Frazer’s B7 RS4 Avant

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Myth
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Re: Frazer’s B7 RS4 Avant

Post by Myth » Thu Oct 04, 2018 10:04 pm

Car looks really nice Frazer a proper animal.

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FrazerD
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Re: Frazer’s B7 RS4 Avant

Post by FrazerD » Thu Oct 04, 2018 10:22 pm

Myth wrote:
Thu Oct 04, 2018 10:04 pm
Car looks really nice Frazer a proper animal.
Thanks. More bulbs from Trups arrived today so will get them fitted when I get some time. I’m just trying to decide what to do next, looking at CarPlay headunits just now.

Cheers :thumbs:

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FrazerD
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Re: Frazer’s B7 RS4 Avant

Post by FrazerD » Sat Oct 06, 2018 7:19 pm

Hi folks,

My number plate, fog light and sidelight bulbs arrived on Thursday and got a chance to fit them today. I fitted my number plate lights very easily and they look great, just need new plates to compliment them. I attempted to fit the sidelight bulbs next and didn’t realise that you need hands the size of a mouse to get into the headlight. After reading up on various forums on the internet, it was evident that I needed to remove the bumper which I didn’t really want to do but it gave me the chance to try and even out the gap between it and the bonnet. So after fannying around removing the front bumper I started doing a bit more reading and one post I read said the bulbs are just push fit and you don’t need to twist and pull. Low and behold, it was right, after a firm pull on the wires they both popped out. I was a wee bit angry at this point but I was in too deep.

I changed my fog light bulbs which was a dream compared to the rest of my day, I also took the chance to remove the RS4 badge on my grill too. After everything was tested, I put the bumper back on which was twice as hard as taking it off and by this point I was a lot angry and many expletives were being said. I think I have got the gap even between the bumper and bonnet, I had to drop one side instead of lifting the other as for some reason it wasn’t playing ball but it’s better than it was I think.

I then set about my back bumper so I could replace the dead parking sensor I had. I replaced it with an eBay job that was painted in any colour code which was handy and a lot cheaper than audi. That went relatively well and pleased to say my sensor system is fully functional once more.

I should add that I was in the farm workshop as it was lashing rain all day so I started the car to come home and one of the sidelights flickered a few times then went out :evil: By this point I was fed up and I couldn’t do anything about it so I drove home, half way home the other one went out too :evil: I have emailed Trups and I’m sure it will be sorted out but I’m just dubious about fitting replacements for them to do the same thing.

So some pros and cons but never has this :audibash: been more appropriate. Onto the photos and I’ll add more once my problem has been rectified and I have a full set of bulbs.

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Cheers :thumbs:

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FrazerD
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Re: Frazer’s B7 RS4 Avant

Post by FrazerD » Wed Oct 17, 2018 7:39 pm

Hi folks,

To carry on from the above post I have a bit of a long winded story about bulbs but all in the details I suppose.

When I was ordering bulbs I toyed with the idea of EM Tuning drl’s but as this is my first car that has them, I didn’t think I would use them and thought £65 was too much for sidelights (this is what I was used to driving with) on their own. So I ordered led sidelights from Trups along with 6000k fogs and number plate leds. He recommended them to me to be the most reliabale and last the longest, unfortunately my car was having none of it and I had bulb out errors for them. I was a bit annoyed after going through removing my bumper but that wasn’t anyone else’s fault. I emailed Trups and he apologised and pointed me towards his drl’s to which I explained to him what I said above, he offered to take them back for a full refund so I have sent them back. So you know, I would happily deal with him again and the whole thing in hindsight is my fault. Anyway, I was at a bit of a crossroads but knew I couldn’t stand the yellow bulbs so found out what the drl bulbs were and started looking online. Indicator bulbs kept coming up along and something in my head clicked and I quite like the orange sidelight vag look so ordered chrome indicator bulbs for £2.90 thinking that if they didn’t look great it’s no harm done. I know that it won’t be to everyone’s taste and I might change them out later but for now, I like them which got me liking the drl’s which in turn removed the need for sidelights to be on on their own. My search then turned to them and I have opted for Philips white vision bulbs which could be whiter but I’m happy with them and as they will always be on with the headlight because of my new love of my drl’s, it doesn’t matter too much.

Like I said, a long winded story that was my own doing but has turned out well in the end. I also needed some 5W-30 for top ups and came across some with an Audi carry case that I managed to bag for the same price as oil on its own. The photos don’t do the bulbs justice as you will all know but you get the idea.

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Cheers :thumbs:

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FrazerD
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Re: Frazer’s B7 RS4 Avant

Post by FrazerD » Sun Oct 28, 2018 5:33 pm

Hi folks,

My next upgrade was of the headunit. Although there was nothing wrong with the RNS-E headunit, I just couldn’t really get on with it and wanted to bring it into this century so I bought a Sony XAV-AX100. I debated between this and an Alpine ILX-700 but I had one of those in my M3 and I fancied a change along with the volume knob appealed too.

What I needed to fit it with the Bose system was a CT20AU07 harness, CT27AA06 aerial adaptor and CT23UN01 fitting kit. The only thing I used from the fitting kit was the fascia plates as everything I needed came with the headunit but the kit didn’t cost that much more than the fascia plates. Everything was going well until I plugged everything in and had no sound and no switched live so the headunit was always on. I tackled this first and at the fuse box, I found a usb charger had been spliced into a switched live which was perfect so I removed the charger and connected to it. The no sound had me stumped until I stopped, had my lunch and went back to it which always seems to be the way. I realised there was a blue amp remote wire but there was nothing to plug into it and I thought the Bose amp turned itself on once the car was unlocked so that stumped me even more. After I had a look at the headunit wiring diagram, I realised there was an amp remote wire in the harness rather than a single wire so I had to cut it, extend it a bit and connected it to the blue wire and hay presto, sound. I also updated the firmware on the headunit before fitting it and added a custom background. I routed the lightening cable for the CarPlay under the steering column and into the wee cubby hole under the headlight switch. Photos should explain this a bit more but if anyone has anymore questions, just ask.

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Cheers :thumbs:

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FrazerD
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Re: Frazer’s B7 RS4 Avant

Post by FrazerD » Tue Oct 30, 2018 11:00 pm

Slight update on my headunit install. I’m not very happy with the fascia plate and how the volume knob sits so close to it. I thought about butchering the one I have to allow the unit to sit better but decided against it so I will return the fitting kit that was useless and have ordered another one. I also nipped to the Shop tonight and I have shocking radio signal and after a bit of googling, I need a powered aerial adaptor to power the aerial amplifier and I have also done some reading on both aerials and diversity, everyday is a school day. I have ordered a celsus twin fakra with diversity and phantom power.

I will post all relevant part numbers of things that I used and that worked, hopefully it will help someone in the same boat as me.

Cheers :thumbs:

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MikeFish
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Re: Frazer’s B7 RS4 Avant

Post by MikeFish » Wed Oct 31, 2018 1:38 am

Apologies if I mislead with the remote turn on wire but my amplifiers would turn on as soon as I unlocked the doors regardless of whether the head unit was on or not. Odd. But glad you sorted it.

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FrazerD
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Re: Frazer’s B7 RS4 Avant

Post by FrazerD » Wed Oct 31, 2018 7:54 am

MikeFish wrote:
Wed Oct 31, 2018 1:38 am
Apologies if I mislead with the remote turn on wire but my amplifiers would turn on as soon as I unlocked the doors regardless of whether the head unit was on or not. Odd. But glad you sorted it.
That’s okay, your help was appreciated. It did throw me a bit but a few threads on google told me the same hence why I originally thought I might need a canbus harness to turn it on. As I said above, I’ll list part numbers when I’m finished to help anyone else.

Cheers :thumbs:

grchmason
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Re: Frazer’s B7 RS4 Avant

Post by grchmason » Wed Oct 31, 2018 3:42 pm

That looks a awesome upgrade Bro, great work!

I love the fact it looks factory too.


.

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RS4JAY
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Re: Frazer’s B7 RS4 Avant

Post by RS4JAY » Wed Oct 31, 2018 5:24 pm

Looking good mate. I opted for comfort seats also. For a few reasons -

Rear leg room
Comfort - larger gentleman
Less chance of scum stealing the car or the seats.
Current Toys -

B7 Audi RS4 Avant - Phantom Black
E92 DCT M3 LE500 - Imola Red
Navara NP300 Tekna
E36 BMW M3 Evo track Car - Cosmos Black

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FrazerD
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Re: Frazer’s B7 RS4 Avant

Post by FrazerD » Wed Oct 31, 2018 6:55 pm

grchmason wrote:
Wed Oct 31, 2018 3:42 pm
That looks a awesome upgrade Bro, great work!

I love the fact it looks factory too.
Thanks, I’m happy with the headunit and the user interface, it’s not overly complicated like some. I still need to fiddle about with settings and get it sounding right. Hopefully once the new fascia panel comes it will sit right and the new aerial will get me back the radio. Gone of the days where you plugged an aerial in and it worked :audibash:
RS4JAY wrote:
Wed Oct 31, 2018 5:24 pm
Looking good mate. I opted for comfort seats also. For a few reasons -

Rear leg room
Comfort - larger gentleman
Less chance of scum stealing the car or the seats.
Thanks, I know exactly what you mean and your reasons were pretty much the same as mine. The buckets look cool and I’m sure they are nice to sit in but I have read the novelty wears off. They are a must for most folk but I didn’t let them affect my choice and I’m glad I have comforts now.

Cheers :thumbs:

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FrazerD
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Re: Frazer’s B7 RS4 Avant

Post by FrazerD » Sat Nov 10, 2018 2:25 pm

Hi folks,

After a few emails backwards and forwards and Trups being out the country, he stuck to his word a gave me a full refund on the sidelights I bought and was no hassle. I would happily buy from him again in the future. I’m still sporting my orange drl’s which I still like and they are just something a bit different.

Last weekend I was best man for my cousins wedding in Edinburgh so we took the RS4 to stretch its legs. It was faultless and a joy to drive, the A66 and the A73/A70 into Edinburgh were excellent fun and had quite an effect on mpg figures :smile_smoking: Not that I was worried but it averaged 24.1 to the gallon.

As I said previously, I wasn’t happy with the fascia plate and the volume knob and I needed a new aerial. I also discovered that I needed to find an illumination source so it dims when I turn my lights on, I just assumed it would be the same as my old Alpine unit and use a sensor on the front to dim itself.

After a good bit of reading about aerial diversity and using two aerials the find the best signal I spent a bit more and bought one. I read that if you plug a double fakra without diversity in then the better signal will be reduced to whatever the worse signal is so always ending up with the poorer quality signal.

Firstly I fitted the new fascia which turned out to be a Scosche part but had a Connects2 part number. It fitted better than the first one but I decided to modify it slightly and trimmed a lip off with a sharp stanley knife allowing the fascia plate to sit further back and the volume knob to clear the fascia. Next up was sorting the aerial. The two male fakra’s wouldn’t fit side by side in the Audi plug so I had to remove one of them from the holder and I also had to trim off one of the securing tabs as it wasn’t needed. I then spliced the power into the switched live I found for the headunit. I thought about adding it to the amp remote but thought the switched live had less draw on it as it was only acting as a live to let the headunit draw all its power through the permenant live. Lastly I had to find an illumination source. I tried all the plugs for the headunit with no success so I then popped out my parking sensor button and found one there so I spliced into that. All in all I’m happy now and thankfully I didn’t have to start chopping wires up. Hopefully the photos will make sense but if there’s any question, just give me a shout.

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The parts I used for it are, Sony XAV-AX100 CarPlay headunit, Connects2 CT24AU29 double din fascia plate with a bit of trimming, Celsus AAN2203 double fakra with diversity aerial and Connects2 CT20AU07 Bose wiring harness with a bit of splicing.

Cheers :thumbs:

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FrazerD
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Re: Frazer’s B7 RS4 Avant

Post by FrazerD » Thu Dec 27, 2018 8:12 pm

Hi folks,

Hope you are all eating and drinking too much :drink:

Today a had a bit of a tinker and disconnected the cable that goes to the microphone for the Bose AudioPilot, I haven’t tried it yet but hopefully it will stop the volume increasing and decreasing due to cabin noise as it was a right pain in the arse. I also found another source for the illumination to my headunit and spliced into a lighting switched supply in the headlight switch plug as I thought that would be a better permanent source.

I am aiming to fit my black optics roof rails tomorrow and I also have new sidelights and drls on their way.

Cheers :thumbs:

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FrazerD
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Re: Frazer’s B7 RS4 Avant

Post by FrazerD » Fri Dec 28, 2018 4:40 pm

Hi folks,

I can confirm that the Bose AudioPilot no longer interferes with the volume which was my aim. I also fitted my black optics roof rails using this guide,

https://www.audizine.com/forum/showthre ... Roof-Rails

It was a bit fiddly with removing trim pieces but fairly straight forward. It looked quite good without roof rails but I think it suits the sat on its arse euro look, for me it looks great with the rails and I’m happy with my afternoons work. Just need to get the window trims wrapped now.

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Cheers :thumbs:

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Covkiller
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Re: Frazer’s B7 RS4 Avant

Post by Covkiller » Fri Dec 28, 2018 4:55 pm

I think it looks proper Skin Head mean without the roof rails, intimidating.
I can't wait to get mine back on the road, next Tuesday.
RS4 B7, Mugello Blue, K&W V3 & HR ARBs, set up by Centre Gravity, Milltek Valved Non Res & cat bypass pipes, BMC air filter, braided hoses, DOT 5.1, Terraclean, MRC Full Carbon Clean, MRC remap 448PS 477NM, 20" S7 alloys with 4mm spacers & Hawke spigots 66.6 > 57.1, AP Racing front discs. Sold Sept 2019. Now rocking an F80 M3

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