B8 S4 Ownership

[Raddors]

mrdanbartlett said:

Raddors said:

Hi Dan - no remap just went to them for a health check and dyno plus service shortly after I bought it. I had considered a remap as I thought it would have lost some power over the years and was expecting something around 300bhp, but probably won't bother now I'm happy with how it is (for now). Recommend MRC, top guys and girls.

Cool, thanks. As I can't find anything this side of £25k to replace the S4 with I think a remap might be worthwhile as the car does everything I want other than a little more power

Early 400's would be nice, but I agree most seem to make 350 as standard.

If you get it done let me know your verdict!

[MattS5]

mrdanbartlett said:

Hello Raddors,

Sorry to hijack but did you get a remap by MRC? If so what was the after figure and how does the car feel since the map? I have a manual and would like to remap it and MRC is probably my closest decent option (still 4hr round trip).

Any Revo dealers nearby?

I’ve never had any issue with the last 4 Revo maps on my S cars. (2 x S3 and 2 x S5)
Very pleased with my stage 1 on the S5

[mrdanbartlett]

AUTO SPECIALISTS LTD are about an hour or so away, seem to be more Ford based, also a bit more expensive but it says:

"Please Note that this is a Workshop only conversion – we are located in South East of England 10 minutes form junction 30 on M25 (post code RM17 6ST)"

https://www.autospecialists.co.uk/product/audi-a4-...

Also they are a bit more expensive at £840, but then less fuel/time I guess. Just seems alot when they car is probably only worth £8k now, however I'd not touch anything other than Revo/MRC/APR (i.e a proper map).

[MattS5]

mrdanbartlett said:

AUTO SPECIALISTS LTD are about an hour or so away, seem to be more Ford based, also a bit more expensive but it says:

"Please Note that this is a Workshop only conversion – we are located in South East of England 10 minutes form junction 30 on M25 (post code RM17 6ST)"

https://www.autospecialists.co.uk/product/audi-a4-...

Also they are a bit more expensive at £840, but then less fuel/time I guess. Just seems alot when they car is probably only worth £8k now, however I'd not touch anything other than Revo/MRC/APR (i.e a proper map).

If you can wait till Dec time, Revo normally offer a Black Friday type deal where you save the VAT, so bringing it down to £699

[Easternlight]

Well, as my best laid plans at the start of the year to move on from my S4 now seeem to have been shafted by this virus thing
I had better give it some TLC.
As well as oil and filter I am looking at doing the serpentine and supercharger belts as niether have been done in my 6 years of ownership.
Any advice on doing the belts, any special/helpful tools I need, do I need to pull the front forward to the service position?
Should I change the tensioners at the same time?
As it's now 10 years old and on 85k what else should I look at , coolant?

[Adrian E]

Front definitely needs pulling into the service position to access the belts - the S/C belt isn't too expensive, but the accessory belt is a fair wedge (I did the same as you and changed both at the same time)

Tensioners weren't touched, as they were fine.

[Easternlight]

Adrian E said:

Front definitely needs pulling into the service position to access the belts - the S/C belt isn't too expensive, but the accessory belt is a fair wedge (I did the same as you and changed both at the same time)

Tensioners weren't touched, as they were fine.

Thanks for that. Do you need special tools for the service position? I've not YouTubed it yet but I've seen others using long bolts or pieces of round bar to slide the front forward on?

[fastgerman]

Bit of love today and booked in for a gearbox service (30k miles now).

Considering an easy track day in the family wagon - anyone tried and anything to consider?

Car is original and running on Pilot Sports. New brakes and fluid last year.

[DibblyDobbler]

Gents - this popped up on Autotrader and am considering going for a look. Any thoughts or anything I should look out for?

TIA

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/202...

[silentbrown]

DibblyDobbler said:

Gents - this popped up on Autotrader and am considering going for a look. Any thoughts or anything I should look out for?

TIA

Seems an optimistic price for a pre-facelift car. Spec definitely isn't great but it has the carbon inlays, which I like -and if you're really after a manual there's probably not much choice.

Pushing the budget out to £17K gets you plenty of choice of decent spec later facelift cars with DSG, like this one https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/202...

£565 VED is going to hurt, too...

[DibblyDobbler]

silentbrown said:

Seems an optimistic price for a pre-facelift car. Spec definitely isn't great but it has the carbon inlays, which I like -and if you're really after a manual there's probably not much choice.

Pushing the budget out to £17K gets you plenty of choice of decent spec later facelift cars with DSG, like this one https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/202...

£565 VED is going to hurt, too...

Thanks SB - has to be a manual for me so very little choice as you say.

[GroundZero]

silentbrown said:

Seems an optimistic price for a pre-facelift car. Spec definitely isn't great but it has the carbon inlays, which I like -and if you're really after a manual there's probably not much choice.

Pushing the budget out to £17K gets you plenty of choice of decent spec later facelift cars with DSG, like this one https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/202...

£565 VED is going to hurt, too...

The VED prices hiked up on model years of 2011 and onwards. So if you can find a model year of 2010 or earlier then you only pay £325.

[Adrian E]

DibblyDobbler said:

Gents - this popped up on Autotrader and am considering going for a look. Any thoughts or anything I should look out for?

TIA

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/202...

Full leather, B&O, potato peeler wheels, blind pack appears to be the limit of options specced, based on the pictures.

[DibblyDobbler]

Adrian E said:

Full leather, B&O, potato peeler wheels, blind pack appears to be the limit of options specced, based on the pictures.

Thanks for the reply Adrian - I think it might have drive select from what I can see in a couple of the pictures (ie a button that says comfort/auto etc) although not mentioned in the blurb.

Am going for a look tonight so we shall see

[Adrian E]

DibblyDobbler said:

Thanks for the reply Adrian - I think it might have drive select from what I can see in a couple of the pictures (ie a button that says comfort/auto etc) although not mentioned in the blurb.

Am going for a look tonight so we shall see

Good spot! I'm not used to looking elsewhere for the ADS controls, when nav isn't fitted. I can't see 'individual' listed as one of the selectable options, which in the menu is usually the easiest way to check whether it's 'just' got dynamic steering, or it has the more desirable adaptive damping and sports diff. No individual mode suggests you may not see it as a menu choice under setup.......

Grab a pic of the 3 character codes from the service book and someone can decode it for you to confirm fitted options

[DibblyDobbler]

Adrian E said:

Good spot! I'm not used to looking elsewhere for the ADS controls, when nav isn't fitted. I can't see 'individual' listed as one of the selectable options, which in the menu is usually the easiest way to check whether it's 'just' got dynamic steering, or it has the more desirable adaptive damping and sports diff. No individual mode suggests you may not see it as a menu choice under setup.......

Grab a pic of the 3 character codes from the service book and someone can decode it for you to confirm fitted options

Thanks Adrian - I hadn't twigged it did not have Nav... is that why the buttons and dial are up on the dash instead of down in front of the gear lever? I had a assumed it was standard... hmm. Not ideal but not a deal breaker I guess as I very rarely use it. Will have a good play with the modes later on and see what I can see - thanks again.

[matrignano]

Found this on the passenger side footwell.
Any idea what it could be?

[Adrian E]

DibblyDobbler said:

Thanks Adrian - I hadn't twigged it did not have Nav... is that why the buttons and dial are up on the dash instead of down in front of the gear lever? I had a assumed it was standard... hmm. Not ideal but not a deal breaker I guess as I very rarely use it. Will have a good play with the modes later on and see what I can see - thanks again.

Yep, you've got stereo controls on the vertical bit of dash where the SD card slots etc would be on a car with nav. With nav, all of that would be grouped behind the gear lever. Without Audi Drive Select that's just a big slab of black plastic.

Nav was never standard, unfortunately. There's 3 different versions of nav - one with DVD nav drive in the boot (MMI 2G), which gets a CD changer in the dash, more common is HDD nav with x2 SD card slots (surprisingly useful for music) known as MMI 3G. Has an extra toggle on top of the big rotary knob for moving the nav image around, which is usually a good thing to use to work out which system a car has. There's also a version where the nav lives either in the DVD drive or on an SD card in one of the 2 slots (MMI 3G Basic) which looks very similar to MMI 3G at first glance.

The nav systems are pretty dated by modern standards, but I keep the 3G setup in mine updated annually and it does the job for local trips to places I don't know. Tend to tack my phone to the windscreen for Waze alerts if I'm going more than 50 miles to somewhere I don't know.

[DibblyDobbler]

Humph - got halfway up to the garage (having covered 40-odd miles) to receive a phone call telling me they had sold it, despite me having supposedly reserved it yesterday

Oh well - back to the classifieds I suppose.... thanks to those who helped with my witterings as above.

[Easternlight]

GroundZero said:

silentbrown said:

Seems an optimistic price for a pre-facelift car. Spec definitely isn't great but it has the carbon inlays, which I like -and if you're really after a manual there's probably not much choice.

Pushing the budget out to £17K gets you plenty of choice of decent spec later facelift cars with DSG, like this one https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/202...

£565 VED is going to hurt, too...

The VED prices hiked up on model years of 2011 and onwards. So if you can find a model year of 2010 or earlier then you only pay £325.

Not for manual you won't, they are all band L trust me I've been paying it for the last 6 years