B5 Audi A4 2.8 Quattro Avant
Discussion
Cambs_Stuart said:
Good work. Really enjoying the thread!
How are these for rust? I had VW from a similar era which had a lot of cosmetic rust to sort out. The big structural stuff was ok, just doors and wheel arches that were a struggle to keep tidy.
Cheers, glad you're enjoying it. How are these for rust? I had VW from a similar era which had a lot of cosmetic rust to sort out. The big structural stuff was ok, just doors and wheel arches that were a struggle to keep tidy.
Body wise they're pretty good. Think the chassis are galv? The rear strut towers do rust as they're a bolt on jobby. People are now starting to remake these and they cost around 300 for a pair. Subframes can get crusty but by no means the worse. And then other then little flecks of rust here and there (like the top of my boot) They're pretty good! Definitely better then Volvo and BMW of the era. What are you kicking about in these days?
I'm in a subaru legacy, a 3.0 R spec B. Another big, cheap, fastish estate. It was supposed to be a stop gap, but I've grown quite fond if it.
I've not done anything to it for a while, but this is the thread.
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
I've not done anything to it for a while, but this is the thread.
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
Cambs_Stuart said:
I'm in a subaru legacy, a 3.0 R spec B. Another big, cheap, fastish estate. It was supposed to be a stop gap, but I've grown quite fond if it.
I've not done anything to it for a while, but this is the thread.
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
Ahh amazing! I'm thoroughly interested in any Spec B subaru if i am honest. I pondered over many a legacy before this B5 fell into my lap.I've not done anything to it for a while, but this is the thread.
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
Will take a look at the thread.
Ahh the simple things. Whilst reading another thread, they mentioned about changing their cabin filter. Which is something up till then i hadn't bothered to check. Something i've not had to do for a while, as the Volvo doesn't have one.
Checked the world wide web for the location of the filter, got a Bosch one ordered and then to just wait for a break in the weather/15 minutes free time.
Looks like the rats...uhh a previous owner has been at this bit of plastic as well! Cracked, plastic screws which are now just holes and so on. Joy.
So with the state of the scuttle panel, i was thinking "Well maybe that old cabin filter, isn't that old?" HA! Boy was i wrong. Personally, this is the worst cabin filter i've seen. It was also not the correct size. I am mildly impressed.
I've just had confirmation that new wildlife has been discovered in my cabin filter.
Whilst i was there, i removed some debris etc. Nothing too exciting. However another small task in the B5 which has turned out to be somewhat more of a palaver then it need be.
As a side note, on Sunday will be at the Haynes 1990s breakfast meet and for some un-godknown reason they've let me into the paddock. So you too can laugh at the corrosion on my boot and alloys! But do say hi.
Checked the world wide web for the location of the filter, got a Bosch one ordered and then to just wait for a break in the weather/15 minutes free time.
Looks like the rats...uhh a previous owner has been at this bit of plastic as well! Cracked, plastic screws which are now just holes and so on. Joy.
So with the state of the scuttle panel, i was thinking "Well maybe that old cabin filter, isn't that old?" HA! Boy was i wrong. Personally, this is the worst cabin filter i've seen. It was also not the correct size. I am mildly impressed.
I've just had confirmation that new wildlife has been discovered in my cabin filter.
Whilst i was there, i removed some debris etc. Nothing too exciting. However another small task in the B5 which has turned out to be somewhat more of a palaver then it need be.
As a side note, on Sunday will be at the Haynes 1990s breakfast meet and for some un-godknown reason they've let me into the paddock. So you too can laugh at the corrosion on my boot and alloys! But do say hi.
Cambs_Stuart said:
Looks like that needed doing!
Hopefully your air con will be a bit more powerful and smell a bit more pleasant.
It seems so...Hopefully your air con will be a bit more powerful and smell a bit more pleasant.
The smell wasn't toon bad actually but I'm hoping it will increase some of the air flow on lower settings. Always seems to struggle if you have the air going between two vents.
Scoobydrew95 said:
It seems so...
The smell wasn't toon bad actually but I'm hoping it will increase some of the air flow on lower settings. Always seems to struggle if you have the air going between two vents.
Does the lad with the supercharged B5 come on here? I would be keen to speak with him, i have similar but not fitted the kit yet, is his a PES charger?The smell wasn't toon bad actually but I'm hoping it will increase some of the air flow on lower settings. Always seems to struggle if you have the air going between two vents.
foxmeister said:
Does the lad with the supercharged B5 come on here? I would be keen to speak with him, i have similar but not fitted the kit yet, is his a PES charger?
Unfortunately he doesn't - however, i'm pretty sure he would be more then happy to talk to you about it. Are you on any of the B5 pages on facebook? I think its the eaton unit from a SLK230. Court_S said:
Enjoyed this. The B5 is a handsome car still. A director at work had an RS4 and it always looked fab when he was in our office.
Thank you very much! Yes, RS4 is quite an intimidating car. The arches are so incredibly wide compared to anything non RS. Will be another big update tomorrow i think. Exhaust/brakes and other bits too.
Wayy, you lucky people. More ramblings about a sheddy car.
Sunday just gone was the haynes motor museum breakfast meet with theme of '1990s', thankfully my music playlist is pretty much set to hard trance already so i would be right at home.
Saturday i spent the afternoon getting the car cleaned and buttoning up a few small jobs. Car was in the paddock so wanted the paint job to be a 15ft effort not a 30ft effort. Went around touched some paint up, liberal amounts of tyre shine and gave some of the engine plastics a wipe down. Also fitted the last speaker which i had been putting off, as getting it to fit...was troublesome. Misses SD was less than pleased that my "i'll be done in a hour" was more like 3. Woops.
Sunday was fantastic. Weather was brilliant and with an early start (thank you clear roads), I had a nice enthusiastic drive from Blandford up to Yeovil where i was meeting a friend. The section between Shillingstone and Sherborne is a particular highlight!
Get to the event quite early which was nice and get this rather fetching shot of my car - don't look too close, you'll see my deep concentration face, willing myself to not clutch slip, miss a gear, crunch the gearbox or mustang it into the 5 people standing nearby.
The meet was pretty cool, lots of odd and interesting french things. One other classic audi in the shape of a B4 Saloon and of course the typical persuasion of JDM. "OMFG have you seen the MK4 Supra" is a phrase i heard a few too many times.
This is the only photo i bothered taking whilst there - my photography abilities are limited at best. Parked next to the car that won the people choice award! Is a very tidy MK2 Golf.
Afterwards head back to my friends, who has a B4 coupe, who appeared earlier in the thread. He had an unfortunate incident recently of his front left wheel, exiting stage right whilst en route to work. So we got underneath to do a few checks. Tighten up a few bits and take it for a drive for the first time since said incident. Thankfully all seems to be well, so we shall be seeing that back on the road in the coming weeks!
Whilst there, we were discussing all sorts of random s
te and made the passing comment about removing the sound deadening from engine bay to make the intake a wee bit louder. Which my friend was very keen to do, to his V6 coupe. I then remembered i had some gold 'heatproof' tape in the boot and quite frankly my inner child won - so i just had to join in. Out came the factory sound deadening, in goes the 99% absolutely pointless tape, which is there only for my mild amusement. I mean the McLaren F1 has it right?!!? Oh right yeah, that's actually gold and not aluminium. 
I unfortunately only had enough to do that one panel for now but it was enough for me decide i like how it looks. So i've more on order and will complete that job on another day. All in all, a well spent Sunday. Good first car show of the year.
I will continue the maintenance in another upload...
Sunday just gone was the haynes motor museum breakfast meet with theme of '1990s', thankfully my music playlist is pretty much set to hard trance already so i would be right at home.
Saturday i spent the afternoon getting the car cleaned and buttoning up a few small jobs. Car was in the paddock so wanted the paint job to be a 15ft effort not a 30ft effort. Went around touched some paint up, liberal amounts of tyre shine and gave some of the engine plastics a wipe down. Also fitted the last speaker which i had been putting off, as getting it to fit...was troublesome. Misses SD was less than pleased that my "i'll be done in a hour" was more like 3. Woops.
Sunday was fantastic. Weather was brilliant and with an early start (thank you clear roads), I had a nice enthusiastic drive from Blandford up to Yeovil where i was meeting a friend. The section between Shillingstone and Sherborne is a particular highlight!
Get to the event quite early which was nice and get this rather fetching shot of my car - don't look too close, you'll see my deep concentration face, willing myself to not clutch slip, miss a gear, crunch the gearbox or mustang it into the 5 people standing nearby.
The meet was pretty cool, lots of odd and interesting french things. One other classic audi in the shape of a B4 Saloon and of course the typical persuasion of JDM. "OMFG have you seen the MK4 Supra" is a phrase i heard a few too many times.
This is the only photo i bothered taking whilst there - my photography abilities are limited at best. Parked next to the car that won the people choice award! Is a very tidy MK2 Golf.
Afterwards head back to my friends, who has a B4 coupe, who appeared earlier in the thread. He had an unfortunate incident recently of his front left wheel, exiting stage right whilst en route to work. So we got underneath to do a few checks. Tighten up a few bits and take it for a drive for the first time since said incident. Thankfully all seems to be well, so we shall be seeing that back on the road in the coming weeks!
Whilst there, we were discussing all sorts of random s
te and made the passing comment about removing the sound deadening from engine bay to make the intake a wee bit louder. Which my friend was very keen to do, to his V6 coupe. I then remembered i had some gold 'heatproof' tape in the boot and quite frankly my inner child won - so i just had to join in. Out came the factory sound deadening, in goes the 99% absolutely pointless tape, which is there only for my mild amusement. I mean the McLaren F1 has it right?!!? Oh right yeah, that's actually gold and not aluminium. I unfortunately only had enough to do that one panel for now but it was enough for me decide i like how it looks. So i've more on order and will complete that job on another day. All in all, a well spent Sunday. Good first car show of the year.
I will continue the maintenance in another upload...
Onto the expensive bit.
Since owning the car, the shonky exhaust has been a real problem. The old flexis had failed so previous owner had cut them out, inserted some scaff tube which might i add was a lot smaller than what the exhaust should have been, and just left it like that. Which meant it was quite fumey in the car, the back box repeatedly made itself known by smacking itself on the subframe, made every attempts at driving it smoothly fking impossible.
Also, steve who has been doing the bigger jobs on my car, pointed out whilst doing the cambelt that the rear brake flexis were shot. So at the same time as getting those done would be getting fresh fluid. The fluid was what could only be described as...not good.
Steve, who i can't praise enough, did his apprenticeship on these cars and thankfully to me has taken a real fondness to mine. So really seems to go above and beyond to get things right, give advice where he can and do the odd extra small job here and there.
He did warn that getting the downpipes off, could be troublesome and that, they were.
Reportedly one bolt took 45 minutes to get undone. Jesus Christ. I'm very glad this is a job i let him do.
Also some of the brake lines required some heat to get them off too. Fantastic news, there's 6 of them.
Thankfully everything came off, with nothing broken. Which i was quite impressed with. I can guarantee, i'd have sheared something.
And then some reassembly...
You might just be able to see, how bad the old dumps were. The welding was a masterclass and the Philips screw holding the cats together a bloody highlight. Thank god, they are lying in a scrap metal bin somewhere.
Then we got a few nice photos of the shiny braided brake lines.
And finally, a fair sized bill. 6 hours and 30 minutes labour. Brake fluid etc. Just shy of 400, however the feel of the car is transformative. Truly the best thing that i've had done to the car to date.
The throttle is way more responsive and absolutely is quicker. Pick up from 5th gear at 30mph is great. I really dread to think how restrictive that previous set up was. Was seeing a better mpg return too. No more fumes, no more knocking. It's now civilised.
The brakes feel lovely, a good pedal feel.
The only downside is the car is quieter, however i do have a S4 catback to fit to the car which is 0.5" bigger and had some of the baffling removed from the centre box. Hopefully ill get some time to do this in the coming weeks.
Since owning the car, the shonky exhaust has been a real problem. The old flexis had failed so previous owner had cut them out, inserted some scaff tube which might i add was a lot smaller than what the exhaust should have been, and just left it like that. Which meant it was quite fumey in the car, the back box repeatedly made itself known by smacking itself on the subframe, made every attempts at driving it smoothly f
king impossible. Also, steve who has been doing the bigger jobs on my car, pointed out whilst doing the cambelt that the rear brake flexis were shot. So at the same time as getting those done would be getting fresh fluid. The fluid was what could only be described as...not good.
Steve, who i can't praise enough, did his apprenticeship on these cars and thankfully to me has taken a real fondness to mine. So really seems to go above and beyond to get things right, give advice where he can and do the odd extra small job here and there.
He did warn that getting the downpipes off, could be troublesome and that, they were.
Reportedly one bolt took 45 minutes to get undone. Jesus Christ. I'm very glad this is a job i let him do.
Also some of the brake lines required some heat to get them off too. Fantastic news, there's 6 of them.
Thankfully everything came off, with nothing broken. Which i was quite impressed with. I can guarantee, i'd have sheared something.
And then some reassembly...
You might just be able to see, how bad the old dumps were. The welding was a masterclass and the Philips screw holding the cats together a bloody highlight. Thank god, they are lying in a scrap metal bin somewhere.
Then we got a few nice photos of the shiny braided brake lines.
And finally, a fair sized bill. 6 hours and 30 minutes labour. Brake fluid etc. Just shy of 400, however the feel of the car is transformative. Truly the best thing that i've had done to the car to date.
The throttle is way more responsive and absolutely is quicker. Pick up from 5th gear at 30mph is great. I really dread to think how restrictive that previous set up was. Was seeing a better mpg return too. No more fumes, no more knocking. It's now civilised.
The brakes feel lovely, a good pedal feel.
The only downside is the car is quieter, however i do have a S4 catback to fit to the car which is 0.5" bigger and had some of the baffling removed from the centre box. Hopefully ill get some time to do this in the coming weeks.
Love the "To Mustang" phrase!
I've found no jobs take 30 minutes. Getting the tools out and the car up on stands takes longer than that. I've spent longer with my head in my hands swearing about rusted bolts.
But the audi is looking increasing good. Must be satisfying to see the improvements.
I've found no jobs take 30 minutes. Getting the tools out and the car up on stands takes longer than that. I've spent longer with my head in my hands swearing about rusted bolts.
But the audi is looking increasing good. Must be satisfying to see the improvements.
Scoobydrew95 said:
Jhonno said:
I know that one all too well... Now I make a point of highlighting when a 30 min job actually takes 30 mins.. 
I'll have to remember that for future, i'll be honest, it never takes how long i say it's going to take haha. Cambs_Stuart said:
Love the "To Mustang" phrase!
I've found no jobs take 30 minutes. Getting the tools out and the car up on stands takes longer than that. I've spent longer with my head in my hands swearing about rusted bolts.
But the audi is looking increasing good. Must be satisfying to see the improvements.
HA. Yes, glad it amused someone else. I've found no jobs take 30 minutes. Getting the tools out and the car up on stands takes longer than that. I've spent longer with my head in my hands swearing about rusted bolts.
But the audi is looking increasing good. Must be satisfying to see the improvements.
There's nothing more i dread then a rusty bolt.
Thank you very much. It's coming along nicely. The other good news is, the rear strut towers are in fantastic condition which are a massive weak spot on these cars and very costly to replace.
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