She Was a Stunner | 19Birel's B5 Audi Revival

[19birel]

Video!!! CLICK ME!!!

Let me know what you guys think!

[19birel]

A couple shots I took of the car the other night





Unfortunately the list of maintenance the car will need this summer is growing, here is what's on the agenda.

- Fix leaky power steering rack (probably going to get one second hand and replace the seals)
-Gearbox & diff fluid change
-Headlight projector lens cleaning (believe this is the reason for the poor light output)
-PCV system refresh (on of the hoses has perished, should be a simple fix)

Don't worry though, there will be some mods as well! Just have to price a few things out and decide on what direction I want to take the build!

[fackinsteve]

Coming along nicely!

[19birel]

Coming along nicely!

Thanks man, loving your E28 build btw!

[PassionGarage]

Loving this build dude, simple clean and good attention to detail !!
just like me nice man

[19birel]

Loving this build dude, simple clean and good attention to detail !!
just like me nice man

Thanks man! It's all about the details!

[19birel]

She Was a Stunner | 19Birel's B5 Audi Revival

So yesterday I got the chance to drive up to Watkins Glen for Opening Day, I drove up with a group and we took a very scenic route which was awesome, the track itself was great.



Pics from when we stopped at a lake side park

Audiwatrip (1 of 1) by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr



Audiwatrip (1 of 1)-2 by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr



Queuing up to go on track

Audiwatrip (1 of 1)-3 by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr



My first time at the Glen, but not my first time on a track (I've raced karts for 9+ years) the laps were led by a pace car, however while the official speed limit was 50 we may or may not have come close to doubling that at times The car didn't have any real problems, though the brakes were boiled by the end of the 1st lap, I wasn't pushing the car especially hard, but track work is demanding and there was likely moisture in the fluid to begin with, no bigee though, I'll change the fluid soon. Here's a short clip of me entering one of my favorite sections.


Click Me



It's also looking like I might not have to replace my steering rack, I think the culprit is my pump, I'll spare you the essay that is my reasoning, but this means that the fix will be way cheaper and slightly easier than i was anticipating which means more time/money for mods

[19birel]

So yesterday I was taking a leisurely drive when all the the sudden 4th gear went MIA. Got in the car today, and now 1st and 2nd sound like a box of marbles, and 5th whines like crazy, only 3rd functions 100% I have a few more weeks of school, then I'll trailer the car back home and hunt down another gearbox. It's not going to be cheap, so my mod budget will be taking a serious hit, we'll see what happens though, maybe I'll find a replacement on the cheap.

Here are a couple of pics from just before the gearbox crapped out
a4 (1 of 1)-18 by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr

a4 (1 of 1)-17 by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr

[PassionGarage]

looks good man

[19birel]

looks good man

Thanks man, it's just a shame the gearbox is trashed haha

[19birel]

So I'll start by saying that the car is still broken, I trailered it home from school about a month ago, and I have been hunting for a gearbox ever since. The good news is that I finally have a lead on one, so if all goes well I should be on the way to getting the car back on the road soon.

In the mean time, I've had the itch to do something to the car so I decided to paint the grill. Some of the B8.5 model Audi A4s came with gloss black grills and I loved the look so that's what I went for.

Disassembly
Untitled by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr

After a few coats
Untitled by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr

After clear
Untitled by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr

I also decided to polish up my rings and surrounding trim while everything was apart, hear is a before and after of the trim

Untitled by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr

Untitled by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr

Then I reassembled everything
Untitled by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr

And then mounted it all up
Untitled by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr

Untitled by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr

Untitled by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr

Lastly I painted my peeling center caps to match, this is only temporary though until I get a new set that aren't as beat up.
Untitled by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr

Stay tuned!

[19birel]

Well here is a long overdue update

So I trailered the car back from Rochester to Pittsburgh and began hunting for a new gearbox. I searched high and low and found nothing under $400 until I got a message from a guy from the local VAG FB group saying that he had one from a 2.8 litre car for $250 with ~160k miles (my car had around 158k). So down to West Virginia I went to pick it up, and here it was.

Untitled by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr

after a quick clean
Untitled by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr

Got the car jacked up and ready to go! (there are actual jack stands there, the cinderblocks were just a backup should any of them fail)
Untitled by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr

Now I didn't take a ton of pics of this process, but in short, it sucked. This should really be done with a lift, and addition to that, bolts that were so stripped I had to find someone with a welder to attach a breaker bar to them, finding more broken stuff, and working full-time, and taking a summer class, the project took way longer than I would've liked. One of the big things that I had to do in addition to the gearbox was replace the power steering rack as some poking around proved that it's leaky-ness was the cause of my mysterious smoking issues this past winter. With the gearbox out, this project was WAY easier.

Untitled by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr

Untitled by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr

the new rack
Untitled by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr

My 99.5 had the Koyo rack, but some cars apparently came with a ZF rack. What makes this a little confusing is that both racks are actually manufactured by ZF, just one has some component on it made by Koyo and the way the lines run to it are different. I called the dealership to confirm the part # via the vin before purchasing the rack, but if your car is older than 1999.5 than it will be too old for them to decode the vin (I had them search the vin of a MY99 car at my local pnp to see if I could just get that, but they couldn't tell me what was in it)

After that was sorted I wrapped up the transmission swap! At this time I also elected to purchase and install some new MTC transmission mounts as a bolt had snapped off in one of the originals (the shop that did the clutch for the PO must've done it). They're OEM spec, and for $24 for the set, certainly worth the money.
Untitled by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr
gearbox in the car

Propshaft in place
Untitled by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr

Random but I painted my lower grills too

did my lower grills matte black as they looked super faced, had a little overspray on them, and didn't match my freshly painted grill all that well

before
Untitled by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr

during
Untitled by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr

installed
Untitled by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr

and just like that Adéline the A4 was ready to hit the road again!

my two Germans[]
Untitled by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr

Untitled by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr

and a couple from a brief offroad adventure in the A4
Untitled by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr

Untitled by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr

So in conclusion, the car runs fantastic now. The 2.8 gearing is really nice, you have to feed it more throttle off the line, but once your moving the longer keeps help keep you in the power band longer, with a tune I think it'd be perfect. In typical 19birel fashion I got the car together just days before I left to school, this time in North Dakota. Having only put 225miles on the car in the 4 days since I got it back on the road, I decided it was best to just leave it home and have my dad drive it occasionally to make sure everything is mint and just take my VW to school instead. On the upside, she'll be waiting for me when I fly home for Christmas.

Oh, and if anyone is wondering why I didn't do the transmission fluid, I have a bunch of Redline MT90 sitting in my garage, I just didn't have the time to throw it in, but I will once I start putting serious miles on the car again.

also, the Golf MIGHT be getting a build thread soon, believe it or not, but that was supposed to be the actual project with the A4 being the quick daily build

[19birel]

So small update, not 100% Audi related, but I installed some Euro-spec blindspot mirror glass in my Golf. Looks way better than the ruined, delaminating glass I had, and the blind spot feature is super nice, will have to treat the Audi to a set of these too.
Untitled by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr

Untitled by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr

A couple from a recent photoshoot just for fun
Untitled by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr

Untitled by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr

As far as the Audi goes, I gathered up a fairly concrete plan for it's future. Here's a quick summary, there are some purely maintenance related items, but I'll just tell you about the fun stuff.

-Custom exhaust: My exhaust is pretty rusted and I think it's leaking at the dp so I'm gonna find a shop to fab up something to replace it rather than going stock. Get some nice polished tips poking out of the valence and a little extra sound haha

-Suspension: My rear springs are looking kinda bad (the paint is flaking off in chunks) so I figure they're probably worn out. I got a lead on a used set of Bilstein sport dampers and H&R springs that'll make good replacements and get the car closer to the ground Also gonna replace the rear upper control arms and my sway bar bushings as they look naffed too.

-Interior: besides fixing the headliner and door cards, I'll be getting some new belt line trim and doing an audio install. All new door and rear deck speakers as well as tweeters, and a nice headunit are the plan, and then add some sound insulation to the doors and trunk. I have some more plans too as I really want the interior looking smart, but most of them of still up in the air. A sort of OEM+ meets VIP theme inside is the goal, any suggestions welcome!

-wheels: I'm tired of looking at the curb rash, I originally planning to just do them in silver again as It'd be quicker and easier, but I've been thinking of maybe doing metallic brown as well, not sure how they would look though so if anyone is handy with photoshop that'd be mint.

Color I'm thinking of, maybe a shade darker and with more metallic flake.


Old pic but only side profile I have with clear view of the wheels, unfortunately I don't have RS's
Untitled by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr

I do have a few more ideas/plans up my sleeve but i'll leave those a secret for now

[19birel]

So I finally got around to cleaning my projector lenses this weekend, just need to get around to reinstalling the lights in the car. I couldn't pull the projectors out of the housing, so I had to use q-tips to clean the inside of the projector, and a microfiber for the front, made a huge difference. Can't wait to see the increase in light output!

Before
Untitled by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr

During (top is sorta clean, bottom is still dirty)
Untitled by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr

After
Untitled by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr

Untitled by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr

Most of the dirt was on the inside of the projector, it'll be interesting to get these back on the car and see the improvement; I retained the original bulbs so I would have a direct comparison. here are the cleaning "tools" I used for the inside haha

Untitled by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr

Gonna spend some time on the interior, change the oil and get the car inspected in the coming weeks. Until then here are a couple pics

Audi Sewickley (1 of 1) by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr

Audi Sewickley (1 of 1)-4 by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr

[19birel]

Well, the car has been sold. I took it for inspection and it needed some suspension work, all stuff I had planned to replace over the course of the summer, but it all had to be done at once and was going to cost me $1k in parts. I struggled with the idea of dropping another grand into the car when it's only worth $3.5k on a really good day and I already had $4k into it and the car was far from perfect. After seeing a few deals pop up on craigslist I decided to cut my losses and sell it for ~$2.5k, car sold in less than 24hrs. Long story a little shorter I ended up getting an amazing deal on a 2007 E60 BMW 530xi 6MT, 1 owner, fully documented service history, and 164k miles.

by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr

by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr

by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr

by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr

by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr

I loved my B5, but I couldn't be happier with the BMW, it's everything I had wanted my Audi to be, and as the PO took amazing care of it, it should treat me well for years to come. I have a few mods in mind for it, once I knock out a little bit of maintenance, maybe I'll post a thread for it. Thanks all who followed along with the Audi build!