The Dad Wagon - B5 S4 Avant

[hinrichs]

Wasnt sure at first about the black wheels, but hot damn it looks so mean on the avant. Hard to beat air on these cars, I loved my setup on my old b5 other than the stupid e-level issues.

[kittenpuncher]

My buddy (Tonk on SW) shot some nice photos of the avant this weekend at cars and coffee. Don't mind my dirty rockers.

[kittenpuncher]

I love clean, quality builds like this!

Thank you for recognizing that! I am trying to take the quality approach with every decision.

Coolest dad wagon. Love a good B5 Avant.

Thank you!

Can't believe I'm saying this but the 19" rotiforms looked great on there, I never would have thought these cars can pull off 19s. Wish I could have seen it at H2O.

Thanks man, I would love to run 19s again in the future especially now that I am on air ride, I would most likely need to run smaller tires though. These cars can barely handle 18s.


Pretty uneventful Saturday. When you are a dad you pull your dusty wagon out of the garage snap photos of it parked in your driveway and pull it back in.







The new wheel...

[philohlean]

Can't believe I'm saying this but the 19" rotiforms looked great on there, I never would have thought these cars can pull off 19s. Wish I could have seen it at H2O.

[SebastienPeek]

Coolest dad wagon. Love a good B5 Avant.

[MikeyRa]

I love clean, quality builds like this!

[kittenpuncher]

Give us an update, sucka!

haha please see above, sorry for the hiatus

[kittenpuncher]

Went to H2bro. Here are a few photos from the weekend, didn't receive any tickets because I am a responsible and reasonable human being.











and.... I think this build thread is all caught up not, I have some plans for the avant over the winter. I officially have a money pit on my hands, and I don't even mind it.

[kittenpuncher]

Well the final details with the air ride is done. Just need to carpet the shelf underneath so you don't see any wood.







Happy is an understatement.

[kittenpuncher]

Test drove it to cars and coffee everything seems to be working great.

Also... this is on its way! The blue stripe at the top of the wheel was a little more blue and a little less Nogaro than I anticipated but I am stoked to see it in person.

[kittenpuncher]

back to the regular scheduled modding on the S4. The air install...

So the fun begins...



That's the box design it will be topped with MDF trimmed to fit and hinged from the back, the plan is to wrap the box in black carpet or black suede.





Slowly but surely things are coming together with the air ride - mocked up the trunk set up.

For the trunk box There will be a large hole drilled through the back to route the harness through and it. The box will be topped with MDF and hinged, with a cut out showing the tank and the top of the manifold. I will cover lid and front panel in black suede or black carpet.

I am running dual 444cc compressor and a seamless tank.









Got the front struts situated, waiting for my front left axle to be rebuilt, then I will install it before I put the bags in. It had a torn boot and I caught it early, but better safe than sorry.

For anyone questioning air ride quality and "performance", these struts must weigh half if not less than what my old ST Coilovers weighed.





My front wheels needed to be resealed, each wheel had the tiniest leak in one place each.

Taped off for a clean seal



New bead laid over the old bead.



The sealant I used for anyone who might be wondering.



I consider myself to be mechanically retarded but so far the air ride has been going smoothly, and the packaging and instructions that are included are top notch. I went with the airlift 3P management system. For anyone nervous about switching to air ride, I wouldn't be. Just take your time.

I pulled the rear suspension, finished my tank set-up minus the final plumbing, and wrapped my wiring harness and routed it through the car.

Rear suspension



The wiring harness required I adapt in a second harness for the other compressor. I wrapped it all together with a conduit and then finished it with industrial grade 3M electric tape. Between the conduit and the tape the harness should be rated safely up to 600 volts lol, I just want everything to be bomb proof. Which is also part of the reason I chose to do this, I know everything I touched, and how the system is routed and plumbed. I am running the harness from the trunk under the seats...



Along the door sill.



Hard to see it's already tucked underneath the carpet.



Underneath the lower dash. You can see how slim the harness ended up being once wrapped tightly, it is the out of place thicker black conduit. At this point two lines run off of the main power on the harness, one wire to the fuse box, and one for the controller.



Up through the fire wall and right to the battery.





For the controller USB cord which runs off the harness, I passed it behind the center console and out into the passenger footwell.





I then tucked it up under the plastic. Wires be gone.



A little extra slack rests beside the passenger seat and console - the controller will be accessible, and most likely rest in the cup holders. Until I have the patience to make a neat fiberglass controller holder at some point in the future.



Final tank set-up dual lines running to a water trap into the tank. The only other ports I am using are the elbow on one end which is for the fill and a straight on the same end for the pressure relief valve. The other two bungs on the tank were sealed.

Don't mind the dirty tank from thread sealant and what not it will get cleaned.







All fittings are rated for up to 300psi, it just peace of mind.

Slowly but surely, passed the halfway point. Finish line is now in sight.

Almost there...





New brake set-up for the front while I was installing the air ride and rebuilding my axle. Stop tech drilled rotors and akebono ceramic pads.

Almost there...

Finalized the trunk set-up, mounted the manifold, and finished the compressor wiring.



Finalized the tank set-up.



Harness ran under the back seats and through the frame of the trunk set-up.



Going to mount a fire extinguisher here on the outside of the box, and wrap the box lid in black carpet.



Front bags in



Rear bags in



and.... it lays out

[kittenpuncher]

Meet the new addition. 05.5 Moro Blue, automatic 2.0t, 98k miles, two owner car. Crank shaft issues and oil pump issues all resolved under warranty by the dealer. I think I pretty much stole it off the guy. It was driven by his wife and the interior is a very mint sea of grey.

It's really clean, no mods except for the wheels. Previous owner claims they were off an older gen s3 that never came to the states. His buddy works for Audi HQ and took them off of a car for him prior to shipping that car back to Europe. It needs a battery, oil change, new front brake pads, and I'll change the crankshaft positioning sensor for good measure, then it should be ready for daily duties.


Pictures

[kittenpuncher]

A good photo from Vagfair 2017. I should have also taken some myself but I was too busy wandering around





Also big thank you to Matt and Andrew from Open Road Tuning. Best customer experience I have had in a very long time if not ever. Thanks to them I have some cool changes for the avant in the works.

Then I blacked out and these boxes showed up.

[kittenpuncher]

A few photos of the new set-up I would consider it fairly dialed at this point. I would have considered myself the last person to "murder a car out" but something about this look particular look with these wheels on this car I really dig it so far








Slowly checking small things off the list before VagFair.

Deleted my amber corners, not really as bad as I though it would be. Passenger side turned out mint, driver side was okay. Luckily I had an old headlight to practice on before I went all in on my OEM Valeos.

Before



During



After



Vacuumed out as munch of the little crud as possible and rtv'ed the holes I drilled then 3m double sided taped the rubber covers back on.

End result





I still need silver bulbs, and I half ass vinyl tinted a headlight to see if I would like it.

[kittenpuncher]

Small stuff, new shift boot, and new spherical control arms in the front and rear.


Control Arms


Shift boot
Before


After
It's from redline goods black suede with blue stitching