2007 Audi A4 B7 1.8T

[CarbonViper]

A little over a month ago, my E46 was unfortunate enough to have a Mitsubishi Shogun turn in front of and with nothing I could do to avoid an accident the car was written off. I was hoping for something similar, and after a lot of searching online and visiting local dealers I found this:

|https://thumbsnap.com/yXfnwACJ[/url]


Car is in really good condition for a 15 year old car, few scratches and marks on the exterior as to be expected, but on the whole, really pleased with it.

This is my daily driver (6 mile work commute) so the plan is to tidy up a the bits that let it down and complete some OEM + style upgrades.
This includes changing the stereo for a carplay screen unit, MFSW as mine unfortunately did not come with one and replace a few interior trim bits that look tired.

[CarbonViper]

First thing that needed to be replaced was the battery, the dealer I purchased the car from immediately informed me when I arrived to view the car that the battery was flat and was happy to knock off the price of a new battery off of the car, result.

Battery looks to be original, this was replaced with a Yuasa HSB013 from Halfords for £100.80, (turns out studying in your late 30's and having a student card is handy)
Fitted and the Audi fired up straight away, and immediately out for a good drive.

Next on the list was to clean the engine bay, needless to say it hasn't had a clean in quite some time....


Whilst at Halfords I picked up some CarPlan Demon Machine dirt shifter and some interior and exterior trim polish to help. After a couple of microfibre cloths I'm really happy with the result..


I've ordered a basic detailing kit off amazon as found there were certain places I could not reach properly with the cloths and wanted to get a few brushes to help with this.
After the clean, it became apparent that I would need to but a new engine cover as this one has seen better days, way too many scratches and missing the Audi badge, so this will be something that I will keep an eye out for to pick up at the right price. Also looking to replace a few bolts that have rusted that you can see at the front of the pic, feel they really let the front down.

A little work was done on cleaning the interior. It had been cleaned before I picked it up, but the residue from where the tax disc used to be was still on the windscreen along with a few bits that just needed a bit of a tougher going over, nothing exciting really, I was a bit disappointed that the rear ash tray lid was missing..

However my wife pulled out the tray itself and the lid was inside..

Put into place and looks much better..


Next on the list this weekend is to give the car another good clean inside and out and tackle the exhaust tips, you can't really make it out in the photo of the rear, but they are black from the carbon build up over the years.

Edited by CarbonViper on Friday 6th May 12:18

[KungFuPanda]

Those 1.8T cars can suffer from a clogged oil pick up pipe. I’d recommend dropping the sump and checking the state of it prior to doing an oil and filter change.

Other than that, it’s a tidy looking car and the engine should be bomb proof.

[_Mja_]

Nice good luck with it. Hardy car in my opinion. I've got a Seat Exeo (same car under the body) I've had for 9 years / 90k and it has only needed rear pads outside of annual servicing and tyres.

Two tips

1) if the foam sound deadlining blocks are still behind the front wing arch liners take them out. This is what causes the wing rot on all VW Group cars.

2) Under the battery you might have a couple of grommets. One is like a ducks beak and it gets blocked with age causing water to collect in the scuttle and evenutally overflow into the cabin destroying electronics such as the comfort module. I removed both grommets from my car.

[anonymous-user]

KungFuPanda said:

Those 1.8T cars can suffer from a clogged oil pick up pipe. I’d recommend dropping the sump and checking the state of it prior to doing an oil and filter change.

And those yellow plastic dipstick tubes go brittle, snap and then spray oil all over the engine bay. I suspect if you take the sump off you will find bits of yellow plastic as well as sludge blocking up the oil pickup.

Not an easy job, I believe the engine has to be raised and the front subframe dropped out of the way.

[CarbonViper]

KungFuPanda said:

Those 1.8T cars can suffer from a clogged oil pick up pipe. I’d recommend dropping the sump and checking the state of it prior to doing an oil and filter change.

Other than that, it’s a tidy looking car and the engine should be bomb proof.

Brilliant, thank you for the information, I will make sure that gets looked when I look to get the oil changed next time.

_Mja_ said:

Nice good luck with it. Hardy car in my opinion. I've got a Seat Exeo (same car under the body) I've had for 9 years / 90k and it has only needed rear pads outside of annual servicing and tyres.

Two tips

1) if the foam sound deadlining blocks are still behind the front wing arch liners take them out. This is what causes the wing rot on all VW Group cars.

2) Under the battery you might have a couple of grommets. One is like a ducks beak and it gets blocked with age causing water to collect in the scuttle and evenutally overflow into the cabin destroying electronics such as the comfort module. I removed both grommets from my car.

Thanks for both tips, wish I had posted this before I changed the battery already, will take a look regardless, will also take a look at the front wings for the deadlining

[anonymous-user]

Check the roof seams under the plastic trim as they are known for rusting in this area.

Do you have the rest of the full width cover over the battery to the pollen filter?

The foam in the front arch liners is I believe a VW issue mostly affecting the Golf, not seen this affecting Audi cars. My B7 is fine in this area.

Lastly, check the glovebox opens easily, if not you need to lubricate the damper otherwise you will snap the hinge and need a new one which isn't cheap.

Edited by anonymous-user on Friday 6th May 15:02

[Court_S]

That does look too shabby at all OP.

I like the subtle, restrained design of the B6.

[carinaman]

gottans said:

Do you have the rest of the full width cover over the battery to the pollen filter?

I think they dropped them for the B7.

Here's one on eBay:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/265681684496?epid=16027...

Chinese versions of the battery cover, not supplied with the scuttle panel in the eBay item above are cheap.

[carinaman]

What's the damped action of the glovebox lid like? Some preventative work on the damper may help avoid breaking the glovebox lid hinges.

[TheAngryDog]

Looks a tidy car op. I'm surprised that the old 20vt was still being used in 2007 cars, as the tfsi was in use by then.

Was the 20vt euro 4? I remember it was only euro 3 in my 2002 Octavia vRS.

[CarbonViper]

Little update over the weekend, you can kind of make out in my opening pic, the exhausts are caked in Carbon Residue, assuming they have never been cleaned, bit of a close up pic..


Armed with a few sponge scouring pad and some pink stuff cleaning paste they have come up really well, there was a real thick layer in some places and it took me about an hour and half from start to finish, but really worth the effort, below a pic of half way through and the finished product.




Also applied a little Autosol to them to add a little shine. I have also noticed a lot of little black spots/marks behind both the front and rear wheels on the body work, I'm assuming this is tar (forgot to take a pic) so I've spent far too much cleaning these off and there are plenty still to go.
My wife also noticed the passenger door card does not quite fit right, (also forgot to take a pic) This has subsequently been put into place correctly, it isn't a perfect fit but considerably better than it was before.

[CarbonViper]

gottans said:

Check the roof seams under the plastic trim as they are known for rusting in this area.

Do you have the rest of the full width cover over the battery to the pollen filter?

The foam in the front arch liners is I believe a VW issue mostly affecting the Golf, not seen this affecting Audi cars. My B7 is fine in this area.

Lastly, check the glovebox opens easily, if not you need to lubricate the damper otherwise you will snap the hinge and need a new one which isn't cheap.

Edited by gottans on Friday 6th May 15:02

Thanks for the info, I will check the roof seams for rust when I'm spending time on the car next.
I don't have the full width of the cover area, I did think when I picked it up that there should be something covering that, so will look to pick one up.
The glovebox opens fine, maybe a little slowly if I'm being critical, but I will look to do some lubrication, thanks for the tip

carinaman said:

gottans said:

Do you have the rest of the full width cover over the battery to the pollen filter?

I think they dropped them for the B7.

Here's one on eBay:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/265681684496?epid=16027...

Chinese versions of the battery cover, not supplied with the scuttle panel in the eBay item above are cheap.

Thanks for the link to the one on ebay, I would want to pick one up as the area looks like it needs covering up, good to know that I can get the battery cover on the cheap as well

TheAngryDog said:

Was the 20vt euro 4? I remember it was only euro 3 in my 2002 Octavia vRS.

Quick look online indicates it's a euro 4 as this was a requirement from Jan 2006 registration.

[anonymous-user]

CarbonViper said:

gottans said:

Check the roof seams under the plastic trim as they are known for rusting in this area.

Do you have the rest of the full width cover over the battery to the pollen filter?

The foam in the front arch liners is I believe a VW issue mostly affecting the Golf, not seen this affecting Audi cars. My B7 is fine in this area.

Lastly, check the glovebox opens easily, if not you need to lubricate the damper otherwise you will snap the hinge and need a new one which isn't cheap.

Edited by anonymous-user on Friday 6th May 15:02

Thanks for the info, I will check the roof seams for rust when I'm spending time on the car next.
I don't have the full width of the cover area, I did think when I picked it up that there should be something covering that, so will look to pick one up.
The glovebox opens fine, maybe a little slowly if I'm being critical, but I will look to do some lubrication, thanks for the tip

carinaman said:

gottans said:

Do you have the rest of the full width cover over the battery to the pollen filter?

I think they dropped them for the B7.

Here's one on eBay:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/265681684496?epid=16027...

Chinese versions of the battery cover, not supplied with the scuttle panel in the eBay item above are cheap.

Thanks for the link to the one on ebay, I would want to pick one up as the area looks like it needs covering up, good to know that I can get the battery cover on the cheap as well

TheAngryDog said:

Was the 20vt euro 4? I remember it was only euro 3 in my 2002 Octavia vRS.

Quick look online indicates it's a euro 4 as this was a requirement from Jan 2006 registration.

My b7 has the full width cover, probably got binned if the plastic retaining screws were knackered. If the govebox is opening slowly then the hinge snapping is imminent!!

The Euro rating is marked on the rating plate left side of the engine bay. Having just said that looking at your engine bay the rating plate is missing from the position it is on mine i.e. to the left of the filling points in the 2 aluminium tubes going through the bulkhead back left of engine bay, odd.

Edited by anonymous-user on Thursday 12th May 17:49

[stevemcs]

We had a 2.0TFsi, nice engine but the SE seats gave me back ache ..... out of interest does it have Bose ? I may have a wiring loom for the head unit if it does ... and a faceplate.

[carinaman]

Link from an eBay forum on B6/B7 scuttle cover panels with an exploded parts diagram:

https://www.audi-sport.net/xf/threads/a4-b7-scuttl...