My Experiences in Germany Part 1

[hussains]

Guys

I will try to keep this very simple, and even though many of u would have travelled to Germany and enjoyed ur cars on the autobahns, I am sure that I am now in a position to give a little deeper insight to the REAL experience here.

Well firstly, I have been in Munich now for 2 months, and only brought my car over to Munich 2 weeks ago, a journey that took me 12 hours to do. Covering the journey aspect on a high level note, I must say that the car behaved so well at speeds north of 120mph, and if you have ever been on the E8 road from Stuttgart, then you would know that for at least 30 miles, you really have challenging roads ahead of you, fair share of turns, uphills, downhills, at one stage I had thought that I was on a racing track! Then it made sense, that since Porsche and Mercedes manaufacturers are based there, a road track as such would be great for test drives...... Overall, German roads are great, not to the same quality as UK, but with better drivers on the road, and no fear of pushing the car, it was well worth and will continue to be worth the experience.
Now some of u may know, that since I have changed my tyres from 255 to 275, I have always had free play between 60-80mph, then it dies down when i push it over those speeds......well the car was fine post 100mph, which will lead to my next and more exciting key points.

Now Audi dealers In Munich, especially the service departments are open from 6am to 8pm! now that is what I call convenience! After work, I decided to pop in, and have a chat about the free play in the steering.
Upon my arrival, one of the technicians came to the car park with his torch, and did all kind of checks, and wanted to keep it for a day to see what was wrong. I then started talking about performance upgrades, etc, and was introduced to a guy called Mac for short.

Mac came across very knowledgeable, and firstly decided to show me and then take me for a spin in an S5 with an MTM supercharger, churning out 505bhp! The ride was mad, these guys can really drive, the car was just awesome. Anyway moving on, they have MTM & ABT sector in the service area, with all kinds of customisation, something I have not seen in UK dealers.

Next topic we discussed was my tyres, I toild him I had 275's, I swear the guy just started laughing at me, and wanted to see the car again, as he didnt beleive me! Well I did, and he looked stunned. Few comments from him, firstly, he told me how crap, aweful the godyear brand was and secondly I should not have that tyre on under any circumstances. He said that Audi would never allow such a tyre on their RS4's......hey, that did wake me up, and I was lost for words, as I could not say anything because I have already had problems.......

We then moved on to the next topic....trust me, it gets better!
I told him that the car was producing much less power that 414bhp, and I needed to get some performance out of it. He said what was the current power output. I mentioned to him that the car had been dyno'd and was spitting out 370bhp....He was not alarmed. He said that he was aware of the problem, partially related to the ECU and partially the valve oil issue. He said that I must take it to the larger Audi Centre, pay for the Dyno there, then come back to him, as Audi will then work on the engine and get it back to the original power, regardless of what it takes. The interesting bit, wait for it.....Audi will pay for this! There has been two instances already! It doesnt get any better, so I have booked this for next week.
Now, beleive it or not, the same Audi Centre also does Vinyl wrapping, and he showed me the Audi R8 they had done.

Below is what my Sprint Blue Avant is getting done:

1 matt black wrap all round
2 the roof rails and side mirrors in carbon fibre
3 the front seat plastic backs in carbon fibre
4 the wheels finished in matt titan grey

I have booked the work to be done on the 11or 21st May, so I will be posting pictures soon.

Now some of you may have already seen these pics, but below I have attached some pics to give you an idea.

So, so far my experience in Germany has been good, the car is at motherland, she seems happy, so I will be treating her to a complete make over!

Thanks for reading guys.

RS Matt Black

[scaghead]

for the first time ever i am speechless....

[reevesroadster]

and while you are speechless Im booking a family holiday to .........Munich.

[Dom81]

Very interesting - please keep the details coming...

[HYFR]

awesome . . .lookng forward to vynl wrap piccs . . . im driving to munich in sept for Stag do. . . im thinking you speak german right ?

[SR71]

and while you are speechless Im booking a family holiday to .........Munich.

You and me both.

[mac4RS]

He said that Audi would never allow such a tyre on their RS4's......hey, that did wake me up, and I was lost for words, as I could not say anything because I have already had problems.......

What problems are you having...would be very interested.

[klauster]

ive switched back to 255's after having similar issues and Audi telling me the same as above. As for the other things, keep us updated. I suppose a few of us will know more on the 18th April

[hussains]

Guys

I have been in Munich for only two months, on a project here. I cant speak German, but it is not a problem, as most speak english here. For those of you who are speechless, trust me I was too!
The car has been booked for the 12th May, & they will keep it for a week, I am looking forward to the transformation, more on the carbon fibre roof rails, back seats and side mirrors.
As for those of you coming over sooner or later, please PM me, I will be here til at least the end of the year, and will be more than happy to see you and point you in the right direction.
Finally, the problems with steering have been really the shake left and right 5mm each side with speeds between 60-80mph. So I look forward to going back to the originals.I also feel a bit of vibration throughout the car at high speeds. I have the wheel balanced 3 times now, wheel alignment twice, and changed tyres front to back, every possibility. Its hard to argue with Audi when you have the wrong sized tyres in the 1st place!
After the make over, I plan to have the exhaust, air filter and performance chip put in.....but only after Audi have tuned the car back to what the bhp should be.
For those of u wishing to come over in September, its the best time with Oktober Fest in Munich, you are looking at 800 miles trip one way from London.
Regards

Shaan

[NGS521]

We then moved on to the next topic....trust me, it gets better!
I told him that the car was producing much less power that 414bhp, and I needed to get some performance out of it. He said what was the current power output. I mentioned to him that the car had been dyno'd and was spitting out 370bhp....He was not alarmed. He said that he was aware of the problem, partially related to the ECU and partially the valve oil issue. He said that I must take it to the larger Audi Centre, pay for the Dyno there, then come back to him, as Audi will then work on the engine and get it back to the original power, regardless of what it takes. The interesting bit, wait for it.....Audi will pay for this! There has been two instances already! It doesnt get any better, so I have booked this for next week.

Is this possible in the UK?

[almoRS]

Nice write up Shaan. I'm not sure about the comments that were made about the Goodyear tyres lots of us are running on here. I've had them on for over 10K and had no issues whatsoever. I have SS+, lighter rims and 5mm spacers but that shouldn't make a huge difference? I could be wrong but I think standard tyres on the RS4 B7 have only been Pirelli or Continental which just happen to be European.

[P_G]

Interesting reading and interesting to hear specifically what issues you have having with your tyres as TBH I am having none with mine and they have been on my car for in excess of 13,000 miles now and still have 3.5 4mm left on them, no shakes no vibrations and tons more grip than the Conti SC3's it came with. Where did you source your Goodyears from?

Let us know what happens with the engine work, if this is done by a franchised Audi Germany dealer or Audo themselves I am sure I'll be asking the dealer I bought mine from what Audi UK are prepared to do.

Having done local research about cleaning up / de carbonising my engine the cheapest I am looking at is three days and £1500 and if Audi are prepared to do this as part of the warranty in other countries I don't see why they shouldn't here in the UK, apart from Audi UK in reality being lazy bar stewards devoid of true customer service?

[BlingBling]

Husain: I'd wait until the honeymoon period has rans its course before you come to the conclusion they are good drivers. At first I too was impressed. But having been here for 4yrs now they are rude, aggressive and the most impolite drivers I have come across. Granted their understanding of mway driving is second to none, apart from their understanding of the count down markers for junctions. Their trick is steam along and cut in as late as possible for a junction.

Oh and forget about hand washing your car. It is illegal in some regions. You can only use car washes and not on a Sunday. I have seen Masers, Porsches, Astons and all other exoctica go through them. Me? f'em I still hand wash.

[Contigo]

I love the "they'll put it back to the original power" how exactly? What by polishing the manifolds ala Pippys car? I don't see how they can start a trend of nurturing every RS4 B7 back to it's original factory standard manifolds etc....

Why not just take it back to neckarsulm and have the designers look into it?

[sonny]

Great thread, funny they should say that about the tyres! did you comment about the MTM S/C in the RS4by any chance?