My Audi A4 B7

[little P]

Thanks Daunt, I have no idea how many were made in Black etc. for this model, I just know they only made 78 Ex-Pack SRi Turbos which is pretty cool.

As for plans, I will undoubtedly have my hands full getting scratches repaired from little assholes who love to key people's cars. Oh, and I will probably be fitting a Parrot kit to it, and then it's a case of keeping it maintained.

No doubt in a years time it will have been Stage 1 tuned with an air filter, exhaust, chip and boost increase but I will try to hold off for as long as I can lol

I like the wheels too, standard fit on these. They set the car off well I think.

I had a lot of fun today testing out the performance down a few of my local "rally" stages hehe

 

[Daunt]

Yeah I have quite a few scratches / chips that I need to address. How do you handle those? You DIY? Any tips/guides you use? I have a small bottle of matching paint but I thought you had to do quite a bit to it to make it look somewhat decent, so I've held off for now.

 

[little P]

Nope, I've tried everything down the years, but I have come to realise that the only thing that gives me the finish I want is to take it to a bodyshop and let them do their magic.

That ST220 pictured earlier in the thread was covered in scratches and little dinks. By the time they'd finished with it, the car looked like it had driven out of a showroom. Cost me £400 and was worth every penny, it looked like a different car and every time I polished it the paint looked like you could dive in it. Lush.

I'll do the same for this one if it gets too bad, at the moment it's mint, not a mark on it but like I say that won't last long.

 

[Daunt]

Ah. That seems like a pretty reasonable price actually. I have to imagine due to dents that I have (some hail damage all over the car) it would be much pricier. I'd bet the shops in general here will charge me quite a bit more than that.

Forgot to mention a couple weeks ago I tinted my tails myself... I decided not to go too dark but the way it looks is awesome. The application is terrible... it has improved, as far as the bubbles go since then, but there are still a few wrinkles and bubbles that probably will never come out. I'll probably remove it soon and buy a better film (Lamin-x this time... I bought a 7 dollar film from eBay). I looked at having it professionally done and the shop wanted 200-300 bucks... way overpriced...

Here's a picture after I just applied it. As I said, it has improved since then, but still has a few small bubbles and the wrinkles obviously won't go away.

 

[little P]

I can see the look you're going for and the tint does make the rear end tie in with the wheels. I like it. I agree you need some better tints though, the wrinkles seem pretty bad. Good on you for trying these things for yourself though!

 

[little P]

Well, I said I wouldn't be doing anything to it really, but I've already booked it in for a Stage 1 tune at the leading tuners for this brand. Will be mapped at the rolling road session and will be minimum 210bhp, max 220. They are aiming for a nice easy going map. Next thing after that undoubtedly will be two new front tyres :icon_twisted: I won't be going over 240 with this car, anything over that and the fuel economy will plummet apparantly. I can't believe how frugal the engine is at the moment with 180bhp and 230Nm Torque I'm still getting nearly 40mpg with "spirited" driving (ie. hotlap speeds). It's one of the main reasons I got this car because the engine is a real peach and can give great economy and still put a smile on your face when you mash the loud pedal through the floor

 

[Daunt]

Thanks for the compliment... honestly for 7 bucks for the tints, it was well spent to see how it looked.

Good god! That didn't last long at all! I'd be interested to see the power band. Usually those stage 1 tunes don't add a ton of power, but you do get to max power a LOT sooner in the revs and it makes a difference (as I'm sure you know).

How many miles... er km does that thing have? It seems like a real keeper!

 

[ElektroVodka]

Ooh nice one P!

Oxzhor(our ts host and a friend of mine ) owns a stage 2 or 3 Astra.
I'll ask him to throw his website back online as it had a photodiary about the progress he made.

I imagine the insurance is through the roof for that thing?

 

[mondo]

Insurance in the UK is a little odd but if you have a good history and the car is relatively modern it's not that expensive. My partner pays 350 a year on her Audi A1 1.4 TFSI. We looked at the 185 PS version and the insurance wasn't much more. Road tax is only 20 quid a year though which is awesome.

 

[Daunt]

Insurance in the UK is a little odd but if you have a good history and the car is relatively modern it's not that expensive. My partner pays 350 a year on her Audi A1 1.4 TFSI. We looked at the 185 PS version and the insurance wasn't much more. Road tax is only 20 quid a year though which is awesome.

That is surprisingly affordable. I live in Michigan, which has the 49th highest auto insurance rates of all the states. One major reason is we have no fault, aka everyone's own insurance pays for their own car, regardless of fault. I'm not a fan, especially because it punishes good drivers...

For my Audi, I pay a tad over $1,000 a year. Believe it or not, that is dirt cheap around here. Partially because my parents included me on their insurance.... You get steep discounts the more shit you put on your plan, and they have like 5 cars, home insurance, etc. Otherwise I went to see about getting it on my own plan, and it would probably be well over $1,500 per year. Probably closer to 2k.

That is with me having a very clean record, no accidents or tickets in the past 7 years.

 

[mondo]

That's not good, definitely doesn't promote being a good driver but I understand insurance companies in the US are basically con artists. In the UK it can get silly though, if you have a history of writing off cars through your own misadventure, insurance gets very expensive. All you need is a couple of write offs and your yearly insurance gets silly. Have a history of writing off cars and it's almost infeasibly expensive to get insurance.

 

[little P]

Holy crap I have fully comprehensive cover and it costs me just over £200 a year. There some good points about getting older eh. I have a clean license too and full no claims bonus which helps.
Mileage is 60k (miles) so nice and low, the cambelt isn't due until 100k miles. I won't be putting a lot of miles on it so no worries there.
I'll probably throw a new clutch in there soon too, I can get it done pretty cheap through the main dealer and I'd rather do it sooner after the tune than later.
Insurance sounds ridiculously expensive over there... wow.
£20 tax sounds good Mondo, mine's over £200 but ah well, it's worth it to embarrass the Barry boyz at the lights every now and then

It's chucking it down today in the UK, grateful for a decent traction control system :icon_eek:

Quick, I'd be interested in that read for sure

 

[Daunt]

What else is new in the US? Cash grab here, pyramid scheme there. I've always hated insurance, but it makes you wonder, if I had no insurance, with that extra 2k a year I would not be spending, (plus $500 deductible) how much would I actually need it?
In all but the most extreme accidents, I'd be better off having it fixed myself. Chalk up another reason for moving across the pond.

 

[mondo]

Littlep, how is your road tax 200 on that car? Does it have stupidly high emissions? Seems strangely high!

 

[little P]

Dunno... It's less than the Scenic! £220 a year. Doesn't bother me as I've always paid over £200 for tax.

I guess with this SRi it must be emissions yeah. Fun comes at a price I guess, but it's a price I'm willing to pay! Driving around in boring cars for the last four years nearly drove me mad

 

[Daunt]

Nearly?

 

[mondo]

Dunno... It's less than the Scenic! £220 a year. Doesn't bother me as I've always paid over £200 for tax.

I guess with this SRi it must be emissions yeah. Fun comes at a price I guess, but it's a price I'm willing to pay! Driving around in boring cars for the last four years nearly drove me mad

I had a look at the current rules and you get stiffed for engines bigger than 1.5 then they add emissions and then add an arbitrary premium on certain models. Oddly you pay the same amount as an A5 3.0 quattro. An S5 using the same engine and is only 10g of co2 more per km is double the cost and then some.

 

[little P]

Bastards aren't they. Always trying to ruin the fun!

*logs on to autotrader to look for 3.0 Quattros*

 

[Daunt]

So on my commute this morning I went over a hump in the road and felt quite a rough snap... had the radio up so I did not actually hear it. On the way in, I thought the steering was drifting left (not the fun kind of drifting) but after driving it again, it seems like that is gone, maybe I was imagining it.

There is something bad shaking in what sounds like the rear going over bumps. Can't feel it but you can hear it, sounds very strange.

Have to take it to the shop to diagnose.

 

[little P]

Snapped spring? Had two of those before and it sounds like the sound you were describing. Easy to sort if it is, keep us posted!

EDIT: Also, check the boot for Mexicans. This may be the shaking in the rear over bumps.

Either way, easy to sort.