Free oil change from Audi, and they FINALLY fixed my headlights!

I finally got a good service rep at Audi, and the dude did some smart swapping of bulbs/ballasts and figured out what was wrong and fixed my headlight. FINALLY. I have been dealing with a flickering right front light for months now, and this bulb/ballast combo runs about $700 I imagine, so getting it fixed under warranty = primo coolio.

As it turns out my upper control arms were shot as well in front, so those were replaced under warranty too, total bonus.

Then I get my last free oil change from Audi service, and they use Castrol 5W40, which I happen to have about 5 quarts of (from the Lotus), so 3rd bonus score there. (eg. you need lots of extra oil with an Audi because it burns about 8 gallons every 2.5 miles or so)

Here is a little (boring) chart to keep track of this oil change and see how much it burns.

Mileage	Date	Level	Conditions
47283	11/16/09	oil change with Castrol 5w40 (Audi)	NA
47700	11/29/09	5/8 up the metal section.	Cold in Morning

S4 burning oil

Well, as it turns out it seems to be a fairly common occurrence with B6 and B7 S4’s.  I haven’t  yet discovered (or even searched for that matter) if other Audi’s using the same 4.2 liter V8 have the same issues, but it seems as if some people theorize that its the small engine bay of the S4 that might be contributing to higher heat levels and thus greater oil consumption.

Either way i had to put in 4 quarts of oil since the last oil change, which admittedly was 7771 miles ago.  So that’s 1 quart of oil gobbled up per 1942.75 miles.  Which isn’t exactly awesome, but not as bad as some people are reporting with 1 quart per 1000 miles!

I went and had the oil changed at a Jiffy Lube, which I am usually against, but these guys totally rocked it.  I watched them for the entire 1.25 hours and had them do the oil change in exactly the manner I wanted.  They drained the oil and let it drip for 5 minutes, then they ran a whole quart of penzoil 5w40 full synthetic through the engine, let that drain for 5 minutes.  Then they swapped out the filter with a cleaning of the filter housing to get all the old oil out, replaced the crush washer on the oil drain plug and filled it up with 9 quarts of Amsoil European formula (specifically formulated or so it says on the bottles for Audi’s and VW’s) 5w40 full synthetic oil.  They also filled up 2 Blackstone labs bottles for me so I can send this in to get analyzed.  I took some pictures of the plastic (fiberglass?) undertray to see what kind of oil residue is on it, to my eyes it looks like some of the oil is leaking and not necessarily all being burnt up.

So I am going to start a diary, (well a spreadsheet anyway) here in my Blog (which you will never want to look at, because lets face it, this is some boring stuff right here) to keep track of my exact oil level over the next 5000 miles.

Mileage	Date	Level	Conditions
42771	?	exact center of hashes	ice cold prior to start in morning
43530	?	Covers the first plastic tab	ice cold prior to start in morning
44634	?	In the center of the first plastic tab	cold, 5:30pm.  Hot day, but parked at 9am
44751	9/20/09	completely dry, added 1.6 quarts.  now 1/4 way into metal center section.	?
46440	10/28/2009	Added 1.45 quarts. Now 40% up the first plastic tab	?
46770	11/7/2009	7/8 up the first orange tab	sitting for a bit, engine warm, not hot

Brakes, who needs brakes?!? - Take III

So, this week, Tuesday night my brakes fail. As in caput, adios, ciao, brake to floor = nada.

In a nutshell, I was at a stop light, the brake pedal went to the floor with little or no resistance. I limped my way to a friends house a mile away with the last 3% of braking and judicious use of the handbrake. (p.s. This is why cars with foot actuated parking brakes suck, had I been in a G35 I would have been stuck).

Over the course of the next hour or so more fluid leaks out (gravity works after all) and the brakes are finite. Zilch. Zip. Nothing there, just a soft floppy pedal.

As it turns out the brake fluid was coming out of the right rear brake line where it connected to caliper. It might be that the copper crush washers were squished too much (check out the link to the pics below, you decide), maybe its because there was flashing/uneven surface left over on the caliper from the powder coating, or who knows, maybe the line is somehow magically bad and is leaking fluid through its sidewall.

I dropped the car off at another shop, one that specializes in Vipers and race cars, so hopefully they have the competence to fix it.



A Gallery of Brake Failure Pictures!

The Never Ending Debacle – Take II

So, one would think it would be easy to get work done a car like an Audi.  This isn’t a 1962 Fiat, or a 2009 TVR, or a custom built 1963 Cobra with a 2004 BMW 5L V8 motor.  Its a frickin 2006 Audi S4 Wagon, there a a bazillion of these Audis in the world, and there are countless shops dedicated to working solely on Audis and VW’s.  So why or why am I having such a hard time getting my car fixed!!??

To make a very long and dreadfully frustrating story short, here is a quick recap.

• Short Shifter attempt #1
• Reverse = Goes in smoothly, works well.
• 1st Gear = Also goes in nicely and works.
• Position = Too far back, 1st gear is where neutral used to be!
• Short Shifter Attempt #2
• Reverse = A “little” bit out of alignment, sometimes hard to get in reverse.
• 1st Gear = Goes in nicely and works.
• Position = Perfect, shifter is positioned right where it needs to be.
• Short Shifter attempt #3
• Reverse = Goes in awesome, works perfect.
• 1st Gear = Horrible, you need to wiggle to the right to get in 1st or 3nd gear every time.
• Position = Perfect.
• Short Shifter attempt #4
• We will see if they can get it right on the 4th try!

As to the braking debacle (which is the REAL debacle, the Short Shifter is insignificant compared to the brake hassle).

1. I bring the car in.
2. They remove the calipers (all 4 corners) and bring them to the powder coating place.
3. The Powder Coating place takes 2.5 days to get them done, charges $50 more than their quote, drops one of the calipers, stays late to recoat it, then recoats it slightly off color, and very badly.  The “drop” resulted in a chunk of coating missing from the rear, the respray results in 3 dime-size bubbles on the front which pop when you rub them with your finger.
4. The powder coating owner is mostly clueless, but nice, and says he will make it right, but this is Thursday, and they arent open on the weekend or Friday, so “maybe” we could have them back by EOB Monday night.  I tell him forget it, I am done, and don’t want to be without my car for another 5 days (resulting in a $35 / day rental POS car).
5. I instruct the guys at the shop to put them on the car the way they are and I’ll just have to spend a bunch of time fixing it myself (which was the entire point of taking the car to a shop to do what I am fully capable of doing, and probably capable of doing better than they can, because I give a rats ass).
6. I go to pick up the car when they say it will be ready at 5pm after they have had my car for 4 days (thankfully I decided against having them do the wheels for me as well, or else I might have been without a car for 3 weeks!).  I stay till 8pm with the guy while he tries to get it all buttoned up.
7. When I dropped the car off the brakes WITH STOCK LINES, STOCK PADS, STOCK FLUID were a 7/10.  Not great, but not horrible.
8. He bleeds the brakes, drives the car and says “Hey, check it out and see what you think”.  Its a 1.5/10.  The ONLY brakes I have ever felt this bad were Rob’s when I bled the master cylinder dry and there was air stuck in the system we could not bleed out.
9. So he bleeds em again, another liter or 2 of fluid, now they are a 3/10, and I head home because clearly he cant get them any better.
10. I drive the car all weekend with brakes that are the spongiest softest worst feeling brakes I have ever felt.  A 1973 mustang II with a massive brake leak and no left rear drum couldn’t feel this spongy.
11. I bring the car in Monday (today) to have them fix it once and for all, its a 2 hour job.  I stay there for 4 hours, they bleed the brakes again multiple times, and now they are a 3/10.  I give up, and leave, they say they will talk to their Brembo rep and possibly the owner to see if anyone has any ideas.  Yeah I do, learn how to work on cars.  I mean you only do Audis and VW’s, what happens if a customer comes to you with a super spongy brake pedal, you charge him 8 hours of labor to not fix it?  If you call Bill Arnold about bimmers and tell him you bled the brakes 5 times and its still spongy, in 4 seconds he’ll tell you what you need to do.  “There is air in the ABS unit, go to a dealership, have them use the special device which electronically opens the ABS reservoir, and then bleed, all will be well.”
12. To add insult to injury, the clear coat on the rear calipers is crackling, everywhere.  I opted for a 2 stage color, silver + clear.  When asked what the difference was he stated “One is 1 stage and one is 2 stage”.  “Yeah I gathered that from the names 1-stage and 2-stage, but what’s the difference, is one more susceptible to heat than the other.”   Well obviously we have our answer to that one, don’t we.  I mean the guy is new to powder coating, so I can’t blame him, he has only been doing it for 40 years and inherited the business from his dad and is the only job he has ever had.  So clearly he shouldn’t have known that 2-Stage powder coating jobs will end up with cracked clear coat when you put them on calipers.
13. One thing I am excited about is my first track day.  Well if I ever get the car to a point where it can actually do a track day that is.  I cant wait for after my first session when I come back into the pits and the powder coating is just sloughing off of the calipers because they got so hot.  THATS GONNA BE AWESOME. YAY.
14. Oh yeah, on a side note, they told me to my face “The rep from Stoptech told us over the phone that stainless lines will result in a spongy brake pedal feel”.  I understand the engineering behind stainless lines, they arent stainless at all.  They are actually teflon tubing, often shrouded with some flexible PVC conduit, and then finally covered in stainless braid simply for protection from rubbing as well as bursting.  Teflon does not give, it works fine, or it bursts, its not like rubber that flexes and stretches and buldges.  The ONLY reason to replace your lines is for stiffer pedal feel, there is no other reason to bother.

So as it stands now my course of action is;

1. Bring the car back to this shop and hope they magically figure out how to fix the super spongy brakes.  Chance of Success = 25%
2. Bring the car to a different place, maybe one that has a master mechanic that can figure this shit out.  Cost = $100+, Chance of Success = 70%
3. Since I dont know if it is air in the line or something wrong with my calipers I need to either buy new calipers on all 4 corners, or maybe a BBK kit for the front and new calipers for the rear and then see if it is still a problem.  If it is, then I know its air in the line/system somehow and I will then be out about 20 hours of labor/time and about $2000 worth of parts, awesome huh?

A whole lot of parts being put on my Avant over the next 3 days!

WOO HOO!

• AWE Exhaust (Non Resonated)
• REVO Technik tune
• Stoptech Stainless Lines
• Porterfield R4S Pads f+r
• ECS Slotted Zinc Plated Rotors Front and Rear
• JHM Short Shifter
• Calipers are getting powder coated silver
• New Seals are being put into calipers
• I already replaced all the wheel bolts with Stock AUDI bolts and some anti-seize

Then when I get this back I need to bring it back to Audi, because there is still a creaking coming from the suspension on the car, so maybe its NOT a wheel bearing, or perhaps its another wheel bearing. I MUST get an extended warranty, this bringing the car back for free is really awesome. Oh yeah, my right headlight has shown an error on my dash of "Right Dipped Headlight" twice, but they could reproduce it, well last week it was winking in and out and flickering for 5 minutes one night, so that needs to be looked at again as well.

I just bought an RS4 grill, and need your input about the fog lights..

So, I just got a great deal on an RS4 grill, this one to be exact;


Now this is a super stylin brushed aluminum ring with semi-gloss/satin black mesh. It came with a filler plate thats for a front license plate (ughh), so I am going to be purchasing this all black filler plate;

Now where I need your help is what to do about the Fog light inlets. Basically the stock look is pretty cool, but it doesnt have any of that honeycomb RS4 style to it. There isn't a direct RS4 drop in kit, you have to buy the RS4 kit and then modify/glue it in to make it work (which is not that big of a deal to me to be honest).

So I really have 3 options;

1) I can leave it alone, and I think that would look decent. [simplest]
2) I can fit the Rs4 fog light surrounds in and remove the stock S4 inlets altogether [a bit of work]
3) I can do a combo of the 2, if I go this way I would most likely just buy some black metal mesh honeycomb and simply attachg it to the back of the inlet. [a bit of work]

Option #1 (Keep in mind I wont have that grill)
Option 2 (This is pretty much exactly what my car would look like)

Option #3 (I kind of like this one the best, its cheaper than Option 2, but probaly more work, need to source the mesh, paint it, cut it, and then somehow fit it in)

The avant is registered, and.. my friends must have LOTS of free time!

The Avant is registered, and I am up at 1:15am posting this. Been working on my house loan application all night. This has been a very productive week for me. I have utterly demolished my massive stack of bills and TO-DOs that have been sitting on my desk at home. You see, I just bought a new car, and being that I am utterly in love with cars I can't help but spend all my time working on it, buying stuff for it, researching options for mods for it, dreaming about what to do with it (i.e. what track days to go to, what suspension to install, which brakes to buy, etc, eccetera, essetera.).

But, I feel like I am neglecting the REALLY important stuff (i.e. my future, a house, my savings, my 401k, my health insurance, my bills, selling my buddies truck he loaned me for 9 months, you get the drift) to daydream about my 4 Rings porn (that would be my Audi S4 Avant to you car noobs).

So, tomorow I will send in my loan application (which should be easy, but only if you have filed all your bills for the past 6 months instead of just piling them up in a nice tidy "to be dealt with later" stack), this week I will list my buddies truck, get the last 2 bits of bill crud done, then fill out some more paperwork to transfer an old 401k into a different plan, and finally call my real estate agent to start the process of finding a house.

I have mixed emotions about house shopping. One on the one hand I am excited to finally be in my own place again, with a garage, and room enough for all my belongings, but I am also dreading the dogged determination that one is required to have to REALLY find the right house for the right price and to make it happen. ugggghhhh....

Anyway, sorry for the life interlude. Oh one more thing. If you go and check out Le Supar Goobar's blog and you will see that he clearly has too much free time on his hands. just loko at those posts. informative, thoughtful, thought provoking, well written, and clearly something you actually WANT to read and in the case of his music post go and listen to each and every one of the youtube's he posts up. I wish I had that kind of time, I am thinking its time someone was given more house chores or something!

Ok, for real, back to the car. To make a long story short, one must get an out of state car smogged upon first entrance into CA without fail, no matter what the DMV website misleads you to believe. I just re-read it, and if I follow the links a different way I can see now that you DO need a smog. Well one thing I learned is that my 2006 Audi uses the CAN system for the OBD port, and that means the smog machine wont read through the OBD port, which is a pain in the ass, because it is DAMN hard to find any place else to clamp a reader to so you can grab the RPMs of the motor.

Long story short = I have the plate I want 4RINGS4 coming in 90 days, and my fees were just shy of $2k. Brutal, Oregon is looking more attractive, no?

On another car related note. I am bringing my car into Eurocode tuning (yes the place that dicked me around, will post about that later) on Monday, and have ordered the following parts;

• ECS Slotted Zinc Plated OEM 1 piece Rotors front and rear
• Porterfield R4S brake pads, front and rear
• Stainless lines
• JHM SHort Shifter
• AWE Exhaust (sitting in my living room looking sexy)
• Caliper rebuild / Seal kits for all 4 corners
• New Spring Retention Clips for front calipers
• 20 new shiny Lug Bolts

So, got the S4 back, and it now has a new Power Steering pump! :)

So the weird power steering noise turned out to be a pump. Which is a shaft driven job, and requires the subframe to be dropped. Sounds like a serious amount of work, is a total hassle, and woudl be damn expensive (dealership cost on parts is somehow $800+, which is unfathomable to me).

Suffice it to say, Audi paid for this one, and while they had my car for 3 days I had the joy of driving a rental Toyota Corolla LE. I can honestly say there is only ONE redeeming quality to this car. Its trunk is massive for a small car, but other than that it is a completely unenjoyable car to drive. I mean, really blaze'. Its not comfortable, the throttle and brakes are horrible, and its gearbox is about as crappy as a gearbox can be. I have to say, little econobox automatic civics dont feel this bad. I NEVER ever want to own one of these cars. Ever.

Got the S4 back from the dealership.

Some stuff fixed, a little bit not fixed, and now a new problem.

First off, I LOVE factory warranties, you can bring your car in every week and have all the little things fixed free of charge, its great! I need to look into an extended warranty, because I want to be able to do this for the life of the car if I can!

Almost all of my warranty items are little, but hey, if its free use the crap out of it I say!

So this time around here is what I had fixed;

• Milky chrome trim replaced with shiny perfect chrome trim. (This was a decent sized job, as all the windows had to come out of the doors, panels off, special side airbag seals replaced, etc.)
• creaking coming from underneath car (turns out it is the left front wheel bearing, and they said they couldnt hear it, hah!)
• Glove box lid replaced (the right hing was starting to break, replaced for free, solid!)

Now the things they couldn't / didn't fix.

• The 2nd gear stickyness when you are powershifting into 2nd from 3rd or 4th. Basically they say that is normal in all S4's, and that even if it wasn't it wouldn't be covered under warranty because it is just an adjustment issue. Whatever, no biggie, I want to get a short shift kit anyway!

NEW problems that just showed up.

• Something is awry with my power steering now. At very low speeds it goes from super soft to less soft, and makes a groaning noise. Its not horrible, and its not consistent, if I had to hazard a guess I would say the power steering belt is slipping. maybe its a tensioner, maybe its some grease on the belt, either way its going back to have them figure out the issue and fix it!
  

I have a choice to make about brakes.

So I have decided to do some upgraded brakes, this will be the first time I actually bother buying slotted and 2 piece rotors. I have always gone the route of stock rotors with better pads. Sometimes even switching rotors and pads in the front when I get to the track, and it has worked really well for me. But this time I figured what the hell I am going to go all out, and if not a big brake kit up front at least really nice 2 piece rotors, some stainless lines (which is a necessity), better pads (an intermediate pad in this case), and high performance fluid.

OPTION 1
I have the option of getting my hands on an ECS Stage 4 big brake kit. This consists of 6 piston monobloc Brembo manufactured Porsche Cayenne calipers, Special Stainless lines, Hawk HPS pads, and floating 2 piece rotors. The kit that I am potentially going to buy has red calipers (not as cool as Black ones if you ask me), and crossdrilled+slotted rotors (which is lame IMO, the slotted's look better to me). The retail on the kit is $1900+Shipping (which is probably $75 or so). I am able to buy these for $1080 shipped, but there is some question as to just exactly what condition they are in. I am awaiting pictures before I pull the trigger and sent the guy his money. Here is what the kits look like; linkypoo

Now if I go with these brakes I am also going to buy matching ECS rear floating rotors, which are about the most expensive rear brake disk you can buy for a B7 S4. They also cost $360 to get re-ringed, which doesn't include the shipping costs to send ECS your hat, and then to have ECS ship you back the entire rotor. You NEED to send it to them, as they will not allow you to replace it yourself (which makes sense given their design of the product). This is what they look like; das link

Here is a link to their definition of their True Float Technology. Which to me looks very cool as these are true floating rotors and not simply 2 piece rotors.

Now there is a concern with this setup. These were meant to be mounted on the FRONT of a caliper, and not the back. The pistons on these go from small to large in the rotation of the wheel, but ONLY when mounted on a Porsche, not when mounted on an Audi. Now engineers (such as my buddy PZ) tell you that it is important to have the smallest piston hit the pad first for proper and even pad wear, heat dissipation, and for maximum leverage against the rotor. These will be going largest to smallest, which is an engineering no-no. So the big question is;

Is this a significant problem, or a minor one? i.e. Will the brakes get 20% hotter, will the pistons be clamping with a 50%-30%-20% pressure on pistons 1-2-3 instead of 33%-33%-33%, will the pads wear unevenly, will they brake better or worse than a stock with the same model brake pad? If the answer is yes, it will be worse wearing, more heat producing, and will stop less then I had better stay away, but if the answer is the opposite I am pretty sure its a GREAT deal.

Option 1 Plusses;

• Great deal ($1080 vs. $1980)
• Looks pretty cool (HUGE Porsche brakes seldom look anything but cool!)
• Rotors are about the nicest ones you can buy
• Already comes with HPS pads (I hope, he knows they are Hawk's, but thats it)
  

Option 1 Minuses;

• Potentially in bad condition (I would be at least the 4th owner)
• I am not a big fan of the RED, or the cross drillled/slotted rotors.
• If I do this I feel like I NEED to buy the ECS rears to match as opposed to the JHMs (ECS happen to be the best quality 2 piece rotor there is)
• No idea if pad wear / heat will be better or worse, and if they will stop better or worse

OPTION 2
This is what I would call a Stage 2 upgrade. Stage 1 would be pads/lines/fluid with stock rotors. Stage 1.5 would be to have the calipers powdercoated, and this is the replacement of LINES, ROTORS, PADS, FLUID, and then the powdercoating of the calipers.

This is the cheapest proposition of all 3, but still higher end than anything I have done on any past cars. With this option I would be having all 4 calipers powder coated (or maybe just painted, and, probably silver), put 2 piece non-floating rotors on, replace the pads with the same Hawk HPS compound I would be using if I went with the porsche BBK option, add some ECS stainless lines, and then a fluid replacement.

JHM makes a beautiful 2 piece rotor that while not being floating is still an aluminum hat with a steel machined ring. They said that the re-ringing of the fronts would be about $300 or the rears $250. Which is substantially less than the ECS offering. I still really like the way these look, and MUST be better than running the stock rotors that are all 1 piece, all steel, and weigh 10 pounds more than these in the front.

Its not like the stock front calipers are small, far from it, they are just big, heavy, cast, 1 piston numbers, and if I had my way I would run the stock RS4 brakes which are 8 piston with floating 2 piece rotors stock! They are badass, and I simply can not find anyplace in the states that sells them.

Option 2 Plusses;

• Least expensive option, but still damn nice. Lines are cheaper, rotor rings are cheaper.
  
• Looks amazing, silver powder coated calipers with these cross drilled rotors would look GREAT!
• A known commodity, no question of whether or not the calipers brake well, wear well, overheat, etc.
  
• A good solid setup, no trickery, very stock, only parts upgraded are the non mechanical ones. Warranty would be affected the least.
• Can easilly sell the car with these parts on it and not worry about the "modded factor".

Option 2 Minuses;

• Not as trick as a 6 piston setup.
• Doesnt look as cool as huge monobloc 6 piston Porsche/Audi brakes.
• Potentialy doesnt stop as well as the 6 piston Porsche setup.
• Probably stops just about the same as a stock setup with HPS pads. Rotors for looks and heat dissipation on track, and stainless lines for pedal feel.
  

OPTION 3

Option 3 is very similar to option 1, the main difference being I might be able to get my hands on some Q7 Calipers for maybe $550 or $650. These are (supposedly) identical to the Cayenne calipers but are in a satin grey finish, and dont say Porsche all over them and advertise with huge shiny redness. These supposedly only have 100 miles on them (i.e. were on a Q7 for 100 miles before it received a big brake upgrade kit). With this kit I would be buying all the parts new (pads, rotors, lines) and could pick the style rotor I really like. You can see that it still costs less than even the cheapest normal big brake kit (i.e. Stoptech), which only covers the fronts!

Option 3 Plusses;

• I get actual AUDI calipers that are stealthy and cooler than the porsche
• I can buy JUST the slotted rotors for both front and rear
• All parts except calipers are brand new
  

Option 3 Minuses;

• Almost $2500 on brakes!
  
• If I do this I feel like I NEED to buy the ECS rears to match as opposed to the JHMs (ECS happen to be the best quality 2 piece rotor there is)
• No idea if pad wear / heat will be better or worse, and if they will stop better or worse
  

Success and Some failure modding the S4 today.

First off, I started my saturday by waking up at 7:30 so I could make an 8:30 appointment at Ingolstadt West, an independent Audi tuner that does APR brand ECU tunes. You see, APR is having this ludicrous sale, $100 off any tune, and that means you get a an ECU tune for $499 for my car, which is darn cheap. Now there are some reasons I picked the APR tune over say GIAC, Revo, Neuspeed, etc. Now arguably the APR is one of the more civilized i.e. conservative tunes out there, but considering you can't really get much from a naturally aspirated V8 anyway, it kind of doesnt matter, there are some features of the APR software I realy like, and the clencher was this guys great posting about his independant chicp comparison. "Justincredibles great comparison test".

Now some of the features I really like about APR are this;

• $500 gets your 4 tunes (for instance, STOCK, 91 OCTAINE, 93 OCTAINE, VALET MODE).
• FREE - Fault Code Erase :: Erases Fault ECU Fault Codes
• FREE - Anti-Theft :: Disables Throttle to Render Vehicle Inoperable
• Linear throttle mapping (i.e. no cheating by having 20% pedal equal 35% throttle which is lame IMO).
• You can change the tunes using the CRUISE CONTROL STALK!

So, on with my story. I get to Ingle West and Ian the owner comes out to help me program my car. Well, he plugs in his trusty computer, and the APR software is supposed to identify my ECU and then give me the option of which of the 4 tunes I want. Well it can identify my ECU at all. Hmmm, strainge. So he/I spend the next hour looking through every single tune they offer and low and behold they dont have the North America B7 S4 in there at all!?!?! WTF?!? They list it on their website as having a tune available. They DO have 1 2007 S4, but its the euro S4 with tiptronic. So me thinks something must have gotten screwed up with their database and somehow the B7 S4 is no longer in it. There are LOTS of guys with these cars, and many of them have the APR tune (at least I think they do), so that's quite weird. So Ian is cool though, he is going to call APR Monday morning, and find out if they can do a custom tune (considering my car is essentially identical to the B6 S4 which they DO have a tune for) or if they have a B7 S4 tune to put it back online, and he will make sure I get the discount pricing which expires next Friday.

So that started my day with a (non)epic fail. There were some neat cars there as well. A TTS with some huge turbo kit putting out like 440HP out of a 2.0 Turbo! Then Ian has the Red S5. I like this car, but damn the wheels have got to go, just totally not my style at all!

Then it was on to the tinting place. As it turns out both of these places were in the valley, so it wasnt that far between one and the other. Also, the tinting place is this little whole in the wall that came very highly recommended by Audizine / Audiworld members, so I thought I would give it a try. Well it happens to be right across from the street from StickerCity, which is the place I had some vinyl film put on the Elise, and is also the place I bought my headlight clear kit from for the S4. So it just felt right.

Anyway this tint was place was PACKED at 11am on a Saturday. They totally have their act together, they have a beautiful waiting room, with knowledgeable girls checking people in quick style, they walk you through your tint options and tell you 90 minutes to have it done. I chatted with thema bit, they do between 25-40 jobs EVERY SINGLE DAY THEY ARE OPEN! This is unheard of for a tint place. They are clearly raking in the dough. There were ALL SORTS of beautiful cars there, the local Audi and Aston Martin dealerships send cars there all the time. I saw a brand new Q5, a DB9, about 3 S550/S63AMG/S500 Mercedes, an Audi S5, M3, etc. etc. etc. So 4 dudes worked on my car and the owner would pop his head in to make sure it was all going smoothly. Bottom line, these dues are so crazy skilled its ridiculous. I could put tint on, but it woudl turn out just OK, and would take me 6 hours. These guys know all the tricks, and are really fun to watch work.

It was $165 for 7 windows, and I chose 35% for the rear 5, and 50% for the driver/passenger doors. I didn't want to go too dark, because I hate it when you cant see out of your back window at night, but I think I might have gone a bit too light. I will have to see how it gorws on me. Its a beautiful job, and if I think I shoudl go darker I might do just the back 3 windows with 20% film. We will see. Here is a pic of the dudes working on it in their itsy bitsy work bay;

Here is what it looks like with the windows tinted. You be the judge if this is enough tint.

Then, since I was next door I decided to bring the car into the guys at Sticker City and have my door edge guards and headlight film I have previously bought from them installed. These are all things I can do myself, easilly. But who knows when I will get around to it, and I figured crap, i might as well just pay and have it done. Its a rip off to have someone do this for you, but if I got a rock chip and had to replace my headlight before I got around to it I woudl be so pissed I didnt do just that (pay for the install that is).

Some good has come out of my Eurocode debacle..

A LOT of people have responded to my post (see the last blog entry) about my non-responsiveness with a shop I was willing to give $3000-$4000 to. One of the best things to come out of it is a personal email from the owner of another very highly recommended shop that he can totally take care of all my needs. The downside is that they are NOWHERE near where I live, but I think I am going to have to live with that, if this guy has competitive pricing, and is willing to do exactly what I want and is as cool as he appears to be, it will be worth the 30+ mile drive and having to go there on weekends, leaving my car, getting a rental, etc.

It was like gong to Bill Arnold Independent BMW Service when I lived in San Mateo. He was a good 45 miles from where I lived, and over the GG Bridge, but worth every trip because he is a badass, is willing to work with you, has good pricing, and really knows his shit and is a great guy. Worth all the hassle in my book.

So it looks like I will be giving AE Performance a ring soon and seeing if they can handle my needs.

On another note El Super Goober gave me an instant epiphany the other day. 'Don't tell a shop your list of to dos and expect them to remember it, write it down for them so they dont forget or miss even one of your items'. Brilliant, simply brilliant!

Here is a link to AE's website, no guarantees I am using them yet, but given the guys cool email to me they are at the very top of my list!

My frustration finding a good local LA shop to give my money to!!!

Here is what I posted at Audizine.com, spelling out my frustration with the shop I was hoping to work with.

Here is the thread; Audizine Eurocode Thread

Subject: Who do you deal with at EuroCode in Torrance?

I am really interested in using them to get a bunch of stuff done to my new S4, but am having a tough time with the salesman I got saddled with.

I am looking at spending close to $4000 with them, and its almost like the sales guy I got could care less about my business. They are located exactly where I want a shop to be and have the facilities to handle my powder coating needs, but man, its like pulling teeth to get anything out of my salesguy there.

Has anyone else had a similar experience? if not who is your contact there that has always taken care of you, because I still want to give them my business, but I am on the verge of going somewhere else because of the inability of my contact to handle my needs.

Just for those that are wondering what's going on, here it is.

I'll start by saying that I haven't done business with them at all yet, so this is all pre-first visit to their facility.

I called 8 days ago and spoke with this guy there, and he was very helpful, and spent 30 minutes on the phone with me giving me advice about Audi aftermarket options. I told him I had some things I wanted to do to my car, and I wanted to know pricing and if they could handle my needs. Which are;

1. Remove brake calipers all 4 corners.
2. Take tires off of wheels.
3. Bring Calipers and Wheels to powder coat place. (He quoted me 50-70 a wheel and between 250 and 400 for the calipers)
4. When they come back sell me and install stainless lines (he quoted me $160 all 4 corners for stoptech).
5. Sell and Flush with Motul Brake fluid.
6. Sell and Install Pagid RS42 Blue on all 4 corners.
7. Sell me JHM 2 piece rotors front and rear.
8. Sell and Install JHM Short Shifter.
9. Sell and install black wheel lug covers.
10. Sell me and custom tune using REVO and the seitcher (his suggestion, over the APR solution, and he doesnt resell GIAC).

He said it was all no problem, and then told me he would get me quote (as I hoped to have had this all ordered and installed by now, whereas I am still havent even found a shop to handle everything for me yet!). 2 days go by, no quote. I call and a leave a message, no call or quote, I call again the next day and I think it took 3 calls before I got him, and then he FINALLY sent me a quote, 5 days after the day he said he would send it to me intially.

And the quote was about 45% wrong. He was missing items from the quote, and the estimate for powder coating went from $500-$750 to a straight $925. Part of the reason I wanted to go with them is because the powder coating wasn't going to cost me $1000, but was going to be 50% or at the very worst 75% of that amount. None of this is that major of a deal, but I called him and kind of laid in on the line.

"I want to be your customer, but you are making it very hard when you cant get me a quote in a timely manner, can't get it correct, and tell me different pricing on the phone than what is in the quote. I am ready for you to order all these parts for me, and take my credit card and ring me up for maybe about $2000 today, but not until the quote looks a little more sorted out and the pricing is correct."

So he says he's sorry, and that he will send me the revised and fixed quote right away (that was of course 4 hours ago, and no quote in my inbox, imagine that). We also basically agree that *I* will have to take my car to the powder coater to get a real price from them as to how much it will cost for my calipers and wheels. My entire purpose for taking it to Eurocode is because I have no time to work on my car. Everything I am having them do I can easilly do myself, I just don't have time to do it. I am willing to pay them the 3 or 4 hours of labor its going to take to get the calipers/brakes off and then back on the car, as well as the labor to install JHM shifter, plus they are going to make some margin on all the parts I buy from them.

Maybe I am just small potatos, or maybe I just got the proverbial rotten apple of a guy who works there who either doesnt have his act together or just doesnt really care. He is a nice guy, and willing to give out loads of advice, and I like that about him, but I am trying to give them my money, and they are making it awfully awfully hard to do that.

2006 Audi S4 Avant, the new toy.

So, I just bought a 2006 Audi S4 Avant. I haven't even taken delivery of it yet, but its mine nonetheless!

I've already started to discuss my possible options with my buddy "AudiExpert". There is most likely a fairly long list of things I want to do to the car, but to start with here is the order I plan on tackling things;

1. Bring the car to Audi and plunk down between $200 and $500 for 2 new keys, as this one only came with a single key (SOOO lame, I wish I could get a hold of the last owner and get the damn keys from them).

2. Take off the shifter and fix the detached shift boot (it looks like it is probably just a retaining clip that needs to be re attached).

3. Potentially replace the passenger side sun visor, as the previous owner clearly had a garage door remote control hanging off of it, and it left some permanent indentations in it. If this is less than $100 I'll do it, if its more I'll not bother.

4. Bring the car to a detail shop and have them steam clean the headliner, as there is some dog hair and maybe splashed fluid up there. Looks like kids maybe spilled a coke or something and some got onto the headliner. Also, while its there have them try to buff out the scuff marks that exist on the top of the rear bumper.

5. There is also one of the removable carpeted panels in the trunk area that has some gouges out of it, clearly from a stroller or something, and I want to replace that piece as well.

6. I will also put on clear side markers, and smoked taillight covers, as well as clear front headlight covers.

7. I need to find some black non-rustable wheel bolts as well, for after I get the wheels powder coated black.

8. Those are the basics. Now I want to drop it off at a shop, which is probably going to be Eurocode Tuning here in Torrance and have them do the following;

• Install a new exhaust (which I would rather buy used, and woudl like to hear before I decide which one to buy).
• Install a drop in filter (NOT K&N, maybe a Green filter or a ITG).
• Do a chip reprogramming. They resell a few chip manufacturers tunes, but not GIAC, which is pretty much my favorite.
• Have them remove all the calipers and take all 5 tires off of the 5 wheels. Then drop the wheels and calipers off to get sandblasted clean of all rust and paint. The wheels will have their curb rash sanded and smoothed, and then wheels powder coated a semi-gloss or satin black, with the calipers in maybe a medium silver, or perhaps just gloss black.
• Then when it all comes back to the shop, pick the 4 tires that don't have any patches and use those as my main set of 4, with the patched tire as the spare. If more than 1 have patches I'll pick out the best looking out of the tires, and make sure to mark the inside sidewall to identify it as a patched tire.
• I'll also have the shop put on stainless lines, new pads (maybe Axxiss Ultimates, Maybe Hawk HPS, maybe Mintex), and flush the whole system with super blue.
• I also want to discuss with them putting a trailer hitch on, and making that work. Since I can find CLass II hitches for the A4 Avant, but not the S4 this is going to take some custom work to make it all fit I fear.

Now the rest of the items are all "Want to Do's" for now. But I am not really sure what order they will come in.

1. I also want to eventually replace the front grill with a blacked out RS4 grill, and then need to figure out what I am going to do for more blackout on the car. Perhaps the brushed silver trim and roof racks, or maybe I'll leave it the way it is and simply do the front grill and fog light grills with something that looks like this;

2. Then a nice medium tint on the back 5 windows, and something very very light on the 2 front windows.

3. I want to find some bumper protector for the rear of the car. Where I can permanently attach a piece of rubber or foam that I can easily swing out of the car and dangle against the rear bumper to protect it.

4. I also want to find some pieces of ABS plastic and glue them onto the front bumper valance/splitter section. So that if and when I scrape on something it doesnt hit paint but rather hits a piece of black ABS plastic.

5. The stasis center diff that allows a torque biasing of 4:1 rear to front instead of the stock 2:1 rear to front.

6. Lastly I want to get some form of coilovers. This very much depends upon what people say about towing, and if coilovers will work better since I can stiffen up the back end when I am towing.