My 2Tone Allroad - a 2016 Allroad Story

[eljay]

Hello again!!

I'm happy to be back/remain in the Avants section with my Allroad. The extended story is below, but I'll keep the summary here:

2016 Audi A4 Allroad Premium Plus
Mythos Black Metallic

Enhancements:

• OEM E-code headlights
• Audi S4 two-tone seats
• Carbon fiber interior trim inserts
• S-Line flat-bottom steering wheel

Plans/hopes:
- Audi S5 rotor wheels for summer
- retrofit Homelink
- retrofit Side Assist
- retrofit rear heated seats
- Stage 1 tune or JB1
- replace hood, bumper pieces with perfect condition items
- plateless front grille
- OEM Avant S-Line suspension
- manual transmission swap

[eljay]

Part ONE (The Story)

After selling my B6 USP Avant, it was only a matter of time to find another one. I nearly bought a 2011 A4 Avant, but in the middle of my search, I came across a 2016 A4 Allroad with some accident damage, but only 35k miles.
The documented damage would have totalled the car, surely from an insurance perspective. But the seller got tired of waiting for a resolution, so we made a deal, I arranged shipping, and it landed at my house in early December.

Love at first sight!


First walkaround:




It did not look bad, but the list was extensive. Thankfully, the core support took the brunt of the impact and the bend stopped just short of the engine pulleys. Phew! So, I had high hopes that the engine is all OK.
I could see that the accessory belt was cut by the core support in one place (but not snapped), I did not want to start it and damage something.
This also meant that I did the whole repair in my driveway over the winter, while I had a heated garage available. But I didn't want the other family car to be out in the elements and starting and scraping it daily, so the Allroad stayed out until I could start it and move it being an army of one.
So, the parts hunt began. It is hard to find front end Allroad parts since they are unique to the Allroad and there are not too many of them sold and even less a crashed one with an intact front.

As I disassembled the front, I kept every single bit and piece to make sure I can identify the part to replace and also try to understand what fits where. Sure, there are diagrams, by they don't tell you step by step starting from the same place as I was. You will see why later.
The frame was fine and that was the main thing. The initial VCDS scan revealed that at the time of impact, the car travelled at 30kph (19mph). As a result, the driver's airbag did deploy, so I started a hunt for a new airbag. Next thing, I know, this thing full of nice things landed in my garage. :)



Basically, in my search for just an airbag, I found an S-Line flat-bottom steering wheel and complete S4 interior with the "Panda" seats and carbon fiber trim, pedals, and door sills (which I'm not using). Yay!

[eljay]

PART TWO (Interior)

I needed to remove the airbag module anyways, so the center console had to come out along with the front seats.
My 160K mile B6 Avant when I got it was cleaner than this car.



The interior received an "eljay" treatment with a full carpet shampoo etc. and the new bits could now go in.


But first, they needed to be prepped and received a full massage with Leatherique. Lucky seats!








During the process, I discovered that the passenger seat did not have the occupancy sensor and module. Strange, as the seats came from the 2015 S4. So, I had to swap everything related to the occupancy sensor on the passenger seat.
The other discovery was that the rear seat back from the S4 included the ski pass-though. Since I wanted to keep the Avant seat back due to the child seat tether anchors, I could not use the S4 seat back frame as the leather cushion does not fit on a frame without the pass-through opening. :(

[eljay]

OK, let's return to the freezing cold outside:


As you can see, I needed a new core support and pretty much everything on it and forward from it. If you are still wondering why this innocent looking damage would total the car, go price out a new Allroad bumper pieces that come primed from Audi and you will quickly understand. Since I didn't want to spend more than it would cost actually buy a 2016 Allroad on the market, I proceeded with repairing what I could.

Before:


During:


After:



The only new item is the grille.

As I went to put things together, I realized that something else needs to be holding the grille. So, I looked through the broken rubbish I saved and found a piece with a part number of what Audi calls "closing element". So, I dug out what looked like pieces of it and I had this pile:


After some epoxy, this emerged:


Not perfect, but it works. I will replace it with a new item later when I get a chance.

I sourced a good core support with fans and new bits for it including A/C condenser, intercooler, headlight support brackets. Since I was buying new, I decided to upgrade to the 3.0TDI intercooler.


As part of buttoning up the front, I had to replace a broken N75 valve and since I was replacing the accessory belt, I replaced its tensioner, too.
After filling up the coolant and making sure oil is fine, I started it and it was beautiful moment! I think I shed a tear even.

I managed to find a used hood in the same Mythos Black Metallic colour. It is damaged with some creasing and scraped on the sides. So, it's another item to replace later.

Next were the headlights. They looked OK from the front, but because the core support move, it pulled the mounts back and broke the back of both headlights, so I decided to buy new OEM e-codes instead.

Everything bolted up fine!! I was beyond happy! Can you tell?


And it was ready for the light of day and off it went for an inspection sticker. That discovered that it needed front brakes (they were completely done) and a driver's axle boot (which likely tore during the accident process). I completely missed that, but got those adressed. I did the brakes, but let a shop mess with the axle.

[eljay]

The Allroad was then ready to get a full cleaning and wax including the engine bay, interior, and exterior.










And out into the wild she goes:


Thanks for reading! :)

[kevin1980]

Nice job!

Verstuurd vanaf mijn SM-G950F met Tapatalk

[eljay]

Nice job!

Verstuurd vanaf mijn SM-G950F met Tapatalk

Thank you!

And thanks to @19birel and @old guy for helping me with odd & panic questions.

[dropshadow]

Great story and a nicely equipped allroad. Very cool to see it come back to life.

[northnj]

Very nice job on bringing the beauty back!

[19birel]

She's looking good, great job! That's awesome you were able to snag it from the previous owner before it got a branded title!

[CONative]

Very nice job! I almost went the same route to repair my Avant b/c other insurance wanted to total it, got my insurance involved and they repaired it.

If you don’t mind me asking, ballpark what do you pay?

#SavetheWagons!


Sent from my iPhone using Audizine

[eljay]

Great story and a nicely equipped allroad. Very cool to see it come back to life.

Thank you!

Very nice job on bringing the beauty back!

Thanks!

She's looking good, great job! That's awesome you were able to snag it from the previous owner before it got a branded title!

Yes, I got really lucky with this one. I said that Allroad will be our next Audi, but I never thought I'd find one so fast and a 2016 with low mileage too.
Very happy with it.

Very nice job! I almost went the same route to repair my Avant b/c other insurance wanted to total it, got my insurance involved and they repaired it.

If you don’t mind me asking, ballpark what do you pay?

#SavetheWagons!


Sent from my iPhone using Audizine

Cool! That's great to hear.

I'd rather not post that as I believe the previous owner is still fighting the insurance company. But it was a very good deal. While I'm not familiar with insurance auction prices, I would say that I got it cheaper than that. Shipping was expensive though as the car was immobile.

[rand0mher0]

Looks clean! Great job on the rebuild. Cant wait to see this with a manual transmission!

[eljay]

Looks clean! Great job on the rebuild. Cant wait to see this with a manual transmission!

I do hope it will happen some day. The ZF8 is brilliant, but even with shift paddles, it feels like my Logitech PC wheel experience. :)

[base14]

Good read so far. What do you plan to do with the fender flares? Repair-repaint or replace? I’ve got similar scratches on mine from PO and am contemplating refinishing them. I’m having trouble finding the V7W paint code (dark grey)in aerosol can online. FYI your fender paint code is 1RR for light grey.


Sent from my iPhone using Audizine

[oVeRdOsE]

Wow my dream project.

You own a E91 also ?

I love this car, I couldn't decide between a B7 avant and E91 so I got both, both manual, both black, both with sport pack, both with nav pack. Makes it a rare duo.

[eljay]

Good read so far. What do you plan to do with the fender flares? Repair-repaint or replace? I’ve got similar scratches on mine from PO and am contemplating refinishing them. I’m having trouble finding the V7W paint code (dark grey)in aerosol can online. FYI your fender paint code is 1RR for light grey.


Sent from my iPhone using Audizine

Not sure yet.
In case you can't tell from that passenger upper bumper repair, I'm not great at body work. LOL To be fair, my objective was to make that piece usable rather than a perfect match, so a rattle can job was all I did there.
Back to the flares...
Ideally, I'd find clean replacements and put those on and be done. If I decide to get them painted, then I would strongly consider doing a body paint match. Then the thread title '2Tone' would apply only to the interior. :)
Other options I was thinking about would be a wrap as I would dare to try that myself. But that would need to be in non-factory colour, so I'm not sure what I'd do there. For example, carbon fiber may look odd with Mythos Black and I keep all my cars along OEM+ theme rather than aftermarket looking.
My first objective is to find a clean hood in Mythos Black and intact front bumper pieces that match.

[eljay]

Wow my dream project.

You own a E91 also ?

I love this car, I couldn't decide between a B7 avant and E91 so I got both, both manual, both black, both with sport pack, both with nav pack. Makes it a rare duo.

Nice combo!
Yes, there's our E91 in the background with three pedals. I love that N52 engine with a manual much better than the Allroad. Thus, my desire for a manual swap down the road. I need to do the brakes on the E91 next. Fleet maintenance is time consuming! haha
Would love to see your E91.

[Mister W]

Good job. But i want your seats . Looking for those and they're hard to find.

[eljay]

Thanks and yes, that was a very lucky find.

Now, I need to locate a rear seat frame from an S4 Avant in Europe. That will be a needle in a haystack search.

[Mister W]

Thanks and yes, that was a very lucky find.

Now, I need to locate a rear seat frame from an S4 Avant in Europe. That will be a needle in a haystack search.

Why do you need a back seat frame, and from Euro? It's not plug and play? Except for the mesh bracket and maybe the hatch lock, it should fit?

[eljay]

Why do you need a back seat frame, and from Euro? It's not plug and play? Except for the mesh bracket and maybe the hatch lock, it should fit?

It does not fit. The leather cover from a sedan with a pass-through opening does not fit a seat frame without the pass through.
On top of that, I need an Avant seat frame to retain the top child seat tether anchors.
So, I had to keep my original leather and cushion from the Allroad. You cannot really tell behind the child seat, so I guess it's all good. :)

If you don't need to bother with the tether anchors, you can just install the rear S4 sedan seats and be done.

[Mister W]

I forgot about the child seat anchors. I went through all this with my B7 wagon and the ski bag opening is a pita. I was thinking Yeah, no need do swap backseat on my Allroad because the cargo cover is not clipped to the seats, but my kids are older and i dont need those anchors.
Good luck and i hope you will find what your looking for.

Envoyé de mon SM-G960W en utilisant Tapatalk

[eljay]

I forgot about the child seat anchors. I went through all this with my B7 wagon and the ski bag opening is a pita. I was thinking Yeah, no need do swap backseat on my Allroad because the cargo cover is not clipped to the seats, but my kids are older and i dont need those anchors.
Good luck and i hope you will find what your looking for.

Envoyé de mon SM-G960W en utilisant Tapatalk

Yep, if I didn't need the anchors, I wouldn't bother either.

[eljay]

So, I am trying to decide on summer wheels.
I was dead set on finding S5 rotors (19x9 ET33).
But now that I see some forged RS5 wheels (19x9 ET24) for sale, I can't decide.

RS5 wheels are much lighter and have more aggressive fitment (outer edge moves out 15mm vs 6mm for rotors).
However, I wanted ease of maintenance of the 5-spoke rotors vs 10 spokes and grooves and big groove running all the way behind the spokes.
Seems trivial to most people, but with a toddler that's 30-60 minute faster car wash.

I haven't seen the RS5 wheels on an Allroad yet.

Decisions...

[eljay]

So, now I can't decide between these three options:
1. B8.5 RS5 wheels (19x9 ET24) - lightweight, most flush look, too many spokes and grooves to clean.




2. B8.5 S5 rotors (19x9 ET33) - great look, lowest maintenance



3. B9 S5 wheels (19x8.5 ET32) - not very aggressive offset, middle ground on maintenance

[rand0mher0]

I vote for rotors, orrrr RS5 rotors :drool:

[eljay]

I vote for rotors, orrrr RS5 rotors :drool:

Stop it!! I don't need more options. LOL
I love the 20" RS5 rotors as I actually prefer the all silver paint. However, not sure I'd want to drive on 20" tires with rubber-band-thin sidewall around here, plus they cost more than 255/35r19. :(

[oVeRdOsE]

are you the same member ?

https://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1495946

if yes, here's mine, 2008, sport pack no-leather and navi pack, 6mt, xi. Rare but not nice as your.

Got it for dirt cheap as a winter beater. Stock-to-stock e91 is way better than my b7

[eljay]

are you the same member ?

https://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1495946

if yes, here's mine, 2008, sport pack no-leather and navi pack, 6mt, xi. Rare but not nice as your.

Got it for dirt cheap as a winter beater. Stock-to-stock e91 is way better than my b7

Yessir! :)

Thank you. I see you have a factory sport package. Nice!
I am slowly building up mine to OEM+ standards. Currently, it's on stands in the garage awaiting a 335i brake swap. It's taking me forever to do anything these days.

And I agree that the E91 is a great driving car. Better than our previous B6 Stage 3 Avant.

[oVeRdOsE]

Yessir! :)

Thank you. I see you have a factory sport package. Nice!
I am slowly building up mine to OEM+ standards. Currently, it's on stands in the garage awaiting a 335i brake swap. It's taking me forever to do anything these days.

And I agree that the E91 is a great driving car. Better than our previous B6 Stage 3 Avant.

yeah, e90 are so easy to work on, find parts and code. The xdelete app makes it the almost-perfect car.
Seats are way better than audi one.
I cut open the air box for sound, and did the rear fog light mod. code few things on it since I had the cable, and the software is free.

I wont put any mod on that one 'winter beater' but im keeping it just in case since its a nice find. Let say I find a clean lci 335 with all work done to be bit more reliable, I would be tempted to do a complete drivetrain and interior swap.

but an allroad with a 6mt s4 swap could be a nice option too.

[eljay]

yeah, e90 are so easy to work on, find parts and code. The xdelete app makes it the almost-perfect car.
Seats are way better than audi one.
I cut open the air box for sound, and did the rear fog light mod. code few things on it since I had the cable, and the software is free.

I wont put any mod on that one 'winter beater' but im keeping it just in case since its a nice find. Let say I find a clean lci 335 with all work done to be bit more reliable, I would be tempted to do a complete drivetrain and interior swap.

but an allroad with a 6mt s4 swap could be a nice option too.

I've never heard of the xdelete app. That sounds great! I'd love to try it out.
Yes, N55/N54 are easy to tune. And as I'm digging into my E91 for the first time on brakes, I can already see how the suspension and other config on it are much simpler than Audi's approach. Lack of 8 control arms and pinch bolts on the front is a welcome sight! I will be looking for a suspension for it soon.
I'll PM you with some E90 questions.

[bwoy1981]

Stop it!! I don't need more options. LOL
I love the 20" RS5 rotors as I actually prefer the all silver paint. However, not sure I'd want to drive on 20" tires with rubber-band-thin sidewall around here, plus they cost more than 255/35r19. :(

I vote Silver Rotors as well. You do not have to get "rubber band" tires. I use 275/35/20 on mine, I'm lowered as well on Coilovers and it rides great.

20200223_124753.jpg

[19birel]

Of your options I vote the RS5 wheels, they honestly don't look to bad to clean but that's coming from someone who has a million spokes to clean themselves haha

[eljay]

Oh you people and your beautiful Allroads!

That looks fantastic!

But I will want to stick with 19" for now.
I'm pretty sure I will go with the RS5 wheels from my choices above (due to the appeal of flush fitment and 5lbs weight saving) and suffer the cleaning routine and maybe switch things up IF I come across RS5 20" rotors.

[dropshadow]

If you're looking, I just picked up a set of hyper silver 20x9 ET26 RS5 rotors I was going to refinish and run, but I've decided to just stick with the original summer wheel plans. If you're interested, let me know.

[rand0mher0]

If you're looking, I just picked up a set of hyper silver 20x9 ET26 RS5 rotors I was going to refinish and run, but I've decided to just stick with the original summer wheel plans. If you're interested, let me know.

I may be interested if eljay isn't!

[dropshadow]

I may be interested if eljay isn't!

Shoot me a PM, I don’t want to clutter this thread.

[Mister W]

are you the same member ?

https://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1495946

if yes, here's mine, 2008, sport pack no-leather and navi pack, 6mt, xi. Rare but not nice as your.

Got it for dirt cheap as a winter beater. Stock-to-stock e91 is way better than my b7

Très belle ta BM, ton B7 aussi, je m'ennuie du miens :(

[oVeRdOsE]

Très belle ta BM, ton B7 aussi, je m'ennuie du miens :(

Merci !

I do remember yours it was sick.

can't wait d'aller la claqué on the highway