Ur an idiot for buying this: 1995 Audi Ur-S6 project

[KFC ONE]

if it was easy to fix it wouldn't be an Audi.

No truer words have ever been spoken.

[bjk]

I dig this. Also familiar with borderline-lemons and fixing shit haha.

[DeltaAlpha9]

I love the Ronals on this. Really makes me want to throw a fresh set of tires on mine instead of just leaving them stacked up for the past few years.

[rightfullrudder]

Well, things are progressing I guess!

- Mazda has a messed up evap system purge valve. Guess where it is? Under the intake manifold. Same place as the Audi's coolant hose lmao. $70 part but a ton of labor, I'm letting the dealer take this one.

- Some stuff came in for the Audi.

I had a guy in England make me a few more stickers, this time for the side trims and the front S6 emblem.




Found a silicone throttle body boost hose for sale, picked it up. This was before I was broke due to all these things happening obviously. Just slowly piecing together silicone boost hoses when deals come on on forums and groups. Red matches the motif of the S branding. Pardon the apartment but I also got a christmas tree!




Also this came in -- diverter valve block off plate to run my 710N diverter valve. Apparently these internal ones on the turbos can't handle the amount of boost I'll be running. Tune is here Friday!

[rightfullrudder]

Been one hell of a week or two.

BUT the ECU is here! May not look like much but he's one of the only people in the world left who can tune a Motronic ECU. Custom mapping for 440cc injectors, K24-7400 turbo, and he installed a 3 bar MAP sensor.



Now it's just an issue of installing everything. I'm practically twitching!

Also, had to edit this post because I ordered some wheels. Maybe for the Mazda, maybe for the Audi. We'll see what they look better on. Actually, this was one of those situations where you're not sure if the price listed online was an accident so you just order it and hope it's honored.

[MikeyRa]

Yea, I tried to order the same set of wheels last night and again this morning and that price has been corrected/changed.

[rightfullrudder]

Update time.

Turns out you really don't need to take the intake manifold off to do the coolant line job. Ended up removing the throttle body boost hose, unplugging things like the throttle position sensor, etc. Also removed the thermostat hose because all the coolant was going to be coming out anyway!

Here's everything out of the way. The hose that actually failed is at the very top left of the photo.




Ah yes, that'll definitely do it.




While we were in the neighborhood, we noticed the plastic thermostat housing (which is prone to cracking) had indeed cracked around where it bolts in. Wasn't actually leaking but it was only a matter of time.




Stephen happened to have a metal thermostat housing from an even older Audi that bolted right on.



After that we got everything buttoned back up because it was freezing. Although not seen in the pic, near the firewall there is a coolant T fitting that is used for a temperature sensor the ECU uses. During a previous coolant pressure test it blew and we managed to get it to hold water... but it could go at any second. Took the time to install a good OEM T fitting I'd had sitting around, planning to install when the old one blew. Here's everything back together. Note the FULLY SIQQQQ red boost hose I got in the mail a few posts back.




Drove the car about 40 miles home, everything seemed fine. Drove with a friend across Atlanta to a New Year's Eve party in the S6, thinking everything was fine and because there were no more leaks at the time. Ended up abandoning it in an Arby's parking lot just a few miles from my destination because a really bad coolant leak was happening in the same area. Decided not to worry about it that night and have fun. The next morning, hangover in tow, I called AAA and had it towed to a local VW/Audi shop my friend has the use of on the weekends. Basically we forgot to tighten a hose clamp lol. Still no regrets for towing it, there was no way I would have been clear headed enough to diagnose that in a 25 degree parking lot.




Forgot to mention that I installed a new S6 badge decal that I got from England. Really added contrast back to the front of the car.




Also, decided to bite the bullet and address one of the worst (although possibly most amusing) aspects of the car. The previous owner had chopped off the exhaust as it exited the cats, meaning the sound was aimed at the driver's and passenger's front seats. It was borderline unbearable, I would wear headphones on the highway. Also can't have been healthy with all those fumes. Took the car to a shop and had a Y-pipe built that maintained the cats and went straight out to 2.5" pipe out the back. Had them tuck it in as high as possible and kept the stock cats just in case I need to pass inspection. Here's how it looks:




And here's a video:

Funnily enough, it died immediately after that picture was taken. Wouldn't start, had to bump start it. It seems that there's a problem with the charging system -- it won't charge past 12 or so volts and usually stays around 11. Battery has been tested. Once it dropped to 10 volts and the battery light came on then the car immediately charged to like 13. I think the alternator is functioning and had it tested but there's something else going on. Maybe a bad connection or something. This problem has persisted for the last few weeks so haven't been driving the car a whole lot.

But this is Stanceworks! There has to be stance! Well, as it so happens I recently sold the Ronals off of it (partially because I was hurting from the holidays) and found these Advans for stupid cheap locally. I bought them as a set of 3 including a 4th that was bent beyond repair. In fact, they were so cheap that even if the 4th wasn't fixable (which it wasn't) I could flip them and make money. They're Advan RS, 5x114.3 18x9 +20 with new 225/40 tires. Here's catto and wheel.




In between all this, it got fucking cold here in Atlanta. We had maybe an inch of snow here but it was so cold every flake stuck and it was blowing and drifting. I work out of a NAPA distribution center right now, and out of about 100 employees we had 6 show up, including me. Took the Audi for obvious reasons-- told my boss if I could get the car started I would definitely be at work, haha.

I-85 was a ghost town.




See, this doesn't happen with wet snow. Never seen this before.




Ironically, the cold weather claimed batteries in both my cars. Two days after buying a new one for the Audi to no avail, the Mazda died too lol.




Speaking of the Mazda, I've been running the Advans on the front of it just for fun.




Anyway, I had the Advans up for sale but just really had a hard time coming to terms with selling them. I thought it would be impossible to find a fourth, but I got lucky and actually found a very similar single wheel on Yahoo Auctions Japan! It's the same 18x9 spec but with a +22 instead of +29 offset, and it's black chrome instead of gold. Obviously I ended up paying more than the 10k yen to get it here, but still pretty reasonable. It just arrived today!




Never seen an item look BETTER than it did in the ad when it got here.




So what's the plan for the Advans? Basically refinish them into all the same color, run 29 offset in the rear and 22 offset in the front (both the 22 offset wheel and a 29 with a 7mm spacer). Not sure what color yet. While I decide, I actually picked up yet another set of wheels for $120 from an old friend back in SC.

They're Antera 123, the most 90s wheels I have ever seen. Italian company, they're 18x8.5 et20 5x112. Gonna throw tires on them and run them, they're very ugly and very period correct. Just until I get the Advans done.




Thanks for reading all this shit. I want to hold off on the turbo until I feel like the car is mechanically more ready for it. I'll leave you with a pic of the car as it sits now. Doesn't look awful on the B5 16s with balloon tires, honestly. This reminds me, I need to reinstall the bumper grills -- they fell off when I backed the car out of the exhaust shop.

[Benwalsh91]

I don't know why, but I love this.

[Ceedark]

Those Advans are going to look ridiculously sweet.

Love this build, something so satisfying about seeing it come together.

[hinrichs]

Exhaust sounds wonderful. I am beyond excited to see those Anteras on there, its going to be so period correct lol.

[Fruttolo]

The Anteras look fat LOL
I am a big fan of the brand, but for their 90s' 3-spokes

[Dutch]

I love this thing. Makes me wish i had gone ahead with buying my friends old Avant one years ago! Only thing i'm not a fan of (which is the american systems fault, not yours!) is the US spec underbite and ghetto booty bumpers. I would guess finding a set of euro bumpers for one of these in the states is next to impossible?

[DawsonLiri]

Please tell me the Advan they will become all black chrome, please!

[kittenpuncher]

I love that you have fallen in love with this thing

[rightfullrudder]

Before I post all this, what the fuck happened to the forums? Looks like a Fisher Price toy theme for mobile but on my computer.

Those Advans are going to look ridiculously sweet.

Love this build, something so satisfying about seeing it come together.

Thanks man! It's still got a hell of a long way to go, believe me. Have all the turbo stuff ready to go but feel like the car isn't ready yet. Then there's the cosmetics...

The Anteras look fat LOL
I am a big fan of the brand, but for their 90s' 3-spokes

Yup, somehow I think 3-spokes on this would be pretty weird lol

I love this thing. Makes me wish i had gone ahead with buying my friends old Avant one years ago! Only thing i'm not a fan of (which is the american systems fault, not yours!) is the US spec underbite and ghetto booty bumpers. I would guess finding a set of euro bumpers for one of these in the states is next to impossible?

It's definitely possible to find euro bumpers, but they're super expensive. I actually don't even have a US S6 bumper. Something like 700 were imported in 1995 (the S6 bumper is one year only) and they run $800 or so for a usable one. The Euro bumpers front and rear go for like $2000+. A buddy locally has a set on his wagon that hasn't run in a while actually.

There is a company in Latvia that makes reps of the Euro bumpers which everyone stateside has been afraid to try. Apparently the mold used to be for the 100, not the S-cars, meaning they were a bit too narrow. According to the manufacturer the new design actually fits the S-cars. I might be a guinea pig eventually -- they're like $250 plus $100 shipping.

I love that you have fallen in love with this thing

Me too man, although it is a big drain on my wallet to love it this much.

Exhaust sounds wonderful. I am beyond excited to see those Anteras on there, its going to be so period correct lol.

Thanks man, I am pretty happy with the exhaust. Basically the way I approach this car is I do what I can when I can, like if there's something I can't figure out (aka most of the time) I just try and improve something else. As for period correct.... What can I say, I was a history major in college lmao. Anyway, Anteras are mounted! Pretty aggressive actually. Fills out the wheel wells nicely. Would like maybe a degree or two of rear camber to bring them in a little. Pardon the dirty car!