My A3 Sportback Progress Thread/Diary

Started by JPK, March 10, 2013, 05:58:37 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 3 Guests are viewing this topic.

JPK

These arrived today finally. The price is within a few dollars of Bilstein B8s, which I was looking at buying instead of the H&R cup kit dampers. However I decided to keep it all the same and the damping is matched to the springs I already have in the car.

I wouldnt be surprised if they are a rebranded Bilstein B8 as the H&Rs are also monotube and at an identical price point.




The silver ones are the incorrectly sized 50mm dampers. Not sure what I will do with these...
Without stating the obvious, the 55mm dampers (black) are definitely a much bigger damper.
A3 8P Sportback 2.0T DSG
- Progress Diary -

Poonmobile

Loving this thread! Keep it up, i think the car looks fantastic btw. Some nice and tasteful mods.
Current:
06 NZ B7 RS4 Avus Silver, 01 NZ B5 RS4 Avus Silver, 93 NZ VR6 Tornado Red 3dr, Renault Clio 172 & Renault Clio 197
Past:
MK2 VR6, MK5 GTI, 2 x MK5 R32, 8L S3 Imola, MK4 Golf V6 4MO, Polo GTI, 2x MK3 VR6, D2 S8, B5 S4 Avant, 03 NZ R32 Deep Blue Pearl, Renault Megane R26 liquid yello

JPK

Bank account is taking a hammering this month...




This was a bit more than I wanted to spend on a grille as there is loads of cheaper options out there that also look quite good.
It completes the rest of the Oettinger kit nicely though, the build quality is great and fitment will be as good as OE being Oettinger.
The grille is in matt black (which most people just run with). Im thinking about having it painted gloss black to have that nice 'Black Edition'
look which will be a nice contrast with the body colour. Haven't decided yet.
It comes with all the hardware to mount the mesh and the Oettinger badge. Still waiting on the Audi rings.




This also arrived the other week. Very similar to the fibreglass OSIR lip but made out of PUR plastic and T?V approved. Probably a bit more forgiving than fibreglass.

Should hopefully get both of these on next week.

A3 8P Sportback 2.0T DSG
- Progress Diary -

JPK

#23
Have been driving for a couple of days now on the parts that were recently installed.

BRAKES - Would thoroughly recommend these upgrades to anyone who wants a decent upgrade in braking performance without breaking the bank.
The pedal feel and progression instills a LOT more confidence over the OE setup. Did a number of hard 60-0kmh and 100-0kmh stops to break the pads/rotors in and the car pulls up nice and quick without engaging ABS. I cant get over how much nicer the pedal progression is. Nice and solid and progressive right through the pedal travel. Very happy with it. Little dust now (Probably 10% of OE) and no squeaking/squealing at all when coming to a stop.

Note: The fluid that came out wasnt too bad, so im guessing the fluid was changed in the last 20,000kms or so. The OE pads had around 80% left on them. The new rotors wouldnt have made any difference to what I am feeling initially. The tyres I have are nice and grippy so this would also assist with hard stops.
Made a bit of a mistake when purchasing 286mm rear rotors. A3s and Golfs didnt change from 260mm to 286mm until 2008ish. Have put in a set of new OE rotors for now and will look at new carriers and dust shields to upgrade to the 286mm rotors at a later date. Calipers look to be the same between both.


SUSPENSION - Firstly, the NVH and ride quality is now at the outer limit of what I am personally happy with for a daily driver. I wouldn't recommend going as far as I have if you value your ride quality over cornering performance and drive on bad roads a lot. I dont have much of a problem with it but I mainly drive on decent roads and only do around 6000km a year in this car. The combination of 35 profile tyres/19" wheels and the suspension upgrades do make for a hard ride. If you stick with a lower diameter wheel and higher profile tyre the harshness would be reduced quite a lot I imagine, even with the same suspension setup. A few rattles and squeaks were initially introduced, but a bit of WD40 and tightening a few screws etc here and there have tidied that up.

Now on to the good stuff.

Issues that are now non existent: No more subframe clunk or shifting whatsoever. You can give the accelerator a sharp tap at low speeds and the whole car will go forward, rather than there being a split second while the rest of the car catches up with the subframe. No more clicking when turning sharply at low speed.
No more 'compression' squeak/noise from the rear when going over bumps (Fixed by Whiteline trailing arm bushes and possibly new rear end links). When hitting a bump you feel it initially but it is dampened instantly and the car continues on its way with no after effects or bumping (probably mostly related to the correct dampers in the front now). No bump steer now either.

Steering feels a lot more precise and you can feel more of the undulations of the road through the steering wheel. Better feedback.
The whole car feels stiffer and much tighter.

The car feels a lot more 'point and shoot'. No more floaty rear end at speed. It feels extremely capable when cornering and you would have to be going at stupid speeds when cornering for ESP to kick in or to lose control. Im not game enough to test it.

The rear end links also needed to be replaced as one of them was bent and the other had a seized bolt. Decided to replace with OEM instead of Whiteline as the application is slightly different in the rear and the links are a lot stubbier and therefore I imagine have much less load on them than the fronts. The one on the right is the bent one in the picture below. The rest of the photos arent the best but you get the idea. Will try and take some more when its on a hoist next.



Dont realise how many parts have been replaced till they are all sitting in a box to one side, most seem in ok condition and have no torn boots.











A3 8P Sportback 2.0T DSG
- Progress Diary -

Brett

Previous:MKIII Golf GL, MKIV Golf GTI, E36 325i, E36 323i, B5 S4 sedan, C32 AMG, B5 S4 avant, BMW 740iL, MKV Golf Gti 2dr.

Current:
Company car
Weekend toy-2007 Golf Gti Edition 30

creepdontsleep

Mercedes Benz ML350CDI 4MATIC
Audi C7 RS6 Avant

Mercedes Benz CLA45 AMG
Audi B7 RS4 Avant Misano Red
Audi B8 S4 Avant Unitronic Stage 3+
VW Mk5 R32 OEM+
Honda DC2 Integra Type R 98 Spec
Mitsubishi Lancer GSR 
Honda EG6 Civic K20A

JPK

#26
Will take some better photos when I have detailed it. The fit of the front lip isnt perfect but that is to be expected from an aftermarket part I guess.

I may do something else with the front bumper at some point or have the lip moulded into the bumper. I think the grille turned out great.




A3 8P Sportback 2.0T DSG
- Progress Diary -

Fizz


Arr32

That is hot...Keep up the good work. BTW where did you pick up the carbon wrap?
2006 MY07 NZ Black Magic .:R32 - (Manual)
2013 MY13 NZ Candy White Tiguan R-line - (DSG) - (Sold)
2019 MY20 NZ White Tiguan R-Line with Black pack

JPK

Quote from: Arr32 on April 22, 2013, 10:44:33 PM
That is hot...Keep up the good work. BTW where did you pick up the carbon wrap?

Just off trademe. 3m di-noc carbon. I'm going to remove it and wrap the trim in a different film that I have got my hands on in the next couple of weeks.
A3 8P Sportback 2.0T DSG
- Progress Diary -

hagan

Check out 3M 1080 much more conformable than di-noc
Swaps for an S2K?

JPK

#31
Decided to switch out my original grandpa shifter for the 'S-Tronic' knob from the 2009-2013 model. This has been covered on forums in the UK and US a fair bit - the main issue being the orientation of the shift rod being different between the earlier and later models; the shifter button being on the front on the later models. I wont do a complete DIY as this can be found elsewhere, but have posted a few pics below of the process. If you stuff this up, the complete shifting mechanism needs to be pulled out and replaced, which is a $1000 part and will involve around 5 hours labour.

I used the 'grub screw method' with a replacement piece for the top of the shift rod I got off a guy in the US - pre tapped. This involves sawing off the top of the shift rod and drilling down 5mm into the centre of the rod, using a 2mm tapper and then joining the 2 pieces with an M2 grub screw. Couldnt find a 10mm grub screw locally so had to grind the head off a normal M2x10mm screw.

Picked up an RS3 knob from Ebay UK for a good price. It isnt branded 'RS3' so I dont have a problem with using it in my A3. This came in cheaper than the 'S-Tronic' branded knob and has punched leather and a silver stitched leather boot. However it is for LHD, so had to swap over the base on the leather boot, glue and tack it on.

When I was about to put the new knob on, I pushed in the button on it accidentally. This meant it wouldn't install and I had to pull the whole knob apart and 'reset' the button.

All done now. Very happy with the look. Up there with the best mods I have done on the car to date.





A3 8P Sportback 2.0T DSG
- Progress Diary -

JPK

#32
Also did a couple of other minor mods recently. The 3m Di-noc film was peeling off a bit in places - partly to do with the method I initially used and partly to do with the film.
Used an Oracal Carbon film which is a lot more pliable and used an improved method to wrap it and set the glue.

The film is very similar in look to the 'Aluminium Race' film that is an option on RS3s. This is the RS3 trim: http://image.eurotuner.com/f/editorials/eurotuner-project-audi-a3-20t-for-sale/36523414/eurotuner-project-audi-a3-20t.jpg (I had to use a wide piece of film to ensure the door blades had the correct OEM orientation).

Another pic in the gear knob post above. I think it looks like an OEM trim piece now, which is what I was after.







Also added some LED Number Plate Lights. Updates the rear of the car nicely at night. Looks like much more of a difference in person.

BEFORE


AFTER
A3 8P Sportback 2.0T DSG
- Progress Diary -

Fizz


Toro


JPK

Recent dyno day - 145.5kw at the wheels. Feel that is a bit down on where it should be but could be anything I guess at 115k kms. Dodgy thermostat making it run rich, carbon buildup or even a clogged cat.. will fix those things at some point soon and see where it sits then.

A3 8P Sportback 2.0T DSG
- Progress Diary -

fuzion

Car is looking good! Really liking it!

145 is quite on the low side though, without reading what mods have you done /tune/intake wise?

Normally with a tune+intake you would be around the 145-150 mark maybe with DP around 150-160 depending on dyno reading i suppose.

The carbon buildup wouldnt be such an issue on power overall. What gear was he also running?

JPK

Just APR stage 1 tune and Forge Twintake. There was DSG GTI there at the same time that did 148kw atw with just the APR tune (no intake). Maybe the car will wake up nicely with a downpipe and Stage 2 tune and the benefits of the intake will be more apparent.

Replacing thermostat tomorrow as it has been a bit intermittent with getting to temperature. Will see if that makes any difference.

Torque runs their own 'dynotorque' dyno: http://www.torqueperformance.co.nz/dynotorque.php
A3 8P Sportback 2.0T DSG
- Progress Diary -

slowmo

Aren't the 2.0T rated at 147kw stock?
Current: 2004 MK4 R32 3-door NZ New DBP

Past: 2010 MK6 GTI / 2013 Nissan Leaf LOL / 2007 B7 RS4 / 2006 MK5 R32 / 2005 MK5 GTI / 1998 MK4 GTI / 1997 B5 A4 MTM

JPK

Quote from: slowmo on May 17, 2013, 09:50:20 AM
Aren't the 2.0T rated at 147kw stock?

The dyno is 'at the wheels'. So it will be around 170kw at the flywheel.

On paper with the APR Stage 1 tune and Forge Twintake it should be around 200kw at the flywheel.
APR quotes 188kw and Forge quotes around 10kw increase (backed up by loads of dyno sheets).

Torque Performance may not have dynoed it properly however, as there is apparantly a bit of an artform to dynoing a DSG car to give it full throttle but avoid it downshifting while on the rollers.

A3 8P Sportback 2.0T DSG
- Progress Diary -