Factory ordered RS4

[mxm]

Hey everyone, first post here!

I'm about to pull the trigger and on a new, factory ordered RS4 Carbon Black trim (in the UK) and have a couple of questions I'd like some advice on.

Been trawling through forums over peoples opinions on the the exhaust note of these new RS4's. From this, I'm unsure on how I'll feel about the exhaust.
With that in mind, what are peoples opinions on the following:

I option the sports exhaust to the car (£1250 option) and install a valve controller to give me control of the valve between open/closed/ECU controlled or do I go fully stock and deal with an aftermarket exhaust after delivery?

If I do option the sports exhaust and find it lacking, is it a reasonable assumption that I could remove some silencers or does this negate the point of paying for the £1250 option in the first place? A broader question may be, what is the actual difference with the sports exhaust over the standard physically (less silencers etc)?

How is the B&O sound system, is this option worth having? (comes within Comfort and sound pack here in the UK). I'm having trouble finding a car with this installed that I can listen to due to the whole covid situation.

Whats going on with steering wheels? I swear 9 months ago I could spec flat bottomed but now heated and round seems standard. I take it I can swap the heated one out for an alcantara flat bottomed wheel and just disconnect the heated part?

Thanks!

[Terminator_X]

Each to their own but I had the sports exhaust, got the back boxes cut up by PCW then added a valve controller. Still wasn't happy with the sound!

TX.

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[Elpeterol]

I have the standard exhaust and it is quiet - not sure about any warranty if you do any major changes. I don’t think that the sports exhaust is that much different hence I do not have it. The B&O sound system is well worth it if you like your music.

[stevo55]

Welcome to the single biggest complaint about the B9 platform!
Performance cars should sound like performance cars.
Highly recommend the non res Milltek. Yours is the facelift so unfortunately you can’t buy my old Milltek (I don’t think they’re compatible-but feel free to check) from my recently sold B9.
Transforms the noise. We shouldn’t have to pay extra to get extra exhausts but sign of the times I guess.


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[RS4John]

Exhaust:

Downstream of the Cats are are pair of particle filters now, you can see them in the image below close to the front of the prop shaft:


These things don't help the exhaust noise challenge now (have the same issue on my current RS), coupled to that the RS4 uses a V6 engine that even prior to the filters has never sounded that great as other's have testified - now with the filters in place removing those and going to a full Miltek is going to be tricky from a factory warranty point of view.

B&O:
It depends on what your previous car audio experience has been like, I'd been spoiled by a Bose set up in an 8U RSQ3 and found that the B9 RS4 was 'OK' but lacked the bass on mid-range depth that I'd so enjoyed previously...less you think I'm some teenage head-banger....I'm 63.

[stevo55]

Milltek do offer an OPF/non OPF option with their exhausts although I’m not sure what the difference is in design.
The return you get is the noise which is significantly better. With the B9 platforms you’re restricted to a few makers (Akrapovich haven’t made one for example). Have posted videos on my feed of before and after and I had the sports exhaust on my RS5 prior to the Milltek.


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[Avantgarde]

Exhaust:

Downstream of the Cats are are pair of particle filters now, you can see them in the image below close to the front of the prop shaft:


These things don't help the exhaust noise challenge now (have the same issue on my current RS), coupled to that the RS4 uses a V6 engine that even prior to the filters has never sounded that great as other's have testified - now with the filters in place removing those and going to a full Miltek is going to be tricky from a factory warranty point of view.

B&O:
It depends on what your previous car audio experience has been like, I'd been spoiled by a Bose set up in an 8U RSQ3 and found that the B9 RS4 was 'OK' but lacked the bass on mid-range depth that I'd so enjoyed previously...less you think I'm some teenage head-banger....I'm 63.

Those small resonators at the front of the prop shaft aren’t the particulate filters. The particulate filters are part of the catalytic converter assembly.

[RS4John]

Nope.

[mxm]

Thanks for the replies

From all the above answers, I guess the majority here would vote towards not optioning the sports exhaust and use the 1250 towards a miltek system.

[Avantgarde]

Nope.

Particulate filters are located here.

[Avantgarde]

I had a 2011 Audi B8 S5 Sportback for almost ten years before getting my current B9 RS4, and I would venture to say that the B&O system was much better in the 2011, there just something lacking in the current car. Sound stage, imaging, mid-bass and bass are lacking compared to my previous car. I lived with the B8 S5 Sportback for 10 years so this isn’t just a guess.

I have the Sports Exhaust, but honestly don’t know if it does anything, because you can’t turn it on and off at will, it has to be controlled by the drive select. Even then, it opens and closes at the strangest times and doesn’t seem to be consistent. I then bought the Cete controller to control it once and for all, but when it is fully on all the time I find that it drones at 2000 to 3000 rpm and can get quite annoying.

I also opted for no DRC because I had problems with my DRC on my B7 RS4 and eventually deleted the DRC and went with KW Variant 3, which turned out pretty well, so this time didn’t option DRC for my B9. However, I am starting to think this was a mistake because the standard sports suspension without DRC is a very flawed suspension system. It doesn’t have enough travel and rides on the bump stops constantly. The first few millimeters of travel when driving on smoother roads is okay, then when the road gets just a little rougher, the car bottoms on the bump stops giving a very odd handling behaviour. I confirmed this when lifting the car on the hoist and measuring the bump stop heights and then measuring the shock absorber shaft lengths when fully extended and when down on the ground. I measured as best I could by pressing the rubber boots and feeling the position of the bump stops of course, but it was very clear there isn’t enough travel. I suspect the DRC is better in this respect because owners are saying that it is very comfortable, while my standard suspension is overly hard except on the smoothest roads.

I’m exploring KW V3, Bilstein EVO T1 and Ohlins because they all have extended travel. Not extended shaft extension, but extended bump travel. KW V3 has 5mm more all round, and Bilstein has 10mm all round. I am still checking Ohlins for data.

[mxm]

I had a 2011 Audi B8 S5 Sportback for almost ten years before getting my current B9 RS4, and I would venture to say that the B&O system was much better in the 2011, there just something lacking in the current car. Sound stage, imaging, mid-bass and bass are lacking compared to my previous car. I lived with the B8 S5 Sportback for 10 years so this isn’t just a guess.

I have the Sports Exhaust, but honestly don’t know if it does anything, because you can’t turn it on and off at will, it has to be controlled by the drive select. Even then, it opens and closes at the strangest times and doesn’t seem to be consistent. I then bought the Cete controller to control it once and for all, but when it is fully on all the time I find that it drones at 2000 to 3000 rpm and can get quite annoying.

I also opted for no DRC because I had problems with my DRC on my B7 RS4 and eventually deleted the DRC and went with KW Variant 3, which turned out pretty well, so this time didn’t option DRC for my B9. However, I am starting to think this was a mistake because the standard sports suspension without DRC is a very flawed suspension system. It doesn’t have enough travel and rides on the bump stops constantly. The first few millimeters of travel when driving on smoother roads is okay, then when the road gets just a little rougher, the car bottoms on the bump stops giving a very odd handling behaviour. I confirmed this when lifting the car on the hoist and measuring the bump stop heights and then measuring the shock absorber shaft lengths when fully extended and when down on the ground. I measured as best I could by pressing the rubber boots and feeling the position of the bump stops of course, but it was very clear there isn’t enough travel. I suspect the DRC is better in this respect because owners are saying that it is very comfortable, while my standard suspension is overly hard except on the smoothest roads.

I’m exploring KW V3, Bilstein EVO T1 and Ohlins because they all have extended travel. Not extended shaft extension, but extended bump travel. KW V3 has 5mm more all round, and Bilstein has 10mm all round. I am still checking Ohlins for data.

Interesting point about the Cete controller. I've been looking at these and although I guess the appeal to them is that they are controlled with the drive select and not some cheap remote, i'm preferring the idea of the controllers which give you full control of the flap with some remote purely so I can decide when its open or controlled via ecu.

DRC is not currently on my options list but I might have another think over it based on what you've said. I'm coming from cars which have generally had very hard suspension so feel like this might not be too much of an issue for me but the car bottoming out could annoy me!

Thanks for your input

[RS4John]

The Cete AVC isn't controlled by Drive Select - it's independent. Uses the ESC button to turn it on/off.

[Terminator_X]

The Cete AVC isn't controlled by Drive Select - it's independent. Uses the ESC button to turn it on/off.

Plus valves open always in dynamic and closed always in comfort + you can turn them on or off at will using esc of course. Car also remembers settings every ignition cycle so no need to go through 50 button presses when you get in the car

TX.

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[mxm]

Great, thanks for clarifying the Valve controller usage!

I have another question regarding the speed sign recognition (the only cars I've been in have this option so am unsure on what is shown without it).

In my other cars, I've become quite used to having the speed limit in front of me. On my previous Audi (I haven't owned once since 2015) the speed limit was purely based on GPS.

If I don't have the sign recognition option selected, is GPS speed still shown on the MMI on new Audi's? If so, is this also shown in the virtual cockpit or do I need to have this option to have any kind of speed limit displayed.

Annoyingly, this option is stuck behind the assistance pack which has items i'm not interested in.