The Project Pad

I picked up a 147k mile Allroad on Saturday to replace the ageing A6 TDI.

This car is reserved for family/utilitarian duty only! No coilovers or dubs or exhaust cutouts, sorry boys. Just an exhaust, tune, and normal maintenance and upkeep . The car is 100% completely stock for now which is fine and dandy. It is soooooo smooth and quiet, a world of difference from the C4. The 6 speed is a joy, it was a two owner US car and while the last 10 years have been very good to the car cosmetically, it does need a little mechanical TLC. The po was pretty ocd about keeping it clean, but did not turn wrenches. It's going to be hard to maintain that level of spic and span with 3 kids.

Here's my immediate to do list, parts already ordered:

- Coolant reservoir (cracked and brown)
- coolant res cap
- Valve cover gaskets and cam seals/plugs (leaking)
- Spider hose (preventative)
- vented oil cap

The front has new Arnott bags, but the rears will need to be replaced soon. The driver's side is original! It has a slow leak. The passenger side front and rear doors need the switches checked for the puddle lights. And the timing belt is due in 30k miles. I will also be doing Silly Rabbit catless downpipes once it's in good health, and a Stuklr tune at Carlisle. Me want launch control!

Pics of the beast soon!

You're so conflicted. This is a family-mobile only. But it's getting exhaust, tune, cables downpipes, launch control...

It's OK, I'd do the same thing. Good luck with this! If I had the ability for the car to be down for maintenance more than rarely, I'd definitely have one of these for work. They must be just great when they're in 100% mechanical order.

Pics!

a family hauler.... with launch control. Stop lying to yourself, this thing is gonna be a monster.

Lol. I know, I know. But it truly is going to stop at a tune and exhaust. If the k03s die I don't know what I'll do, because I don't want to deal with fueling and clutch and and and and... It'd be nice if there was just a k03 that doesn't kill itself. Maybe there is, I honestly haven't even looked into turbos.

My main concern is reliability! Perhaps that and an allroad don't go hand in hand, but I'm gonna try

Heh, reliability. At least you didn't say it in the same sentence as allroad.

I think they're fine for the capable DIYer. You'll probably have to work on it a bit, but shouldn't break the bank for you since you can wrench.

My main concern is reliability! Perhaps that and an allroad don't go hand in hand, but I'm gonna try

lol. I've been lurking on allroad forums a bit lately as I'd like one of these also. As cool as the concept of these cars are, they have to be the most picky Audi ever.

Logic tells me never. But I still would like to have one!

Congrats on the purchase. Stage III here you come!!!

Nice Matt! Hope it treats you well, I've fawned over these many of times.

Also echoing chris' point - hahahaha. A slippery slope indeed!

If you are looking to not kill the turbos too quickly, why not wait on the tune and use the car as is until you get a good understanding of what you've bought and where things are at mechanically? The k03's seem to last for quite a while when ran at a normal level daily, especially when you have two of them. Personally I would tune it and deal with the consequences, but this is your WIFE's car... right?

Also there was a company... called blauparts, that made a conversion kit for relatively really cheap money to take your allroad suspension from the haggard air, to a regular macphearson setup, nothing crazy but probably a huge permanent upgrade for the car for daily duty.

I even found it for you!
http://www.blauparts.com/proddetail.asp?prod=MGR2001-A

Yeah, the point mage makes about the tune is a good one. I still want you to get one anyway so I can ride in it, but I'm trying hard to think practically here!

Thanks Mage! There's also an Arnott kit for about the same money. I've thought about it, but this compressor was replaced 5 years ago and the bags are actually really sweet when functional. It's super cool to be able to go up and down, and right now everything works. I think I would replace the rear bags (or perhaps just one bag) but after that if things started to go south I'd do a coil conversion.

This car is in generally good mechanical shape. Everything is very tight, the owner just didn't know what to look for engine wise. With what he knew he was particular... Never used less than 91 octane, proper oil changes, etc. Generally very well maintained which is great and it shows. And I got it for pretty cheap really, $4300 cad plus the ~500 I just spent on parts. I kept trying to find something major wrong with it but it was pretty much just what I listed above.

The more I drive it (when I get the chance) the more I like it. It just does everything I need pretty well.

Awesome. That's a great price. I'd have bought it too.

Sounds like a sweet ride. If its hauling you kids, do you really want it to be catless?

lorge1989 wrote:Sounds like a sweet ride. If its hauling you kids, do you really want it to be catless?

Fuck yes I do! They're coming from a 5 cylinder diesel with a straight exhaust. This still works putting them to sleep, but not as well

I miss my allroad. Get the Stuklr tune!! You wont be sorry

Nice score, Matt!!

if you don't want to kill the k03's, don't chip the car...simple as that.

The only thing inherently "unreliable" about the allroad is the air suspension. And it can easily be replaced with an A6 suspension

Hmm. I wonder if I can just get a really conservative tune. I'll see what Aaron says and do some reading

chaloux wrote:Hmm. I wonder if I can just get a really conservative tune. I'll see what Aaron says and do some reading

Do eeeeet. He can do some good coding too. My slushbox did fine with the tune and original snails. I'm pretty careful with my cars though.

Bringing it to Carlisle?

Look at the Franken turbo f21 kit when the turbos go...cheap fair upgade with out doing rods...

Downpipes ordered! Went with the Silly Rabbit Motorsport ones, 3"-2.5" taper. They'll fit the stock exhaust perfect for now, and by the time I scrap the cats will only have cost about $150. Not bad!

I don't really care about performance for turbos, I'm more interested in something that can just be run with a tune and no injectors etc., and respond like a k03. It looks like a F21 might be my best option, just a slight bit laggier if I understand correctly. I'm sure Aaron will fill me in. I'd likely do a clutch at the same time, probably an RS4 unit since they seem to be pretty cheap.

scubagli wrote:Look at the Franken turbo f21 kit when the turbos go...cheap fair upgade with out doing rods...

scubagli wrote:Look at the Franken turbo f21 kit when the turbos go...cheap fair upgade with out doing rods...

My roommate is upgrading his F21s, and IIRC he has a pjk04 kit gathering dust somewhere too. I bet he'd let the it go for ridiculously cheap if you're interested. PM me if so.

Haha. Well I'm only gonna change them if/when they blow. Hopefully it's still there collecting dust when that happens! I'll pm you anyway

you can get genuine borgwarner k03 chras for 350 shipped all day or BAE turbo systems k03 chra's for 280 shipped all day

easy replace if they pop

Gonna have to look into those... Didn't realize they were so cheap? Huh

If you can get a good deal on K04's, a Stage 3- tune might be worth looking into. IIRC, it's essentially just running K04's on stock hardware + 5 bar FPR and tune.

If you need to replace the bags... Do not buy arnott! They have become sub-par garbage and should be considered single use as removing the air line fitting voids the warranty and usually strips the plastic threads. I remember 5 years ago they were beautiful anodized aluminum pieces, now they can't even put a metal fitting insert. Oh and try getting a set rebuilt or getting service parts (even as a shop) and they tell you to buy a new one.

I just replaced a 6 month old set with modded hat ST coil overs because of a curb hop and necessary suspension rebuild on a customers car. The threads were damaged just loosening the fitting.


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