Nice build! Let us know how you get on with the hybrid turbo. The diffuser looks like a Rieger style to me?
Regards
Regards
Jacks 3.0 TDI
Bit too late in my “build” to call it a build thread – but here is my 3.0 TDI! Brought the car in December 2015 when I was just 19. Brought it on some horrible wheels so I brought some Audi rotors two days later and never took a picture of it before! Always had my private plate on the same day R222JLM. Since then she’s had:
Full airlift air suspension with V2 management and upgraded twin 480cc compressors – along with a boot build and aftermarket subwoofer and amp install
RS5 front honeycomb grill and front bumper from Xenonz UK
Hydro dipped engine bay plastics space theme by Ensign Hydrograpics
Rotiform KPS 19x10J et25 25mm front spacers and 15mm rear spacers 265/30/19
Custom Exhaust – Darkside developments downpipe, no back boxes or silencers, quad 3.5” double wall tips
Non-standard diffuser – I have no idea what brand it is, but I saw it and I loved it so I brought it!
Custom made side skirts
Wagner competition intercooler
Custom remap
Full airlift air suspension with V2 management and upgraded twin 480cc compressors – along with a boot build and aftermarket subwoofer and amp install
Let me start of by saying fitted air suspension is reasonably easy – it’s just like fitting coilovers until you come to the pitch bolt on the front suspension. Oxy-acetylene had to come out as I managed to snap the bolt inside the housing. Anyway we fitted the struts, bags and shocks easy enough. Routed the airlines to the boot though a hole behind the wheel arch liners, into the valve block. Very simple stuff. Once everything was in dropped the ramp down and straight away couldn’t get it off the ramp, it was still on the rubbers with the ramp all the way down lol. Airlifts instructions said it would auto calibrate as soon as you turned it on, so we did and stopped it half way through to get it off the rubbers, moved them out and calibrated it again so it could properly calibrate, then straight down to the tyre shop to have it tracked.
First thing I noticed is that I had set the ride height way to high, we set it to ride at near standard height to start with (108 PSI F 95 PSI R) which made the ride unbelievably stiff – I cannot stress out stiff it was, if people on coilovers think they have a hard ride that was nothing compared to 108 PSI. So I then set it to ride lower (65 PSI F 50 PSI R) and adjusted the damping stiffness on the shocks which made the ride so much nicer but was still stiff enough to handle as well as/better then lowering springs or coilovers. Many people believe air suspension is horrible and that there is no way it can handle well but believe me it really can, what could be better than a fully adjustable suspension system? – But that’s an argument for another day.
I did have on issue with air suspension and one morning I come out to the car and the air tank was empty, I thought I had a leak on a line somewhere on the tank but I worked out the standard check (non return) valves that come with the compressors are poor and stick easily so they don’t function. I walked to work that day, wasn’t happy. Ordered a new check valve, got it next day fitted next day jobs a good’en. Save to say I now carry a spare in the spare wheel well.
After about a year of having air suspension and just having the air tank, compressors and valve block screwed to a piece of wood under the boot lining (rough I know) I decided to jazz things up a touch. I went and a brought a set of twin 480cc compressors to replace the standard single 380cc, which improves tank filling time from 12mins from empty to full to 3mins. I was chuffed with that because compressor drone at 5am in the morning is quite possibly one of the worst things ever. I also brought myself a sub, amp and wiring kit from a Gavin at audioboffins.com, he’s quite local to me and delivered the items himself by hand to my work!
I do have some pictures of the steps I took to do my boot build somewhere, but where I don’t know! If I ever find them I’ll post them on here. Basically just created a false floor with a few podiums to raise the air stuff and sub up and a few LEDs. Added an airline and air gun just for fun at the time, but since then I have actually changed a set of wheels with an air gun off this set up! The amp is under the ‘parcel shelf’ and you can’t see it unless you are laying on the floor. Wiring the sub up is easy enough, batteries in the boot, take the audio from the standard sub and you’re ready to go!
Sub performs pretty well, however it would perform better if it was in an enclosed box unfortunately there is a battery just under there!
Here is what it looked when I first fitted it, very basic just to get it in and working. Still had most of my boot space however I was always paranoid to put anything in my boot in case the compressor set something on fire or something ridiculous.
RS5 front honeycomb grill and front bumper from Xenonz UK
I brought myself the RS5 front grill when I first fitted my air ride, same day. £250 off eBay for an exact replica – RS5 grills must have honeycomb inside the Audi rings to be exact, and that kind of stuff bugs me! Wasn’t that hard to fit, front bumper off, about 10 screws holding the grill to the bumper and that it. Was a bit fiddley trying to fit the number plate holder holding both sides each side of the grill at the same time. Also added my private plate whilst I was doing this R222JLM, which I got for my birthday soon after I first passed my driving test, no idea what R222 is supposed to mean but JLM is my initials! Also had a few things coded by a guy very local to me; adaptive brake lights, hidden menu enabled, foot well lights on when driving, battery level meter, disabled footbrake to release handbrake and lap timer. Full LED upgrade of all interior lights and number plates to white LED, looks so much cleaner with white light.
Year on from the RS5 grill, I ordered the RS5 front bumper conversion from Xenonz UK. They wanted £300 for paint, I declined the offer and got the paint done at a spray shop which my firm uses for our company cars. £100 cash, sorted. As for the fit of this bumper, shocking. You’d think spending £700 on a bumper and it would be made to fit, no. none of under trays line up – infact everyone who I have spoken to since then has said that they didn’t fit the under trays in the end. But in all honestly, it looks insane and gives the car a mad aggressive front end.
Hydro dipped engine bay plastics space theme by Ensign Hydrograpics
I saw a post one day somewhere on the internet of a car that had a hydro-dipped engine cover and I loved it. I did a little of research and found a firm local to me called Ensign Hydrograpics so I contacted them and required about hydro-dipping, I wanted something completely different from anything I’ve seen before. You know when you see an orange Ford focus ST with its bonnet up you know what’s under it. So I decided on a space theme, plus I find space really interesting so it was defiantly right for me. Ensign had to do a bit of research for me to find a film that a liked, ended up being about a month from when I first asked him to actually finding the right one. First thing I wanted done was my engine cover, so I took it down there, week later it was done and I loved it! The problem with hydro-dipping is it is addictive – he did tell me this before however I just thought he was trying to get more business, but it is. Engine cover wasn’t enough, so I had the air box cover done. Then that wasn’t enough so I got the front bit of plastic over the top of the grill done. And then finally the three bits up by the wipers. I would get more done but I’ve run out of plastic bits now!
Whenever I go to shows or cruises, I lift my bonnet and every loves the hydro dipping more then they notice the air suspension when it was literally a 10th of the price! Bit gutting but at least I knew I’d at least invested some of my money is something that catches people’s eyes! I also brought myself the Darkside Developments Air filter to turbo pipe in yellow – because who doesn’t like big bright silicone pipes!
Rotiform KPS 19x10J et25 25mm front spacers and 15mm rear spacers 265/30/19
So when I brought the car it was on some horrible standard Audi wheels which I changed two days after buying the car for Audi rotors. I was on rotors for about a year and half before I got the Rotiforms. I looked for what seemed like years and years to find an aftermarket wheel that I liked that didn’t have a 4k+ price tag. I knew I wanted 10J or more but anything more than 10J and your price tag starts going up insanely. Rotiform introduced these wheels for sale in summer 2016 and as soon as I saw them I wanted them. Since I didn’t have the money at the time I used the time to work out what size wheels and spacers I would need. Since I’m on air and it drops 120mm you lose an insane amount of camber meaning you can still fit wheels in. when I was completely aired out I measured the distance from the rim lip to the arch on each axle, think it was 65mm on the front and 55mm on the back something like that. I then used willtheyfit.com to show me how the new wheel would sit going from 8J ET35 to 10J ET25 and from that I worked out the spacers sizes of 25mm on the front and 15mm on the back. I knew I’d need a slightly stretched tyre in order to clear the arch, so I used willtheystretch.com to give me a rough idea. 265/30/19 looked about right. When I had enough money to buy the wheels, went down to the caraudiosecurity.com open day in London and 20% off – brilliant deal, got them home and got some rubber on them from a good friend that works in a tyre shop, free fitting and cheaper tyres! Let the air out, very, very slowly and found that I couldn’t let all the air out or I’d bend the arch, oops. Lucky airlift accommodate for this by giving you the ability to raise the minimum drop height (or lift the maximum lift height) by a similar sort of set up to coilovers, Twist the locks down to raise the minimum drop. So we raised the drop height so I could let all the air out (just in case a line leaked) and had to lower the bag pressures to regain normal ride height, lower pressures means a more comfortable ride so all worked out well in the end!
Custom Exhaust – Darkside developments downpipe, no back boxes or silencers, quad 3.5” double wall tips
Soon as I got this car I loved the feeling of it, the torque it produces and the way handles but it always bugged me that even near on redline you couldn’t hear it! Some people like being quite and fast – I don’t, I wanted to be loud. First thing I had done shortly after buying the car (April 2016) is a remap and DPF gut from a Regal Tuning. DPF gut made near on no difference to sound, only time I could tell a difference was on starting it and I think I could only tell because I knew. So the next thing I did was ask a friend of mine to gut the back boxes; same thing again, near on no improvement on to noise. So the next weekend I had brought some pipes and he cut the boxes out and welded the pipes in place which did sound a little better at the higher end of the rev range but nowhere near loud enough to what I wanted. I was getting a bit frustrated at this point so I went and brought the Darkside Developments downpipe.
Luckily my boss thought I was a idiot for buying a downpipe for a diesel and thought it make my car sound like a tractor. It arrived one Friday afternoon at about 16:00pm and was fitted by 18:30pm because he wanted to see what it sounded like, fitting during work time – I wasn’t complaining! Once it was fitted and everything was put back together I fried it up and scared to life out of myself and everyone in the workshop. DAMN, this thing was loud! – and it didn’t sound like a tractor, it sounds like a chinook on idle and insanely throaty when provoked it now definitely sounded like a force not to be messed with.
If anyone’s ever heard a inline 4 decatted straight piped diesel, they don’t sound to great, a decatted straight piped V6 diesel sounds like a monster, you wouldn’t be able to tell it’s a diesel if you saw it on the road. Infact I’ve drove past people and I have heard them say “yo, look at that S5”.
Non-standard diffuser – I have no idea what brand it is, but I saw it and I loved it so I brought it!
I’d seen this diffuser once or twice about on the internet and loved it when I saw it but thought it was custom made as I couldn’t find it anywhere! One day I was talking to a couple of “Audi friends” and one of them said he saw one for sale, which I instantly jumped on and picked up in the next few days. I knew I want the double wall tips so once I got the diffuser I measured the gaps and twin 3.5” fit nicely! 4” probably would’ve fit but it would’ve been tight.
Back again to my colleague to weld them on and get the splitter on - tah dah!
Custom made side skirts
When it come to looking at side skirts I didn’t really like any of the side skirts I could find to buy on the internet, they all seemed to be very similar and not really very interesting – I didn’t like most of the price tags either! £300 upward was too much for me. I ended up making my own for £12! Yes you read that right, £12. And the best thing about it is, EVERYONE asks me where I got my side skirts from, or “are they custom made?” yes me old mate, they are custom made – by me!
Two very basic skirting boards from Wickes £6, 2x0.5m carbon wrap £6 from eBay and a few tools! The boards had sloped edge which was rounded which is perfect for what I wanted, means the water would run off a little bit better. Cut the boards to length and added some curves just to be a little different. Then wrapped them in carbon – which was a 2 man and 1 woman job, was not easy at all. A huge amount of tiger seal with 4 jacks holding it in place under the car for about 4 hours and done. Side skirts done for £12.
Wagner competition intercooler
I wanted to make the car a bit faster then it already was so I got in touch with Bobby Singh we sorted me a Wagner competition intercooler at a discounted price. It arrived when I was on holiday and a colleague send me a photo of the box it come in and asked me if I had brought a intercooler for a lorry because it is massive! When it come round to fitting everything was very straight forward, bumper off, old cooler off new cooler on, come two more brackets to support the damn thing! All relatively simple.
Bobby is now getting me a hybrid turbo built along with a few other bits to get the old girl running a little faster, aimed for 400bhp!
30/7/17
Took a trip up to Manchester for FittedUK, 3 hours 30 drive for me so was a good run. I was on Rockbottuomautos club stand. Went up on the Saturday and stayed the night as we had to be at the show for 7am, gates opened at 10am!
4/8/17
After fittedUK I decided I didnt like having my bonnet up that high and I want to make a stay so that it hold the bonnet half up. Lucky I work in a yard and workshop that has every material known to man in it. Got a old lamp pin out the yard, cut it down to size, heat it up with oxy-acetylene to make a few bends, little bit of cable braiding and shrink wrap and jobs a gooden. took about 30 minutes without paint drying time. you can buy these for about £30 but whats the point if you can make them aye!
10/8/17
Took the car down to Herts Tints in St Albans for window trim chrome delete (wrapped gloss black), rear three windows tinted limo black and while I was there I had my rear lights tinted very slightly just to take a bit of red out of them as the whole car is black and didnt want them to stand out like a sore thumb! Was debating having the front tinted slightly but chose not to in the end to avoid hassle.
Very good service by the guys there, quick turn around and a outstanding job all round couldn't pick fault with them at all!
Christmas period:
Xenonz-UK LED side sills
Finally! Been after these for a while, and they are awesome! Fairly easy to fit warm the old ones up and pull them off, bit of glue and tar remover just to remove all the residue then line the LED ones up and slap them on. Wiring as a little tricky for me as normally you wire these straight to the foot well lighting so they turn on soon as you open the door however I have my foot well lighting programmed to stay on all the time so that wasn’t a option for me. Instead I had to run some cables up the A pillar to the courtesy light and take a signal from there, works a treat and they look so good!
Dyed floor
One day I decided that the carpet was looking a bit tired so I did a bit of research and found some Autobrite fabric dye at a good price so I gave that ago and it was brilliant. Removing the seats is easy 4 m12 bolts and unplug all the connections and they’re straight out, give the carpet a hoover and spray the dye straight on. See attached photos of test area under the seat to see how good it is – you can’t miss it! Unfortunately I didn’t take a photo after I did the whole thing, but just know it was well worth doing and looked like a factory finish for the cost of about £12!
Powerflex Transmission mount insert
After reading some reviews of this product I decided for the price it is I would give it a go, the difference is night and day! Everything about what my left hand is doing feels stronger (no funny jokes there please, I’m right handed anyway…). Only slight issue is it does cause a little bit of vibration through the gearstick, I’m not bothered about that at all! Super easy to fit part A, haven’t got round to fitting parts B yet. No photos again…
Lowering ride height
This might sound like a easy job for those of you that have coilovers or springs, air suspension is a nightmare because you’ve got two heights to work out and you have to compensate on one to achieve the other. Same with coilovers everything is exponential so many adjustments need to made trail and error to get a good result. I wanted to ride lower so that I wasn’t braking my back sitting on 100 psi of air, problem with lowering the ride height and having it tracked means as you air out to park up because your already half way down you don’t gain as much camber meaning yes I couldn’t air out without bending all the fenders, back to the drawing board. Lucky air lift have accommodated for this problem but giving you adjustment just like you have on coilovers, you know the spinny thing. Well aren’t they another nightmare to adjust you have to remove the mount bottom of the strut, undo the locking collar and then spin the mount up or down – this gives you either a higher or lower drop height. I had to do this 5 times on the front because of them being exponential meaning turning down 1mm didn’t give you 1mm of drop. I wound min most the way down to increase the drop height meaning is chassis would sit higher and that gave me just enough that meant when I aired out I could tuck the wheels inside the arch and run a lot lower pressures so the ride was much softer and meant that I wasn’t laying the subframe on the floor when I aired out. So after adjusting and fine tuning I finally cracked it, riding lower and softer and still tucking!
Bi-product of this exercise meant the lift height of the car at 100 psi on each corner is insanely high to the point where I don’t even need jacks to perform an oil change now! Its tight granted but its high! Front splitter easily sits a good foot of the floor when lifted. See attached photos
Gtechniq Crystal Serum Light
I’m very into keeping my car clean so I invested in some ceramic coat and spent two solid 10 hour days in the workshop polishing the old girl to an inch of her life and then protecting it. At first after application I wasn’t sure what the coating had made a difference, but I’d just spent 20 hours looking at every minor detail of paintwork so I knew in great detail what I was looking at. The thing about ceramic coatings is not that then enhance paintwork, they protect. It’s a month down the road when you wash the car, pre wash, snow foam, two bucket method, rinse, pure water rinse, which takes about a hour and it looks like you’ve just spent the 20 hours polishing and correcting. 100% worth spending the time and money, looks outstanding!
February 2018
Xenonz UK lip kit
It was only a matter of time before I replaced the skirting board for something a little for substantial, Xenonz UK lip kit made of abs plastic – big, bold and wide, exactly what I wanted. Not to everyone’s taste but hey, I aint building this car for anyone else!
Air tank
Took a chance and picked up a cheap air tank for £25 horrible condition hasn’t sure if it would hold air. I conducted a leak test which passed with flying colours – pressurised upto 150 psi and left for 3 days and it lost 3psi I’m happy with that for the price I paid! Sanded the whole thing down by hand and resprayed it and looks very good. This will be a part of a new boot build I am doing very soon, hopefully I will remember to take more photos this take!
Watch this space!
28/4/18
Boost gauge
I've wanted a boost gauge for ages but never done anything about it until it hit me, i brought the app DashCommand a while ago (which is a brilliant app btw) which can show you what every sensor is reading and you can design your own gauges. I brought one of those mag-mounts from eBay for my phone to sit on my dash connected it to the obd reader (again eBay £5~) and thatch it, boost gauge done! screen shot attached! reacts very quickly no lag in communication at all!
2/4/19
Been very recently and neglected this thread a little, so here’s a huge update which probably won’t be in order lol
EMTuning’s projector retrofit
A pillar twin gauge pod
2018 S5 big brakes
Gearbox rebuild and upgraded clutch and flywheel, Powerflex transmission insert
AEM water methanol injection
Powerflex adjustable camber bush
EMTuning’s projector retrofit
Everyone knows the standard projectors in the B8 a5’s are very poor, so I decided to go about to swap them out – spoke to emtuning and got some hella g5 projectors with brackets ready to fit. I spent hours; and I mean hours, researching online how to tear the headlight apart and nothing… turns out the easiest way is to cut them open with a dremel! Sounds a bit savage, but it turned out alright! While I had the headlights open I painted all of the inside chrome black and frosted the DRL’s with 40 grit paper to make them blur into one solid line. Fitting the projectors is also a lot of work with a dremel cutting back a lot of the projector holders so the new projector would fit – that was very savage! Whilst I was putting the projectors in, I also included a red demon eye which is wired into my fog light circuit with a resistor so when I unlock the car the demon eyes and DRL’s turn on – might not be everyone’s cup of tea but I love it! Anyway, took me around 7 hours to complete one headlight, bearing in mind id never even seen the inside of a headlight before! So I did one light one weekend and one the next weekend, so for a week I drove around with one of EMTuning’s projectors and one of Audis and the truth of it is, I couldn’t even see the standard one at all, EMTuning’s projectors are insanely good – it would put some of those off road light bar things to shame!
A pillar twin gauge pod
I’ve been wanting to make a pillar gauge pod for some time, while I appreciate again that’s its not everyone’s cup of tea, I think they’re awesome! Brought a universal twin gauge holder from eBay and a spare a pillar just inside I really messed up lol, picked up a 30psi boost gauge and EGT gauge pretty cheap. Anyway, stripped the spare a pillar of its trim, Audi put on their very very well by the way lol, put the garage pod holder over the pillar and warmed it up with a heat gun so it would take the space better, epoxy resin it in place and fibre glassed over it so it was smooth, trimmed over it and done! Wired everything up and looks ace!
2018 S5 big brakes
Had my eyes on some big brakes for a while, all seemed so expensive! Until a good friend of mine offered me a set from a 2018 S5. Big, red and 6 pot! They were not a straight fit and required a custom spacer to be made but they fit lovely now. The difference between sliding callipers and X pot brakes is unreal – before now, I’d never driven a car with big brakes so didn’t really know what to expect but ohhhhh damn they stop! No difference in feel still being OEM, but when you need them you definitely know they’re there!
H&R front and rear anti roll bars and whitelines rear brace
Yep over Christmas I decided to work a little bit more on the chassis side of things, did a bit of research looking at what I would change to improve handling and decided on the H&R roll bars and a whitelines rear brace. I did also notice the CR-15 front strut brace online and could not pay the money for it when its essentially a bit of inch bar with a 3mm wall – so I made one, lucky I had a bit of 25x25x3 bar a metre long laying around, so I cut some bits out exactly the same as the CR-15 and it fitted a treat! Roll bars in (Rear ARB is a **** to remove btw), rear brace fitted and homemade front brace in – it was a different car! Hiding as low as I do and having all this new chassis equipment the car literally handles like a go kart!
Gearbox rebuild and upgraded clutch and flywheel, Powerflex transmission insert
For a while now I’ve been slowly loosing second gear up to the point where I could only engage second if I rev matched at a certain speed and that’s no way to enjoy a car like this. I had the gearbox removed by a professional, this is not something I was willing to “have a go at”, sent to a gearbox specialist to be rebuilt. While it was out, I also ordered an uprated clutch and flywheel kit from Darkside developments and had that fitted along with the Powerflex transmission insert both part A and Part B. All back together and still on braking in miles so can’t comment just yet – what I can say is, my wallet is so light now I can’t barely feel it
AEM water methanol injection
For Christmas, my other half brought me a methanol injection system! She’s keeper aye very easy to fit just time consuming. All the hardware is hidden under the passenger side scuttle panel and the controller is mounted in the boot, so unless you’re looking for it you won’t find it! Have yet to test meth on/off ect yet, all installed while the gearbox was out – still bedding in
Powerflex adjustable camber bush
Sat on my desk, ready to install – just need the time! Come back soon for more
04/06/19
Hella horns
Yep, I know it’s a Jap thing but the Audi horns are weak and sound a very tame compared to Hella’s – when you use your horn you want people to hear it, right? Wired straight off the factory horns, these are “hella” louder! I like the subtle look too! Also wrinkle painted the crash bar, I love wrinkle paint!
Sub and amp
Now I’ve seen people replace the standard sub before with a low profile 10” aftermarket sub using a little or no amp just to get a bit of bass however, me being me and having had a sub before I decided to take it up a notch and run 900rms off a completely hidden sub and amp install (well, 90% hidden anyway). I should have took more photos but with a little bit of work on the dremel I managed to get the amp, sub and line convertor hidden under the parcel shelf deck without the sub magnet hanging below the shelf. Well chuffed with how hidden it is! Since the sub in mounted the body you feel it all through the car but with the remote gain controller its very easy to turn the sub down the very little or off.
Egt sensor
Something I wanted to do for a while was run a EGT sensor, since I may or may not have a egr delete there is a nice little plate to put the sensor, remove plate, drill and tap, install sensor, reassemble, done still need to wire to the guage however!
Sound deadened doors
Picked up some real cheap sound deadening with full intentions of sound deadening the top of the parcel shelf however there is VERY LITTLE room on the shelf and I decided against it and thought I would use the deadening to do the front doors instead. Rides a little quieter now with less road noise. Going to look into sound deadening the wheel arches and perhaps the inside of the bonnet to see if I can bring the road noise down a little more.
2018 A5 S-Line Heated and fully electric seats
Always wanted new seats since I brought the car, the standard leathers were nice but 11 years old they had signs of wear and tear – wanted the RS wingbacks but the price! ... Picked up a set from a B9 S-line fairly cheap and had a trip down the Audi Retrofits where Ash got them working perfectly! So much more comfortable, I’ll be nice and warm in the winter and the electric adjustment is just cool! Even the head rest! All new to me.
Under glow and Demon eyes
I appreciate it’s not to everyone’s taste and that I will get a lot of “you’ve ruined a classy car” however, I like it sooo …. They’re wired to my fog light wiring with a resistor as I no longer have fog lights due to the X-UK RS bumper. I did this because I wanted to be able to turn them on in the car using a OEM button to keep things neat and tidy. A by-product of this means they turn on when I unlock the car which makes finding the car in a carpark very easy and gives me the ability to randomly turn them on whilst I’m sat at a restaurant watching my car and people walk by, its quite entertaining and keeps gives me a giggle.
Full airlift air suspension with V2 management and upgraded twin 480cc compressors – along with a boot build and aftermarket subwoofer and amp install
RS5 front honeycomb grill and front bumper from Xenonz UK
Hydro dipped engine bay plastics space theme by Ensign Hydrograpics
Rotiform KPS 19x10J et25 25mm front spacers and 15mm rear spacers 265/30/19
Custom Exhaust – Darkside developments downpipe, no back boxes or silencers, quad 3.5” double wall tips
Non-standard diffuser – I have no idea what brand it is, but I saw it and I loved it so I brought it!
Custom made side skirts
Wagner competition intercooler
Custom remap
Full airlift air suspension with V2 management and upgraded twin 480cc compressors – along with a boot build and aftermarket subwoofer and amp install
Let me start of by saying fitted air suspension is reasonably easy – it’s just like fitting coilovers until you come to the pitch bolt on the front suspension. Oxy-acetylene had to come out as I managed to snap the bolt inside the housing. Anyway we fitted the struts, bags and shocks easy enough. Routed the airlines to the boot though a hole behind the wheel arch liners, into the valve block. Very simple stuff. Once everything was in dropped the ramp down and straight away couldn’t get it off the ramp, it was still on the rubbers with the ramp all the way down lol. Airlifts instructions said it would auto calibrate as soon as you turned it on, so we did and stopped it half way through to get it off the rubbers, moved them out and calibrated it again so it could properly calibrate, then straight down to the tyre shop to have it tracked.
First thing I noticed is that I had set the ride height way to high, we set it to ride at near standard height to start with (108 PSI F 95 PSI R) which made the ride unbelievably stiff – I cannot stress out stiff it was, if people on coilovers think they have a hard ride that was nothing compared to 108 PSI. So I then set it to ride lower (65 PSI F 50 PSI R) and adjusted the damping stiffness on the shocks which made the ride so much nicer but was still stiff enough to handle as well as/better then lowering springs or coilovers. Many people believe air suspension is horrible and that there is no way it can handle well but believe me it really can, what could be better than a fully adjustable suspension system? – But that’s an argument for another day.
I did have on issue with air suspension and one morning I come out to the car and the air tank was empty, I thought I had a leak on a line somewhere on the tank but I worked out the standard check (non return) valves that come with the compressors are poor and stick easily so they don’t function. I walked to work that day, wasn’t happy. Ordered a new check valve, got it next day fitted next day jobs a good’en. Save to say I now carry a spare in the spare wheel well.
After about a year of having air suspension and just having the air tank, compressors and valve block screwed to a piece of wood under the boot lining (rough I know) I decided to jazz things up a touch. I went and a brought a set of twin 480cc compressors to replace the standard single 380cc, which improves tank filling time from 12mins from empty to full to 3mins. I was chuffed with that because compressor drone at 5am in the morning is quite possibly one of the worst things ever. I also brought myself a sub, amp and wiring kit from a Gavin at audioboffins.com, he’s quite local to me and delivered the items himself by hand to my work!
I do have some pictures of the steps I took to do my boot build somewhere, but where I don’t know! If I ever find them I’ll post them on here. Basically just created a false floor with a few podiums to raise the air stuff and sub up and a few LEDs. Added an airline and air gun just for fun at the time, but since then I have actually changed a set of wheels with an air gun off this set up! The amp is under the ‘parcel shelf’ and you can’t see it unless you are laying on the floor. Wiring the sub up is easy enough, batteries in the boot, take the audio from the standard sub and you’re ready to go!
Sub performs pretty well, however it would perform better if it was in an enclosed box unfortunately there is a battery just under there!
Here is what it looked when I first fitted it, very basic just to get it in and working. Still had most of my boot space however I was always paranoid to put anything in my boot in case the compressor set something on fire or something ridiculous.
RS5 front honeycomb grill and front bumper from Xenonz UK
I brought myself the RS5 front grill when I first fitted my air ride, same day. £250 off eBay for an exact replica – RS5 grills must have honeycomb inside the Audi rings to be exact, and that kind of stuff bugs me! Wasn’t that hard to fit, front bumper off, about 10 screws holding the grill to the bumper and that it. Was a bit fiddley trying to fit the number plate holder holding both sides each side of the grill at the same time. Also added my private plate whilst I was doing this R222JLM, which I got for my birthday soon after I first passed my driving test, no idea what R222 is supposed to mean but JLM is my initials! Also had a few things coded by a guy very local to me; adaptive brake lights, hidden menu enabled, foot well lights on when driving, battery level meter, disabled footbrake to release handbrake and lap timer. Full LED upgrade of all interior lights and number plates to white LED, looks so much cleaner with white light.
Year on from the RS5 grill, I ordered the RS5 front bumper conversion from Xenonz UK. They wanted £300 for paint, I declined the offer and got the paint done at a spray shop which my firm uses for our company cars. £100 cash, sorted. As for the fit of this bumper, shocking. You’d think spending £700 on a bumper and it would be made to fit, no. none of under trays line up – infact everyone who I have spoken to since then has said that they didn’t fit the under trays in the end. But in all honestly, it looks insane and gives the car a mad aggressive front end.
Hydro dipped engine bay plastics space theme by Ensign Hydrograpics
I saw a post one day somewhere on the internet of a car that had a hydro-dipped engine cover and I loved it. I did a little of research and found a firm local to me called Ensign Hydrograpics so I contacted them and required about hydro-dipping, I wanted something completely different from anything I’ve seen before. You know when you see an orange Ford focus ST with its bonnet up you know what’s under it. So I decided on a space theme, plus I find space really interesting so it was defiantly right for me. Ensign had to do a bit of research for me to find a film that a liked, ended up being about a month from when I first asked him to actually finding the right one. First thing I wanted done was my engine cover, so I took it down there, week later it was done and I loved it! The problem with hydro-dipping is it is addictive – he did tell me this before however I just thought he was trying to get more business, but it is. Engine cover wasn’t enough, so I had the air box cover done. Then that wasn’t enough so I got the front bit of plastic over the top of the grill done. And then finally the three bits up by the wipers. I would get more done but I’ve run out of plastic bits now!
Whenever I go to shows or cruises, I lift my bonnet and every loves the hydro dipping more then they notice the air suspension when it was literally a 10th of the price! Bit gutting but at least I knew I’d at least invested some of my money is something that catches people’s eyes! I also brought myself the Darkside Developments Air filter to turbo pipe in yellow – because who doesn’t like big bright silicone pipes!
Rotiform KPS 19x10J et25 25mm front spacers and 15mm rear spacers 265/30/19
So when I brought the car it was on some horrible standard Audi wheels which I changed two days after buying the car for Audi rotors. I was on rotors for about a year and half before I got the Rotiforms. I looked for what seemed like years and years to find an aftermarket wheel that I liked that didn’t have a 4k+ price tag. I knew I wanted 10J or more but anything more than 10J and your price tag starts going up insanely. Rotiform introduced these wheels for sale in summer 2016 and as soon as I saw them I wanted them. Since I didn’t have the money at the time I used the time to work out what size wheels and spacers I would need. Since I’m on air and it drops 120mm you lose an insane amount of camber meaning you can still fit wheels in. when I was completely aired out I measured the distance from the rim lip to the arch on each axle, think it was 65mm on the front and 55mm on the back something like that. I then used willtheyfit.com to show me how the new wheel would sit going from 8J ET35 to 10J ET25 and from that I worked out the spacers sizes of 25mm on the front and 15mm on the back. I knew I’d need a slightly stretched tyre in order to clear the arch, so I used willtheystretch.com to give me a rough idea. 265/30/19 looked about right. When I had enough money to buy the wheels, went down to the caraudiosecurity.com open day in London and 20% off – brilliant deal, got them home and got some rubber on them from a good friend that works in a tyre shop, free fitting and cheaper tyres! Let the air out, very, very slowly and found that I couldn’t let all the air out or I’d bend the arch, oops. Lucky airlift accommodate for this by giving you the ability to raise the minimum drop height (or lift the maximum lift height) by a similar sort of set up to coilovers, Twist the locks down to raise the minimum drop. So we raised the drop height so I could let all the air out (just in case a line leaked) and had to lower the bag pressures to regain normal ride height, lower pressures means a more comfortable ride so all worked out well in the end!
Custom Exhaust – Darkside developments downpipe, no back boxes or silencers, quad 3.5” double wall tips
Soon as I got this car I loved the feeling of it, the torque it produces and the way handles but it always bugged me that even near on redline you couldn’t hear it! Some people like being quite and fast – I don’t, I wanted to be loud. First thing I had done shortly after buying the car (April 2016) is a remap and DPF gut from a Regal Tuning. DPF gut made near on no difference to sound, only time I could tell a difference was on starting it and I think I could only tell because I knew. So the next thing I did was ask a friend of mine to gut the back boxes; same thing again, near on no improvement on to noise. So the next weekend I had brought some pipes and he cut the boxes out and welded the pipes in place which did sound a little better at the higher end of the rev range but nowhere near loud enough to what I wanted. I was getting a bit frustrated at this point so I went and brought the Darkside Developments downpipe.
Luckily my boss thought I was a idiot for buying a downpipe for a diesel and thought it make my car sound like a tractor. It arrived one Friday afternoon at about 16:00pm and was fitted by 18:30pm because he wanted to see what it sounded like, fitting during work time – I wasn’t complaining! Once it was fitted and everything was put back together I fried it up and scared to life out of myself and everyone in the workshop. DAMN, this thing was loud! – and it didn’t sound like a tractor, it sounds like a chinook on idle and insanely throaty when provoked it now definitely sounded like a force not to be messed with.
If anyone’s ever heard a inline 4 decatted straight piped diesel, they don’t sound to great, a decatted straight piped V6 diesel sounds like a monster, you wouldn’t be able to tell it’s a diesel if you saw it on the road. Infact I’ve drove past people and I have heard them say “yo, look at that S5”.
Non-standard diffuser – I have no idea what brand it is, but I saw it and I loved it so I brought it!
I’d seen this diffuser once or twice about on the internet and loved it when I saw it but thought it was custom made as I couldn’t find it anywhere! One day I was talking to a couple of “Audi friends” and one of them said he saw one for sale, which I instantly jumped on and picked up in the next few days. I knew I want the double wall tips so once I got the diffuser I measured the gaps and twin 3.5” fit nicely! 4” probably would’ve fit but it would’ve been tight.
Back again to my colleague to weld them on and get the splitter on - tah dah!
Custom made side skirts
When it come to looking at side skirts I didn’t really like any of the side skirts I could find to buy on the internet, they all seemed to be very similar and not really very interesting – I didn’t like most of the price tags either! £300 upward was too much for me. I ended up making my own for £12! Yes you read that right, £12. And the best thing about it is, EVERYONE asks me where I got my side skirts from, or “are they custom made?” yes me old mate, they are custom made – by me!
Two very basic skirting boards from Wickes £6, 2x0.5m carbon wrap £6 from eBay and a few tools! The boards had sloped edge which was rounded which is perfect for what I wanted, means the water would run off a little bit better. Cut the boards to length and added some curves just to be a little different. Then wrapped them in carbon – which was a 2 man and 1 woman job, was not easy at all. A huge amount of tiger seal with 4 jacks holding it in place under the car for about 4 hours and done. Side skirts done for £12.
Wagner competition intercooler
I wanted to make the car a bit faster then it already was so I got in touch with Bobby Singh we sorted me a Wagner competition intercooler at a discounted price. It arrived when I was on holiday and a colleague send me a photo of the box it come in and asked me if I had brought a intercooler for a lorry because it is massive! When it come round to fitting everything was very straight forward, bumper off, old cooler off new cooler on, come two more brackets to support the damn thing! All relatively simple.
Bobby is now getting me a hybrid turbo built along with a few other bits to get the old girl running a little faster, aimed for 400bhp!
30/7/17
Took a trip up to Manchester for FittedUK, 3 hours 30 drive for me so was a good run. I was on Rockbottuomautos club stand. Went up on the Saturday and stayed the night as we had to be at the show for 7am, gates opened at 10am!
4/8/17
After fittedUK I decided I didnt like having my bonnet up that high and I want to make a stay so that it hold the bonnet half up. Lucky I work in a yard and workshop that has every material known to man in it. Got a old lamp pin out the yard, cut it down to size, heat it up with oxy-acetylene to make a few bends, little bit of cable braiding and shrink wrap and jobs a gooden. took about 30 minutes without paint drying time. you can buy these for about £30 but whats the point if you can make them aye!
10/8/17
Took the car down to Herts Tints in St Albans for window trim chrome delete (wrapped gloss black), rear three windows tinted limo black and while I was there I had my rear lights tinted very slightly just to take a bit of red out of them as the whole car is black and didnt want them to stand out like a sore thumb! Was debating having the front tinted slightly but chose not to in the end to avoid hassle.
Very good service by the guys there, quick turn around and a outstanding job all round couldn't pick fault with them at all!
Christmas period:
Xenonz-UK LED side sills
Finally! Been after these for a while, and they are awesome! Fairly easy to fit warm the old ones up and pull them off, bit of glue and tar remover just to remove all the residue then line the LED ones up and slap them on. Wiring as a little tricky for me as normally you wire these straight to the foot well lighting so they turn on soon as you open the door however I have my foot well lighting programmed to stay on all the time so that wasn’t a option for me. Instead I had to run some cables up the A pillar to the courtesy light and take a signal from there, works a treat and they look so good!
Dyed floor
One day I decided that the carpet was looking a bit tired so I did a bit of research and found some Autobrite fabric dye at a good price so I gave that ago and it was brilliant. Removing the seats is easy 4 m12 bolts and unplug all the connections and they’re straight out, give the carpet a hoover and spray the dye straight on. See attached photos of test area under the seat to see how good it is – you can’t miss it! Unfortunately I didn’t take a photo after I did the whole thing, but just know it was well worth doing and looked like a factory finish for the cost of about £12!
Powerflex Transmission mount insert
After reading some reviews of this product I decided for the price it is I would give it a go, the difference is night and day! Everything about what my left hand is doing feels stronger (no funny jokes there please, I’m right handed anyway…). Only slight issue is it does cause a little bit of vibration through the gearstick, I’m not bothered about that at all! Super easy to fit part A, haven’t got round to fitting parts B yet. No photos again…
Lowering ride height
This might sound like a easy job for those of you that have coilovers or springs, air suspension is a nightmare because you’ve got two heights to work out and you have to compensate on one to achieve the other. Same with coilovers everything is exponential so many adjustments need to made trail and error to get a good result. I wanted to ride lower so that I wasn’t braking my back sitting on 100 psi of air, problem with lowering the ride height and having it tracked means as you air out to park up because your already half way down you don’t gain as much camber meaning yes I couldn’t air out without bending all the fenders, back to the drawing board. Lucky air lift have accommodated for this problem but giving you adjustment just like you have on coilovers, you know the spinny thing. Well aren’t they another nightmare to adjust you have to remove the mount bottom of the strut, undo the locking collar and then spin the mount up or down – this gives you either a higher or lower drop height. I had to do this 5 times on the front because of them being exponential meaning turning down 1mm didn’t give you 1mm of drop. I wound min most the way down to increase the drop height meaning is chassis would sit higher and that gave me just enough that meant when I aired out I could tuck the wheels inside the arch and run a lot lower pressures so the ride was much softer and meant that I wasn’t laying the subframe on the floor when I aired out. So after adjusting and fine tuning I finally cracked it, riding lower and softer and still tucking!
Bi-product of this exercise meant the lift height of the car at 100 psi on each corner is insanely high to the point where I don’t even need jacks to perform an oil change now! Its tight granted but its high! Front splitter easily sits a good foot of the floor when lifted. See attached photos
Gtechniq Crystal Serum Light
I’m very into keeping my car clean so I invested in some ceramic coat and spent two solid 10 hour days in the workshop polishing the old girl to an inch of her life and then protecting it. At first after application I wasn’t sure what the coating had made a difference, but I’d just spent 20 hours looking at every minor detail of paintwork so I knew in great detail what I was looking at. The thing about ceramic coatings is not that then enhance paintwork, they protect. It’s a month down the road when you wash the car, pre wash, snow foam, two bucket method, rinse, pure water rinse, which takes about a hour and it looks like you’ve just spent the 20 hours polishing and correcting. 100% worth spending the time and money, looks outstanding!
February 2018
Xenonz UK lip kit
It was only a matter of time before I replaced the skirting board for something a little for substantial, Xenonz UK lip kit made of abs plastic – big, bold and wide, exactly what I wanted. Not to everyone’s taste but hey, I aint building this car for anyone else!
Air tank
Took a chance and picked up a cheap air tank for £25 horrible condition hasn’t sure if it would hold air. I conducted a leak test which passed with flying colours – pressurised upto 150 psi and left for 3 days and it lost 3psi I’m happy with that for the price I paid! Sanded the whole thing down by hand and resprayed it and looks very good. This will be a part of a new boot build I am doing very soon, hopefully I will remember to take more photos this take!
Watch this space!
28/4/18
Boost gauge
I've wanted a boost gauge for ages but never done anything about it until it hit me, i brought the app DashCommand a while ago (which is a brilliant app btw) which can show you what every sensor is reading and you can design your own gauges. I brought one of those mag-mounts from eBay for my phone to sit on my dash connected it to the obd reader (again eBay £5~) and thatch it, boost gauge done! screen shot attached! reacts very quickly no lag in communication at all!
2/4/19
Been very recently and neglected this thread a little, so here’s a huge update which probably won’t be in order lol
EMTuning’s projector retrofit
A pillar twin gauge pod
2018 S5 big brakes
Gearbox rebuild and upgraded clutch and flywheel, Powerflex transmission insert
AEM water methanol injection
Powerflex adjustable camber bush
EMTuning’s projector retrofit
Everyone knows the standard projectors in the B8 a5’s are very poor, so I decided to go about to swap them out – spoke to emtuning and got some hella g5 projectors with brackets ready to fit. I spent hours; and I mean hours, researching online how to tear the headlight apart and nothing… turns out the easiest way is to cut them open with a dremel! Sounds a bit savage, but it turned out alright! While I had the headlights open I painted all of the inside chrome black and frosted the DRL’s with 40 grit paper to make them blur into one solid line. Fitting the projectors is also a lot of work with a dremel cutting back a lot of the projector holders so the new projector would fit – that was very savage! Whilst I was putting the projectors in, I also included a red demon eye which is wired into my fog light circuit with a resistor so when I unlock the car the demon eyes and DRL’s turn on – might not be everyone’s cup of tea but I love it! Anyway, took me around 7 hours to complete one headlight, bearing in mind id never even seen the inside of a headlight before! So I did one light one weekend and one the next weekend, so for a week I drove around with one of EMTuning’s projectors and one of Audis and the truth of it is, I couldn’t even see the standard one at all, EMTuning’s projectors are insanely good – it would put some of those off road light bar things to shame!
A pillar twin gauge pod
I’ve been wanting to make a pillar gauge pod for some time, while I appreciate again that’s its not everyone’s cup of tea, I think they’re awesome! Brought a universal twin gauge holder from eBay and a spare a pillar just inside I really messed up lol, picked up a 30psi boost gauge and EGT gauge pretty cheap. Anyway, stripped the spare a pillar of its trim, Audi put on their very very well by the way lol, put the garage pod holder over the pillar and warmed it up with a heat gun so it would take the space better, epoxy resin it in place and fibre glassed over it so it was smooth, trimmed over it and done! Wired everything up and looks ace!
2018 S5 big brakes
Had my eyes on some big brakes for a while, all seemed so expensive! Until a good friend of mine offered me a set from a 2018 S5. Big, red and 6 pot! They were not a straight fit and required a custom spacer to be made but they fit lovely now. The difference between sliding callipers and X pot brakes is unreal – before now, I’d never driven a car with big brakes so didn’t really know what to expect but ohhhhh damn they stop! No difference in feel still being OEM, but when you need them you definitely know they’re there!
H&R front and rear anti roll bars and whitelines rear brace
Yep over Christmas I decided to work a little bit more on the chassis side of things, did a bit of research looking at what I would change to improve handling and decided on the H&R roll bars and a whitelines rear brace. I did also notice the CR-15 front strut brace online and could not pay the money for it when its essentially a bit of inch bar with a 3mm wall – so I made one, lucky I had a bit of 25x25x3 bar a metre long laying around, so I cut some bits out exactly the same as the CR-15 and it fitted a treat! Roll bars in (Rear ARB is a **** to remove btw), rear brace fitted and homemade front brace in – it was a different car! Hiding as low as I do and having all this new chassis equipment the car literally handles like a go kart!
Gearbox rebuild and upgraded clutch and flywheel, Powerflex transmission insert
For a while now I’ve been slowly loosing second gear up to the point where I could only engage second if I rev matched at a certain speed and that’s no way to enjoy a car like this. I had the gearbox removed by a professional, this is not something I was willing to “have a go at”, sent to a gearbox specialist to be rebuilt. While it was out, I also ordered an uprated clutch and flywheel kit from Darkside developments and had that fitted along with the Powerflex transmission insert both part A and Part B. All back together and still on braking in miles so can’t comment just yet – what I can say is, my wallet is so light now I can’t barely feel it
AEM water methanol injection
For Christmas, my other half brought me a methanol injection system! She’s keeper aye very easy to fit just time consuming. All the hardware is hidden under the passenger side scuttle panel and the controller is mounted in the boot, so unless you’re looking for it you won’t find it! Have yet to test meth on/off ect yet, all installed while the gearbox was out – still bedding in
Powerflex adjustable camber bush
Sat on my desk, ready to install – just need the time! Come back soon for more
04/06/19
Hella horns
Yep, I know it’s a Jap thing but the Audi horns are weak and sound a very tame compared to Hella’s – when you use your horn you want people to hear it, right? Wired straight off the factory horns, these are “hella” louder! I like the subtle look too! Also wrinkle painted the crash bar, I love wrinkle paint!
Sub and amp
Now I’ve seen people replace the standard sub before with a low profile 10” aftermarket sub using a little or no amp just to get a bit of bass however, me being me and having had a sub before I decided to take it up a notch and run 900rms off a completely hidden sub and amp install (well, 90% hidden anyway). I should have took more photos but with a little bit of work on the dremel I managed to get the amp, sub and line convertor hidden under the parcel shelf deck without the sub magnet hanging below the shelf. Well chuffed with how hidden it is! Since the sub in mounted the body you feel it all through the car but with the remote gain controller its very easy to turn the sub down the very little or off.
Egt sensor
Something I wanted to do for a while was run a EGT sensor, since I may or may not have a egr delete there is a nice little plate to put the sensor, remove plate, drill and tap, install sensor, reassemble, done still need to wire to the guage however!
Sound deadened doors
Picked up some real cheap sound deadening with full intentions of sound deadening the top of the parcel shelf however there is VERY LITTLE room on the shelf and I decided against it and thought I would use the deadening to do the front doors instead. Rides a little quieter now with less road noise. Going to look into sound deadening the wheel arches and perhaps the inside of the bonnet to see if I can bring the road noise down a little more.
2018 A5 S-Line Heated and fully electric seats
Always wanted new seats since I brought the car, the standard leathers were nice but 11 years old they had signs of wear and tear – wanted the RS wingbacks but the price! ... Picked up a set from a B9 S-line fairly cheap and had a trip down the Audi Retrofits where Ash got them working perfectly! So much more comfortable, I’ll be nice and warm in the winter and the electric adjustment is just cool! Even the head rest! All new to me.
Under glow and Demon eyes
I appreciate it’s not to everyone’s taste and that I will get a lot of “you’ve ruined a classy car” however, I like it sooo …. They’re wired to my fog light wiring with a resistor as I no longer have fog lights due to the X-UK RS bumper. I did this because I wanted to be able to turn them on in the car using a OEM button to keep things neat and tidy. A by-product of this means they turn on when I unlock the car which makes finding the car in a carpark very easy and gives me the ability to randomly turn them on whilst I’m sat at a restaurant watching my car and people walk by, its quite entertaining and keeps gives me a giggle.
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Wow, that's pretty sweet! I don't mind the over the top look, the wing compliments the arches! I can imagine cutting the rear arches must have tested your nerves. Did you do the work yourself? People might be all up in arms about a mod like this, but I kind of like it. Personally I think the waterproofing and rust prevention underneath is more crucial than just adding wide arches.
Nice choice of wheels, got them myself for winters, but not at that ridiculous offset..
Cool car !
Nice choice of wheels, got them myself for winters, but not at that ridiculous offset..
Cool car !
1 - 4 of 53 Posts
