B5 A4 1.8T Avant Quattro.

[Ian_C]

I'd definitely save yourself an absolute mountain of work and just bolt in a B5 Avant interior!

[Tractor Dave]

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/335749857...Condition=3000

Or just replace the lower section with this?

[K Simmonds]

I'd definitely save yourself an absolute mountain of work and just bolt in a B5 Avant interior!

After a lot of measuring and thinking this is the conclusion I've come to. I have my eye on a couple of complete sets of B5 S4 seats as well as a complete TQS set, though the latter are very, very expensive and I can't get the seller to split them despite two attempts and a pretty serious offer. Also full leather seats make much more sense for me as I'm a messy sod and I often end up driving with my jeans and T-shirt covered in oil and this car is going to end up as my daily driver.

The cloth drivers seat in my old NG Coupe was like a waxed Barbour jacket by the time I'd finished with the car, as was my one in my first MK2 GTI that I drove as my main car for a long time. All my subsequent cars have had easily wipe clean leather seats aside from the RS2 which has Alcantara, though this is one car I won't be jumping into with stinking dirty cloths on or be eating pasties and chocolate bars in.

The B6 S6 front seats are lovely but it would take me a lot of work making it all fit properly, plus I don't want to permanently modify this car as well as have to take the carpet and sound deadening out to safely weld in the mounting points, then have to refit it all with new holes cut it it. Where as my B3 80 quattro is already fully stripped out and going to be so heavily modified that it would make far more sense to fit them in there. They're nice very supportive and sporty with a vast range of adjustment, it's also going to be a two seater as I want the weight as low as I can reasonably get it and they'll add just a touch of comfort, they're where one sits to drive after all.

I have to admit it was a somewhat rash eBay purchase. Though for the price I paid I can easily sell the door cards and rear seats as separate lots and end up with just the fronts fronts completely free, I'll actually make money if I don't factor in my time listing the parts and packaging them up. I can put the TQS fronts in the attic as no doubt either a complete interior or just the rear set will eventually come up for sale at a sane price and close enough to collect. I was very seriously considering putting them in my B3 80 if they ended up surplus but I'd have to start chopping the legs about to make them fit the runners so have ruled that out.

The complete blue weave carbon trim set arrived yesterday and is better condition than it looked in the eBay photos, which I'm very pleased about. There are a couple of tiny imperfections but in locations where it won't be at all noticeable when fitted, so minor I don't need to do any remedial work before fitting them. I totally forgot to take any photos before I wrapped them back up in the mountain of bubble wrap they arrived in, I'll take some pic's once they're in. I need to replace both rear trims anyway as one is missing and the other one badly damaged and as I've said I'm not a fan of the silver trim at all.

I'm going to have a full day on the interior one day this week, remove the front seats and deep clean the carpet as well as what remains of the original interior as it's very dirty with a lot of dog hair in the boot/back to hoover up, that'll then be one job done with for now. I can MOT it with no rear seats as long as I remove the seat belt clips from the floor pan, I can leave the belts themselves in place.

Next job is to get it running and driving again which really should have been first on the list!

[K Simmonds]

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/335749857...Condition=3000

Or just replace the lower section with this?

Cheers Dave, that is on my watch list and something I've considered. However the seat backs and side bolsters are also totally knackered. Unfortunately the water damage to the leather is everywhere in the back, it's gone so brittle it fell apart as I removed the seats. Though thankfully the door cards are savable.

[Ian_C]

After a lot of measuring and thinking this is the conclusion I've come to. I have my eye on a couple of complete sets of B5 S4 seats as well as a complete TQS set, though the latter are very, very expensive and I can't get the seller to split them despite two attempts and a pretty serious offer. Also full leather seats make much more sense for me as I'm a messy sod and I often end up driving with my jeans and T-shirt covered in oil and this car is going to end up as my daily driver.

Good call imo! Full black leather in my 2.8 was extremely handy for this exact same reason.

Bung in a complete B5 S4 interior - and I guess if your existing half-leather TQS front seats are in decent condition, you could always keep an eye out to grab a matching rear bench as/when during your ownership of the car (maybe to fit when you sell etc)

[K Simmonds]

Good call imo! Full black leather in my 2.8 was extremely handy for this exact same reason.

Bung in a complete B5 S4 interior - and I guess if your existing half-leather TQS front seats are in decent condition, you could always keep an eye out to grab a matching rear bench as/when during your ownership of the car (maybe to fit when you sell etc)

Yep, that is indeed my plan.

The TQS front seats are dirty but the bolsters, fabric and leather are all in excellent condition and they will clean up a treat, not quite mint but not far off. How they survived the water damage is a little puzzling, I guess the metal legs kept them from soaking up water unlike the rears which are all totally ruined. I’ll put them in the attic until I can complete the set for considerably less than the £500 I’ve gotten the seller down to on eBay which I’m simply not prepaid to pay.

I’ve actually found an extremely tidy complete set of S4 Avant seats the seller will take £200 for if we do a cash deal. I just need to find a way of collecting it from Birmingham as my father is yet to pass on his T5 to me and it drops into limp mode so often I wouldn’t be really happy taking it on the motorway.

[Ian_C]

£200 sounds like a great price for a full set!

[K Simmonds]

In the end these cost £250 in cash for the complete set which is much better than over £500 for a replacement TQS interior. They do however both require a little remedial work, both have about an inch of leather that needs carefully re-stiching down in the base pleats. Not ripped, just a case of using some matching black thread through the existing holes.

A bit of a faff but I did exactly the same job on the ABY leather drivers seat that I put in my 3B, I even have the correct tool to tackle the hog ring's.

I need to use the seat belt receivers from my TQS seats and I'm also going to pinch the passenger seat base foam to refresh the S4 drivers seat. The outside base bolster foam is nearly worn through to the metal seat frame. The back bolster foam is fine and just needs going over with a black leather feed which I need to restock on anyway to prepare my Corrado G60 interior for selling on.

The carbon trims are still all cocooned in bubble wrap, they're really quite delicate so can stay stashed safe until I'm ready to fit them. The one in the photo has the worst damage and I don't think it's worth pissing about with it, once it's fitted it won't stand out, much better than the brushed silver!

A massive thanks to Jaswan is required as he not only collected them but also delivered them this morning which made the whole deal viable. My T5 needs the limp mode issue sorting before I'm happy taking it on the motorway.

I wanted to get them in today but the carpet is really taking some cleaning, I'm about halfway after spending four hours dealing with dog hairs in the back. No fag burns or other damage plus I have the OE mats which have protected the normal wear spot under the throttle pedal and even they simply need pressure washing.

Anyway, rain stopped play outside so I spent the rest of the day sorting out out my various K26 turbos and parts and stashing them away in the filling cabinet draw that previously contained all my 20V Dewalt tools. So I can get my clean workbench spotless as well as completely clear for stripping down the head from Dave's old engine. It needs a proper clean in a hot dip tank but is perfectly serviceable with a new chain and tensioner...

That's for in my B3 80 as I'm going to be fitting the complete ready to go AJL engine I have in the TQS. Putting a head on the bottom end that's in there is way too risky. That needs the pistons and rods assembly's removing so I can hone the bores properly and clean the ring lands.

Have invested in another pair of good quality engine stands, I'm going to use my B3 80's old 2.0 bottom end to build up larger capacity 20V motor that's not a stroker. And I need one for my MK2 Golf GTI engine, makes moving them about much easier as well as a lot nicer to work on.

[Jaswan]

Kit,

Happy to have been of assistance!

The seats look great already. Hopefully you can get them installed soon.


Jase.

[K Simmonds]

Haven't had a chance to get much done on my own cars this week... Spent a couple of long days away from home getting a low mileage 1991 B3 20V quattro Sport running properly which entailed a distributor swap to get it to fire up and running after a fashion then various things in the engine bay needed sorting out to correct serious bodge's.

Given the amount of sabotage I found I'm 99% sure the head has been off in the dim and distant past for whatever reason and the car basically thrown back together with pipes and wiring rubbing or not clipped in place, lots of stuff broken, plugs on the wrong connectors or not plugged in at all etc.

Plus the coolant temperature sensor on the back of the head needed changing to finally get it running correctly which thankfully was a nice easy job.

I've never had to touch the dissy on a 3B or 7A before. What a total PITA of job that is, getting the timing marks to line up without the special Audi tool is basically impossible due to parallax error, tried a couple of spots that looked right from various angles to no avail.

In the end I gave up and got it as close as I could by eye, then got the owner to crank the car over whilst I carefully adjusted the body of the replacement distributor, I was probably less than 30 arc minutes off and it fired up immediately when I hit the sweet spot. Tried moving it a tiny amount each way and the engine died instantly so obviously it's either correct and running or not.

After I'd satisfied myself and the customer that we'd sorted out all the faults we could find I moved on and did the cam belt which wasn't too bad of a job as I have my home made multi fit crank locking tool and 3/4" drive bar. Though the latter was a somewhat embarrassing mistake as I'd grabbed a 24mm socket as opposed to a 27mm one when I was putting together my mobile tool kit together.

One of the reasons I always much prefer to work at home means mistakes like this don't happen but on a non starting car that's not really an option. Anyway, the owner who was helping with cleaning parts etc had a good quality old Kasma socket set with a deep 27mm socket and decent breaker bar which just about undid the crank bolt. He said he didn't mind if I snapped the knuckle trying so I went at with bit of old exhaust pipe on the end as an extension, the bolt wasn't 450nm but probably not far off. And I simply got the wire wheel cleaned and lightly oiled crank bolt as tight as I could with my complete 14 stone bouncing on the exhaust extension. Which I've since worked out should be pretty dam close to 450nm based on the length of the lever and my weight.

Certainly much, much better than the crank bolt on one of his other cars which undid with the weight of my 3/4" breaker bar, I literally put the 27mm deep impact socket on the head of the bolt with the bar at about 30 degrees up from the deck so I could stand on it, let go briefly and it fell undone.

Then I spotted the long M6 idle pulley bolt was about three whole threads undo and finger tight, all that was keeping it in place was the interference fit into the oil pump. It's a 70K absolutely mint show standard car and the belt was done roughly 15 years and 30K miles ago at a VAG dealership, how it hadn't destroyed itself is a mystery to me and goes to show the only person you can trust to do a job right is ones self.

The rest of the week was taken up with a raft of medical appointments regarding my left arm and I'm getting ready for major surgery which simply has to be done. Once I've recovered and I've got my T5 van kitted out as I want it I'll be able to whack all my tool's in the back as well as spares from my stash and offer a mobile mechanic service for older VAG cars which as far as I can tell there is great demand for.

Hell, I've rambled on for long enough now! Let get to my TQS, I'm still cleaning the inside out properly and have just found out the best way of removing dog hair from vehicle carpets is to use a full size hacksaw blade as a comb to lift the hair out of the pile. Apparently this works amazingly well and saves hours of highly tedious Hoovering, am going to try it out tomorrow on a section of the boot I gave up on. Then it's wash the B post trims down with hot soapy water and microfiber cloth as well as the plastic sections of the rear door cards as they are stinking dirty, will probably do all the plastics in boot as well whilst I'm at it, may as well.

The front passenger compartment isn't quite so disgusting but the entire center console needs the hot soapy water treatment.

Once I'm happy with that I think I'll put a dust sheet down in the car so I can tackle removing the old brushed silver trims and with great care install my RS4 carbon trim set to the dash without the seats in the way. The doors are easy enough I'll simply do them in the fully open position.

Then I can fit the complete replacement S4 rear seat set as that's clean and ready to fire straight in. As I've mentioned I need to do a little remedial work to the fronts and I'm going to have to pinch the seat base foam from the TQS passenger seat to refresh the S4 drivers seat, the back is fine so it should feel like a new seat by the time I've finished with it. Have also ordered a big tub of the best quality black leather restorer I could find on eBay to give both the front seats a proper refresh.

And finally onto performance, I've been in touch with guy I got the 260bhp mapped ECU from just to confirm the exact spec of his car which is a 2003 BEX engine B6 A4 which is basically a latter version of the TQS AJL engine with 190bhp as stock. Exact same capacity injectors, though the slim body type as opposed to the fat body AJL injectors so all good there, however after a good deal of research I've found that it uses a K03S turbo so one of my two K04 options would be a better match than a stock K03.

Also I really dislike the TQS downpipe arrangement with the cat in the engine bay straight after the turbo, to me that seems like a bad idea for two reasons. First of all one wants as little restriction straight after the turbo as possible to allow the hot exhaust gases to expand and second it acts as a massive heat reservoir in the engine bay. Granted the turbine housing is much hotter but it's tiny compared to the cat which bloody huge!

I was going to scrap the old cat as it's a big old lump and probably worth £150-£200 but I guess I should really keep it along with the original downpipe should I want to return the car to stock in future,

It transpires the guy I got the ECU from thought the same and replaced it with a 3" downpipe with a flexible joint at the bottom necked down into the stock exhaust with no cat before the map was done. I'm not going to do that straight away as it asking for complications.

I've decided that the complete engine I have is going straight in after I pull the current probably perfectly okay bottom end out and pinch the 500 mile old LUK clutch kit of it and install that on the replacement engine as well as new rear crank seal and gearbox input shaft seal,

After hopefully passing a leak down test that engine will be installed with a new front crank seal and a complete Gates cam belt kit, stock K03, original ECU and crappy OE exhaust system. Everything fully assembled running properly with no fault codes before moving on.

I'm preparing myself to have to replace the fuel pump, as far as I can tell it's been sat dry for at least five years which won't have done it any favors at all, it might be fine but doesn't seem to make a noise when I turn the ignition on so I'm not very hopeful. However, as the tank is bone dry and given the extra fuel demands of my mapped ECU I consider this to be a very good time to fit a mildly uprated pump, I have no idea what the B5 guys use however I'm sure I can find out with the power of Google.

A stock RS4 pump strikes me as a good option but could be more expensive than something like a Walbro, research is required before I purchase anything.

Then once running properly in stock form it's going to be goodbye to the engine bay cat and hello to a full length 3" downpipe, with a flexi joint and a good size/quality 200 cell sports cat under the car then neck it down into to the stock system. I'm not even going to consider a decat on a car this new, I can probably get my MOT guy let my RS2 through as long as it passes the emissions test but no chance on a 1999 car.

I may well purchase a ready made down pipe to save time but be welding in fittings at the top of the downpipe for a wideband Lambda sensor and EGT probe and I'm working something out that looks OE inside the car for Boost, AFR and EGT gauges as this is info I'm going to want to know is within safe limits and that the engine running is properly.

Right, if you've read this far well done.

I'm now going to crash out ready to continue cleaning in the morning.

[newsh]

The Walbro will be perfect, I used one in my B5 RS4 when the original died and Audi wanted £800.. ,
Andy Casey did a thread on here, I think it's called “the only fuel pump you'll ever need” ?
You might need to adapt the basket but that's easy enough. The Walbro was smaller than the RS4 pump so I spaced it in the basket with some ethanol proof pipe. 034 do a very nice billet spacer for it too which I eventually caved in and bought. If you buy the Walbro on line beware of the supplied pipe, on my car it burst and had to be replaced with some decent stuff.

[K Simmonds]

The Walbro will be perfect, I used one in my B5 RS4 when the original died and Audi wanted £800.. ,
Andy Casey did a thread on here, I think it's called “the only fuel pump you'll ever need” ?
You might need to adapt the basket but that's easy enough. The Walbro was smaller than the RS4 pump so I spaced it in the basket with some ethanol proof pipe. 034 do a very nice billet spacer for it too which I eventually caved in and bought. If you buy the Walbro on line beware of the supplied pipe, on my car it burst and had to be replaced with some decent stuff.

Cheers for the Info John, the Walbro it shall have to be in that case and I'll replace that bit of line with some higher grade stuff. Am also guessing it'll support considerably more than 260bhp which makes it future proof.

[newsh]

Cheers for the Info John, the Walbro it shall have to be in that case and I'll replace that bit of line with some higher grade stuff. Am also guessing it'll support considerably more than 260bhp which makes it future proof.

Here's the thread

https://www.s2forum.com/forum/technical/engine-and-turbo/2076326-walbro-450-installation-the-only-fuel-pump-you-need

[K Simmonds]

Again, thanks John that's very useful info and has saved me a lot of time pontificating on the various options. Now I've recovered from my health issues I feel like getting on with things at last.

I've got one of those Walbro pumps on my shopping list along with a 2.5" sports cat to go under the car just after the stock flexi joint which I'm also renewing as the current one is about knackered. I've got a nice quality SS down pipe to get the cat out of the engine bay which necks down really cleanly to 2.5" to mount to the stock systems flange.

I'm going to fit the downpipe prior to installing the engine as it's much easier and I don't really trust a catalytic converter that's been left open to the elements for nearly seven years. It would probably be okay after a blast through with the airline but as I want shot of it anyway it's going now.

I'll fabricate a new section of exhaust with the flexi and sports cat once the engine is installed just in case things need a slight tweak due to the aftermarket down pipe and EM. I got that very cheap as it was badly listed, almost certainly from China but I really can't fault it, it's also got two Llambda holes which is handy as I need an extra one for my wideband gauge. I think I'm going to fit an EGT probe to the aftermarket cast EM I got from Dave as there's a good location for it and the heat before the turbine is really what one what's to keep an eye on.

Got the flexi joint ready as well, I know it's a clamp in type but it's decent quality, in my stash and the extra length of pipe each end makes getting it in the correct location really simple. Will tack weld that and the cat on the car then remove it so I can finish it tidily on the bench. I've got a small spool of SS wire for the MIG ready so hopefully my welds won't rust.

I'm trying to emulate the set up my remapped ECU was done with as closely as I can, but as every cars a little different I want to be sure it's safe as it's been done as close to the limit of the injector's as possible. Hopefully it'll be fine but I can always fit slightly an adjustable FPR if I think it's lean on WOT and give it a touch more fuel.

Then apart from general service items like oil and filters I have all the parts required to get the car back on the road. There's a 1999 V6 B5 breaker at work I can raid for anything that needs renewing.

I have a really nice set of matching 52mm gauges for boost, EGT as well as oil pressure which I thought would be good to know given that's what ruined my original engine... Probably going to add a T piece to the turbo supply line for the sender unless anyone can think of a better place to add one, I'm hesitant about drilling and tapping an extra hole into the top of the oil filter housing. It may work with an OE VDO two way sender which I have but I'll have to see if I can workout if the analogue output will work with it, I suspect not as the gauges I have are digital.

I also have a nice quality AFR gauge but that doesn't match the others as that manufacturer only offers a narrow band which is a pity, it's actually not the one I ordered but a better quality one with a wideband controller built in as well as an indicator light for 14.7 which is a feature the one I was expecting lacked. I was going to send it back but it had to go to China yet again and I've also taken it apart to inspect the quality of the PCB's inside and was surprised by how good they are so have decided to live with it.

I consider AFR to be the most important thing to keep an eye on if running aggressive software, especially from another car. knowing what the fuel mixture is can save serious combustion chamber/piston damage or worst case scenario sticking a rod through the block or due to detonation.

I have a proper 3D printed mounting plate specifically designed to take the place of the center air vent which make the gauges face the driver.

I've tried to go for the least flashy option to try and make them look OE, I would simply use my Zeitronix but I want that for my B3, I did price up another ZT2 or the more modern ZT3 but with the senders it was way too expensive.

[K Simmonds]

Right, here's a long overdue update just let people know I'm getting on with the project all be it very slowly. I've also been having a major sort out in the workshop which was long overdue, found some tools this evening that have been missing since Christmas, two 3/8"s drive Snap-on sockets no less which has been really bugging me.

I've not been in the mood to get anything constructive done for the past six weeks, first off my left elbow requires major surgery to try and make it work again. I've got advanced arthritis in one half of the joint and have now lost the use of half my left hand due to a pinched prinple nerve that needs to be cut and grafted back together. That's a years wait for the operation, then upto 18 months recovery time.

Anyway, that's the least of my worries at the moment, my poor old poor mother has stage four terminal cancer and is seriously ill so I've been spending extra time with them as well as helping with heavy stuff and looking after the dog etc.

Sorry for all the negative talk, not looking for sympathy just letting everyone know the score.

I've fitted my 3" downpipe ready for when the motor goes in, glad I did as the Cat was a total sod to remove and would have been miles worse with the engine in the way. Despite wire brushing the three M8 bolts thread's clean and heating the nuts carefully with a mini blow torch the damn things were insanely tight. Couldn't really get at them with MAP gas as I didn't want to burn the sound deadening on the bulk head. I only had good access to one of them and my medium Dewalt gun wouldn't touch it, tried a 3/8's breaker bar, no joy. So I stuck my half inch drive breaker bar on instead, it went with a bang and I assumed I'd snapped it off, but no it had come loose and was then finger tight. The other two I had to attack with a hammer and chisel after the heads rounded off which took a while and some cursing.

The leather seats are in but I'll need to pop the fronts out again to suss out the heating wiring, bit of bonus that as they weren't advertised as heated. Got to find the correct switches and work out the wiring but that can wait. Decided to fit them as they are, the rears are mint as is the passenger seat, the drivers outside base bolster is a bit worn but not enough to make me want to take the seat apart. Still got to fit the carbon trims before I take any photos of the completed interior, should look great when done and the whole lot cost me less than what a TQS half leather interior is worth.

Have fitted my boost, AFR and EGT gauges in the center vent, with an oil pressure gauge in the drivers side vent. I didn't actually order that gauge, it got sent by mistake from China and I couldn't be bothered to return it. Given low oil pressure is what killed the original engine I thought it prudent to fit it. All the gauges, are both analogue as well as digital display so good for precise readings as well as at a glance.

I've also got my old set of Compomotives back with nearly new Toyo T1R's all round, the mate who gave me the car had purchased them to go on it but it pooped itself before he got a chance to fit them. I had them on my 3B for a while before returning to the stock wheels.

They're the perfect size as the guy I got them from back in 2013 via eBay had them on a B5 RS4, he'd ordered them specially at great expense but was selling the car in stock form. They're 17" x 7.5J, ET 27 offset so fill the arches just nicely. Am about to order an Eibach -20mm suspension kit as one back spring has snapped and the other side doesn't look too hot. Eibach are the only after market spring I rate, very well manufactured and not too harsh, had them on a Corrado G60 as well as my last 16V MK2 and really liked them

Regardless, I always change springs as axle sets, which is simply good practice. Just got to make up my mind regarding dampers, again one of the rears is knackered and leaking oil and seems to be seized up solid. They're all over 25 years old so want replacing, along with bump stops, top mounts etc.

Also sizing up fitting B6 S4 front brakes, though the stock ones aren't bad at all.

Picked up a pair of TQS clocks for £50, figured they'd be good to have as spares, though they will fit my B3 80's dash just fine when I convert that to a 1.8T motor. All that needs to be done to make B5 clocks physically fit a B3/4 dash is about 2mm of dia grinding of the dashes metal chassis as they're just a touch wider. That's the easy bit, making them work might be a bit of fiddle, but I have access to a B5 breaker to pinch any wiring I need out of.

Also got a mate lined up to help install the new engine which is ready to go with a new rear crank seal now fitted, I can manage to pull the old bottom end out myself just fine but another pair of hand will make getting the new motor in much less hassle. We should have it in and running in a day as he knows his way around 1.8T's better than me.

That reminds me I need to get a new fuel pump ordered up, the one in the tank is dead as it's bone dry, we pumped over half a tank of V-Power out of it 8 years ago when it came off the road. Figured it would be better off in my RS2 than going stale, I've also done a few jobs done on that quietly.







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