Ti Kan: Audi - My S4 2.7 biturbo quattro

Gallery 2

The following are some pictures of the car. Some of these were taken before all the modifications listed below were done. Click on any image to enlarge.

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Modification/Upgrade History

February 2003: I upgraded the stock Xenon HID headlight housings to OEM European specification units (made by Valeo). This resulted in significantly better beam pattern, due to a different shutter design. The Euro housings also have city lights and clear corner lenses (no orange filter).

February 2004: The car now rides on B6 Audi S4-V8 18x8J ET45 Avus-design wheels, shod with Continental SportContact2 235/40ZR18 97Y tires. To fit these, I had to add 5mm thick H&R hubcentric aluminum spacers to both front and rear with matching longer wheel bolts. Also new are a set of "Eurolocks" anti-theft wheel locks.

November 2005: I Installed a new Audi/PhatNoise digital audio system in place of the factory CD changer in the trunk. See pictures below. I was able to rip over 400 CDs worth of music onto a single 20GB DMS cartridge. Instead of using the supplied PhatNoise Media Manager software for ripping, I used my own software xmcd on Linux (In Ogg Vorbis format which is supported by PhatNoise and sounds superior to MP3 at the similar bitrates). I also used the PhatVoice software to generate the voice prompts, which allows me to tailor the voice announcements for better pronunciation.

January 2006: The PhatNoise DMM catridge was upgraded to a 80GB unit.

July 2006: I upgraded the tail lights to use LED bulbs. These bulbs are slightly brighter than stock, will never burn out (rated over 100000 hours of operation), and have super-fast turn-on and turn-off times for instant attention. The following table shows the application:

 Stock bulbLED replacement bulbVendor
Turn signal/hazard light 1156 (21W) Luxeon 1156-RLX3 (red) Super Bright LEDs
Tail light/brake light 1157 (5W/21W) Luxeon 1157-RLX3 (red) Super Bright LEDs
Reverse light 1156 (21W) Luxeon TerraLUX V-Star1 TLE-12W (white) LuxeonStar

Each of these LED bulbs utilize a single LED rather than an array, and plug into the stock tail light sockets, with no cutting or housing modifications needed. The wide light angle of 130° means that the reflectors and lenses in the tail light housing are still utilized for the total light emission.

Additional load resistors must be installed to maintain the turn signal blink rate and keep the car's auto-check system from displaying a bulb-malfunction condition. I used 15Ω 15W resistors for the turn signal/hazard lights, and 25Ω 10W resistors for the other bulbs. These are the Arcol aluminum power resistors, HS15 and HS10 series from Mouser.com. The resistors are mounted on a heatsink for proper dissipation. With these resistors, everything functions perfectly and yet the total power consumption is still less than the stock bulbs.

April 2007: I upgraded the interior rear view mirror to one from an 2004 Audi S4. The original mirror was an electronic mirror with auto-dimming, but the new mirror also has a digital compass display in the upper right hand corner. There is a pushbutton switch that enables the auto-dimming and compass features to be (independently) turned on and off. The Audi part number of the new mirror is 8E0 857 511 A 01C. It required minor trimming of the mirror's plastic wiring cover to fit, but is otherwise plug-and-play.

August 2007: I replaced the front brake pads with EBC Redstuff pads, and installed new OEM front brake discs.

November 2007: I replaced the engine turbo diverter valves to the updated version, Audi part number 06A 145 710N (Bosch 0 280 142 114). See mike01s4's articles (part 1, part 2) about testing results of various diverter valves.

I also replaced the after-run coolant pump thermoswitch with one that is rated at a lower temperature (original was Audi part number 357 919 369F, rated at 112°C, the replacement is 021 919 369, rated at 93°C/88°C). This turns on the reverse coolant pump and auxiliary fan after engine shutoff for up to 10 minutes to reduce heat-soak, and should help extend the turbos' longevity. This AudiWorld tech article provides the full details.

June 2009: Another lighting upgrade: This time it's a lot. I changed the tail light housings to the "Crystal Red/White" units made by FK of Germany. These housings have a larger band of clear lens extending across the entire width of the light. Unlike the stock tail lights, the FK has both the turn signal/hazard and the reverse light bulbs behind the clear lens area. It allows me to change to amber colored LEDs for the turn signal rather than the previous red. The FK housing's lens design also looks more distinctive than the stock unit, but remains understated and elegant. I re-wired the load resistors that I added in 2006 to the new tail lights (needed to prevent the car's auto check system from reporting bulb malfunctions). The gallery photos above, starting from dsc02566.jpg and upwards show the updated tail lights.



I updated the tail light bulbs to 5W multi-LED high power bulbs. These 1156/1157 bulbs are brighter than the 3W single-LED versions I installed previously, and have a much wider lighting angle (220° vs. 130°). I also replaced the four center high-mount brake light bulbs to high power red LEDs. I had to add a 30Ω 25W load resistor to the center brake light circuit to prevent the auto-check system from sporadically reporting a bulb malfunction.



The license plate lights are also updated to cool-white LEDs with heatsink. These are made by Ziza, will not melt the lamp housing, and does not require load resistors.



The interior front and rear overhead dome light/map light bulbs, and the two luggage compartment bulbs were changed to cool-white LEDs. The fade-in, fade-out effect of the interior lights still works after the change to LEDs.



Lastly, the "city lights" in the front European Xenon HID lamp housings were changed to BAx9s blue LEDs.



 StockModVendor
Tail light housings (pair) Audi 8D0 945 095 H and 8D0 945 096 H FK Crystal Red/White FKRL553 ECS Tuning (part number 9474)
Turn signal/hazard light (2 pcs.) 1156 (21W) Luxeon 1156-ALX5 (amber) Super Bright LEDs
Tail light/brake light (2 pcs.) 1157 (5W/21W) Luxeon 1157-RLX5 (red) Super Bright LEDs
Reverse light (2 pcs.) 1156 (21W) Luxeon 1156-WLX5 (cool white) Super Bright LEDs
License plate light (2 pcs.) 37mm festoon style (5W) Ziza T10W37KT-14 (cool white) ECS Tuning (part number 259644)
Center-mount brake lights W5W (194) wedge style (5W) Luxeon WLED-RHP (red) Super Bright LEDs
City lights (for Euro Xenon headlight housings, 2 pcs.) H6W (BAx9s) (6W) BAx9s high power LED (blue) 42 Draft Designs
Interior dome lights (front, 2 pcs.) 42mm festoon style (10W) Luxeon 4210-CWHP6 (cool white) Super Bright LEDs
Interior map lights (front and rear, 4 pcs.) BA9s (5W) Luxeon BA9s-CWHP6 (cool white) Super Bright LEDs
Luggage compartment lighting (2 pcs.) 37mm festoon style (5W) Luxeon 3710-CWHP6 (cool white) Super Bright LEDs


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Last update: 09/09/08 02:55:57