B8 S4 Ownership

[RoVoFob]

Does anyone have a take on suitable fast road brake pads for an S4/S5? I think my S5 Sportback has warped front discs, and they’re pretty worn, too, so am looking to get new discs and pads all around, plus new brake fluid.

Having a surprisingly difficult time finding much tangible info about the pads sold by EuroCarParts etc. They show a brand name but very little product info, which is a pain when you want to know what you’re buying…

Am considering Ferodo DS Performance and Mintex M1144 so far, as I’ve found some data on those. My priorities are decent initial bite and reasonable progression, low noise and relatively low dust. Any thoughts? Thanks.

[silentbrown]

Loads of standing water on the roads tonight - having dipped a nearside wheel into a slightly deeper puddle than expected, I got an odd thrumming noise that seemed to be propshaft-related. It lasted for about a mile, then gradually faded.

Any ideas?

[catso]

RoVoFob said:

Does anyone have a take on suitable fast road brake pads for an S4/S5? I think my S5 Sportback has warped front discs, and they’re pretty worn, too, so am looking to get new discs and pads all around, plus new brake fluid.

Having a surprisingly difficult time finding much tangible info about the pads sold by EuroCarParts etc. They show a brand name but very little product info, which is a pain when you want to know what you’re buying…

Am considering Ferodo DS Performance and Mintex M1144 so far, as I’ve found some data on those. My priorities are decent initial bite and reasonable progression, low noise and relatively low dust. Any thoughts? Thanks.

Recently went through this with my S4, pulsing from the front brakes despite both discs and pads having plenty of material on them.

I went for Brembo Xtra discs and pads and all is good again, in fact the brake feel is more progressive than before which always felt a bit 'grabby' to me. Too early to say on dust but happy so far.

I started a thread about it at the time; https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

[DonkeyApple]

The brake judder from the fronts is a weird one as the first assumption is that the disc has warped then because it's intermittent one assumes you had a rust build up as you'd not driven the car for a while but from what I can work out it is triggered by the road surface. Something wears on the car that then makes it susceptible to some types of surface under braking?

[RoVoFob]

catso said:

Recently went through this with my S4, pulsing from the front brakes despite both discs and pads having plenty of material on them.

I went for Brembo Xtra discs and pads and all is good again, in fact the brake feel is more progressive than before which always felt a bit 'grabby' to me. Too early to say on dust but happy so far.

I started a thread about it at the time; https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

Thanks for the link - very useful. My brakes have always been a little grabby, so would like to address that. No idea what’s fitted currently, as I’ve only had the car five months, but the discs look pretty old.

The car vibrates quite strongly when braking and if I remember rightly, it tugs at the steering, too, so would be surprised if it’s just residue on the discs…unless it’s more of a problem on one side, which would explain the imbalance.

Like the sound of Pagid Street+ pads currently, as these seem to have a much higher friction level than most from cold (well 100 degrees at least, which is where the chart starts) and don’t tail off dramatically like the Mintex M1144 and, to a lesser degree, the Ferodo DS Performance. Mightily expensive, though!

Have also gone down the rabbit hole of lightweight brake discs, having discovered that two piece discs could save more than 2kg per corner. Dangerous…

https://www.pagidracing.com/en/products/street-bra...

[davidcw58]

RoVoFob said:

So, as I hinted a few pages back, I’ve finally bought an S5 Sportback after three years of wanting an S4 Avant and working my way through far cheaper substitutes - from a bargain £1,300 2006 V70 to a Passat R36 and a pair of V8 A6s - as I didn’t want to sell my other car.

That’s with an extremely well reviewed Cambridgeshire Audi specialist and is around 20% less than the Surrey specialist I also got a quote from. Seems very good value to me…
…

Whose the Cambridgeshire Audi specialist you refer to?

[simon_harris]

RoVoFob said:

Thanks for the link - very useful. My brakes have always been a little grabby, so would like to address that. No idea what’s fitted currently, as I’ve only had the car five months, but the discs look pretty old.

The car vibrates quite strongly when braking and if I remember rightly, it tugs at the steering, too, so would be surprised if it’s just residue on the discs…unless it’s more of a problem on one side, which would explain the imbalance.

Like the sound of Pagid Street+ pads currently, as these seem to have a much higher friction level than most from cold (well 100 degrees at least, which is where the chart starts) and don’t tail off dramatically like the Mintex M1144 and, to a lesser degree, the Ferodo DS Performance. Mightily expensive, though!

Have also gone down the rabbit hole of lightweight brake discs, having discovered that two piece discs could save more than 2kg per corner. Dangerous…

https://www.pagidracing.com/en/products/street-bra...

I run Yellowstuff pads all round on mine, though I have upgraded the front calipers to the B9 ones with A6 discs. they have been fine on track and work just as well on the street. (MY11 manual avant with sport diff)

[RoVoFob]

davidcw58 said:

Whose the Cambridgeshire Audi specialist you refer to?

Quattro Tech - the Cambridge branch. I’ve booked in now for new discs, pads and fluid, which should do the job.

[RoVoFob]

simon_harris said:

I run Yellowstuff pads all round on mine, though I have upgraded the front calipers to the B9 ones with A6 discs. they have been fine on track and work just as well on the street. (MY11 manual avant with sport diff)

I’ve heard variable things about EBC, so have always avoided them. Some people do seem to swear by them, though.

Out of interest, why did you upgrade to B9/A6 calipers/discs? I have several bleed nipples that are seized, so may have some caliper issues. I was surprised to see that Porsche Macan calipers are the same price as S4 ones, which may be interesting if I need some new calipers…

[DonkeyApple]

Rear wiper on my estate is appearing to develop a mind of its own. It either won't go on or won't go off and gets itself stuck in transit. Had to pull over and stop and lock the car to get it to behave.

Rather than being a motor issue it has the feeling of a chip issue.

Has anyone experienced the issue?

[silentbrown]

DonkeyApple said:

Rear wiper on my estate is appearing to develop a mind of its own. It either won't go on or won't go off and gets itself stuck in transit. Had to pull over and stop and lock the car to get it to behave.

Rather than being a motor issue it has the feeling of a chip issue.

Has anyone experienced the issue?

They're a pretty common failure, I think. The design has the washer feed running through the spindle, so the risk of water getting int the innards is pretty high - particularly if the nozzle gets blocked with crud. Mine was replaced last summer.

Possibly a faulty relay, but more likely to be the motor unit..

[catso]

DonkeyApple said:

Rear wiper on my estate is appearing to develop a mind of its own. It either won't go on or won't go off and gets itself stuck in transit. Had to pull over and stop and lock the car to get it to behave.

Rather than being a motor issue it has the feeling of a chip issue.

Has anyone experienced the issue?

Yes, about a month ago mine started doing weird things; wiping too many times, not 'parking' correctly.

It's a common fault on many models that use the same wiper motor, the water for the washers passes through the motor shaft and eventually corrodes the insides and leaks. Water gets into the motor/controller and causes strange things to happen, you may also find water in your boot, even filling up the spare wheel well.

Solution is to replace the motor assembly, not too difficult to do. The worst part is removing the tailgate trim without breaking anything and then it's just 3 bolts and plug-in motor.

I bought a Valeo branded motor for around £80 but unbranded versions can be had on ebay etc. for less than £30 (though I was slightly untrusting of them) and, in fact the original that I removed from mine was a Valeo.

[silentbrown]

catso said:

Solution is to replace the motor assembly, not too difficult to do. The worst part is removing the tailgate trim without breaking anything and then it's just 3 bolts and plug-in motor.

Tailgate trim was a nightmare, so our local indy got the job. Also you'll probably need a puller to remove the arm from the spindle. And possibly a replacement arm!

[catso]

silentbrown said:

catso said:

Solution is to replace the motor assembly, not too difficult to do. The worst part is removing the tailgate trim without breaking anything and then it's just 3 bolts and plug-in motor.

Tailgate trim was a nightmare, so our local indy got the job. Also you'll probably need a puller to remove the arm from the spindle. And possibly a replacement arm!

Yes, you need to have a certain bravery to remove the trim as it requires some force but not too much.

Good point about the puller, I certainly needed one for mine as the aluminium wiper arm had corroded to the steel motor shaft, you can get a specific wiper puller for just a few quid or use a suitable pulley extractor - don't try levering it off against the glass!

Here's a cheap motor; https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/166381773605?fits=Car+M...

Here's a wiper puller; https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/364568042224?fits=Car+M...

[catso]

Filibuster said:

The B8 S4 has a mapping from the factory for 95. Most performance maps are based on 98 fuel tough.
In Germany, where 100 and even 102 fuel is readily available, tuner often opt even for those. And in the states, many tunes take advantage of E40-50 mixes, because of the availability of E85 fuel. (you use an App to get the mixture right)

Late to the party but, my S4 has a Revo stage 1 tune which has switchable maps (via the plug in SPS unit).

There are 4 maps in there, from memory I think they are;

Stock (no power increase)
Performance 1 for 95 octane
Performance 2 for 98 octane
Performance 3 for 99/100+ octane (race fuel)

You can certainly tell the difference from stock to performance mode with around 1/2 second off the 0-60 time but I have tried all the performance maps back-to-back and any difference between them is not noticeable from the driver's seat - I think they claim around 14 bhp difference between the 3 performance modes?

Otherwise I run performance 2 on 99 octane, MPG appears to be unaffected from stock in day to day use, around 30/31 on a steady run and 26ish average.