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I thought I’d start a thread to document my RS4 journey. Having a look at some of the threads here, it’s certainly going to be a light touch given my modest plans, but I hope that some will read with interest.

Before getting into what I plan to do, a little on why I chose an RS4.

At the beginning of 2018, I decided that I wanted to change jobs. There were many factors but one of them was my 100 miles a day M5 commute that, after 8 years, I’d had enough of. I had a car that suited the motorway mileage, A4 1.9tdi (B6) and Ol’ Betsy hit 300,800 miles on my final drive home. My new job meant I would be doing a lot less mileage, so the option of something more fun was on the cards.
The more fun option was very broad. My ideal would have been a Caterham and keep Betsy (I've grown quite attached to her) but I don’t have a garage big enough to store the Caterham and I didn’t think I’d get much use with storing it remotely. The second option was to replace my classic motorbike with something I would actually ride, rather than leaving it in my parent’s garage (where it has been for 10 years) and riding it only once or twice a year. The addition of ankle biter number 2 and the resultant change in life perspective meant that the leading bike choices of a Ducati 748 or Triumph Thruxton was no longer a sensible choice.

I decided that an all-rounder car was the way forward and I looked into a few such as a Golf R and Leon. However, the lease hire/PCP route just doesn’t seem like good value to me, and they certainly don’t have the appeal of an RS4.

After a bit of man maths, the RS4 was the winner. Fast, practical, what I wanted, and certainly kept the inner petrol head happy. There was a small debate over the B8, mainly due to the improved interior, but I had always liked the B7 and I wanted to have a manual.

After muted approval from the boss, my motorbike was sold and I was looking on here, Pistonheads, Autotrader and eBay daily. Three months later I was out for a lunch time walk and saw the car I was after – a sprint blue Avant. I had a quick look at the MOT history and decided that it was worth leaving a speculative note on the windscreen. I had a call with the owner the next day and during his ownership it had received extensive work at Unit 20, plus a full Audi service history from previous owners. The mileage was a bit higher than I wanted but it had the work it needed and drove well. I think I paid slightly over the value but it’s what I wanted and meant that I didn’t have to drive all over the country looking at cars.
The car was registered early 2007. The specification is;
• Bucket seats
• Flat bottom steering wheel
• Matt aluminium inlays
• Black headlining
• Front centre arm rest
• Privacy glass
• 6CD changer in glove box
• Satellite navigation system plus
• GSM mobile telephone preparation on dashboard
• Adaptive Headlights

The work I plan to get done is relatively minor, just subtle things to personalise and fix minor imperfections. It will probably be over a couple of years, especially the purely cosmetic items, but it includes;
• Fit a quieter exhaust. It currently has a Milltek non-resonated, no valves system fitted which is a bit loud for me. The wife also hates it and the neighbours have commented…
• Fix the air-conditioning. Hopefully this will be a simple leak from the pressure valve, not a major item like the condenser.
• Fix the rear wash.
• Wrap the back of the bucket seats to protect them from scratching by little feet.
• Replace the RS badge in the steering wheel (already purchased).
• Upgrade the alarm.
• Bluetooth music streaming.
• Perhaps the removal of the mobile phone cradle
• Fit wheel spacers – either 8 or 10mm.
• Lift the driver door as it has dropped ever so slightly.
• White lights on the interior, sidelights, puddle lights and number plate as I think it complements the blue.
• Remove the 3M paint protection on the front as it’s starting to peel in a few places (unless it can be repaired in which case it would probably stay).
• Professional detail, maybe ceramic coating – I need to do a bit more research on the pros and cons of this.
• Respray some body marks/minor scratching if not sufficiently improved by the detail.
• Potentially re-trim the seat bolsters. They’re not too bad but have signs of wear and I think the perforated inner side panels would look good with a quilted design, regularly seen on newer Audi RS models.

Apologies about the rambling, I'll try and be a bit more succinct in future.

Great post mate. I look forward to reading your progress.

I will be posting up a thread soon too for my Daytona I mentioned. I've already done the interior LEDs and Number plate LEDs.

I have the standard exhaust on mine but I want more noise and was considering an X pipe or resonated valved Milltek.

Nice! Your path was similar to mine, though I started more conservatively with a Mazda 3, that became an SP23, that became a Golf GTI, that became a Golf R / Megane RS, that became an S3, that became an RS4.

I like the style of seeing what you wanted and just going for it.


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That was a good read and your plans sound great. A few points, you’re mental not wanting a louder exhaust, I’ll easy take the Milltek off your hands but I don’t think my system would suite you either. You can’t replace the RS badge in the steering wheel, you have to buy a whole new lower trim Maybe you could fit some lowering springs with the spacers, not too much but enough to notice. Get your interior leds and number plate leds from Trups on here, they are great.

Will stay tuned for your progress.

Cheers

FrazerD wrote: ↑

Fri Apr 05, 2019 12:52 pm

That was a good read and your plans sound great. A few points, you’re mental not wanting a louder exhaust, I’ll easy take the Milltek off your hands but I don’t think my system would suite you either. You can’t replace the RS badge in the steering wheel, you have to buy a whole new lower trim Maybe you could fit some lowering springs with the spacers, not too much but enough to notice. Get your interior leds and number plate leds from Trups on here, they are great.

Will stay tuned for your progress.

Cheers

Several people have made similar points on the exhaust, but it also drones in the Avant below 2000rpm and that is not a nice noise.

There is a bit of a fudge with the badge - the badge from the B5 (I think) fits if the rear clips are removed. Not perfect, but certainly better than buying a lower half of the steering wheel. Someone has been selling them on one of the Facebook groups.

Thanks for the advice on Trups, I had come across the name while searching the forum before and I will certainly be contacting him when it comes to changing the lights.

Go for a stock exhaust, remove centre resonator and the pre-cats. Great sound, no drone and working valves so quiet if you want it to be. If it's not loud enough disconnect the vacuum line to keep valves open. It's also cheap - if you sell the Miltek you'll probably make money on the swap.


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Why don't you get a centre resonated section to replace the non resonated bit, as that should cure your drone issues, and may be cheaper and simpler to fit.

I had a non res Milltek on my R32, and a resonated centre section took out the drone, and took the edge off the noise.

The wheel badge was from a B8 iirc. I also bought one.

Owain55 wrote: ↑

Fri Apr 05, 2019 1:30 pm

Several people have made similar points on the exhaust, but it also drones in the Avant below 2000rpm and that is not a nice noise.

There is a bit of a fudge with the badge - the badge from the B5 (I think) fits if the rear clips are removed. Not perfect, but certainly better than buying a lower half of the steering wheel. Someone has been selling them on one of the Facebook groups.

Thanks for the advice on Trups, I had come across the name while searching the forum before and I will certainly be contacting him when it comes to changing the lights.

Yea I get that, personal preference. Mine has the valves open all the time and straight pipes. Where are you in the country? Yea I have read the fudges and was never convinced they would look any good. Will keep an eye on how you get on though and happy to be educated.

His interior lights and reversing lights are bang on. I would stick to normal bulbs for everything else though, not worth the hassle trying to find leds that don’t throw errors.

Cheers

Looks a nice example and lucky that you found one while out and about. I got a valved and resonated miltek and its about right with the kids in the car. With valves open there's a slight drone on the overrun but fine everywhere else, that said I wouldn't want louder I don't think. Enjoy!

Hows that for luck,stumbling across it whilst out for a walk.Looks nice and tidy.Good find.

A few months in and I’m still really enjoying the car. I’m not doing the work in the order I originally planned, but that doesn’t matter.
In May I got the car serviced and inspected, mostly good health but two things to sort which I’ve included in the list below;

• Corroded sump (picked up during the inspection) – replaced

• Split CV boot (picked up in the inspection) - replaced

• Exhaust – The centre section has been replaced with a Milltek resonated. It is quieter and a lot of the drone has gone but there is still an annoying noise around 2,000 rpm. I’m going to leave it a little while and see whether I get used to it or whether to look at a different arrangement.

• Single click door unlock – I found the double tap irritating so that’s been changed through VCDS.

• Wheel spacers - 8mm front and 10mm rear spacers fitted, I really like the subtle change this makes to the stance.

• Aircon re-gassed and pressure tested but later found a leak on the pipe from the receiver dryer to aircon pump. It’ll be replaced later this month. The pipe alone is £180!

• Steering wheel RS badge replaced.

• I originally thought I’d wrap the rear of the front seats but I got some protectors from Amazon and they fit pretty well so I’m content with those, for now. Plus they have pockets in so stops so much detritus ending up in the foot well.

As I’ve been living with the car, there are a few extra things that noticed or that I’d like to fix;

• Heating balance seems to be off. I suspect it’s an air flow flap position issue but setting the climate control to the same temp side to side, the driver’s side always blows warmer until it’s on low and then it blows cold.

• The arm rest clip broke a couple of weeks ago. I’ve got a new clip from ebay and will sort that out, maybe this weekend. I did find reference to an aluminium clip on the forums which would have been good, plus it would have matched the dash inserts. However, it appears that they aren’t made any more so I have a couple of quid plastic replacement.

• The car is hesitant when cold on light throttle. I’ve had a look on the forum and found a few mention a similar problem. I’ll get the MAF cleaned but also sounds like it’s a symptom of a de-flapped car.

• I lightly kerbed 2 wheels getting out the way of an ambulance, particularly annoying as they were previously immaculate, so they need to be repaired.

• The mats are a bit tired so I’d like to replace the floor mats. I’m thinking I’ll get these when I get the drivers seat refurbished, likely later this summer.

I wanted to little update on my ownership and the work I’ve had done the last few months, as much for me to keep a record. I’ve done a few little jobs done that make quite a difference in how I feel about the car - basically getting rid of those tiny annoying jobs makes me happy.

The rear wash worked for a while after I stuck a paper clip down the jets, but it corroded again and stopped working so I bought a new nozzle. A bit of a fiddle to fit as I was worried about applying too much pressure on the glass while getting it on, but I got there in the end. The side repeaters have been replaced as one was misting up after I washed the car, new ones look a lot clearer and no more misting. The centre arm rest clip has been replaced which is a 2-minute job and stops the contents being tipped into the rear footwells, but very satisfying once it is done.
After looking at a lot of different options for music streaming, I decided to swap the multi CD changer in the glove box for the OEM iPod dock and get a Bovee Tune2Air. It works really well, music streaming fades out and switches to the Audi Bluetooth for incoming calls all while keeping the original look.

The heating balance which I mentioned previously was looked into by the garage and they couldn’t find anything wrong. I ended up cycling through different temperatures and airflow settings a few times and it seems to have resolved the problem. I suspect a stuck flap which was the problem.

The car has most notably been to see a detailer (TopWrapz) in Birmingham and had the following work;

PPF (front end) removed as it was starting to peel on the edges

Wheels refurbished

Calipers painted red

Light interior clean

Front stone chips touched up

Small amount of black wrap to the front bumper vents and the oil splitter which were badly stone chipped

2 stage paint correction

5 year Gtechniq ceramic coating applied

The detailer also fitted a JamStyling rear diffuser

New floor mats

It’s come back and looks fantastic, as you can see from the pictures. I would love to get it resprayed as the detail has highlighted a couple of minor imperfections but it would be a massive amount of money for such a tiny benefit - I need to remember it is a 13 year old, 100,000 mile car.

I also took it to the garage (C1-R in Stourbridge) for some more mechanical work, a service and they sorted an MOT, too. The last few months of limited use have highlighted the starter motor problem through delayed starts. It used to only happen on cold mornings, but it was happening regularly, and sometimes would be 10+ minutes until it would turn over. I originally replaced the battery as I thought this was the issue, but after more research, it’s was starter motor. It now fires up so quickly after hitting the button.

I’ve also have a leaking washer water bottle which the garage is waiting on some parts to repair (the headlight washer pump I think) and I had an original exhaust, which I got off eBay, put back on (the drone is still too much on a Miltek with a resonator, non valved).

Later this year, I’m looking at getting the seat bolster repaired as that is worn, the phone cradle on the dash removed and the holes repaired, and at some point sort the large bonnet gap.

Tyres will need replacing soon. However, ”soon” is difficult to define – I’m hardly using the car, it only gets used to go for a drive every couple of weeks. It’s quite nice for the car as every time I drive it, it has a decent out run along nice condition roads and there’s limited mileage being put on the car.

The last few weeks I’ve also been getting water into one of the headlights. I saw a picture of a reconditioned headlight on Facebook which looked excellent, so now I’m debating that.
 


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A little bit more of an update to things I’ve had done – I can’t believe it’s a year since the detail.

The headlights were sent of to Trups after one was letting water in. He has done quite a bit of work on refurbishing inner and outer lens, new bulbs, LED sidelights, chrome delete and they look great with a much better light output. I still need to get the car back to Trups though as it’s throwing a bulb error which he said can be sorted.

The bolster repair has been put on hold as the guy who was going to do it for me isn’t well and hasn’t been working. This is still something I would like to get done and along with the phone cradle, is probably the last couple of things from my original list I still want to do.

Earlier this week I got the car back from Midland VW having had the following work;

• Bilstein B14’s fitted after the DRC failed
  Brake line replacement due to corrosion
  Replacement of main radiator after that started leaking
  Replacement of front sub frame
  MOT
  Service
  4x new tyres - Conti Sport Contact 5

I am debating whether to sell the car at the moment. My office has changed location meaning I can’t use public transport like before. It’s only a couple of days a week I now go to the office and not a bad trip on the M5 but I’ve got the added consideration we’re going to be moving house with a big renovation job ahead of me, so a cheap and cheerful car maybe on the cards.