B6 S4 Avant from the PNW

[REVOofRustler]

Alright so here's where I'm at right now. Got my new compressor, dryer, orifice tube, coolant expansion tank, belt, auto tensioner, water pump, and coolant temp sensor all installed. I got the core support on, and I figured I'd hook my vacuum pump up to the AC just to test it before I put everything back together. It would pull a vacuum around 15-20 inHg, but it would go back to zero within about 10 seconds if I sealed the system off from the vacuum pump. I heard air hissing back in from around the compressor, so I pulled the core support back off. Found out one of the new O rings I put on one of the connections was a bit too big and had been pinched in half, causing the leak. So I threw a different one on, and that fixed that issue. AC system holds a vacuum really well now.

So as I mentioned earlier, I noticed before all this that my car had a bit of a coolant leak. When I had the core support off, I hooked the hose up to my radiator, but I didn't see anywhere that was leaking. Fast forward to yesterday, and I decided to start the car up and just check things over. So I filled up my coolant and power steering fluid and started her up! First thing I noticed was a leak from my power steering where the lines had to be disconnected to to get the core support off. When I took everything apart the first time, there were two hose clamps on one of the power steering lines. I only used one when I put it back together, and that's the line where the leak was coming from. Threw the second one on, and that fixed that. So then I started the car again, and sure enough, now there's a leak coming from my radiator. There was a crack about an inch long in the plastic passenger side end tank, but it was also leaking from where the end tank meets the aluminum core of the radiator. So the new radiator will hopefully be here wednesday, and then she should be good to go!


New compressor in it's new home




New orifice tube compared to the old. I was expecting the filter to be clogged with metal debris from the seized compressor, but it was really pretty clean. I flushed the AC system to make sure it was good to go for the new compressor.




JHM Belt tensioner. So much better than the manual factory tensioner!








The core support has to be clearanced a bit since the aftermarket tensioner sticks out a bit further




And here's the crack in my radiator




I have to say, I'm really excited to drive her again after driving my parents' Suburban the last couple weeks. Maybe she'll feel fast again lol

[Whiskerz]

Nice to see someone doing all their own work on the car!

Should be interesting to watch this car transform once you start making "real" money

[alexandermjoyce]

Summer:

Is this photo real? Because this is a mind-boggling image.

[l2edken]

Is this photo real? Because that is mind-boggling image.

seriously. i cant get over that

[REVOofRustler]

Nice to see someone doing all their own work on the car!

Should be interesting to watch this car transform once you start making "real" money

Thanks! There's definitely a sense of pride in doing it yourself. As for what will become of the car, it won't be anything "never before seen". I really want to make into a jack of all trades of sorts. I've been really wanting to go to some track days with it, but at the same time I want something I can show off at the meets. Eventually I'd love to have air suspension to give it the show look, but still capable enough for a track and daily driver duties. Other than that, there's a company that makes a pretty solid supercharger (VF Engineering), that'll put the car at almost 500awhp on 5 psi with meth on stock internals. That's 10 grand I don't have right now, though hahah

Is this photo real? Because that is mind-boggling image.

That photo is indeed real. That photo was taken probably within a mile or two from a Bavarian town (think SoWo) called Leavenworth which is the destination of a big yearly drive for Euros. It's really wild seeing green plants and healthy trees on the highway side of the river, and then just burnt hillside on the other.

On another note, I'm really diggin your Avant! I wasn't really planning on posting this, but I guess I'll throw it up anyway. It's just a photoshop of what I'd love for mine to turn out like. I'm going to school right now for 3D modelling, and I've really been playing with the idea of building a set of wheels with completely custom, one off centers.

[alexandermjoyce]

3D modeling... is the program based on 3D printing programs and such? That's really cool. I just graduated a few weeks ago.. So I know where you're at.

And thanks Been working a lot lately on the avant. Are you planning on getting bags? Yours looks good already... but low always makes things better...

[REVOofRustler]

3D modeling... is the program based on 3D printing programs and such? That's really cool. I just graduated a few weeks ago.. So I know where you're at.

And thanks Been working a lot lately on the avant. Are you planning on getting bags? Yours looks good already... but low always makes things better...

I am starting to do a lot of 3D printing and Laser Cutting right now in my classes. I've done a couple quarters of solidworks, and one in AutoCAD, and then just a lot of other "design" classes in between. I'm starting an internship at a civil engineering place on monday where I'm gonna be using a lot of AutoCAD and a bit of microstation, but the program I'm in at school is focused more on mechanical design. I've got a couple quarters left and then I'll be done!

I definitely wanna put bags on my car eventually. I want to go lower, but I really don't want to destroy the underside of my car to do it haha. I also wanna keep it sporty so that I can spend some time on the track, so I think bags are the way to go.

[REVOofRustler]

Got this pretty thing from FedEx today!




This is an OEM radiator for a B7 S4 (Mine is a B6). The B7 is basically a facelifted B6, so the parts are all very similar. If I were to get an OEM rad for a B6, it would've cost me about 800 bucks. For some reason, the OEM B7 rad is only 300, and all you have to do to get it to fit is shave down the support bracket for the hood bumper, and bend a sensor out like 10 degrees. Other than that, everything fits just like it should!






After getting that on, I filled my fluids all back up, and I also got my oil change out of the way. All that's left now is to recharge the AC and get the bumper back on! I've been driving my parents' Volt to school and work (which I'm extremely thankful they're letting me do), and although the gas mileage is great, I REALLY miss pretty much everything about my car hahaha. So I'm hoping I can get it all buttoned up by tomorrow night, or friday night at the latest.

[REVOofRustler]

Well I got it all finished! I got home from work on Thursday, and decided to charge the AC before getting it all back together. I checked to see if I had lost any vacuum from how I left it a week ago, and it was all good! So no leaks in my AC system! I hooked up a can of R134a to my AC manifold (I needed like ~1.5 cans), started the car and got to filling it up. The low side pressure was climbing, but my compressor wasn't kicking on. I put almost the whole first can in, and still nothing was happening. My low side pressure was at 55 psi, which should've turned the compressor on. I decided to try hooking up my vagcom to the car and clear the fault code I had for the AC. The code was for low pressure at the pressure sensor, which will turn off the compressor to keep it from running without a load. As soon as I cleared the code, the compressor kicked on! The pressure went down to where it should be and the air inside the car got nice and cold!

All that was left after that was to get the bumper and wheels on which was smooth sailing. So happy to finally have her back on the road! I needed more pictures, so I took her to the top floor of a mall parking garage today.










Fun fact: The copper building in the back right is where my internship is







That's all for now!