The Rowdy Audi S4 B5 - is it a dog? yes but less so as the days pass.

[DirtyDaily]

its an interesting technique to use for sure!

I'm assuming the original builder was very averse to going to motorfactors or ordering parts in and just used what he could find laying in the garage?

Wasnt averse to sending big invoices!

[vaughant]

Still.... It's out 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻

[DirtyDaily]

More expensive progress. Turbos are off, manifolds off, timing belt, thermostat, water pump replaced. The guy doing it has been slating the previous shop.
Ive bought a clutch kit and flywheel as he didnt think the clutch that was on the car would have been up to 600hp and as you will see in tbe first picture it looks like its seen some heat. Clutch kit and flywheel £1,300...

"3 crush washers on the turbo banjo, 1 missing crush washer on the control line. Messed up hose clamp for the top rad hose. No coolant in engine, just plain water.
Zero actuator preload on the passenger turbo. Only a small amount on the driver side turbo. You don't put silicon sealant on a turbo intake. There's so many small mistakes that have been made it's hard to believe it was built by a professional outfit"

I am amazed it was making boost.

[vaughant]

I know it will become a beast but by fuck how shit is some of the work on it? Fucking cowboys everywhere.

[DirtyDaily]

I know it will become a beast but by fuck how shit is some of the work on it? Fucking cowboys everywhere.

Yeah really shoddy. The crazy thing is if you look at their old instagram page they had quite a few s4 b5s going through their doors with some making big power. So supposedly they were a B5 specialist! I am just very grateful for who is working on it now as there wont be many people on the planet that know them better than him!

[Missy Charm]

Isn't that an external wastegate?  

Enjoying the exploits, by the way.  Brave, but if you pull this off you'll probably end up with the greatest power-to-price ratio of all time!  And it's a nice colour.  All the best.

[dave j]

Just caught up on this thread, that exhaust through the boot lid looks awful! You have to wonder what they were thinking

[DirtyDaily]

Another update.
You will all be glad to hear the registration plate is on straight, actually funny how much it makes the car look better.
The car has now had a new timing belt, thermostat, water pump, pulleys, tensioner, gearbox oil, diff oil, new water meth nossle and new boost pipes as the old ones werent gripping very well and itll need to deal with nearly 2 bar of boost!
Some issues we have overcome. The abs light was on and this is due to the ESP module being removed. When you do that you have to go through a specific procedure to recode back to the car and this messes about with communication between modules a bit so may be the source of a few issues. Not done it yet as the car needs to be mobile which is is undergoing final road prep. Also the water meth wasnt connected properly and the location of the boost switch was a bit dodgy so has been relocated by the battery. As you can imagine the budget is getting a little stretched but i am happy it is getting a real good going over and we are approaching the end. The amount of boost leaks and issues with the boost control was crazy so i am genuinely amazed it was boosting. I can only imagine the savagery of this once it is in high boost mode, not running rich, no boost leaks and water meth working. It was mental before, it will be beyond my comprehension after!

 

[DirtyDaily]

Water meth ready

Bad boost leak!

[DirtyDaily]

Well completion is upon us!

Ive had the call that its essentially done and ready for pickup tomorrow. Some more findings is the instrument cluster has some internal issues so i am going to send that off to ECUtesting limited for them to sort out. The mechanic put one of his RS4 clocks on the car and it was showing the correct voltage and no big red exclamation mark on the dash. I think this is causing issues with the central locking control module also as there are several "no communication" faults in the car. We will get that done and hopefully that will be a step closer to having the car in good health. Had some weird issues with the ESP module not wanting to be coded but somehow the mechanic sorted that out so in theory it will be on the road very soon with no warning lights. If we can get the central locking and windows etc working than that would be very good indeed. It will unfortunately need to be remapped as he looked at the tune and it seemed to have a "kill" map in it. 30psi of boost which is well north of 600hp so rolling the dice with components, we will have it remapped to 26/27psi and hopefully that will give us a reliable 600hp. He has disconnected the N75 (boost controller) and said it will be making wastegate pressure of 10psi until we remap it. Still north of 400hp most likely. 

So list of things to do immediately is book in for the dyno, i need to get some resistors to fool the airbag module as the original seats have been removed and send off the instrument cluster for refurbing. With that we can hope for some fun summer action!

[DirtyDaily]

What a difference. The car drives so much nicer and cleaner. Really happy to have it back and so many of the issues fixed. See the invoice and share my pain.

[mercedade]

Yikes. But also exciting 

[DirtyDaily]

1 minute ago, mercedade said:

Yikes. But also exciting 

Im very excited to get it going properly. Ive been tempted to just plug in the boost controller to feel 30psi but im being good!

I dont want to blow it up after all that effort.

[320touring]

Bet this is a nippy thing to pootle about!

Glad it's been significantly improved.

[Popsicle]

Ouch, thats a rather large bill. Hope it has got it all sorted for you, sounds like it will be a monster on the track. You've got some serious plums on you DD!

[DirtyDaily]

Dyno at unicorn booked in for wednesday!

[DirtyDaily]

Right i have put the car under a cover, something i have never done however i got the cover when i purchased my R8. Its actually a very good cover with smart concealed straps and connectors. The reason being it isnt terribly water tight. 3 points of entry i believe, one being the scuttle trim being missing over the pollen filter which means water can directly go on to the pollen filter and in to the passenger footwell. The 2 others is the rear doors have no door card and no weather membrane. The previous owner just made repeated poor decisions about this thing which i am slowly working through. I have been thinking about the central locking issue and i think i am going to have to find a good auto electrician to held pin down where its going wrong. I would say there are upwards of 10 exposed wires around the car going nowhere. From the previous owner hacking it all up for his stupid exhaust and also some random wiring in the drivers footwell. Alas we shall see what happens!

[DirtyDaily]

I was meant to add, i think some of the solution i think will come down to me purchasing a complete audi a4 saloon post 1999. I think it will be very valuable in tracking what wiring is for what and undoubtable all the missing bits i will need.

Eta. First result on FB marketplace... 👀 

[vaughant]

Coming on nicely, can't wait too see it all finished, absolute monster.

[DirtyDaily]

Today the car was mapped and we encountered an issue. Unfortunately the turbos werent making the boost they should have been and only made 23psi... the result is 530hp rather than the 600 it SHOULD have made. 

We have some potential scenarios.

1st and probably most likely and definitely the most expensive scenario is the turbos are not actually "turbo dynamic" turbos and are actually a cheap copy. This then would require VERY expensive turbos to make the power and also potentially a new turbo intake as the ones on it are very large, most turbo intakes for these cars are smaller.

2nd is one of the turbo waste gate actuators preload has come loose again. Potentially some hardware defect thats coming loose and letting exhuast past the turbo and therefore not making the boost. Pita to do but kind of free.

3rd would be a very simple faulty n75 valve. Perhaps not holding pressure and leaking off pressure to the waste gates and therefore opening earlier than expected. 

We shall see what the result is... but i did take it to a closed private road for a test run. At just 530hp it does still pull hard. Problem is i have these huge turbos that spool very late but then no benefit of top end power. May as well had a stock rs4 turbo and had the power 1500rpm sooner.

https://youtu.be/MezvKXzYnpo?si=AfAA4SL8KSb58AaK

[DirtyDaily]

Slightly all over the place post coming up.

Yesterday I went to my Grandads funeral. He was a very big influence on my car addiction and whenever i bought something new I would always take it around to see him. I will never forget his beeming pride when I turned up in my Audi R8 and he was in awe of it. He was a huge character and had a million stories of his time around cars, mainly jaguars and even more jokes. I am starting to realise I will never be able to show him a car again and its really rather painful. I thought I would forever immortialise his name on this forum. Gerard "Ged" Bailey.

Today I didnt know what to do with myself so I went to my S4 and just started wiping all the surfaces down with wet wipes because it hasnt been cleaned in so long and i needed something to do. I then decided to check the fuse board again in a vague hope that I could fix the central locking. I went through every fuse and i found a blown 15a fuse. Amazingly when i checked the diagram it said "central locking system". It also said the fuse should be a 20amp. New fuse and all the windows, central locking, key, sunroof burst into life. Thats such a relief. Just a little bit of good luck in a sea of misery, but it was a very welcome one. 

[High Jetter]

Maybe you had his spirit with you, in locating the duff fuse. Treasure those memories.

[DirtyDaily]

4 minutes ago, High Jetter said:

Maybe you had his spirit with you, in locating the duff fuse. Treasure those memories.

Seems its his parting gift telling me to check the fuse again. The fuse was blown in a way that was difficult to see properly. Funny i took the time to properly look at that particular one.

[Matty]

59 minutes ago, DirtyDaily said:

Slightly all over the place post coming up.

Yesterday I went to my Grandads funeral. He was a very big influence on my car addiction and whenever i bought something new I would always take it around to see him. I will never forget his beeming pride when I turned up in my Audi R8 and he was in awe of it. He was a huge character and had a million stories of his time around cars, mainly jaguars and even more jokes. I am starting to realise I will never be able to show him a car again and its really rather painful. I thought I would forever immortialise his name on this forum. Gerard "Ged" Bailey.

Today I didnt know what to do with myself so I went to my S4 and just started wiping all the surfaces down with wet wipes because it hasnt been cleaned in so long and i needed something to do. I then decided to check the fuse board again in a vague hope that I could fix the central locking. I went through every fuse and i found a blown 15a fuse. Amazingly when i checked the diagram it said "central locking system". It also said the fuse should be a 20amp. New fuse and all the windows, central locking, key, sunroof burst into life. Thats such a relief. Just a little bit of good luck in a sea of misery, but it was a very welcome one. 

Thats the downside of being lucky enough to grow up in a mint family. It makes more to miss. Sorry for your loss bud.

[Cookiesouwest]

Liked for the central locking fuse.

My condolences. Im sure he was very proud of you.

[Westbay]

Condolences...

[DirtyDaily]

Back on the S4 today trying to figure out why it didnt make the power. I checked VCDS and i had codes for VVT on bank 1.

I am a smidge hopeless with electrics so i though i would give AI a shot at helping me diagnose the issue. I tested the resistance across the solenoid pins and AI suggested between 10 to 18ohms is what we want. I got 13 which AI suggested was perfect. It then told me to check for 12v at pin 1. I checked and 0v... it suggested i check the the fuses and the fuses were fine. I played about with it and checked for continuity between the pins and the negative battery terminal and both buzzed which i thought was odd. I told AI and it then said this suggested its not a break in the circuit but rather a failed relay. I check the relay and as i take it off i hear it rattling away! The car is therefore defaulting to a middle of the road inlet camshaft timing. Causing really poor off boost performance down low and then a far too retarded position for peak rpm. Hence therefore causing late spool and "no" peak power. I just need to order a new relay and get it remapped as i suspect it will make all the boost once sorted! Also fair play to AI for helping me with the diagnosis. I think i would have got there without it but it definitely sped things up a lot.

[Brigsy]

Just caught up with this one, looks rapid enough considering not making the required boost. 

Vvt not working kills the spool/mid range. When fault finding, i disconnected the vvt on my trophy and done a dyno run and it spooled 1000rpm later and was pig rich on the fuelling. Should see a difference with it working for sure.

Suprised the mapper didnt pick up on it when mapping though. If its possible to log on vcds check requested cam advance vs actual.

[DirtyDaily]

Just caught up with this one, looks rapid enough considering not making the required boost. 
Vvt not working kills the spool/mid range. When fault finding, i disconnected the vvt on my trophy and done a dyno run and it spooled 1000rpm later and was pig rich on the fuelling. Should see a difference with it working for sure.
Suprised the mapper didnt pick up on it when mapping though. If its possible to log on vcds check requested cam advance vs actual.

Yeah i am also surprised the mapper didnt catch this... hes supposedly the best there is on these cars but i suppose if youre not looking. Ill give him benefit of the doubt.

[Brigsy]

8 minutes ago, DirtyDaily said:

15 minutes ago, Brigsy said:

Just caught up with this one, looks rapid enough considering not making the required boost. 
Vvt not working kills the spool/mid range. When fault finding, i disconnected the vvt on my trophy and done a dyno run and it spooled 1000rpm later and was pig rich on the fuelling. Should see a difference with it working for sure.
Suprised the mapper didnt pick up on it when mapping though. If its possible to log on vcds check requested cam advance vs actual.

Yeah i am also surprised the mapper didnt catch this... hes supposedly the best there is on these cars but i suppose if youre not looking. Ill give him benefit of the doubt.

I guess everybody can have a bad day so can be excused if a one off.

We had an issue with vss when mapping the megane i fitted ecumaster to recently, with it stuck on 150kmh regardless of front wheel speed and we were pulling our hair out with it as speedo was working fine. Was due to abs fault pinging up as rear wheels werent spinning due to single roller. Didnt expect it with a standalone ecu but it does talk to the canbus so should have been obvious, but had us thinking about it for a bit😄