Lettuce Build Thread, Fast Cars and Fast Women: Stage 2 and Beyond

[A4 Centaur]

Is there a sensor attached to it? How does the lack of a screen trip a code? Weird.

[lettuce]

...

Also some asshat rear ended me today.

[blbroo]

Basically, yeah. There's an oil pressure sensor right before it, so without the tight mesh screen there the sensor would see lower oil pressure. I was hoping it wouldn't make that much of a difference but apparently it does.

Also some asshat rear ended me today.

Did it bend your exhaust? Might as well go aftermarket.

Really, that sucks man. Much damage?

[19birel]

Basically, yeah. There's an oil pressure sensor right before it, so without the tight mesh screen there the sensor would see lower oil pressure. I was hoping it wouldn't make that much of a difference but apparently it does.

Also some asshat rear ended me today.

Pics? Sorry to hear that man

[lettuce]

Did it bend your exhaust? Might as well go aftermarket.

Really, that sucks man. Much damage?

Ha ha very funny. Could have been worse but the bumper and valence are going to need body work and a respray. Some gouges in each, well past the clear coat.

Fucking annoying. Literally the first day I have it out driving after I get it looking the way I want and this shit happens.

Pics? Sorry to hear that man

[blbroo]

Car looks great now, nice work

[lettuce]

Car looks great now, nice work

Thanks man. Too bad my new valence unfortunately came loaded with high-powered magnets that attract Honda Civics.

[ryanhmusic]

Thanks man. Too bad my new valence unfortunately came loaded with high-powered magnets that attract Honda Civics.

Hey man at least it wasn't a mustang who hit you, that coulda been bad......

[lettuce]

Is there a sensor attached to it? How does the lack of a screen trip a code? Weird.

Basically, yeah. There's an oil pressure sensor right before it, so without the tight mesh screen there the sensor would see lower oil pressure. I was hoping it wouldn't make that much of a difference but apparently it does.

Also some asshat rear ended me today.

So, this is fucked. Apparently that didn't solve the issue. Literally without fail 100% of the time I hit 75-80 before, it'd trip the EPC 4k rev limiter. So I replace the cam bridge, hop on the highway, mash the pedal up to 100, no EPC light. Slow back down, then mash it up to 120, no EPC light. Cruise on the highway going between 80-90 for about 10 minutes, no EPC light. Everything seemed great. Then I go to merge onto the highway today and bam, EPC light right at 75.

I have a few other ideas of what it could be. This started happening sometime after I installed my new valve seals, my meth injection kit, and the new water pump. So it has to be one of the following things:

- It could be a bad oil pressure sensor. I just replaced it 10 minutes ago with a new one so I'll have to see if that fixes it. I'm not too hopeful.

- When reinstalling the intake manifold after doing the water pump I stripped out one of the threads in the head that the intake bolts down to. I guess it's possible it's not tight enough right there and is leaking a tiny bit of boost, but the screw does still catch on a few threads and it's more than hand tight, just not properly-torqued-down tight. Right after I did this I purchased a new intake manifold gasket and a helicoil kit, but need to remove my intake to retap the thread so haven't got around to it. This is at the bottom of my list of ideas.

- My methanol kit is installed physically, but not 'turned on' yet. The lines are not filled with fluid. I have a solenoid installed between the pump and tank, and there are supposedly check valves in each of the nozzle holders, but I guess it's possible boost could be leaking out of my meth nozzles/lines? I'm going to finish wiring this kit up and get it turned on this week to see if this is the issue.

Can anybody think of any other possible reasons why I could be tripping an EPC light and going into soft limp mode limiting me to 4k RPMs upon hitting ~75 mph?

[lettuce]

Also I just thought back to that problem that arose way back when I installed my new turbo. That damn little camshaft position actuator clip (one of the 8 connectors across from the coil pack connectors on the top engine harness) that snapped in half sometime during that install. Every time I have to disconnect and reconnect it, I'm futzing around with loose chunks of wire, jamming them in each half of the broken connector to get it to work. Each time it feels like it breaks a little bit more and I think one of the last times I had to disconnect it I may have not been able to reconnect it properly. Seems like a few other people have had an issue with faulty cam position actuators activating this 4k RPM EPC limp mode as well. This would explain why it worked the other day, but not today (loose connection, working intermittently).

So I just spent the last couple hours in the garage #1 finishing up my meth install (I'm officially on meth now, although I still need to spend time dialing in the right nozzle combo. Currently at 175/225 TB/FMIC to start), and #2 hacking together a relatively solid connection for that broken clip. I really need to find one of these connectors somewhere to replace it with once and for all.

[VNA4]

Thanks man. Too bad my new valence unfortunately came loaded with high-powered magnets that attract Honda Civics.

Cmon man..! Take care of it!

[lettuce]

Cmon man..! Take care of it!

How do you think I feel! I had the thing on my car for like 4 days.

[Jacon]

Have the body shop tear it apart and request a supplement for a new bumper. Note, it will turn a $600 job into a $2000 job, but you'll have a new bumper. I just did this with mine for the exact same damage.

[Lambda13]

How do you think I feel! I had the thing on my car for like 4 days.

If you end up getting a new bumper cover let me know. If yours is in better shape then mine I'll throw you some money for it?

[The Infiltrator]

If you end up getting a new bumper cover let me know. If yours is in better shape then mine I'll throw you some money for it?

I still have mine for sale, but you'd have to pick it up. lol

[Lambda13]

I still have mine for sale, but you'd have to pick it up. lol

And paint it...

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

[The Infiltrator]

And paint it...

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

If I had the stuff to do it. One day I will and I'll probably still have all of these damn Audi parts laying around.

[Lambda13]

Lol! I am stockpiling a second car with just spare parts.

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[lettuce]

So I finally got around to finishing up my meth injection install last night. It was fully operational today and was running great. It was pretty mild out, somewhere in the 50s, and I haven't tuned for it yet so I didn't really notice any difference, but I imagine it'll be nice keeping things cool on those 90 degree days. I haven't decided yet whether or not I'll make a custom tune for it. It's still my daily driver and I really don't need to be worrying about blowing up my engine should something go wrong. Maybe I'll make a separate aggressive tune for the track and just run my current non-meth tune around town. We'll see.

So I actually physically installed everything back in February. I was having some engine problems around then though (bad thermostat causing me to run rich, and then a couple other small issues which have since been ironed out), so I didn't want to wire it up and turn it on until everything was taken care of. Well that time has come, so on it goes.

I still need to find the perfect combination of nozzle sizes, but I'm currently running a dual nozzle Snow Performance stage 2 setup with a 175ml/min nozzle in the throttle body spacer and a 225ml/min nozzle in my silicone pipe post-intercooler. I originally wanted to go 100/375 TB/FMIC but every 100ml/min nozzle I buy has had bad threads. They're so bad I can't even thread them into anything. This is apparently a known issue (they're machining defects from a 'bad batch' a 'while ago') and Snow has already replaced one set of nozzles for me no questions asked, but when they sent out a new batch of nozzles they sent me different sizes so now I'm stuck with a few I'll probably never use. Whatever. Now for some pics.

The first part of the install was mostly getting the washer fluid tank tapped, pump and solenoid mounted, and lines ran. To do this I pretty much removed my entire driver's side fender, popped out the washer fluid tank and drilled a hole in the bottom.









Then I routed the meth lines up and over my wheel well. I was a tad apprehensive about doing it this way as the install instructions say 1) to install the pump no more than 2 feet away from the tank (up and around the wheel well was more like 4 feet of tubing), and 2) to mount the pump inlet lower than the outlet fitting from the tank (it was about level with it, but with the lines going up and over the wheel well, the tubing basically extends over the top of the washer tank so might not be ideal). But after emailing Snow about this they say this mounting configuration is fine and told me not to worry about it. But I've seen some other installs where the pumps are mounted way higher than the tanks and this is a no-no as the pump is supposed to be gravity-fed. So try to keep it as low as you can.





As you can see in that last picture I mounted the solenoid to the body just under the headlight assembly. From there it was a short trip down to the pump which I mounted where the old sound box used to be (I ripped mine out and replaced the hole it left behind with a 1" ID rubber chair leg cap I got from Home Depot per advice from @blbroo).

In this next picture you'll see the pump mounting location from the front, with the tube exiting the solenoid and going directly into the pump inlet. I ended up flipping the pump upside down after taking this picture to get the inlet lower to even it out with the washer tank outlet level.



And here is a picture of the pump once I flipped it and hooked up the T and two meth lines, one going to the post-intercooler pipe and one going up into the engine bay to the throttle body spacer.



After that I mounted the lower nozzle into my silicone pipe:



And mounted the upper nozzle into my throttle body spacer:



Then I did some preliminary wiring, hooking up pretty much everything but the power. I ran my green pump-spray indicator LED up to one of my windshield washer sprayers so I could see it from the cabin.







This was a cool idea in theory, but in practice it was almost impossible to tell when it was lit due to glare and it being very low and partially obstructed by the wiper arm. If I poke my head up a bit and look at it I can see it pretty plainly, but just driving it's not as obvious as I was hoping it'd be. I may leave it or I may remount it somewhere else. Dunno.

So that was all done between February and March. Just last night I finished wiring up the controller, primed the pump and turned it on.



You can see where I mounted the controller there behind the firewall near the blower inlet and under the rain guard.

So like I said I didn't really notice any difference driving around. I'm sure I would if it was hotter out, but for now in this 50 degree weather it's pretty much just the same. If I don't notice enough of a difference in 90+ degree weather then I'll give it a somewhat more aggressive tune, but if all I get out of this is cold-weather performance in hot weather then I'll be happy. That was my main concern which led me to do this whole install. Once I got a taste of how my car performed in the colder weather I knew I'd never be satisfied running on hot summer air again.



Edit: I have since removed the throttle body spacer nozzle and am just running one 225ml/min nozzle post-intercooler. The dual-nozzle setup was too much for my non-meth tune, I was going through a gallon every few days and I blew up some spark plugs. The single-nozzle setup is running much better, so if you're not tuning for the meth I strongly suggest going that route. Here is a list of the parts needed for my current install:

Snow Performance stage 2 kit - part #20012
Snow Performance solenoid - part #40060
Snow Performance nozzle mounting adapter - part #40110
Snow Performance 225 ml/min nozzle = part #40225

Renegade Pro-methanol race fuel - 25%
Market Basket distilled water - 75%

[lettuce]

lol tank's already empty. Went through a gallon and a quarter in like 2 days. Gotta mess with my spray settings.

[lettuce]

Wow, you guys are not going to believe the weight difference between the Q5 Brembo calipers/rotors compared to stock.

Any guesses?

[4ringnut]

6 pounds

[Dub_prime]

Don't leave us hanging bruh

[blbroo]

lol tank's already empty. Went through a gallon and a quarter in like 2 days. Gotta mess with my spray settings.

Too much spray will kill power. I go through a gallon a month!

[lettuce]

Calipers: Brembos ~5.5 lbs lighter.



Rotors: 345mm ECS 2-piece ~3.5 lbs lighter.



Total: Brembo BBK ~18 lbs lighter for both wheels.

Makes up for the 3 pounds I gained with my new wheels/tires and then some. All unsprung mass, with 7 of it being rotating. That's what I'm talkin about.

[lettuce]

Oh and because I know I'm not the only one who was wondering this, these Brembos will just BARELY not fit under the stock 17s.



If you feel like doing a little machining you could probably get away with it. I put them on and gave them a little spin and actually thought at first that they'd clear, but then made a sad face ;_; when I took the wheel off and saw the caliper.

Edit: upon further review, it looks like it was the wheel weights that wouldn't clear, so if you were able to relocate them to the inside of the wheel drum then you could probably get away with it. Might try this out myself this winter.

[Smellie]

So pumped for you to take this down the track!

[lettuce]

So pumped for you to take this down the track!

Me too man. Not really expecting any better times, but with the water/meth I should be able to at least keep running those mid 12s even in the hot summer weather. Still kinda don't want to tune for the meth just yet, but I'm sure I won't be able to ignore that itch for long. Especially after seeing your times hah.

[hyperunion]

Oh and because I know I'm not the only one who was wondering this, these Brembos will just BARELY not fit under the stock 17s.



If you feel like doing a little machining you could probably get away with it. I put them on and gave them a little spin and actually thought at first that they'd clear, but then made a sad face ;_; when I took the wheel off and saw the caliper. I did this for you!

Good to know... 18s for me!

[lettuce]

First run of the season up at the track. Did well considering. My adaptive transmission was still stuck in daily driver slushbox shift mode for most of the night, but I was able to fire off a couple halfway decent runs in between track shutdowns due to morons crashing their cars everywhere. Seriously, how can you not control your bone stock shitbox for the 15 seconds it takes you to run it down the track without smashing into a concrete barrier?

Anyway, my ETs were off my best due to the slow shifts, but I was able to hit a PR 60' time and trap speed of 1.774 and 108.73 MPH, respectively. That's over 1 MPH faster than my previous best trap and inching very close to that 110 I'm shooting for. Should be seeing some nice 12.5 - 12.4 slips once I can get my car used to racing again. Best ET was only a 12.801.



I attribute the faster trap speeds to the meth and reduction in rotating mass with the new brakes, and the 1.7 60' time to the best launch I've ever done, suspension upgrades and the added grip of the bigger tires not letting out so much as a squeak off the line. With a slightly more aggressive tune I should easily be able to push that trap up another couple MPHs to get it north of 110. That last run with the 2.3 60' time was due to me starting the brake torque for the launch too early, causing my car to go into some sort of protection mode, shutting itself down to protect my transmission. I've done that before and it sucks. There's nothing you can do at that point but just crawl out of the hole off idle and try again next time. Oddly enough once I got going for that pass it didn't skip a beat and got me my best ever trap speed. Overall it was a blast as usual and met some cool guys running a stage 2 B8 S4 and a tuned 335. Can't wait to get back up there after messing with my tune.

Went through a half gallon of meth too. Should probably toss in some smaller nozzles or something.

One last thing. The new suspension feels a bit floaty over 100mph. Like if I cut the wheel sharply back and forth it takes my car a split second to catch up. My tires are pretty low profile, certainly more so than my stock setup, and I wasn't experiencing that before. Any ideas? Will an alignment help that out at all? It didn't feel good on the highway. I'd gotten that thing up much higher before and it felt a lot better than it does now.

[Project Quattro]

One last thing. The new suspension feels a bit floaty over 100mph. Like if I cut the wheel sharply back and forth it takes my car a split second to catch up. My tires are pretty low profile, certainly more so than my stock setup, and I wasn't experiencing that before. Any ideas? Will an alignment help that out at all? It didn't feel good on the highway. I'd gotten that thing up much higher before and it felt a lot better than it does now.

Do you have uprated sways and end links? Your stock suspension would have come with a set optimized for that setup, but with the change you might need to upgrade to get that unified feeling back.

[blbroo]

First run of the season up at the track. Did well considering. My adaptive transmission was still stuck in daily driver slushbox shift mode for most of the night, but I was able to fire off a couple halfway decent runs in between track shutdowns due to morons crashing their cars everywhere. Seriously, how can you not control your bone stock shitbox for the 15 seconds it takes you to run it down the track without smashing into a concrete barrier?

Anyway, my ETs were off my best due to the slow shifts, but I was able to hit a PR 60' time and trap speed of 1.774 and 108.73 MPH, respectively. That's over 1 MPH faster than my previous best trap and inching very close to that 110 I'm shooting for. Should be seeing some nice 12.5 - 12.4 slips once I can get my car used to racing again. Best ET was only a 12.801.



I attribute the faster trap speeds to the meth and reduction in rotating mass with the new brakes, and the 1.7 60' time to the best launch I've ever done, suspension upgrades and the added grip of the bigger tires not letting out so much as a squeak off the line. With a slightly more aggressive tune I should easily be able to push that trap up another couple MPHs to get it north of 110. That last run with the 2.3 60' time was due to me starting the brake torque for the launch too early, causing my car to go into some sort of protection mode, shutting itself down to protect my transmission. I've done that before and it sucks. There's nothing you can do at that point but just crawl out of the hole off idle and try again next time. Oddly enough once I got going for that pass it didn't skip a beat and got me my best ever trap speed. Overall it was a blast as usual and met some cool guys running a stage 2 B8 S4 and a tuned 335. Can't wait to get back up there after messing with my tune.

Went through a half gallon of meth too. Should probably toss in some smaller nozzles or something.

One last thing. The new suspension feels a bit floaty over 100mph. Like if I cut the wheel sharply back and forth it takes my car a split second to catch up. My tires are pretty low profile, certainly more so than my stock setup, and I wasn't experiencing that before. Any ideas? Will an alignment help that out at all? It didn't feel good on the highway. I'd gotten that thing up much higher before and it felt a lot better than it does now.

My car feels the same way with wider low profile tires vs the 245 18s. I think it's just more rubber under the car insulating you more from the road.


May also be a reason some S4 guys say that A4 loaners feel more connected to the road and have more steering feel. 245 18s on the A4 vs 255 19s.

[Demringstho864]

this build is absolutely amazing, and has gave me hope for my car once again.

[poweredbyaudi7]

My car feels the same way with wider low profile tires vs the 245 18s. I think it's just more rubber under the car insulating you more from the road.


May also be a reason some S4 guys say that A4 loaners feel more connected to the road and have more steering feel. 245 18s on the A4 vs 255 19s.

I do not know if this is accurate either. I have been running the 255/35/19 from day one, as mine came with the rotor wheels. I have been over 100 a few times and feel well planted every time. I would recommend an alignment. It should help immensely.

[blbroo]

I do not know if this is accurate either. I have been running the 255/35/19 from day one, as mine came with the rotor wheels. I have been over 100 a few times and feel well planted every time. I would recommend an alignment. It should help immensely.

But, have you ran 245s to feel the difference?

[ryanhmusic]

But, have you ran 245s to feel the difference?

Not quite the same and I'm on a different chassis but I've run 225, 235, and 245 and not noticed a high speed difference. Wider wouldn't fit nicely under my fenders or I'd be willing to give it a shot this weekend.

The only thing I've noticed different is following ruts in the road more at low speed -- high speed doesn't seem to affect it nearly as much

[poweredbyaudi7]

But, have you ran 245s to feel the difference?

I have not....but I have on my wife's Q5. Kind of the same...

[lettuce]

Do you have uprated sways and end links? Your stock suspension would have come with a set optimized for that setup, but with the change you might need to upgrade to get that unified feeling back.

I'm running stock end links on beefier sways, but I don't think that would affect lateral movement of my car? To describe what it's feeling like a little better, it's like my wheels and suspension are getting to where I want to go about a half second before the body of my car does. It's not bouncing up and down or getting body roll really. It's like, shifting side to side. That's why I mentioned the profile on my tires. I don't understand how a lower profile tire, wider or not, could be causing this. They're all at around 40 psi too so it's not an issue with tire pressure. I don't know. I have the metal end links up front and I do have a set of the Moogs that I was going to throw on the back but I snapped the head off of one of my sway bar bolts so I haven't put them on yet.

My car feels the same way with wider low profile tires vs the 245 18s. I think it's just more rubber under the car insulating you more from the road.

May also be a reason some S4 guys say that A4 loaners feel more connected to the road and have more steering feel. 245 18s on the A4 vs 255 19s.

I don't buy for a second that this should be expected behavior out of my current wheel/tire/suspension combo. This is all supposed to have tightened my car up, not turned it into an old Grand Marquis (hyperbole).

As it drives right now it feels like a huge downgrade on the highway. Like I said I can't believe this is directly from the new parts I've put on my car, so I'm leaning towards it highlighting some weakness left in my stock system that needs to be upgraded along with everything else. Sort of like what Quattro was alluding to above with the sway bar end links. Are there any bushings or anything on this car that could be a possible problem area?

this build is absolutely amazing, and has gave me hope for my car once again.

Hah, thanks man. If you have any questions don't hesitate to ask.

I do not know if this is accurate either. I have been running the 255/35/19 from day one, as mine came with the rotor wheels. I have been over 100 a few times and feel well planted every time. I would recommend an alignment. It should help immensely.

Just got an alignment and it didn't help :(

[ryanhmusic]

As it drives right now it feels like a huge downgrade on the highway. Like I said I can't believe this is directly from the new parts I've put on my car, so I'm leaning towards it highlighting some weakness left in my stock system that needs to be upgraded along with everything else. Sort of like what Quattro was alluding to above with the sway bar end links. Are there any bushings or anything on this car that could be a possible problem area?

Just got an alignment and it didn't help :(

Do you have new alignment specs? They could be playing a huge part in this now that you're lower, the OEM alignment specs don't apply anymore

It sounds like a sway issue to me...id probably start with the end links

Did you replace the strut top bushings when you swapped the suspension? If those were bad I would think it would create body roll, not the sensation you're describing, but I could be wrong

[lettuce]

Do you have new alignment specs? They could be playing a huge part in this now that you're lower, the OEM alignment specs don't apply anymore

It sounds like a sway issue to me...id probably start with the end links

Did you replace the strut top bushings when you swapped the suspension? If those were bad I would think it would create body roll, not the sensation you're describing, but I could be wrong

I can't do the end links right now. The head I snapped off the sway bar bolt won't let me use my Moog links. The stock ones are all one piece, but the Moogs are like 7 different parts you have to fit together and then bolt down so they stay together.

I did not replace any of the strut tower or shock bushings with the new suspension. They looked to be in decent enough shape. And like you said, that shouldn't affect lateral movement which is what it feels like I'm experiencing.