Teh Official "Dude Where's My Forum?" Thread, Brought to you by the minds of Box, and her fiancée, Lorelei Options

[Box]

Helped brother finish up dampening the trunk, huge improvement as all the bass hits nicely now. Even higher up bass that wouldn't come through at all. Exhaust is a good bit quieter too. If it's decent this upcoming weekend will probably tackle the interior then. 12 hour round trip to get the Audi tomorrow, 2006 A4 6-speed black on black with like 120,000? miles on it. Looks really clean from the pictures he showed me and between talking to that tech and researching what to check for hopefully won't be the atypical Euro nightmare.

[Box]

He's officially the proud owner of an Euro thing. Needs a few things here and there, typical used car stuff where the previous owner wasn't an OCD freak. Really the biggest thing is upon getting home the plastic coolant crossover gave up the ghost and cracked dripping out coolant, at least it did it after the 370 mile trip home. I'll have to try and snap a picture of the car tomorrow.

[SwissFerdi]

"2006 A4"

"Needs a few things"

"Typical used car stuff"

One of these things is not like the others...

[Bitter]

Ja ja ja, is ok no leak just steam is ok promise.

[Box]

The coolant passage is the only real issue, the rest is like the leather and paint hasn't been taken care of to our standard and then the fluids are due for a change/flush. He still has ties with the VW/Audi dealership he worked at so he can get all the parts at cost plus ten for it and he's familiar with them, he was going to have them pull records and do timing and the cam follower as preventive maintenance if they hadn't been done recently. It's what he was wanting and likes how it drives, anyhow a couple of quick pictures:



This post has been edited by Box: Jan 10, 2017 - 3:26 PM

[Bitter]

Well thankgod it's not the 2.7 TT V6.

Looks like the headlights need to be clear coated and buffed.

[SwissFerdi]

Jesus monkey-****ing Christ, you should have started with the fact that he's a former brand mech.

[Box]

Yeah outside of finding the A6 with a manual it just really seemed hit and miss on the 2.7TT V6 from what I had found anyway, the 2.0T FSI outside of the cam follower ordeal seem solid enough. The driver side headlight is ok but the coating on the passenger side had started yellowing, I wiped them down real quick earlier and used some White Diamond to keep it from getting worse until they can be buffed out more thoroughly and that removed the discolouration.

I think I had mentioned it when I first said something about him looking at the A6 but maybe since he never worked on those as far as I know I didn't, I do know the 2.0T FSI was in all the time with Passats and A4s. I'm honestly still surprised he bought one since all I ever heard was how he'd never buy one.

This post has been edited by Box: Jan 11, 2017 - 12:13 AM

[Bitter]

Those have the weird water pump on the back of the engine on it's own belt don't they? I did one in an A5 a while back, very odd but not a bad job. Sent her to the dealer for the cam follower thing since we didn't want to deal with possibly replacing a cam in it. Her fuel pump was leaking gas into the engine oil setting fuel trim codes for too rich, as it was sucking fuel vapor through the PCV system.

This post has been edited by Bitter: Jan 11, 2017 - 12:32 AM

[Box]

From the video I found on the '06-08 A4 2.0T at least the water pump is inside the timing cover and driven by the belt. The whole cam follower thing I don't get why they did that, maybe that aside it'll ease Euro stigma like the Firebird eased domestic stigma but I'm not so sure.

[Box]

I had some time to polish out the Audi headlamps by hand, sanding and removing the coating would just open a can of worms and they're actually pretty clear now. Which he was saying they sucked on the way home but I imagine the bulbs are original so new bulbs and an alignment it should be pretty decent, which if it were me I'd look into the o.e.m. LHD Euro HID housings but I guess a bi-xenon D2S conversion for low/high on the DOT housings would probably yield satisfactory results too. Anyhow:



I have to say for a sedan they're pretty sharp looking.

[Bitter]

Odd, the A5 had it at the back, but I think it was a 10.


Best bet would be OEM HID housings from the US, but being a VAG he probably would have to get some module reprogrammed to get them working correctly.

[Box]

I'm guessing they could've changed it starting in '09 since the video was only for '06-08.

From what I saw on eBay the o.e. DOT HID housings aren't that expensive, I guess it boils down to what's easiest and what he's wanting. Right now doing the timing and bringing all the maintenance items up to date is the first stuff to do, fun fun. Now there's muscle, tuner, and Euro all in one place so everyone will like us.

[Bitter]

Get to see what's more durable, hint: It won't be the Hyundai or the Audi cause mods.

[Box]

The Hyundai drivetrain wise the extent of mods is an aftermarket intercooler, BOV, & intake, an aftermarket tune, and the turbo-back exhaust. He is wanting to do a turbo upgrade soon though, but personally I'm not so sure with the early engines not having forged internals and the turbo upgrade puts them toward the limit of safe power. Then he did the coil-overs and added factory track model Brembo brakes and Torsen LSD. I think the Audi he'll only do a tune and cat-back exhaust, and was looking into lowering springs that would also improve ride quality or at least not effect it negatively. Personally as far the Firebird goes I'm content with the drivetrain performance as it is, I'm more concerned with suspension and brakes. After moving I plan on finally upgrading brakes since the new place has a basement/garage that'll make life considerably easier.

[Box]

Had some guy in a 350Z stare me down earlier at an intersection while waiting to turn onto the road I was on as I was waiting to turn onto the road he was on, I guess he didn't know what the Firebird was.

Because I'm actually a girl I took some pictures of the sky because I thought it was pretty while on the way home from visiting our grandmother Sunday, had a cool blur effect on the first few but I guess that happens you take pictures from a moving car and don't have time to mess with the settings:








This post has been edited by Box: Jan 17, 2017 - 5:28 PM

[Box]

So I thought I'd actually look at the wiring that comes off the battery and from the factory it appears 10 AWG was used from the alternator to the battery, 8 AWG from the battery to chassis ground and battery to positive terminal junction, and then 6 AWG from the battery to engine ground and battery to starter. Something else to throw onto the list of things to get to eventually.

[Bitter]

I got a package from China (projector shrouds).



Srsly.

[Box]

You can't come up with that kind of stuff.

[Bitter]

Finally got projectors that seem like they fit the Mazda head lights correctly, now to see if the shrouds will work or not. My old ones are not very good and feel like they're getting dim lately, could be the bulbs wearing or it could be the finish inside getting burnt from running them at 45W for several years on end.