s4vant | The S4 Avant Audi kept from the US

[pseudoseed]

Well, as a proud owner of my '12 S4 Prestige 6MT for 7 years, it was taken away from me by a driver that had enough with waiting for a red light. T-boned in the rear quarter panel/dog leg, the insurance company totaled it. As I considered my options, I knew I didn't want to buy another S4 as I had my eyes set on an RS6 Avant. As times are crazy right now, I figured it wouldn't be wise to spend that kind of money. So while the world works out its recession, I decided the next best thing is to take the meticulously cared for S4 and give it the Avant body it was made for.

Over Thanksgiving weekend, I found an A4 Avant Prestige newly listed in New York. I confirmed its availability and booked a flight within hours of finding it. In less than 24 hours, I was at the dealership signing papers and buying the car. My sister and I then drove it back to Colorado and the Avant was at its new home in just 2 days. My goal with this car is to document everything needed to do the swap including costs, wiring, upgrades, etc and get back into the automotive scene. It's a big project that I can hopefully document and offer a lot of info to the community. The last significant build I did was a MKIV Jetta 12v big turbo with VEMs ECU 10 years ago. It was time to get back into it and I'm super excited. This build is being done by myself and the friend that helped build the Jetta.

My plans with the car:

☐ 6 speed swap
☐ Euro Tail lights (LED Facelift upgrade)
☐ Save the windows from a terrible tint
☐ Clean the New York off the car (I believe this thing was covered by a tree during a prolific dust storm)
☐ Tune the thing (current tune on S4 was EPL stage 1. Thinking IE or waiting for MercRacing supercharger upgrade that is in the works)
☐ Full paint correction with ceramic coating
☐ B8.5 facelift (Monza silver not offered on B8.5 iirc so I will likely need to respray the front end to match as I am not vinyl wrapping it)
☐ RSNav with 360 cameras (depending on execution - needs to look OEM)
☐ ... More to come

With it being just two of us, we've recorded a ton of content and just need time to edit it. We do post to instagram on occasion so give us a follow for more 'instagram like' content @b8_s4vant
I'll make sure to post some of the progress throughout the project.









Socials:

Snapchat: @b8s4vant
Instagram: @b8_s4vant
Youtube: @b8_s4vant

[shreddykrueger]

Rad. Bummer about the total, but this will be a fun project. My avant is Monza under the wrap, was never a fan of that particular color but originally purchased due to the true s line alcantara interior and black headliner. Good luck with the build, that’ll make #5 in Colorado I believe

[Wagonwill]

Looking forward to following along. Just followed the Instagram for all the picture goodness. Would love to swap the Allroad over to a 3.0 in the next couple of years. Jealous of you B8 Avant guys being to do all the fun body stuff with less work!

[pseudoseed]

Well I have been pretty bad at updating this thread but I’ve gotten the car running! Sort of….
I have a crank position sensor fault that I can’t get rid of as well as a few others. So if anyone has any idea, let me know. The car drives but has a sever power loss and some stuttering here and there.

I ended up bringing both harnesses out of the car and swapping the S4 stuff into the Avant’s harness and used that to install. I retrofitted the blind side assist as well as sport diff and 6 speed trans.

Issues I need to figure out:
- Why no crankshaft position sensor even after replacement of part
- Why do I have additional faults for parking brake, suspension, steering, etc.
- How to get the hatch to power close and latch (likely need BCM2 from avant and component protection removed (ODIS))
- Gear selection not working and no reverse signal

Pictures!

Wiring harness mess!

Finishing sound deadening…

S4 Engine Is In!

Happy Little Sports Differential:

First drive to the gas station

I’m going to make a more thorough post here with links to videos. I have so much content recorded that it will take a while to go through and edit. Tons of Timelapse lol