New owner questions

[IchBautAuto]

I'm very happy with my Konis. I can't remember which perch on the rear I used (I have an avant), but will check if helpful - the car's up on stands at the mo with engine out anyway. I put them in first time on slightly harder settings - but softened them up now to 1/2 turn from full soft on the front and 1/4 on the rear which seems decent. I do have hotchkis rollbars too.

The only thing that was "odd" was the the inverted U on the bottom of the front ones is a little wider than the suspension arm - so it squashes it down a little when you bolt it up.
I don't like that, so on the todo list at the moment is a spacer just to take up that gap. Oh, and many guides say you need to remove the "bastard bolt" on the top of the upright. I didn't fancy that, they are a legendary pain - plus I found that isn't necessary, instead you can drop the top mount by removing a couple of plugs in the bodyshell - that gives you all the access you need. So just pick and choose the DIY you follow to make your life easier. This is the one I used : https://www.audiworld.com/tech/wheel49.shtml

HTH.

...waiting on the KONI delivery (Dec sometime)....

Planning on using the centre circlip location on the rear and it's good to see that you like the 1/2 & 1/4 turn adjustment. I'd found that comment from the US and was going to start from there but having someone else who is happy with that setting is good to know.

Interesting about the lower arm mount on the front. I'll watch out for that and add a spacer straight away if needed. I've had Koni on a few cars and bikes but long enough ago that I've forgotten some of the details. Luckily the pinch bolt is no issue out here. the other three of my cars has just been a finger push to get out and it goes back in with aircraft antiseize to be sure to be sure.

Koni are on back order and ship in Dec so I have a few weeks to wait before I can get going on this.

[IchBautAuto]

No problem helping out with soldering. The only place that would sell me a TCU tuned chip was MTM. Very happy with it.

were can I buy one from? and how much?

Looks like we're in a queue with that question. I can see that the coming festive season will make shipping an adventure too.

[IchBautAuto]

Read up on the audiworld article, that wasn't one that I had seen before. I have one great assistant when doing work under the car, an Ezycarlift. For suspension work I can just lower the lift to compress the suspension before tightening the bolts and all wheels are off the ground at the same time so roll bar problems aren't an issue.

[ian_rs6avant]

No problem helping out with soldering. The only place that would sell me a TCU tuned chip was MTM. Very happy with it.

were can I buy one from? and how much?

Looks like we're in a queue with that question. I can see that the coming festive season will make shipping an adventure too.

turns out qst do them 250 quid fitted.

[Shoppinit]

Bargain.

[Mɐʇʇ]

Ah. Kim Collins. I knew of him through powerboating - he had a Donzi IIRC.
Seemed like a decent chap.

[Gregstv]

were can I buy one from? and how much?

Looks like we're in a queue with that question. I can see that the coming festive season will make shipping an adventure too.

turns out qst do them 250 quid fitted.

Purchased direct from MTM. Just moved house and still unpacking. The receipt is here somewhere. From memory it was around $600au.

[IchBautAuto]

Purchased direct from MTM. Just moved house and still unpacking. The receipt is here somewhere. From memory it was around $600au.

Thanks. Great place to start, stating the obvious. Just thinking about moving gives me the chills. Moved everywhere for work but now I'm settled, the car parts have started to breed.

[IchBautAuto]

More a statement than a question. Having tried to order a set of KONI dampers from both local and OS sources, I have run into issues with supply delays. The order I did place was originally to come into stock 06 Dec and already it has become 10 Dec. Too much faffing around this close to Christmas so I have taken a leap and gone with Bilstein B8's. I have had B8's on my RS4 for 6 years with no issues of note. Low frequency compression damping is not ideal but I have only noticed that a few times in that period so I'm giving it a go.

I haven't actually noticed anyone running with Bilsteins other than the 16's, which are not for me. I expect them in a week and will get the change done and report any observations after Christmas. Bit of a leap in one sense and not in another. Quite happy to use them again on the RS4 so can't see any reason why they should not perform well on the RS6.

[Shoppinit]

Some people run the B14 PSS but, by all accounts, they are bone shakers. Will be curious to get your feedback on the B8. Instinctively, I can't see them being terribly different to the Konis.

/Looking at the Bilstein part numbers, I wonder if the B14 kit is just the B8 shocks with springs, too.

[Shoppinit]

Never mind, they must be different shocks since the B8 aren't height adjustable and the B14 have (I guess) threaded bodies.

[IchBautAuto]

Some people run the B14 PSS but, by all accounts, they are bone shakers. Will be curious to get your feedback on the B8. Instinctively, I can't see them being terribly different to the Konis.

/Looking at the Bilstein part numbers, I wonder if the B14 kit is just the B8 shocks with springs, too.

The B8's and matching Eibach springs are known as the B12 kit. For the RS4 I actually purchased the dampers and springs from their respective suppliers, not as a Bilstein kit.

I've had my share of race cars and adjustability is a curse for the street. I'm forever looking for a sweet spot which is never there as in just a days drive you find more variations than every race track in the country. Best to get the best compromise and just drive it. Based only on my RS4 experience, I can't imagine that they will be seriously deficient. I did want the KONI compression damping adjustment but not at any cost.

Ride height is my one non negotiable requirement and if by chance it falls short then I can cut another groove in the damper body to get it right.

[IchBautAuto]

The RNS-E was installed in the Plus versions and later RS6 when the RNS-D ran out. Plenty of people upgraded from D to E, too. ....................................

Well, this has been a time waster. Unit works perfectly but the devil is in the detail. I understand that the early version takes up to 4 GB cards, no issues I had some 2GB cards in the museum so I used those. Formatted to FAT32 which I understand is the requirement. Loaded up some music and hey presto, wrong format files. Modern software had converted the *.mp3 files to *.mpa.

Gert a converter and bring back to .mp3. Load up and it all works...........except only 11 albums show on one 2 GB card and 8 albums on the other. While I was a bit of a DOS geek in years gone by, I've more or less forgotten all the restrictions on early software (like number of files, 8 character file names etc).

I transferred the unseen files to another (the last) 2 GB card and miracle, I have all my music visible. Each card has just over 1 GB of files and it seems that the limitation is the actual number of total tracks on the card. The system sound just with .mp3 files is really good for any generation, let alone 16 years old. Very happy that I don't have phones and cables like my RS4.

[IchBautAuto]

Time for a bitch, the rear fog light. Any sensible designer would put a little hatch in the boot lid lining to allow you to change a bulb. Should be a two minute job, not Audi.

The boot lid liner hadn't been off since leaving the factory. Crisp and new underneath but what a crap paint job. The inside center of the lid has no top coat cover at all. Granted not needed but the German attention to detail must be slipping. Having never owned a C5 sedan before, the location of all the clips and the 6 screws was a journey of discovery. I must say the two screws in the corners of the liner that have carpet covered heads was a revelation. I'll be happy if I don't need to do this again in a hurry.

The one thing I did do while in the general area was to put a CTEK battery charger socket on the battery so I can put a charger on with little fuss. There is a rather odd metal spring type attachment to the earth terminal as well. No idea what it is but it was bent out of the way to allow a battery terminal cover to be installed. Any idea what it is and why it's there?

[IchBautAuto]

And another surprise! Removing the under dash cover beneath the steering wheel to wire in the accessories and I find a whole mess of non factory wiring. Doing this in between other things so really only got the cover off, saw the wiring, took some photos and had to head off. I'm guessing that it may be some sort of immobilizer / anti theft device or an alternative alarm but that could all prove to be completely wrong. More details to come once I trace it all out and see where the wires head to.