Well I thought it was about time to create a thread that documents my own RS4 ownership, sorry it’s a bit long to begin with but I never got around to sitting down and typing it all out. I’ll now keep it updated as and when new bits/information are added. I hope you enjoy.
It all started in 2012 where I was really becoming fed up with my ‘sensible’ car which was a diesel Jaguar, I’d been lusting for something naturally aspirated and hi revving like the M3’s I had previously. Not being a fan of saloons, it was either a Coupe or Estate. I required the practicality of an estate for my outdoor hobbies, so that was body style sorted. Racking my brains and flicking through the classifieds I’d managed to whittle it down to the V10 M5 Touring or the RS4; now I am a BMW lover but the M5 came only in SMG guise and I just love to swap cogs myself and heel’n’toe to my own command. Pulling a lever and letting a computer do it perfectly each time holds no appeal whatsoever.
So having now settled on the RS4 being the vehicle for me, it was time to find a good example. I had a few non-negotiable requirements:
- Facelift model
Full Audi History
Sub 40k miles
Sprint Blue
Bucket Seats
Flat Bottom Steering Wheel
Black headliner
Dimming Rear View Mirror package
I fired off a fairly long email asking the usual questions, spec clarification, service history, DRC status and if any HPI outstanding. A few exchanges later and it seemed that this was a genuine car to go view. I arranged a date as the snow was starting to clear but this had to be changed as another belt hit the country. Arrrrgggghhhh. Two weeks after finding the car, I was finally there looking it over. My main concern was that the car had the optional Sport Suspension Plus and I was worried that this would make the ride too hard and that it’d crash over every surface ripple. I needn’t have doubted Quattro GMBH as the ride was far better than I anticipated and I actually preferred it to the standard RS4 option. It suits the RS4 character well and is just the right side of firm with body roll being reduced further. There were some aesthetical issues that needed to be addressed to get the car into shape for my high standards; all the wheels were curbed lightly and some unfortunately placed stone chips to the front wings, with this in mind a deal was struck. Finally, I had the keys to my very own RS4.
So, aside from the standard RS4 specification, the car details are as follows:
- Sprint Blue
07 facelift model
37k Miles
Full Audi History
Bucket Seats
Flat Bottom Steering Wheel
Sports Suspension Plus
Adaptive Xenon Headlights
Electric Sunroof - I really wanted this option but didn’t want to limit my choice of cars
Dimming Rear View Mirror package includes auto lights/wipers & coming home lights
Satellite Navigation Plus
6 CD Auto Changer
Heated Rear Seats
Front Centre Armrest
Black Headliner
Piano Black interior trim inlays
Exclusive RS4 Floor Mats
Rear Side Airbags
Privacy Glass
Tracker
Carbon Ceramic Brakes
Mk2 2010+ RNSe Navigation Unit with SDS
Audi 2013 Bluetooth Telephone Kit
Manual R8 Flat Bottom Multifunctional Sports Steering Wheel with Rock Grey stitching
19" RS5 Winter Wheels
History wise, it’s had all 8 coil packs replaced under warranty and all 4 DRC units replaced in 2009 with the latest version units. Then in 2010 it had the Oil coiler and pipes done. The owner had just fitted 4 new Goodyear Eagle F1 tyres and had new front brake discs and pads along with the fluid changed before I took possession, so fingers crossed it should be mechanically sound.
Anyhow here is a picture from my first Road Trip out to Wales where I went to photograph military fast jets. It took a mate and I, with all our camping gear and photographic apparel with consummate ease.
Moving onto today which is now 6 months into RS4 ownership and I’ve covered nearly 6k miles in the RS4. So what are my thoughts?
Well the engine is intoxicating and quite remarkable, one minute you can be pootling along in 6th gear using the lovely levels of torque available to get you about discreetly. Then, spot a gap to overtake, drop 2 gears and all hell breaks loose as the engine surges through 5000rpm with an aural baritone that morphs into a banshee wail that is pure delight. And addictive.
The chassis grip level is higher than I anticipated too, it really does demolish tarmac without breaking a sweat and the DRC combined with the Sport Suspension Plus option works really well together, inspiring confidence and hides the speed so well. I’m really happy to have this and it's perfect for my use. Ideally I’d like to take out a bit of the understeer from the front, so with time I’ll look into the options available for doing this. I have found the Good Year Eagle F1 tyres a little too squeelie near the adhesion limit for my likening, so will opt for some Michelin Pilot Sports next time around I think.
Stopping the car is easy with these brakes, I’ve read plenty of posts about the brakes being rubbish but I have never found them to be problematic. I get great feel from them through the pedal and have never had them fade in fast road use around the Welsh mountains. If I was to track the car then I could see that overheating them could happen. I do want to get ceramics though, the reduction in weight and reduced dust output really appeals, the price for that upgrade is not so appealing.
The interior build quality is really good and is what I expected it to be from an Audi RS product, I find the interior a comfortable place to sit and have everything to hand. The Recaro bucket seats are lovely items and really help to connect you with what’s going on beneath your posterior. I can do about 5 hours non-stop driving before needing a 10 minute stretch/break, they are not so great for the ‘Pie Lovers’ out there though.
Frequent visits to my new best friend; Shell, for more go faster juice meant that I often found my RNS-e lacking the later software with Petrol Station logo’s - I only like to fill up with V-Power or Nitro + it has now become. So my first purchase was in Audi’s spring sale where the latest Navigation Disc could be had for £162, this meant that I could update the pre 2010 RNS-E to the latest 0650 software.
More info in this post http://forum.rs246.com/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=103612
This then led onto purchase number two from Ross Tech – £263 later and I was in receipt of VCDS software and genuine cable which meant that I could now hook the car up and configure a few things to my own likening:
- Enable - RS4 welcome logo on the RNS-E display
Parking sensor pitch and volumes adjusted to better differentiate front and rear
Disable – Two button press unlocking
Enable - Comfort closure of sunroof and all windows
The summer to do list on the other hand was:
- Get car serviced – engine oil and filters along with new air filter
New Spark Plugs
Air conditioning deodorised & re-gassed along with new pollen filter
Change gearbox oil
Change diff oil
Refurbish all alloy wheels – A proper job i.e. acid strip and bake
Replace all tyre pressure monitoring sensors and valves
Re-paint front end and bumpers to rid it of any stone chips
Full correction detail of finished paintwork and 2 hybrid nano coatings applied
A little re-connalising of the leather to the driver seat
New pressure washer and detailing gear
After phoning around all the localised Audi dealers, I agreed on a price with the nearest which was also my preferred dealer to get the car serviced. Attached to the dealership is the Groups bodyshop where Audi, Jaguar Landrover, Bentley and Aston Martin products are all worked upon. The quality of work I felt was the best around and being ‘Audi’ themselves gave me confidence in the end result and workmanship. If not, then Audi UK are a pretty decent bunch to deal with regarding dealership problems. A job this big I didn’t really fancy leaving with the backstreet guys, so with the piggy bank obliterated it was booked in.
I then turned my hand to getting new gear for my wash regime because I didn’t want to undo all the hard work that was about to put into the car. So a hot water pressure washer system was purchased from Alto to replace my ageing Karcher one; the idea being that this washer combined with an R/O water system would virtually negate the need to touch the car when washing it. I also purchased various lotions, potions and microfibre cloths to help lavish attention on the new car.
Audi had the car in for 2 weeks which was a week longer than expected, the reason being that the Body shop manager knew my attention to detail, so wanted a particular guy to work on my car - this person then fell ill, typical. Eventually the body shop completed their cosmetic re-spray and handed the car over to the workshop, which then completed the rest of the work required.
This consisted of fresh oil, oil filter, air filter, pollen filter and air conditioning deodorised as well as the refrigerant replaced and system recharged. With the car being 6 years old, the spark plugs were now due on a time basis rather than millage, the dealer supplied them for me as I wanted to ensure they were gapped correctly and fit them myself. This way I could see the state of the old ones to gauge how the engine was running. The dealership finally had their interior trim guy in to do a little reconnalising to my driver seat. So with the car back home for 24 hours only, I then had to complete a Spark Plug change and finally drop the car off with Richard at Refined Detail whom I booked up to do a full correction detail back in May.
The plug change went fine and my dealer supplied the later Bosch plugs, apparently the early NGK items suffered from the cores breaking up, measuring the NGK gaps they were out by 0.01mm. So new ones in and all torqued up to the factory setting, I can report that the 5500RPM is now more pronounced since doing them. I’ve detailed the work all in this ‘how to’ thread which is now also in the FAQ bit.
http://forum.rs246.com/viewtopic.php?t=105855
Midlife makeover in full swing it was time to leave the car in Refined Details care to work his magic, Richard has been lavishing it with a full correction detail and had the wheels sent off for refurbishment. I had previously ordered from Audi some new Tyre Pressure sensors and new valve assemblies ready to be fitted on the freshly refurbished wheels. This was partly due to wanting new parts for completing the aesthetics’ and also that the TPS sensor batteries have a finite life. The old ones were kept however as they were working fine and shall go on to some new winter wheels that I have just acquired.
Anyway here is a little video and of the correction detail and the end result, I was really pleased with Richard’s work and can recommend him if you don’t mind booking far in advance.
Correction Detail Video
With Autumn arriving fast, I now needed to get some winter wheels sorted as I don’t wish to subject the newly refurbished originals to any salt. I’d been playing around with photo shopping various wheels onto my car and came up with a set that I thought worked well. I was trying to keep to OEM products as third party stuff is very questionable unless it’s the likes of BBS which was far too pricey for winter wheels. So in the end I settled for a set of 9j x 19” RS5 wheels; these were not so easy to find as they looked too small on the RS5, so most owners optioned the 20” Rotor wheels instead. There is also a similar looking, narrower, 8.5j OEM RS5 winter wheel but I wanted to keep as close to the original RS4 dimensions as possible.
Fortunately I found a dealer selling a set of these as they were fitting a set 20” Rotors to a forecourt car. They were in great condition having covered only 16k but the tyres were all barely legal – no problem for me as they would be swapped out for winter items instead. So these wheels have an offset of ET24 which is a decrease of 5mm over the standard RS4 wheel which is ET29 – this is like having a built in 5mm spacer, which certainly helps the look of the car and only required the addition of a spigot ring reducer to fit them. As the RS5 centre bore is 66.6mm and the RS4 is 57.1mm. I opted for an aluminium reducer over the cheaper plastic ones you can get and it’s certainly worth paying a little bit extra for peace of mind.
Here is a couple of quick pictures I took from the test fit I did the other day; I just need to decide on what winter tyres to get for them now.
So that brings me up to date really. With the AMD rolling road meet happening in just over a weeks time, I’m looking forward to seeing what my example puts out as an unmolested and standard example. In the back of my mind I’m thinking that it will need a carbon clean, as it seems to be the done thing by the fraternity on here but it’s also nice to have a datum point to start off with. My winter to do list is slowly growing and so far consists of:
- Decide on and fit Winter tyres
Fit tri washer nozzle upgrade
Fit new solenoid for the inflatable seat bolsters
Fit new clutch pedal cover
Procure 2010 SDS variant RNS-e and fit
Fit Bluetooth to OEM position beneath driver side carpet (parts investigation underway)
Fit AMI components and ideally retain CD changer
Create custom wiring harness for the above items
Code the above items to the car
Posssibly get 8 & 10mm spacers for the summer wheels
Carbon clean subject to the rolling road result
Sam
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