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Firstly I guess I'd better say hello and make an introduction.

After many years of looking at RS4's and reading posts on here, I finally took the plunge. Last Saturday I flew from Bristol Airport to Inverness to (look at and) purchase a Daytona Grey B7 RS4.

Thanks to the previous owner for putting up with all my questions and poking around the car!

Daytona Grey
2006
101,000k miles
Tech pack
Optics pack
Comfort pack
Sat nav
Buckets - heated
Bilstein coilovers
New front discs and pads
Recent set of Pirelli tyres
Cruise control - a necessity today with all the speed limits on the 500+ mile road trip home!
Carbon trim
Wheel spacers (8/10mm)
Parking sensors
Flat bottom steering wheel (Not sure what the hype is about this!? Not sure i like the silver plastic...)

So over the 500+ miles on the way home, I averaged 29mpg. Not bad all things considered. I really love it and the buzz/feeling you get from driving it. It's torquey, sounds tidy (std exhaust), stiff (coilovers), looks....

I visited the fuel taps twice for super unleaded top ups. Both times I had a look over my shoulder on the way to pay for fuel and grinned at the RS and it's stance! It just looks fantastic, and I believe is still better looking than the later models (subjective I know)

The previous owners seem to have looked after it reasonably well. It needs a bit of tlc and def a detailing session to make the paint pop. The wheels are dirty and need removing to clean the old weight glue off. They are in very good condition so no need for refurb. The wheel spacers give the correct stance from all angles, obviously assisted by the coilovers.

One service stamp was missing so i popped into Highland Audi, Inverness, where the work was done and they stamped the book for me (after checking the details). Excellent customer service, especially as I wasn't even the original customer!

What's it needs:
Service - oil and filter plus all other filters and spark plugs. I'll do all that as I always do this when buying a new vehicle. I still want to keep FASH but it doesn't hurt to know where you are starting from.

RS badge replacement on steering wheel - ordered & fitted - Gel type badge from DMB.uk.com (as recomended on here)

Fettle the exhaust valve as one is sticking (other is fine)

Detail the whole car as lot of detritus in nooks and crannies that needs rectifying.

Remove phone cradle and replace centre console section - albeit now i have fitted a quadlock kit, it holds my phone in a spot on place...

Drive...

Enjoy...

Drive some more...

Welcome along.

I bet you are chuffed to bits with your new purchase. All the best things come from the highlands but I’m biased. The road trip home must of been great and you got to experience Inverness airport

If that 29 mpg is from the trip computer then I wouldn’t take it as gospel, most I have managed is 24.4 on a run to Edinburgh. Still not bad though.

If you have read the thread about the gel badge, I wouldn’t bother personally but other folk have had success. It’s the fact it’s right in front of your face so easily noticeable if it isn’t spot on.

I wouldn’t go to the hassle of sorting your exhaust valves, take the vacuum lines off them, seal them up and let the noise out. Delete the centre resonator while you’re at it too

And above all else, get some photos up!

Cheers

Welcome!

Any photos?

Welcome. I have a Daytona Avant and have a build thread in the Rides section.


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Sorry for delayed response and thanks for the welcomes. I’m used to Inverness airport as being doing the straffpuffer mtb race for a few years now! Funny airport, feels like a temporary setup, so small!

Great drive back albeit most of a9 is avs cameras so no fun there. Calculated the mpg off the receipts And refills. Getting about 29 on a run. That said when playing that drops significantly!

Fitted the gel badge and for £5 it makes it look 100% better so happy with that.

Had my key coded at Audi and they washed and hoovered her for me! All good. Plus did a free health check which came back with a couple of minor items: rear wiper jet, wiper blade, ball joints, c links rubber perished, tyre wear, slight scuff to flexi ex joints (no real issue just cosmetic. All in to replace everything listed nearly £4K inc Audi labour! Parts are about £100 so time to break out the tools and get sorting. They listed it needing a tyre which had 4.5mm left! Nah! But nice to know she is good.

I will sort the ex valves just for my own satisfaction, albeit does sound good on open valves.

Will try uploading photos again, seem to keeping getting upload failures.

In short though after waiting years to get an RS4 it’s living up to expectations.

Cleaning the wheels, lot of ingrained brake dust and tar spots. Front 2 now clean, 2 rears to do...

Welcome mate.

Lovely looking car. Doing the work DIY is very satisfying.

Great updates so keep them coming.

I got 26 mpg recently actual measured in tank so if the car is running well it can do it on a long run.


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After sufferring a bit of vibration at an annoying speed on the motorway, just at cruising speed, enough that shakes the steering wheel and becomes tiring, I decided to get the wheels balanced. I asked the local tyre fitter to look at the fronts and balance them. He asked what speed it was happening and when I told him, straight away he said it was rears. Nah, I responded, definitely the front end bud.

On getting to the garage he jacked up the car and removed...the rear wheel. Eh?

He then showed me how far out of balance it was - 195g! That’s a lot!

He removed the old weights and rebalanced the wheel. The other rear followed. I then waited for the the fronts to be done...

He lowered the jack and said “off you go, it’s free if it turns out to be the fronts, but if I am right, chuck me a tenner”

Can’t say fairer than that!

I test drove it down the local dual carriageway and what a difference...he was bang on the money. I returned and paid my tenner! Nice to find a confident honest fitter. He could have just done the fronts as well and charged me another tenner, but honesty and pride prevailed. Impressed, yep! Happy, yep! I’ll be recommending them and returning there.

I now have a comfy (but still thirsty) car again

Nice. Great feeling when an issue gets resolved.


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Excellent, it’s getting rarer to find someone who knows their trade and confident with it.

You’ll get used to it being thirsty, all part of the fun.

Cheers

Bit if a result with the tyre fitter good ones are like gold dust! Wheel looks great you could eat your dinner off that!

Yes the wheels came up good. The only downside is the pads are generating a LOT of brake dust so much so that in this weather (damp and rain - UK) the wheels look graphite in colour. I need to wash the wheels almost every time I drive her

What pads are people using that are less dusty and leave less residue?

So yesterday decided to give the car a full service as it's due, plus then I know the true status (don't really trust dealers).

Replaced the air filter, pollen filter, spark plugs, oil and oil filter. All very easy jobs. Can't understand how that is over £800 at a dealer. Takes about 3 hours taking it steady. Plus I wiped out the inside of the oil filter housing so it was mint/clean - won't get that at a dealership!

Ordered up the diff and gearbox oil from Opie Oils, so that will be done when it turns up early next week.

Got to love nice clean oil and new filters.

Front discs and pads done 7.5k mile's ago and rear pads just done. Will look to bleed through the whole system in coming weeks to refresh too

Word of warning to people; when I changed the front tyres, I had Pirelli P Zero tyres all round. It always felt quite draggy on the steering but I put that down to wide tyres. I check the tyre pressures regularly so knew it wasn't that. I also regularly check tyre tread.

However, my car was parked on full lock (I had moved it to do something on wife car) and noticed the inside edge of the tyre looked very worn. I wiped the wheel off and noticed that although the tyre had probably 4-5mm of tread left, the inside edge was mulled.

Apparently this is a recognised issue with Pirelli P Zero on the RS4 platform, so much so that they are no longer recommended for the RS4? Not something i knew until researching it.

Check your tyres fully guys and gals, you wont see it unless you really look. Tracking and camber also worth checking.

Michelin Pilot Sport 4S are a great replacement and change the feel of the car