RONINS8: Project Luxobarge

[alxdgr8]

2003 Audi S8
40v 4.2L V8 360hp
5spd Auto
Avus Silver exterior, Oxblood interior
Sport seats and pretty much every option minus the solor sunroof

Got inspired by a few people talking about the forums recently so I decided to FINALLY post a project thread about my S8 that I bought over two years ago now...

Back in 2017, I knew I was going to sellback my 2010 Toaureg TDI since they were offering a stupid deal. I had recently completed the 1.8T swap into my 95 90qs, but having gotten a very large Great Dane the prior year I was yearning for something larger. I had always lusted after the D2 S8 so I started to hunt for one. Coming from a black Touareg and black 90, my color preferences were simple...not black! I then discovered the 2003 series of Audi Exlusive S8's. In 2003, Audi imported 300 S8's into the USA and did 100 of each of 3 exclusive color combos. Having loved the Mouton red leather interior of my Coupe GT as soon as I saw the Oxblood red leather interior with an Avus silver exterior I knew that was going to be my top pick. I would have also graciously accepted one of the nice greens or metallic reds. I planned to have the Toaureg for a few months more, so I decided to put the 1.8T B4 up on Bring a Trailer and see how much of my S8 budget I could make up. It didn't end up being as much as I had hoped, but it was still a good portion. When shopping I specifically wanted something with a freshly rebuilt transmission, or one nice enough but cheap enough to do a 6spd conversion. I had actually had a line on a 6spd swapped one at the start of the year, but I didn't sell my 90q quite fast enough. The 6MT S8 actually got posted on BAT a few days prior to my 90qs. So alas I had to keep looking.

A few weeks later I connected with a fellow QuattroWorld member out of Denver. He used to have his and hers D2 S8's. He previously had sold his and replaced it with a W12 D3 A8, his wife got an SUV , and the 'hers' S8 got their son through college. His son graduated and his wife gave him permission to persue getting a Panamera Turbo, thus his W12 D3 and the now spare D2 S8 had to go. As he was planning on getting the S8 ready for sale the prior year, the transmission started to act up after 180k miles (which is pretty good). He decided to ship the car to Gabor/Tozo in Chicago and have him rebuild the trans just to sell the car. They were the 2nd owners and kept the car very well maintained at the dealer and had a massive stack of receipts for the car.

The car was originally just out of my price range, but after mulling it over and a little negotiating I knew I couldn't pass it up. I sent a deposit and booked a one-way plane ticket from Seattle to Denver in April 2017. When I got it, the car had 183k miles and was mostly stock with the exception of a lip spoiler in the rear and an RSNE swap.

Picked up the car early in the morning and headed to Rocky Mountain National Park before heading out of town. The road through the park wasn't open just yet, but you could drive around a little in the park so I did.

P1170173 by Vex Art Media, on Flickr

P1170154 by Vex Art Media, on Flickr

P1170178 by Vex Art Media, on Flickr

P1170205 by Vex Art Media, on Flickr

Overnighted somewhere in Utah and then headed to SLC to meetup with Dave and Chris to chat and grab some parts to bring back to the PNW.

P1170217 by Vex Art Media, on Flickr

P1170224 by Vex Art Media, on Flickr

P1170235 by Vex Art Media, on Flickr

P1170246 by Vex Art Media, on Flickr

Had to stop off at Bonneville. Sadly there was still some flooding.

P1170256 by Vex Art Media, on Flickr

P1170268 by Vex Art Media, on Flickr

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P1170282 by Vex Art Media, on Flickr

Kept powering through back towards Seattle and stopped off in Twin Falls, ID. Despite having driven through several times on the way to BBQ, I had never stopped at the bridge over the snake river. Saw a few people base jump off while I was there which was pretty cool.

P1170298 by Vex Art Media, on Flickr

P1170338 by Vex Art Media, on Flickr

[PRY4SNO]

Not sure which I like more, the whip or the trip.

Both. The answer is both. A lot.

[alxdgr8]

I've got about 2yrs of pictures uploaded, but still need to work on typing it all up so hoping to hammer that out over the next week or so.

This thread would be worthless without pics of the oxblood interior!

LRM_EXPORT_20170529_135130 by Vex Art Media, on Flickr

Some good examples of how different Avus silver is from your normal. Really changes colors depending on the lighting.

IMG_20170614_204251 by Vex Art Media, on Flickr

2017-07-03_06-52-09 by Vex Art Media, on Flickr

Shortly after making it home, had to take a family photo with the B4. The buyer on BAT went on a business trip shortly after winning, so he paid and had me store it for a few weeks. So I ended up buying the S8 before he even picked up the B4.

IMG_20170511_180742 by Vex Art Media, on Flickr

IMG_20170428_195310 by Vex Art Media, on Flickr

[audifreakjim]

Just going to say, I like seeing the B4 and CGT in your garage

[mr_aj_johnson]

I've always wanted a d2 s8 as well, cool car.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

[the german]

Shorter commute = manual swap time?

[alxdgr8]

Circa September 2017

Hover mode engaged! Car desperately needed some new brakes. Found some crazy deals (50-75% off) on Amazon for some EBC stuff. Got some EBC USR front rotors and EBC Yellows all the way around. Now if I were to do it all again, I'd probably choose a different pad because the Yellows dust like a bitch! They stop great, are quiet, and don't require much of a warmup but the wheels are covered after one stop.

IMG_20170909_194101 by Vex Art Media, on Flickr

Some Audi Sport decals on the mcdonald's brakes

IMG_20170919_175001 by Vex Art Media, on Flickr

Car also got some ST Coilovers. They ride great and are firmer than stock but still very much DD friendly, I've been very happy with them. And being in the NW, I don't need to worry about corrosion as much, so ST was a good compromise over the full stainless KW's.
FYI, this single-sided strut compressor (knockoff of the VAG tool) made this job possible. Pretty much impossible to do the rears unless you drop the subframe or you have the single-sided compressor. Lots of cheap knockoffs that work well on Amazon.

IMG_20170927_194848 by Vex Art Media, on Flickr

Fresh coolant reservoir....which started to yellow about a week later

IMG_20171009_173338 by Vex Art Media, on Flickr

Messing around with a new camera lens.

1180291 by Vex Art Media, on Flickr

[alxdgr8]

Wheel setup # 1 = Stock

Wheel setup #2 = 19x8.5 ET42 TSW Rally with 255/40R19 Conti ExtremeContact

Found these TSW's on Ebay for a pretty cheap price ($420 shipped for the set). Thought they might look good, but after installing them they never quite grew on me. I didn't like the contour that the spokes had, would've been nicer if they had been flatter. 255 was also pretty beefy on the 8.5" They stayed on for a few months and I sold them for a pretty penny more than I paid.

IMG_20170923_190847 by Vex Art Media, on Flickr

IMG_20170924_184229 by Vex Art Media, on Flickr

IMG_20170929_222201_419 by Vex Art Media, on Flickr

Posing with the (then) family

IMG_20171007_150501 by Vex Art Media, on Flickr

IMG_20170819_173230 by Vex Art Media, on Flickr

2017-10-17_05-20-43 by Vex Art Media, on Flickr

IMG_20171006_160602_341 by Vex Art Media, on Flickr

[alxdgr8]

Wheel setup #3 = 19x9.5 ET39 TSW Holeshot

Found these from the same seller on ebay and ended up scoring them for even cheaper ($320 shipped). Wider with a more aggressive offset and Rotary Forged so they were even lighter than the 8.5's that they replaced. Same 255/40R19. I liked these wheels better, but would've preferred the silver option they made, but I couldn't get those for stupid cheap. Kept these on for quite a while though.

IMG_20171012_182642 by Vex Art Media, on Flickr

MVIMG_20171024_074940-01 by Vex Art Media, on Flickr

Added an aux input to the RSNE.

IMG_20171019_204707 by Vex Art Media, on Flickr

[alxdgr8]

I'm an acoustical engineer by profession, so I've got a pretty high standard for what I like in an exhaust sound. I wanted something louder than stock, but not something that ruins the nice comfy essence that is the S8. I wanted something slightly louder inside and out, but drowning on the highway was not allowed. Especially since the S8 has pretty short gearing with the stock auto trans.

Exhaust setup #1 = stock...too quiet

Exhaust setup #2 = replaced the stock H-pipe with an x-pipe and swapped out the rear muffler with a B5S4 Milltek rear muffler that I scored for cheap locally.

End result, WAYYYYY too much drone pretty much all the time. This lasted maybe a week.

My shitty TIG welding I know.... I really need to take some time and practice, along with getting a band saw and belt sander for proper fitup.

IMG_20171014_164646 by Vex Art Media, on Flickr

IMG_20171015_152111 by Vex Art Media, on Flickr

[alxdgr8]

Exhaust setup #3 - dual flex pipes, X-pipe, dual 12" Vibrant bottle resonators, Magnaflow x-flow muffler for the center resonator, B5S4 Milltek rear muffler

Quickly converted to this setup after the previous one which was way too annoying. This was quite a bit better, but had an odd resonance between 1500-2200 rpm. It wasn't a problem on the highway, but on my daily commute on city streets it was pretty annoying, especially going up the hills under low RPM and high load which is pretty abundant in Seattle. I did keep this setup on for quite a while since I didn't want to mess with it. Looking back, doing a y-pipe to a large single pipe would be way easier. Getting two pipes to line up all the way back with multiple mufflers and sight straight in the rear is a huge PITA!!!! Lots of shitty welding to fill gaps...

IMG_20171020_194042 by Vex Art Media, on Flickr

IMG_20171022_195224 by Vex Art Media, on Flickr

[alxdgr8]

October 2017

Drove the car from Seattle to Vegas for Battle Born Quattro. Teamed up with my buddy Ryan in his Mustang GT and Todd with his immaculate CQ.
Ate up the miles, and the gas...average was around 20-21mpg pure highway due to the high speed limits and lack of a 6th gear in the auto. Found 150mph on a closed stretch of road in Nevaxico. Could hardly tell besides the bad door seal getting a little loud around 120. Thought she was topped out around 140 and then it shifted into 5th

MVIMG_20171030_163300 by Vex Art Media, on Flickr

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P1210186 by Vex Art Media, on Flickr

2019-04-28_09-56-02 by Vex Art Media, on Flickr

P1190920 by Vex Art Media, on Flickr

P1190933 by Vex Art Media, on Flickr

P1190957 by Vex Art Media, on Flickr

P1190995 by Vex Art Media, on Flickr

P1200028 by Vex Art Media, on Flickr

P1200042 by Vex Art Media, on Flickr

P1200055 by Vex Art Media, on Flickr

P1220276 by Vex Art Media, on Flickr

P1220291 by Vex Art Media, on Flickr

P1220297 by Vex Art Media, on Flickr

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P1220477 by Vex Art Media, on Flickr

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P1220711 by Vex Art Media, on Flickr

[alxdgr8]

Winter 2017/2018

Random trip up to Snoqualmie Pass

MVIMG_20171119_155327 by Vex Art Media, on Flickr

Wheels setup #4 (the winter setup) = 18x8 ET? Team Dynamics Motorsport with Blizzak LM60

Decent snow tire, not super impressed but they were cheap on craigslist. Same for the wheels, they had multipel bends that I had to have straightened. Rattle canned them silver and modded some Audi center caps to fit.

IMG_20171206_162309 by Vex Art Media, on Flickr

MVIMG_20171212_175728 by Vex Art Media, on Flickr

MVIMG_20180106_132712 by Vex Art Media, on Flickr

Installed a MOMO air leather shift knob with a TIP-mod shifter adapter

00100dPORTRAIT_00100_BURST20180222122834260_COVER by Vex Art Media, on Flickr

Some fun I had one night with the camera and multiple exposures

IMG_20180216_133018_231 by Vex Art Media, on Flickr

[Grillage]

This is great! I also always wanted one and the oxblood is killer

[alxdgr8]

March 2018, about a month before my wedding

My wife and I were heading to dinner, sitting at a stop light and the car changed idle which was odd, then as I started to pull away from the light the car was misfiring very badly and had zero power. Limped it the few miles home.

Screenshot_20180310-200346_2 by Vex Art Media, on Flickr

Started tearing into it the next day and tried all kinds of things to troubleshoot the misfires.

MVIMG_20180311_150932 by Vex Art Media, on Flickr

Got around to doing a compression test and found bad news Guessing the others were low due to fuel washing the walls since I drove it about 5 miles while misfiring.

MVIMG_20180311_170320 by Vex Art Media, on Flickr

Wasn't going to mess with it before the wedding so it got parked. Originally planned on just buying a beater to get me by a few months, but my soon-to-be-wife and I decided that we'd spend more and get something nicer/newer that would replace her Ford Fiesta once I fixed the S8. Ended up with a 2007 A4 2.0T TIP Avant with just over 100k miles and a recent timing belt service.

MVIMG_20180318_145056 by Vex Art Media, on Flickr

Got married and the wife agreed to take some photos with the CGT

FB_IMG_1546304904567 by Vex Art Media, on Flickr

FB_IMG_1546304831984 by Vex Art Media, on Flickr

[alxdgr8]

June 2018

After letting the car sit for 3 months I finally got around to pulling it into the garage and starting the investigation. I had also sourced a used S6 motor in case the engine was screwed. Also contemplated doing a 6spd swap if I did end up pulling the motor. My commute had changed since I had bought the car. I originally wanted the auto since my commute was 45 minutes in stop and go traffic, but had recently changed to about 15 minutes of city streets, so a manual wouldn't be bad.

IMG_20180614_174312 by Vex Art Media, on Flickr

Pulled the valve cover and found out why I no longer had compression. Center valve spring had broken and the valve would no longer close. After some searching and asking around this isn't completely uncommon and has actually happened to a few other S8s. The S8 has higher lift than the other 5v heads, and the center intake spring specifically has the highest lift. The other people who have had this happen also had the center intake break. Haven't seen it happen on A8 or 1.8T, but I'm guessing that's because they don't have the lift that the S8 does.

IMG_20180616_144100 (1) by Vex Art Media, on Flickr

Decided I'd pull the head to see if the bore was still good. I had a spare A6 4.2L sitting around that I could salvage a head from if the block was still good. Thankfully the valve didn't break off and was actually still spinning in the guide, just bent and no spring.

IMG_20180614_192209 (1) by Vex Art Media, on Flickr

Bores still looked great.

MVIMG_20180614_192533 by Vex Art Media, on Flickr

Amazing what quality oil can do for an engine. Top is the original S8 head with 190k miles, but with documented oil changes with Mobil 1 its whole life. Bottom is the lower mileage but unknown oil head from the A6 that I swapped on.

Comb16062018070353 by Vex Art Media, on Flickr

[alxdgr8]

Since I didn't want to ever deal with this failure again, I ponied up and spent $900 to get 40 new valvesprings and titanium retainers from Supertech.

IMG_20180620_174124 by Vex Art Media, on Flickr

Takes a long time to do 40 valve springs. One head done off the car, the other head done in the car.

IMG_20180625_190420 by Vex Art Media, on Flickr

IMG_20180628_172443 by Vex Art Media, on Flickr

I originally thought I could salvage the rocker from cylinder 2 and just replace the hydraulic lifter/compensator, but unfortunately the rocker had been damaged. S8 and A8 rockers have different part numbers and new ones are insanely expensive! I set the A6 one side by side with the S8 one, and from all of my measurements they appear to be the same with the exception of the two tabs sticking off of the A6 ones. I'm guessing with the higher lift of the S8 ones these tabs might have some interference with the head casting, so I carefully took the A6 rocker and ground the tabs off. This provided me with a as far as I could measure a comparable S8 rocker.

IMG_20180628_174535 by Vex Art Media, on Flickr

Since I had failed to do the starter while I had the oil cooler off in the winter to replace the plastic pipe with a Bufkin metal one, I decided I should do it while I had the head off. Otherwise they're a major PITA to replace.
My timing belt/waterpump/etc were only about 30k miles old, but since I had everything apart I redid everything anyways to make her good for years to come.

MVIMG_20180707_124549 by Vex Art Media, on Flickr

Of course I couldn't help myself from collecting some parts while it was down. Scored some euro bixenon headlights and euro amber turn signals (US are red). I eventually swapped to '97 USA A8 lights though as those are amber and keep the small side running light that the euros don't have.

IMG_20180808_121855 by Vex Art Media, on Flickr

Also got some Lloyd's hexomats that are a pretty good match for the oxblood.

IMG_20180828_170515 by Vex Art Media, on Flickr

Along with a matching rear cargo mat.

IMG_20181019_172818 by Vex Art Media, on Flickr

[vt10vt]

That new wheel/tire combo is AWESOME. Always had a soft spot on these, looking forward to more updates and hoping for a 6spd swap

[alxdgr8]

Summer 2018

Spent a few weeks in Eastern WA for work so I didn't get to work on the car for a while, but at least I had a good view.

Comb18072018091108 by Vex Art Media, on Flickr

IMG_20180725_124806_605 by Vex Art Media, on Flickr

Family photo at the time

MVIMG_20180908_114758_2 by Vex Art Media, on Flickr

While I had the engine apart I had to do some powdercoating to clean things up. Did this red/silver vein powder, which I was hoping would turn out a little more red, but came out kind of pinkish which ends up being a good match for the oxblood.

IMG_20180916_145224 by Vex Art Media, on Flickr

Can't leave even the little details alone, replaced all of the valve cover bolts....$$$

MVIMG_20180917_182807 by Vex Art Media, on Flickr

The first D2 S8 in the world (that I can find) with the updated D3/Touareg style valve covers and engine covers. Had this crazy idea before the engine went, and slowly collected the parts. Really love how it turned out, there's way too much plastic on the original D2 engine.

IMG_20181011_181837 (3) by Vex Art Media, on Flickr

It always bugged me that Audi put covers over everything, but then for some reason stopped on the driver's side and didn't cover the coolant and PS reservoirs. Found that Audi did make some for a V6 TDI engined D2 and ordered them from Audi Tradition via Issam. Finally completed the look I was going for!

MVIMG_20190114_170657 by Vex Art Media, on Flickr

October 2018 she runs again!!!!!!

[alxdgr8]

How to swap D3 valve covers onto a 40v D2

D3 Parts Needed:

Right valve cover: 077103476T
Left valve cover: 077103475AA

Cut D2 timing covers…or use these D3 ones:
Left 077109117B
Right 077109118D

Fuel Rail: 077133681AA

Timing belt covers:
Upper Right 077109124B
Upper Left 077109123F
Lower 077109121C

Engine Covers
Front 077103925E
Rear 077103926A

Coil conduit
Red Right 4E0971824S
Red Left 4E0971824AA

D3 coil packs (I used the black Touareg ones since I didn't like how the red ones didn't match the coil conduit or my powdercoat on the valve covers)
077905115AA

D3 valve cover gaskets
Also a good time to change the valve cover bolts to make sure things seal properly.
077103831E (x20)
077103831D (x4)

D3 injector conduits don't work with the D2 injector connectors.

D2 injectors, FPR, and lines are plug-and-play with the D3 fuel rail.

It looks like it's possible to use the D2 rear timing covers as the D3 ones look like cut D2 ones. But it's probably just easier to buy the D3 ones. If you were really careful it might be possible to remove the D2 valve covers and cut the D2 rear timing covers on the car, but that's probably pretty risky. This swap is best done while performing a timing service since the cam gears need to come off to remove the rear timing covers.



Driver's side D3 rear timing cover needs to be drilled to attach the cylinder head timing belt roller.







On the D2, the wiring for the coils and injectors are in one harness that runs between the two. For the D3 they're split because the D3 coil wiring comes from below. Thus you need to cut back the insulation on the D2 coil/injector harness and fan it out into an 'upper' and 'lower' harness. I was able to do this without cutting any wires or undoing any connectors. Depending on how far back you fan it, you might need to extend some wires. I believe the only extensions I made were for the passenger cam sensor and the two resistor packs or whatever they are that bolt to the fuel rail. I then used some split loom and silicone electrical tape to recover the harness.







Rear engine cover needs to be trimmed to clear the intake tube. There is also a bracket on the D3 for one of the engine cover mounts that I couldn't find the p/n for, but the cover fits on my car without it just fine as the fuel rail has 2 mounts.

Passenger side radiator hose will now rub on the D3 valve cover ear. You can't use the D3 hose as the radiator has different connections. I'm not sure if this will be an issue, it could eventually rub a hole. For now I've left it as is, but I'll eventually probably fab up a pipe to route around the VC ear.

For the front engine cover, I painted part of the silver red to simulate the differences between the A8 and S8 D2 engine covers.

End result

[alxdgr8]

Fall 2018

New plate and the new bixenons

2018-10-12_09-30-38 by Vex Art Media, on Flickr

Beauty shot by the space needle

IMG_20181216_200820 by Vex Art Media, on Flickr

Even though the trans had been rebuilt 15k miles ago, I decided to due a flush and install a transgo valve. Tozo had used some generic red ATF, I put in the OE green fluid.

IMG_20181224_111307 by Vex Art Media, on Flickr

Another family photo in September 2018. My good buddy Rudy gave me deal I couldn't pass on for a running/driving well modded '83 UrQ. This forced me to sell my silver '83 and my 20v GT. Due to some scheduling constraints he was actually kind enough to deliver the car to me before I had even gotten rid of the other two cars, so I had to take the opportunity to pose the D2 with 3 B2 coupes.

IMG_20180922_155219 by Vex Art Media, on Flickr

[alxdgr8]

Winter 2018/2019

Took a business trip to England around Thanksgiving and had 4 days off. So me and a coworker bought some cheap tickets and spent a few days in Munich and of course had to travel to the motherland.

MVIMG_20181125_111801 by Vex Art Media, on Flickr

Once I returned I started on...

Exhaust setup #4 - Same as #3 but with a custom designed Helmholtz resonator to remove some 110Hz drone
dual flex pipes, X-pipe, dual 12" Vibrant bottle resonators, Magnaflow x-flow muffler for the center resonator, custom Helmholtz resonator, B5S4 Milltek rear muffler

MVIMG_20181228_111851 by Vex Art Media, on Flickr

This was better, but still not exactly what I was looking for. I swapped out the rear Milltek muffler for a duplicate of the center muffler, another Magnaflow X-flow. Still better, but not 100% of what I wanted...yes I know I'm picky, but that's my curse for doing acoustics everyday

Exhaust setup #5 - dual flex pipes, X-pipe, dual 12" Vibrant bottle resonators, Magnaflow x-flow muffler for the center resonator, custom Helmholtz resonator, Magnaflow x-flow rear muffler



Decided I wanted to swap to a chambered muffler to get rid of a bit more low frequency. Ended up choosing the smallest Flowmaster Delta Super 50 I could find, but unfortunately I could only get a dual in/single out. This barely fit and then I had to find the absolute shortest single in to dual tailpipe tips I could find, which I still had to shorten to not stick too far out. But alas, I finally had the tone I was looking for. Sporty on the outside but still very comfortable on the inside as to not ruin the mantra of the S8.

Exhaust setup #6 - dual flex pipes, X-pipe, dual 12" Vibrant bottle resonators, Magnaflow x-flow muffler for the center resonator, custom Helmholtz resonator, Flowmaster Super 50

IMG_20190107_182254 by Vex Art Media, on Flickr

At some point in time I also added these factory rear mudflaps. I also have a set of fronts that I found, but they were only made for pre-facelift cars and don't quite fit the same so I haven't mounted them.

IMG_20190119_141642 by Vex Art Media, on Flickr

Offset the depth of the tips to also flow with the curve of the rear bumper

IMG_20190119_142004 by Vex Art Media, on Flickr

[alxdgr8]

Winter 2018/2019

We got a massive snowstorm in Seattle that dumped about 10" at our house (and 20-30" in some parts of the area!) Doesn't happen very often in the city so we definitely enjoyed it!

IMG_20190204_064910 by Vex Art Media, on Flickr

2019-05-03_02-02-03 by Vex Art Media, on Flickr

2019-02-12_09-54-55 by Vex Art Media, on Flickr

Installed the '97 rear amber turn signals along with a solid state flasher relay and some LEDs

IMG_20190216_164405 by Vex Art Media, on Flickr

IMG_20190216_164504 by Vex Art Media, on Flickr

Also installed some switchback LEDs in the front, so white for running lights and amber for turns.

IMG_20190223_162920 by Vex Art Media, on Flickr

IMG_20190223_162858 by Vex Art Media, on Flickr

Also finally got around to installed my plate holder. Paint match isn't great but it's better than no plate holder.

00100lPORTRAIT_00100_BURST20190301165000483_COVER by Vex Art Media, on Flickr

Wife's B7 was getting the airbag recall performed and they gave her an SQ5 as a loaner. So much fun!

IMG_20190222_171029 by Vex Art Media, on Flickr

Family photo

IMG_20190406_153104 by Vex Art Media, on Flickr

And then almost a year to the day (about two days off) from when the S8 engine died, the wife's B7 2.0T took a shit. I could go on and on about how much of a turd the B7 2.0T is, but I'll save you the trouble. One of the worst car purchases I've made...we only put 3k miles on it before I had to replace the engine, cut our losses and sell the pile.

MVIMG_20190310_114340 by Vex Art Media, on Flickr

[alxdgr8]

Spring/Summer 2019

Fixed the B7 and sold it, wife replaced it with a newly fixed Jetta TDI Sportwagen with only 20k miles and loves it.

Had a work trip to Doha, Qatar and spotted a giant line of new A8L's that were taxis. Unfortunately didn't get a ride.

IMG_20190527_083928 by Vex Art Media, on Flickr

Wheel setup #5 - CCW SP18 19x9 ET35 with 255/40R19 Conti ExtremeContact

Purchased these right before the engine died so they sat in a box for a long time. Never fully got sold on the color of the TSW's and wanted something a little different. Ended up getting a pair of these CCWs on ebay for a song, but then had to pay full price for a matching pair. Regardless, it was still a pretty decent deal for a very nice forged wheel.
Had them powdercoated a nice metallic silver. Wish I had gone just slightly darker with the silver, but I'll live. I still think they look pretty great.

A fellow Audi guy also started a great business call Right Away Tire. It's a mobile tire mounting/balancing service that comes to you! No more hauling everything to a tire store, brilliant!

IMG_20190508_153824 by Vex Art Media, on Flickr

IMG_20190603_164056 by Vex Art Media, on Flickr

IMG_20190603_171839 by Vex Art Media, on Flickr

Mounted and finished off with some 'quatttro' centercaps.

2019-06-04_06-44-02 by Vex Art Media, on Flickr

2019-06-04_06-43-57 by Vex Art Media, on Flickr

Wife and I then bought our first house! Also got the front control arms replaced on the S8.

IMG_20190731_184702 by Vex Art Media, on Flickr

Stay tuned for some garage updates as I slowly unpack.

IMG_20190808_165452 by Vex Art Media, on Flickr

[alxdgr8]

And here we are up to date!

And since a number of you guessed it...manual swap time! Ordered a new lengthened driveshaft from Scott at Advanced Automotion. Already had a B6 FYF 01E sitting around. Sourced some OE 01E trans mounts from europe. Have a nice steel flywheel coming from TTV Racing that will accept a B7 RS4 clutch/pressure plate. Also have an OE clutch pedal on the way which will be adapted to fit the standard AT pedal pox. Hoping to get all of the parts collected to do the swap over Thanksgiving or Christmas. Need to get the garage organized and the lift installed first.

IMG_20190819_171301 by Vex Art Media, on Flickr