B8 S4 Ownership

Author
Discussion

Yoof

73 posts

220 months

Wednesday 11th November 2015
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Chiefbadger said:
How long have you had the MRC stage 2? How have you found it? Would be really interested to know how much better it feels than stock smile
Was done to the car before my ownership, I've put 20k on it.

Superb really- against a stock car it's quite comical the difference, as you'd expect from an additional 150bhp! No detrimental effect on drivability, economy is reasonable (26mpg to work, 30mpg on a run) I've changed the oil myself every 10k inbetween services, and made sure I bought a car that had the DSG maintained.

MRC have a good name, I've used them for servicing and they were friendly enough. This is their bread and butter, and they have several S4 B8/8.5 at over 500PS now, I'm sure they'd be happy to help.

Cheers

Pete

Chiefbadger

417 posts

197 months

Wednesday 11th November 2015
quotequote all
Yoof said:
Was done to the car before my ownership, I've put 20k on it.

Superb really- against a stock car it's quite comical the difference, as you'd expect from an additional 150bhp! No detrimental effect on drivability, economy is reasonable (26mpg to work, 30mpg on a run) I've changed the oil myself every 10k inbetween services, and made sure I bought a car that had the DSG maintained.

MRC have a good name, I've used them for servicing and they were friendly enough. This is their bread and butter, and they have several S4 B8/8.5 at over 500PS now, I'm sure they'd be happy to help.

Cheers

Pete
I've got one of the last 8.5 S4's off the line and unfortunately MRC haven't cracked the latest ECU yet. Neither has anyone else so I'm having to be patient. Good to hear that there are regular miles being put on the MRC cars though and that drivability is just as good! Good luck with the sale, looks like a cracking example!

mrdanbartlett

701 posts

216 months

Thursday 12th November 2015
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Hi all,

Anyone know if the RS5 wheels fit the S4 B8? They are 9J so possibly not... Anyway here is a very quick photoshop mock up, these will appear more like 18's in the below photo as I replaced them over my current 18's, so will look a little larger in 19.


Dr G

15,157 posts

241 months

Thursday 12th November 2015
quotequote all
A standard A5 18 onto a B8 A4 is marginal in terms of going under the arch, the fronts bring the sidewall right up level with the arch. With a bigger, wider wheel they'll probably sit outside of the wheel arch and quite possibly give you clearance issues too.

Is it that specific style of wheel you want or just an upgrade from the 18s?

mrdanbartlett

701 posts

216 months

Thursday 12th November 2015
quotequote all
It would be 19's I'd go for, I find my 18's look a little small on this large car.

I'm open to LE Mans and really like Segments but finding some is hard.

Dr G

15,157 posts

241 months

Thursday 12th November 2015
quotequote all
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/GENUINE-AUDI-A4-B8-SLINE...

Plenty around, expect to pay 12-1500 used for a set with decent tyres.

mrdanbartlett

701 posts

216 months

Thursday 12th November 2015
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From what I've seen £800 is a more realistic price for used ones.

Dr G

15,157 posts

241 months

Thursday 12th November 2015
quotequote all
If you can find a set with good tyres that doesn't need refurbishing for £800 then I reckon they're a bargain.

Chiefbadger

417 posts

197 months

Sunday 15th November 2015
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Just out of interest, has anyone with a b8 or earlier 8.5 driven one of the later CREC engined cars or vice versa? Given the CREC engine/Simos 16 ECU is still yet to be cracked, I was just wondering how they fared in standard form? Are the original b8's still the quickest due to the extra power? I.e they tended to make more like 350-360bhp.

nky_84

132 posts

206 months

Monday 30th November 2015
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Been looking at a few of these and cant work out what the difference is between cars having the navigation controls on the dash vs below the gearstick. I thought it was B8 vs B8.5 but ive just seen that is not the case.

Thanks,
Nick

Scuffers

20,887 posts

273 months

Monday 30th November 2015
quotequote all
nky_84 said:
Been looking at a few of these and cant work out what the difference is between cars having the navigation controls on the dash vs below the gearstick. I thought it was B8 vs B8.5 but ive just seen that is not the case.

Thanks,
Nick
true, very little difference in controls between them.

Only real things that sticks out for me is the steering wheel controls are 'slanted' on later ones making them harder to use and they have stop-start (which is infuriating!).


jimmyjimjim

7,329 posts

237 months

Monday 30th November 2015
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I think that one got covered some pages back and it WAS down to the different navigation package installed.

Adrian E

3,248 posts

175 months

Monday 30th November 2015
quotequote all
nky_84 said:
Been looking at a few of these and cant work out what the difference is between cars having the navigation controls on the dash vs below the gearstick. I thought it was B8 vs B8.5 but ive just seen that is not the case.

Thanks,
Nick
Nick

Although the layout of MMI controls may look similar on the dash to behind the gear selector, it's simply for MMI control convenience of non-nav functions eg radio, phone, car setup. No controls behind gear selector = no nav. Some have a few buttons but not the big MMI click wheel - these may have ADS options, but no nav. They are rare.

You then get into the various versions of nav available - on older cars a big MMI wheel with no 'joystick' on the top denotes DVD based nav (in the boot). This usually comes with a 6 disc CD changer in the dash (aka tech pack low in Audi brochure speak or MMI 2G) which looks very different to the cover that flips down to reveal x2 SD card slots and possible a SIM slot.

Tech pack high/navigation mid/MMI 3G or 3G Plus on facelifts = HDD based nav. This has a tiny joystick on top of the big MMI wheel, the SD card slots, no CD changer and under Media options you will find jukebox as an option, which is part of the HDD reserved for music.

There is also MMI 3G Basic, which runs off a DVD map in the dash slot, but also has x2 SD card slots onto which the navigation files can be copied. I've not seen it on an S, but I'm sure it exists and features on other models on the B8 platform.

JNW1

7,707 posts

193 months

Monday 30th November 2015
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Scuffers said:
and they have stop-start (which is infuriating!).
Presumably you can switch that off though?!

Scuffers

20,887 posts

273 months

Monday 30th November 2015
quotequote all
JNW1 said:
Presumably you can switch that off though?!
yup, EVERY TIME YOU GET IN THE F**KING CAR!!!!!

Hol

8,349 posts

199 months

Monday 30th November 2015
quotequote all
Scuffers said:
JNW1 said:
Presumably you can switch that off though?!
yup, EVERY TIME YOU GET IN THE F**KING CAR!!!!!
I have gotten used to doing just that now.

But remembering to take some large carrier bags from the boot, before walking all the way across the car park and into the supermarket each time is proving the current challenge. frown

JNW1

7,707 posts

193 months

Monday 30th November 2015
quotequote all
Scuffers said:
JNW1 said:
Presumably you can switch that off though?!
yup, EVERY TIME YOU GET IN THE F**KING CAR!!!!!
Yes, same on BMW's although I'm told it's possible to re-program the software so the default is for the stop-start to be off when you start-up rather than on; don't suppose a main dealer will be very keen to carry out that particular modification though!

Scuffers

20,887 posts

273 months

Monday 30th November 2015
quotequote all
Hol said:
Scuffers said:
JNW1 said:
Presumably you can switch that off though?!
yup, EVERY TIME YOU GET IN THE F**KING CAR!!!!!
I have gotten used to doing just that now.

But remembering to take some large carrier bags from the boot, before walking all the way across the car park and into the supermarket each time is proving the current challenge. frown
Another frustration i share with you.

Dr G

15,157 posts

241 months

Tuesday 1st December 2015
quotequote all
JNW1 said:
Scuffers said:
JNW1 said:
Presumably you can switch that off though?!
yup, EVERY TIME YOU GET IN THE F**KING CAR!!!!!
Yes, same on BMW's although I'm told it's possible to re-program the software so the default is for the stop-start to be off when you start-up rather than on; don't suppose a main dealer will be very keen to carry out that particular modification though!
I'm told (but haven't tried or seen it done) that there's no upper limit on what can be set as the coolant temperature it triggers at. In theory you could set the lowest feasibly coolant temperature for start-stop to be 300c and it would simply never turn on.

Anyone tried this or heard similar?

LocoBlade

7,621 posts

255 months

Tuesday 1st December 2015
quotequote all
Yep, apparently possible to default Stop Start to "Off" with VCDS as per the link below. Keep meaning to try it with mine but havent got round to it yet.

http://www.audi-sport.net/xf/threads/stop-start-b8...

JNW1 said:
Scuffers said:
JNW1 said:
Presumably you can switch that off though?!
yup, EVERY TIME YOU GET IN THE F**KING CAR!!!!!
Yes, same on BMW's although I'm told it's possible to re-program the software so the default is for the stop-start to be off when you start-up rather than on; don't suppose a main dealer will be very keen to carry out that particular modification though!