[Eatpocky]

Hello all,

I own a 2013 A5 Quattro Premium Plus (really my wife's car). My wife is the 3rd owner of the car, and bought it from the previous owner. It's full service history, is known until the 2nd owner. We know that the first owner leased the car and brought it in regularly to Audi for maintenance (carfax) in AZ. 2nd owner owned the vehicle for ~30k miles, and had no records of service. Wife bought it around 60k and has been bringing it to our local Audi dealer until we started dating, to which I've been working on it. While I can't say for certain, looks like the 2nd owner and at least during my wife's ownership, the car's been well maintained. Did basic things, like oil change, spark plugs and filters. But just hearing about how complex Audi's are, I had been lurking on the audi forums here and there, and the blocker has always been VAGCOM. It shocked me that simple things like swapping out a battery or rear pads need VAGCOM.

Why I created this build (more of a maintenance thread more than anything) thread out of it, since I've been having difficulty finding solid information. Figured I'd create this thread to consolidate as much info as a I can, to help others with their B8's.

I'm no stranger to working on cars, and have had my fair share wrenching and racing cars. Owned a NA Miata, GH and GR WRX, and now currently own a 4th gen 4runner that I wheel with. I've worked on many of my friends german cars before, but ownership will be quite interesting.

The long term goal with this car is to keep it as reliable as possible, and keep it as a daily driver for the wife. Due to that, power mods and suspension mods are (almost definitely) out of the equation (for now...?)

Now... Obligatory car photos...

 

[Eatpocky]

Floor mats.

The car had factory floor mats, but they were quite worn, especially the drivers side, which had a small hole in the floor mat (I'm guessing the previous owner wore high heels a lot and managed to drive with them on). Threw those out and bought some cheap all weather floor mats off amazon for a whopping $36 shipped. I must say, they hardly look bad at all, and fitment is excellent.

 

[Eatpocky]

Cone filter intake

Feel free to call me a ricer, or what have you. But one night, I was browsing around the internet to see how much an intake system would cost. To my surprise, they were expensive for what you were paying for. Most kits utilized the factory MAF Sensor and just sold an intake filter + a heat shield for $200+. Sure some kits also had a silicone hose to the throttle body, but it wasn't worth it in my mind. Knowing this, and having a 3.5" dry air filter laying around, I figured I'd stick it on and see how it was. All that was needed was a TORX 15 bit to uncouple the MAF sensor from the airbox, a phillips screw driver to tighten the clamp for the air filter and about 10minutes of your time to hear some amazing turbo noises.

For now, the Air filter rests against the wheel well quite well, but if I end up keeping the filter on, I'll build a simple heat shield + bracket for it (which shouldn't be too difficult.

 

[Eatpocky]

Brake bleed

Bleeding brakes is something I regularly do as I'm quite a stickler when it comes to brakes.

That said, I ran into 2 issues bleeding my brakes. I swear it's not my first time wrenching!

1. Bleed sequence
I don't have an owners manual, but i've come across threads and a few youtube videos suggesting that Audi's want their brakes bled in a different sequence than what I'm used to. Front Driver, front passenger, rear driver, rear passenger. What? Scratching my head, I opted for the more traditional route (or the one I've always used); farthest from the brake cylinder. So, Rear Passenger, Rear Driver, Front Passenger, Front driver. But my question is, does order really matter?

2. Jacking up the car onto Stands
For the life of me, I could never find the "right" answers on how to jack up the car. So much so, that I created this thread. Does anyone know how to properly jack up the car onto stands? I ended up just dragging the jack with me on all 4 corners, and putting a jackstand right under where the control arm meets the subframe.

As for tools, all that was needed was an 11mm wrench. I personally chose to gravity bleed and then come around again with the key in the ignition and pump the brakes with the bleeder valve open and a hose submerged in brake fluid on the other end so it doesn't suck in air.

Now i'll need to look for some front pads as they're quite close to being worn down. Front rotors have plenty of life on them, so I figure a proper bed in will do the trick. Rear pads/rotors had been changed not too long ago and have plenty of life.

 

[SimonRoma]

Hey great posts thanks and well done!!!

 

[Eatpocky]

Hey great posts thanks and well done!!!

Thanks! Hope to help others in the A5 community like I have been able to in other communities!

 

[Eatpocky]

Looking around, there wasn't a solid guide in terms of swapping out pads, so I figured I'd write one up.

Tools:

• 4 inch C clamp
• 2 flat head screw drivers
• 1/2 socket + rachet
• 11mm wrench
• Hammer
• Jack and jack stands
• brake bleed kit

Items:

• Brake pad
• Anti rattle spring (not necessary, but nice to have)
• Boots (not necessary, but nice to have incase they need to be replaced)
• Brake sensor (If you have worn yours down)
• Brake fluid
• Brake caliper grease

As a huge fan of stoptech pads, I opted to use them once again for this car. Happened to come across a killer deal on amazon, for an open box set of pads for $20, so I had to buy them. Box was damaged, and was opened, but the components (Anti rattle spring, rubber boots and pads) were still all there and wrapped like I would expect.

Instructions:
1. Break wheel lug nuts loose
2. Jack up car and place on stands. I ended up starting from the passenger side, then going to the driver side.
3. Remove wheel
4. The first thing you'll need to tackle is the anti-rattle spring. Be cautious when removing this as it can spring at you. That said, I found that if you can maintain pressure on the bottom of it while pushing it away from the caliper, it won't spring away. In order to achieve this, grab one flat head and push against the rattle spring (pictured below), and grab the other flat head to pry in between the spring and the caliper surface towards you. If you are careful enough, the spring won't jump out, and you can slowly relieve tension

5. Unbolt the 2 back caliper guide pins with the 1/2" socket + ratchet. Once unbolted, make sure that you don't stretch the brake hose.
6. Removing the outer pad. Audi likes to keep things quite, and by keeping things that way they use a specific type of glue known as Anti-rattle brake adhesive. In order to remove the pads from the caliper, you need to pry they with a flat head. Luckily, the calipers have 2 slots that are perfect for doing exactly that! It took some muscle to get it pried, that I ended up using a hammer to lightly tap the screw driver in to help separate the pad and caliper.

7. Remove the inner pad. This one is simple as it pulls right out. However, pay attention to a wire that comes off the inner pad. This is your brake wear sensor. If you have a warning on your dashboard, you should replace this, unless you like warning lights on your dashboard. I personally didn't need to, and moving it over was easy. The wear sensor is a plastic piece, that uses a metal fitting to clip it in place. Be careful not to lose this metal clip.
Pic 1: Pictured left to right: Pad, metal clip and the plastic sensor part.
Pic 2: To reinstall the sensor, put the metal clip onto the plastic sensor and then you can slide the assembly back onto the pad
Pic 3: What the assembly should look like after you put it back together. The overhanging part should point towards the inside of the car

8. Resetting the piston. Contrary to a lot of threads/videos i've come across, you DON'T need a special pad separator/piston reset tool. You can use a c-clamp as long as you position the clamp a certain way. You need to angle the clamp down towards the bottom part of the piston, with a pad inbetween, to avoid interference with the caliper housing. From there, since the backside of the caliper housing is round, you just need to orient the clamp so its on the bottom part (when the caliper is oriented as pictured) of that sphere face. Before starting to crank the c-clamp down, get a brake bleed kit, attach it to the bleeder valve, and crack it open with a 11mm wrench. Once you have it open, crank the c-clamp down slowly and the piston will retract. Once you are unable to tighten the c-clamp any further, you have reset the pistons and can tighten the bleeder valve and remove the c-clamp

9. If needed, grease the caliper slide pins.
10. Grease the back of the pads and reinstall the caliper, with the caliper bolts first, and then with the anti-rattle spring.
11. Install the other side.
12. Get your key and put the car into the on position. Don't start your motor. Press the brakes a few times, while monitoring your brake fluid level. Top off as needed. The first few pumps, you may not feel anything. This is normal, as the piston now needs to set itself against the pad.
13. Since the brake system has been opened, do a full brake bleed.
14. After the brake bleed, you can drive the car. However, I suggest you bed the pads in properly BEFORE driving it.
15. Most brake pad manufacturers have their own brake pad bedding/break in process, so refer to the instruction manual.

Congrats, you're done.