for a single layer in all those locations. Cabin sounds much better now under normal conditions around town. On the highway tho at certain RPM ranges it's still a bit annoying so I'll be adding some more to hopefully address that.

[pabs]

Not today but picked it up last week and got the car seat installed, that counts as a mod right?





Looks like I'm joining several other S3 -> SQ5 converts in here and I've already got Mops working on some other stuff for me!

[1S32K16]

Not today but picked it up last week and got the car seat installed, that counts as a mod right?





Looks like I'm joining several other S3 -> SQ5 converts in here and I've already got Mops working on some other stuff for me!

Welcome to the SQ5 club, also came from a 2016 S3. Great color, MOPS is the man. Just like my S3 the mod bug got me and man I am really enjoying the SQ5. It will be 1 year old July 1st.