B5 Audi A4 2.8 Quattro Avant
Discussion
Jhonno said:
Rieger lip looks good! I had a similar lip on my old E30.. Needs lowering now! 
Cheers - they do do some both fantastic and fantastically awful bits. The bumpers are particularly special...To be honest, it is sitting lower than the photo shown, i had to jack the front up to get me noggin under the bumper so in that photo wasn't quite settled. I am thinking about dropping it a bit but Mrs SD absolutely hates how it looks now, thinking i had lowered it. But in much less kind words.
If i do drop it, it'll be when it needs new shocks/springs and only like 20mm or something. There are parts of the car which are far too close to the ground as it is.
Court_S said:
The Reiger splitter looks good. I’ve had some of their parts on my M140i and the fit was pretty good, certainly better than lots of aftermarket parts.
A subtle drop would suit it.
Thank you! A subtle drop would suit it.
What parts did you pick for it? Yeah i have to say was pleasantly surprised. Plus it no doubt being a near 30 year old mould as well.
Maybe next year.
A weekend, without rain? Well i spose i should clean the Audi and the Mini (which whilst looking clean from a distance was gopping).
More importantly i had to take advantage of the beautiful weather, taking advantage of the ample boot space to go for a ride.
I was also keen to clean my car as my neighbour had his jet wash out and said i could use it. I'd been wanting to get the arches cleared of muck which had built up over winter. These came up pretty well and also managed to remove some greenery build up on seals and other bits of rubber.
I also decided to break out the polisher to get it looking like laser red and not laser pink. And remove a few bumper scuffs from idiots who can't f
king park without using others cars as guidance devices. (I imagine the same kind of person who drives into water hazards due to 'following' sat nav.) 
My car finished on Saturday.
Lets do the mini Sunday!
I wanted to just generally check a few things over, see if i can pin point the oil leak. Still unsure but cleaned up the engine a little bit as it was very wet around the rocker cover. However i think all things still indicate to the oil filter housing being the culprit. A job i am not looking forward to doing.
In the hunt for the oil leak i thought jacking it up would be the best course of action, to be only greeted by the typical mini rusty subframe. Thankfully, none is structural. I already had some rust convertter and stone chip so felt sorting this now was perhaps the best idea to hopefully give it a good few more years protection.
I didn't get a photo of the stone chip but i mean, it's black. Wasn't a super pretty job but certainly nicer then shades of brown.
Now that the vague bits of maintenance had been done i wanted to get the car cleaned. The alloy barrels were particularly gross and i could see and feel a lot of contamination in the paint. It felt like fking sandpaper and sounded like it too.
The paint was definitely better but by no means perfect. Alloys, yep whatever wheel cleaner i had wasn't up to the job even with a few treatments. Any suggestions bar petrol and a match?
Interior came up pretty nice too.
Over all fairly successful weekend.
This weekend shall get to the rear end of the audi to just spruce up undeneath as a couple of bits like tank straps and rear subframe looking a bit tatty.
Whilst assisting my masochistic friend and his Alfa do similar things to tackle corrosion and a few running issues. I'll endeavour to get better photos with more detail next time for sure.
More importantly i had to take advantage of the beautiful weather, taking advantage of the ample boot space to go for a ride.
I was also keen to clean my car as my neighbour had his jet wash out and said i could use it. I'd been wanting to get the arches cleared of muck which had built up over winter. These came up pretty well and also managed to remove some greenery build up on seals and other bits of rubber.
I also decided to break out the polisher to get it looking like laser red and not laser pink. And remove a few bumper scuffs from idiots who can't f
king park without using others cars as guidance devices. (I imagine the same kind of person who drives into water hazards due to 'following' sat nav.) My car finished on Saturday.
Lets do the mini Sunday!
I wanted to just generally check a few things over, see if i can pin point the oil leak. Still unsure but cleaned up the engine a little bit as it was very wet around the rocker cover. However i think all things still indicate to the oil filter housing being the culprit. A job i am not looking forward to doing.
In the hunt for the oil leak i thought jacking it up would be the best course of action, to be only greeted by the typical mini rusty subframe. Thankfully, none is structural. I already had some rust convertter and stone chip so felt sorting this now was perhaps the best idea to hopefully give it a good few more years protection.
I didn't get a photo of the stone chip but i mean, it's black. Wasn't a super pretty job but certainly nicer then shades of brown.
Now that the vague bits of maintenance had been done i wanted to get the car cleaned. The alloy barrels were particularly gross and i could see and feel a lot of contamination in the paint. It felt like f
king sandpaper and sounded like it too. The paint was definitely better but by no means perfect. Alloys, yep whatever wheel cleaner i had wasn't up to the job even with a few treatments. Any suggestions bar petrol and a match?
Interior came up pretty nice too.
Over all fairly successful weekend.
This weekend shall get to the rear end of the audi to just spruce up undeneath as a couple of bits like tank straps and rear subframe looking a bit tatty.
Whilst assisting my masochistic friend and his Alfa do similar things to tackle corrosion and a few running issues. I'll endeavour to get better photos with more detail next time for sure.
Cambs_Stuart said:
Always enjoy your updates! For the paint on the mini, how about a DA polisher and and clay bar? It's not the most fun way to spend a day, but should work...
Thank you very very much. I'm glad it's not entirely nonsensical! I used a clay mitt on it and it did make the paint a hell of a lot better. But perhaps i do need actual clay to really finish it off. I also broke my 'sort ofa not quite a DA' Saturday.
Sort of made a pinging clattering and then fired the whole pad off. Made me chuckle. Was a spiteful horrible thing. Finally a compilation of exhausts.
On the cold start there is a little puff of blue smoke - this i think is a hangover from the blocked PCV system, where i haven't changed all the piping.
Then i also can only apologise for the poor shifting in the drive by videos, my mate was driving it for the first time.
Service announcement - If you've got a B5 CHECK YOUR REAR STRUT TOWERS!
For a while i've wanted to have a good poke around under the back of the car and make sure all the possibly issue areas for corrosion aren't too bad. Which it seems, they aren't. The strut towers are holding up remarkably well which i am very grateful for.
![](https://thumbsnap.com/sc/6MUSp2Gr.jpg[/img]</a> <a href="https://thumbsnap.com/qxELeiKP" Target="_blank" rel="nofollow">[img]https://thumbsnap.com/sc/qxELeiKP.jpg)
The worst of the surface corrosion being the tank strap. Armed with wire brush and squinted eyes, i attacked as best i could to remove any loose material.
Mainly concentrating on the subframe, tank strap and strut towers. These came up quite nicely.
Doing my best art attack impression i applied some rust converter to anywhere where it looked remotely brown. Which dries clear on non rust and black on rust. Looks kind of like PVA glue, however i can't recommend painting your with this hazardous liquid as i imagine you'll be pulling a layer or two of skin off as well.
With that dried, i stone chipped the worst areas to again give it that extra protection. Hopefully the bits i've done should be good for a couple of years.
An example of a less rusty part of the underside...
As will have the car on display at Vorsprung i created a list. A list which seems to grow every day.
I am hoping to get the diff oil and wheel jobs done next, probably end of May?
Whilst doing the rust preventatives i took attention to the boot and skirt but they were terribly menial tasks not even worthy of noting on here but as they're ticked off the list thought i would pass the information along. Not just gone completely wild and ticking bits off for fun.
For a while i've wanted to have a good poke around under the back of the car and make sure all the possibly issue areas for corrosion aren't too bad. Which it seems, they aren't. The strut towers are holding up remarkably well which i am very grateful for.
The worst of the surface corrosion being the tank strap. Armed with wire brush and squinted eyes, i attacked as best i could to remove any loose material.
Mainly concentrating on the subframe, tank strap and strut towers. These came up quite nicely.
Doing my best art attack impression i applied some rust converter to anywhere where it looked remotely brown. Which dries clear on non rust and black on rust. Looks kind of like PVA glue, however i can't recommend painting your with this hazardous liquid as i imagine you'll be pulling a layer or two of skin off as well.
With that dried, i stone chipped the worst areas to again give it that extra protection. Hopefully the bits i've done should be good for a couple of years.
An example of a less rusty part of the underside...
As will have the car on display at Vorsprung i created a list. A list which seems to grow every day.
I am hoping to get the diff oil and wheel jobs done next, probably end of May?
Whilst doing the rust preventatives i took attention to the boot and skirt but they were terribly menial tasks not even worthy of noting on here but as they're ticked off the list thought i would pass the information along. Not just gone completely wild and ticking bits off for fun.
Cambs_Stuart said:
I've learned the hard way that rust converter sticks to skin really, really well. And is a lot less satisfying to peel off than PVA glue. But the underside of that Audi looks really good considering it's age.
I've thus far kept gloves on somehow but keep making the mistake with tiger seal. Oddly, quite sticky! I am very surprised myself. Front is very clean of rust thanks to the numerous oil leaks that were there prior (Thank you leaky VAG cars).
Seems with some poking around a of the suspension components are original and still in good order. Which i'm pretty impressed by! Also with some vin checking the car came with 1BE (sport suspension). Along with sport seats and steering wheel. Cool little options selected by the first owner.
So i've got sort of a bumper update of random things all generally pertaining to this car. Some improvements, some annoyances and issues i created myself .
Finally, i've found the right bloody Avus silver for the wheel colour. I think this was my third attempt at buying it, after sifting through the entire rostrum of Avus silvers. There's many. Why why why didn't they give them different bloody names.
2 of my wheels are good, one is okay and one is poor. All 4 centre caps looked like they've been used to play table tennis with. If the ball was made out of granite. Truly piss poor. This is why i wanted the paint.
I needed to do more sanding, i appreciate that now but they're in a better state and now i know i have the right paint - perhaps next year i can redo them to a higher standard.
As you can see, they were less then favourable.
So the centre badge should technically be a different grey and then a chrome audi badge (I could bullst you all and say i wanted to imitate some earlier style audi wheel caps - i genuinely do though...) but as i couldn't pull them apart i thought one shade of sliver is better then silver, brown, grey and any other colour you can identify on them.
And then once they've been lacquered and refitted. They look like this - it's a positive improvement.
The colour match is worse in the photo, i think with the wheel being dirty it made it stand out more. Certainly don't see it when you look at the car.
Next big thing - had to head to home town to help a friend with an emergency. Approx 150 miles.
Pros...
Thirty fking seven MPG. The computer is pretty accurate, have verified before. This was achieved without any attempt at being careful. Truly impressed.
Cons...head unit imploded sounded like every mk7 fiesta with a map on it. Whoopy. So had to throw money at halfords to find a replacement quickly. It's not the Bluapunkt Skagen i had been after but it is an improvement over the sony unit in terms of looks and options. It has bloody fast charge, on a head unit? Madness. 13eq is a little daunting and the actual menu on the head unit is poor. HOWEVER, the app is very user friendly and allows for ridiculous amounts of adjustment.
Still getting it fine tuned but getting there. Not all bad for 70 quid.
Once had helped my mate with said emergency, we got a half day to do whatever and he's into RC drifting. I've now done it twice and quite frankly i'm still st at it. Can't get my head around not really using steering input and fighting the pesky giro.
To the venue we picked up another friend and this was his driveway. i knew about the Evo and the Type R - wasn't aware of the rest.
The floor is non existent on the starrion.
Every car is pretty much in need of some sort of repair. Poor things.
Once returned from the emergency trip home - found some wheel spacers finally. As i wasn't generally too happy with how the wheel sat within the body. Old
New (15mm spacers, perhaps need 20s for rear?)
Still need to find some for fronts, specially for Vorsprung. And get that wheel refurbed. And etc. etc.
Next thing, fix some small audio annoyances. Sound deadening in the doors and different front speakers. Again.
Also some felt tape to help with any squeaks/rattles.
Cock. Speakers are too big. Need 13cm components.
Never mind can just get on with sound deadening etc.
Seems to help a little with NVH stuffs.
Double COCK. Pulled the passenger rear window switch out when fitting the sound deadening. Never mind - it can wait till i get new correct sized speakers and ill do it then. Always the small irritating things right?
Avant? Camping? GREAT!
Car full, and on the bumpstops? No problem. Single farm track to get to the remote campsite...Oh.
Adios exhaust.
It seems the mid box has caught on some stuff, which i heard and pulled the cat back out of the sleeves. Until i can get a second pair of hands i can't do much about it - other then tighten bits up. Need someone to push from the back whilst i do it up properly. I will also rotate the clamps around so they're not slowly eroding away at every single speed bump in my local council. For reference...
Lastly, as an update to the other thread i have. Went to grab some bucket seats locally ish for the Volvo V40 T4 track car and stumbled across this absolute rarity.
Anyway that's enough stposting and rambling. Jesus christ haven't typed this much since my dissertation and that was fking rubbish (continued themes eh).
Finally, i've found the right bloody Avus silver for the wheel colour. I think this was my third attempt at buying it, after sifting through the entire rostrum of Avus silvers. There's many. Why why why didn't they give them different bloody names.
2 of my wheels are good, one is okay and one is poor. All 4 centre caps looked like they've been used to play table tennis with. If the ball was made out of granite. Truly piss poor. This is why i wanted the paint.
I needed to do more sanding, i appreciate that now but they're in a better state and now i know i have the right paint - perhaps next year i can redo them to a higher standard.
As you can see, they were less then favourable.
So the centre badge should technically be a different grey and then a chrome audi badge (I could bulls
t you all and say i wanted to imitate some earlier style audi wheel caps - i genuinely do though...) but as i couldn't pull them apart i thought one shade of sliver is better then silver, brown, grey and any other colour you can identify on them.And then once they've been lacquered and refitted. They look like this - it's a positive improvement.
The colour match is worse in the photo, i think with the wheel being dirty it made it stand out more. Certainly don't see it when you look at the car.
Next big thing - had to head to home town to help a friend with an emergency. Approx 150 miles.
Pros...
Thirty f
king seven MPG. The computer is pretty accurate, have verified before. This was achieved without any attempt at being careful. Truly impressed. Cons...head unit imploded sounded like every mk7 fiesta with a map on it. Whoopy. So had to throw money at halfords to find a replacement quickly. It's not the Bluapunkt Skagen i had been after but it is an improvement over the sony unit in terms of looks and options. It has bloody fast charge, on a head unit? Madness. 13eq is a little daunting and the actual menu on the head unit is poor. HOWEVER, the app is very user friendly and allows for ridiculous amounts of adjustment.
Still getting it fine tuned but getting there. Not all bad for 70 quid.
Once had helped my mate with said emergency, we got a half day to do whatever and he's into RC drifting. I've now done it twice and quite frankly i'm still s
t at it. Can't get my head around not really using steering input and fighting the pesky giro. To the venue we picked up another friend and this was his driveway. i knew about the Evo and the Type R - wasn't aware of the rest.
The floor is non existent on the starrion.
Every car is pretty much in need of some sort of repair. Poor things.
Once returned from the emergency trip home - found some wheel spacers finally. As i wasn't generally too happy with how the wheel sat within the body. Old
New (15mm spacers, perhaps need 20s for rear?)
Still need to find some for fronts, specially for Vorsprung. And get that wheel refurbed. And etc. etc.
Next thing, fix some small audio annoyances. Sound deadening in the doors and different front speakers. Again.
Also some felt tape to help with any squeaks/rattles.
Cock. Speakers are too big. Need 13cm components.
Never mind can just get on with sound deadening etc.
Seems to help a little with NVH stuffs.
Double COCK. Pulled the passenger rear window switch out when fitting the sound deadening. Never mind - it can wait till i get new correct sized speakers and ill do it then. Always the small irritating things right?
Avant? Camping? GREAT!
Car full, and on the bumpstops? No problem. Single farm track to get to the remote campsite...Oh.
Adios exhaust.
It seems the mid box has caught on some stuff, which i heard and pulled the cat back out of the sleeves. Until i can get a second pair of hands i can't do much about it - other then tighten bits up. Need someone to push from the back whilst i do it up properly. I will also rotate the clamps around so they're not slowly eroding away at every single speed bump in my local council. For reference...
Lastly, as an update to the other thread i have. Went to grab some bucket seats locally ish for the Volvo V40 T4 track car and stumbled across this absolute rarity.
Anyway that's enough s
tposting and rambling. Jesus christ haven't typed this much since my dissertation and that was fking rubbish (continued themes eh). July has arrived in Britain with typically st weather. So what do we do? Spend hours getting a car ready for a show where it's inevitably going to rain!
Through the world of B5s i've met a few fantastic people and one of these such people had offered to lend a hand rectifying a few issues to which i didn't have the tools or knowledge to fix. It also meant that i could poke around his supercharged 2.8. Nice.
My buddy and i met up on the 303, to then convoy up to our destination. Thankfully his 80 coupe just passed its MOT the day prior, so we didn't have to slap an Audi grill onto his Alfa GTV for Vorsprung next weekend.
We arrived in good time, Henge was miraculously clear of traffic. First thing first, coffee and gawk at a superb engine bay.
Onto the prep work; my exhaust still wasn't right, leaking at various joins and then the missing tips. With some fettling and fiddling we got the exhaust to perform its duties and exit gasses out of the rear, rather then an enthusiastic colander like it was prior. My hearing is now slowly returning and i'm no longer upsetting the neighbourhood, town and county.
I'd have preferred slash cut tips but i coudn't find any i liked, no one had OEM ones knocking about and these were free. We tacked them in place, like originals and are holding nicely.
The gap between exhaust and bumper isn't an issue with fitment, it's due to the bumper styles of the non S4 and S4. In time i will try and source an original S4 bumper that comes with parking sensors.
Switching things up, we moved onto the 80 which needed a lip fitting. Proving more troublesome than initially though. Cutting, fiberglassing, filling, multiple fittings etc etc. Came out nice in the end. (Not that i've a photo, sorry).
Onto the other major issue with the visuals of my car my scabby as fk wheel and paint work. I sourced a wheel to replace the worst one and that's now fitted. What a difference that makes.
And then the Lazer pink paint, which should really be Lazer Rot.
James insisted he could get it better, brighter, (B)redder. I wasn't so sure.
He proved me wrong.
Old untouched paint...
Real, red paint!
Genuinely has come up incredibly. I need to do the rest of the car but that wasn't so bad for colour. We have also discussed a way to get the bootlid looking more presentable. I am excited as i didn't think we would get anywhere with the paint.
Thoughts: Brushed Ali mirrors or original red? They need addressing and both are an option. I can't afford RS4 mirrors at 300 a go but painting is on the cards.
t weather. So what do we do? Spend hours getting a car ready for a show where it's inevitably going to rain! Through the world of B5s i've met a few fantastic people and one of these such people had offered to lend a hand rectifying a few issues to which i didn't have the tools or knowledge to fix. It also meant that i could poke around his supercharged 2.8. Nice.
My buddy and i met up on the 303, to then convoy up to our destination. Thankfully his 80 coupe just passed its MOT the day prior, so we didn't have to slap an Audi grill onto his Alfa GTV for Vorsprung next weekend.
We arrived in good time, Henge was miraculously clear of traffic. First thing first, coffee and gawk at a superb engine bay.
Onto the prep work; my exhaust still wasn't right, leaking at various joins and then the missing tips. With some fettling and fiddling we got the exhaust to perform its duties and exit gasses out of the rear, rather then an enthusiastic colander like it was prior. My hearing is now slowly returning and i'm no longer upsetting the neighbourhood, town and county.
I'd have preferred slash cut tips but i coudn't find any i liked, no one had OEM ones knocking about and these were free. We tacked them in place, like originals and are holding nicely.
The gap between exhaust and bumper isn't an issue with fitment, it's due to the bumper styles of the non S4 and S4. In time i will try and source an original S4 bumper that comes with parking sensors.
Switching things up, we moved onto the 80 which needed a lip fitting. Proving more troublesome than initially though. Cutting, fiberglassing, filling, multiple fittings etc etc. Came out nice in the end. (Not that i've a photo, sorry).
Onto the other major issue with the visuals of my car my scabby as f
k wheel and paint work. I sourced a wheel to replace the worst one and that's now fitted. What a difference that makes. And then the Lazer pink paint, which should really be Lazer Rot.
James insisted he could get it better, brighter, (B)redder. I wasn't so sure.
He proved me wrong.
Old untouched paint...
Real, red paint!
Genuinely has come up incredibly. I need to do the rest of the car but that wasn't so bad for colour. We have also discussed a way to get the bootlid looking more presentable. I am excited as i didn't think we would get anywhere with the paint.
Thoughts: Brushed Ali mirrors or original red? They need addressing and both are an option. I can't afford RS4 mirrors at 300 a go but painting is on the cards.
nismo48 said:
Looking absolutely brilliant and hat's off to you for the time and effort put into it 
Thank you for the very kind words! It's taken some effort yes aha but has to be done for thee wonderful older cars. Hopefully can get the rest of the car looking sensible in the next 12 months. 
The weekend has been, the old Audi's have made the round trip and my pocket it a lot lighter then it was before.
With this absolutely delightful weather we have been having, trying to find the right time to get the Lazer Rosa wagon cleaned and prepper has been a bloody arduous task. As organised my buddy came over Friday evening to get some work done, and after the heavy rain at around 8pm we managed to get outside and do the bulk of cleaning. A little in vain as then subsequently the next day, was navigating the muddy waters of the A354 (i've seen better drainage on a marsh) to join the rest of our convoy at Choppers cafe.
Tanks were brimmed, my computer dubiously said 455 miles to empty and off we set into traffic. Yay. Oddly at this point my water temp for the first time ever crept above middle. Oil didn't budge. Putting the aircon and thusly the second fan, it brought it right back down immediately. I can only imagine as we were in a queue on a downwards hill perhaps there was a pocket of very hot coolant by the sensor that just wasn't flowing through the system? The following few hundred miles were without incident in any case.
First stop as a collective was Caffeine and Machine which amidst the rain showers was a really nice venue with some very interesting vehicles. Highlights being the 205 rallye and a beautiful yellow NSX. Dirty fries were a great mid journey treat.
With some food eaten, the rain came in again and with that we decided to continue forward in hope of beating the weather which was following us over to Market Harborough. Along this section, might have been scuppered by a mobile camera van. Over taking up a hill, and then over the crest was the van. Very annoying but can't do much about it now.
Our final stop before the show was tesco's to get food, booze and a few other supplies.
Wind. Bloody wind. We managed to avoid the rain Saturday evening but fk me was it windy. We got the villa set up, then i aided a friend getting his set up which ripped a hole in the ground sheet due to the wind nearly straight away. With this knowledge i elected to throw the double air bed in the car and give it a whirl. What a dream! I was cocooned in the back of my avant, blissfully unaware of the world ending outside. That also could be down to the unknown percentage box cider we chose to drink as well.
Sunday, Vorsprung international Day! After sorting ourselves out, getting things unpacked we trundled on over to the Classic Audi stand to be one of the first there. Where last bits of polishing, cleaning and other bits of attention were given to the car.
Whilst the sky was fairly clear and the car was presentable ish, went for a stroll to see some other bits other than B5s. Highlights include manual swapped D2 S8, RS2 Avant, S2 Nothelle tuned avant, SWB UR Quattro, 'Cloudy' (pearl white) B5 saloon, a smattering of 90 saloons and the Audi heritage mk1 TT with the 2.7tt running gear slapped into it.
I only got these photos....whoops.
The weather arrived with a curtain of darkness approaching quickly, suddenly TT owners were sprinting to their cars to put the roofs up. I'm told this isn't the first time they've been caught out at an Audi show.
And at this point, we buggered off. Cruise control, 65mph to ease it back home. Amusingly this is when one of the diesel cars decided to shed some boost pipes and have a breakdown. The upshot of it was, as we were repairing it we got to watch and hear some fantastic modified cars come past us.
Unbelievably, i arrived home with over a quarter of a tank left. Perhaps the computer isn't that optimistic and i might see low 400s from this tank.
All in a great weekend, happy to have met some lovely people, drink too much and been a part of the first Vorsprung International.
With this absolutely delightful weather we have been having, trying to find the right time to get the Lazer Rosa wagon cleaned and prepper has been a bloody arduous task. As organised my buddy came over Friday evening to get some work done, and after the heavy rain at around 8pm we managed to get outside and do the bulk of cleaning. A little in vain as then subsequently the next day, was navigating the muddy waters of the A354 (i've seen better drainage on a marsh) to join the rest of our convoy at Choppers cafe.
Tanks were brimmed, my computer dubiously said 455 miles to empty and off we set into traffic. Yay. Oddly at this point my water temp for the first time ever crept above middle. Oil didn't budge. Putting the aircon and thusly the second fan, it brought it right back down immediately. I can only imagine as we were in a queue on a downwards hill perhaps there was a pocket of very hot coolant by the sensor that just wasn't flowing through the system? The following few hundred miles were without incident in any case.
First stop as a collective was Caffeine and Machine which amidst the rain showers was a really nice venue with some very interesting vehicles. Highlights being the 205 rallye and a beautiful yellow NSX. Dirty fries were a great mid journey treat.
With some food eaten, the rain came in again and with that we decided to continue forward in hope of beating the weather which was following us over to Market Harborough. Along this section, might have been scuppered by a mobile camera van. Over taking up a hill, and then over the crest was the van. Very annoying but can't do much about it now.
Our final stop before the show was tesco's to get food, booze and a few other supplies.
Wind. Bloody wind. We managed to avoid the rain Saturday evening but f
k me was it windy. We got the villa set up, then i aided a friend getting his set up which ripped a hole in the ground sheet due to the wind nearly straight away. With this knowledge i elected to throw the double air bed in the car and give it a whirl. What a dream! I was cocooned in the back of my avant, blissfully unaware of the world ending outside. That also could be down to the unknown percentage box cider we chose to drink as well. Sunday, Vorsprung international Day! After sorting ourselves out, getting things unpacked we trundled on over to the Classic Audi stand to be one of the first there. Where last bits of polishing, cleaning and other bits of attention were given to the car.
Whilst the sky was fairly clear and the car was presentable ish, went for a stroll to see some other bits other than B5s. Highlights include manual swapped D2 S8, RS2 Avant, S2 Nothelle tuned avant, SWB UR Quattro, 'Cloudy' (pearl white) B5 saloon, a smattering of 90 saloons and the Audi heritage mk1 TT with the 2.7tt running gear slapped into it.
I only got these photos....whoops.
The weather arrived with a curtain of darkness approaching quickly, suddenly TT owners were sprinting to their cars to put the roofs up. I'm told this isn't the first time they've been caught out at an Audi show.
And at this point, we buggered off. Cruise control, 65mph to ease it back home. Amusingly this is when one of the diesel cars decided to shed some boost pipes and have a breakdown. The upshot of it was, as we were repairing it we got to watch and hear some fantastic modified cars come past us.
Unbelievably, i arrived home with over a quarter of a tank left. Perhaps the computer isn't that optimistic and i might see low 400s from this tank.
All in a great weekend, happy to have met some lovely people, drink too much and been a part of the first Vorsprung International.
In the past fortnight i have come to own this car for a full year now! So that means some servicing was required.
Firstly, cleaning the ill fitting Ram air panel filter. Which was surprisingly clean for 10/12k miles.
And after a bath...
This was last Monday, and as i had Covid was just about all i could manage.
Thankfully by the end of the week it cleared up and was able to continue.
A K&N oil filter and 10l of 5w40 502.00 spec oil were purchased. I also had some more spacers to fit to the front axle to match the rear. It was a nice evening and should only take an hour or so to do everything.
Truly amazes me how at 25 years old with 130k odd miles every single suspension component is original, and still looking and feeling in great condition.
Dropping the forbidden stout.
Access to removing the oil filter is really nice. So getting that on and off was no bother.
When purchasing the oil filter, i hadn't realised how much bigger it was then the Bosch unit. However i am fairly happy with that. Main reason for buying it was that it's 20 quid cheaper.
As mentioned before, everything looking great behind the wheel.
Wth the spacer fitted, the wheel sits perfectly. Really quite happy with that.
All all topped up, car back on the floor and after a chat with a friend it's dark. We go to leave and fk the car won't move. Feels like something in the drive line has broken. In gear, out of gear, nothing. Car won't move.
What an Arse, fking bolts are too long aren't they. Fouling on something behind the rotor. In the near pitch black i have to scrabble around getting the spacers back off. I think they're literally maybe 2mm too long? So will need to get others and try again. At least however the oil is changed and filter clean Next thing is to redo the rocker cover gaskets with some Elring units, new tyres end of the month and get some burlier clamps for the exhaust.
Firstly, cleaning the ill fitting Ram air panel filter. Which was surprisingly clean for 10/12k miles.
And after a bath...
This was last Monday, and as i had Covid was just about all i could manage.
Thankfully by the end of the week it cleared up and was able to continue.
A K&N oil filter and 10l of 5w40 502.00 spec oil were purchased. I also had some more spacers to fit to the front axle to match the rear. It was a nice evening and should only take an hour or so to do everything.
Truly amazes me how at 25 years old with 130k odd miles every single suspension component is original, and still looking and feeling in great condition.
Dropping the forbidden stout.
Access to removing the oil filter is really nice. So getting that on and off was no bother.
When purchasing the oil filter, i hadn't realised how much bigger it was then the Bosch unit. However i am fairly happy with that. Main reason for buying it was that it's 20 quid cheaper.
As mentioned before, everything looking great behind the wheel.
Wth the spacer fitted, the wheel sits perfectly. Really quite happy with that.
All all topped up, car back on the floor and after a chat with a friend it's dark. We go to leave and f
k the car won't move. Feels like something in the drive line has broken. In gear, out of gear, nothing. Car won't move. What an Arse, f
king bolts are too long aren't they. Fouling on something behind the rotor. In the near pitch black i have to scrabble around getting the spacers back off. I think they're literally maybe 2mm too long? So will need to get others and try again. At least however the oil is changed and filter clean Next thing is to redo the rocker cover gaskets with some Elring units, new tyres end of the month and get some burlier clamps for the exhaust. I really love this car, as mentioned before. I also love the idea of fixing the wheel spacers while you have a blowing exhaust and leaking rocker cover.
I remember those days of 'modding' a car on a budget very fondly, but almost wish I'd spent as much time on maintenance as I did on mods.
I remember those days of 'modding' a car on a budget very fondly, but almost wish I'd spent as much time on maintenance as I did on mods.
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