13/04/18
I've had a few B5’s now but have ended up selling them all for various reasons; moving abroad, job changes etc. I parted ways with my most recent S4, a pre-facelift imola, when I decided on a bit of a whim I wanted an RS6. I had almost a year of (nearly) trouble-free motoring in one of those beasts but couldn't shake the B5 bug. So I sold the RS6, picked up an old A4 to scoot around in and started looking for another S4.
I decided I was going to be quite fussy this time. Previously, I’ve been quite happy as long as the car was mechanically sound – colour, mileage, optional extras etc haven’t overly bothered me. But my plan was to keep the next one for the foreseeable future and although this may well change, I figured I was more likely to hold on to one if it was exactly the spec I wanted.
The wish list was:
Nogaro blue
Facelift
Full history
As few miles and owners as possible
Full black leather or half leather half blue alcantara interior with carbon trim
Everything else (Bose, cc, sunroof, modified/unmodified etc) I could take or leave.
I spent around 6 months searching for one that fitted the bill. Visiting Ebay, Gumtree, Pistonheads, Autotrader and numerous forums became a regular pre-bed routine, much to my girlfriends delight. A few popped up here and there but nothing that fitted the bill at a reasonable price.
Finally, around 4 weeks ago, I came across one on Autotrader. To put it bluntly, the advert was complete sh*t. Two lines worth of information and around half a dozen photos, taken in a field. What I could tell from the advert was positive though - nogaro blue, facelift, 109k miles and black leather interior with full carbon package. A phone call was made and I found myself talking to Stephen, the current owner. I have to say from the offset he was one of the nicest guys I've dealt with when buying a car, absolute gentleman. Anyway he answered a few of my questions and emailed through some more photos. I very quickly decided I wasn't going to waste any time and sent him a small deposit to hold the car - he was almost 300 miles away so popping over for a viewing wasn't an option. I got a flight booked for the following weekend and sat tight.
I left my house in Ayrshire around 9am, was up to Glasgow Airport for 10, flight left at 12, arrived in Birmingham at 1, jumped on a train from there at 2 and arrived in Telford at 3. And.... no car. I waited for 10/15 minutes…. nothing. Needless to say I was getting a little nervous, but turned out Stephen was just running a bit late.
When he pulled into the car park, the car looked awesome, better than in any of the photos. I didn't have much of chance to look over the exterior initially as I jumped in and we headed back to his. On the short drive, he gave me a bit of history on the car. It was originally owned by someone from first registration in December 2000 until July 2001 - possibly a demo car I thought? It was then purchased by a lady who had owned the car from July 2001 until, wait for it, February 2018. Music to my ears! The car had been serviced by Shrewsbury Audi from day 1 and had full history – more good news! The lady had been a friend of his, she'd recently taken a fall and was no longer driving, at which point he'd taken the car off her hands. He'd had it less than a month but in that time he'd had the front wings and boot plinth re-sprayed, the front bumper and bonnet had been given a blow over, all four wheels had been refurbished with new tyres and he'd generally just given it a good tidy up. Why none of this was in the advert i'll never know!
We arrived at his house and it was immediately clear he was a car man – an old Jag XJS project car in the drive as well as a Toyota Celica GT. He set me up with a coffee and essentially left me with the car for half an hour. I genuinely could not believe how good the body work was - probably the best I've ever seen in person on one of these. There were a few very small scratches in the usual areas but nothing really noticeable. It was certainly far better than I had been expecting and crucially I couldn’t find a spot of rust, bubbling or corrosion. The interior was much the same, a bit dirty in places due to a muddy driveway but nothing that wouldn’t clean up. The engine bay was a bit of a mess too, didn’t look to have been cleaned at all in the last 17 years, but again, nothing that couldn't be fixed with some elbow grease. I plugged the car into VCDS - two fault codes showing. One relating to the N75 and another relating to one of the lambda sensors - certainly no deal breakers there. We took the car out and I was pleasantly surprised how well it pulled for a bone-stock car – everything I’ve had before has been mapped. Gave everything a good test and again I couldn't fault the car. I'm pretty sure by this point Stephen knew I was buying it, the huge grin on my face likely having given it away. So we headed back to the house and a deal was struck – I’d bought my fourth B5 S4. Once again I can’t thank Stephen enough, filled the tank for me and even offered me a pizza before I hit the road! The only thing I left worried about was the date of the most recent cambelt change - it appeared to have been last done in 2008!!!
Once I’d handed over the cash, I sent a quick text to DanialA11 - he had a Toyosport exhaust system for sale about an hour from where I was - figured it would be rude not to. Initially, this was purely for cosmetic reasons; I feel the standard, discoloured exhaust tips really let the rear end down and thought some shiny, larger tips would be a huge improvement. If there were any small performance gains that would be an added bonus. I've since started looking into the possibility of RS4 downpipes as well so we'll see where that leads....
I picked up the exhaust in Birmingham and once again hit the road. The car performed great on the 300+ mile, 5 hour trip home. Given the length of time since its last belt change, it was a pretty easy going drive though. As well as being my first experience with a standard engine, it was also my first experience with standard suspension and I have to say I was again quite impressed. If it weren't for the ungodly arch gap on the front I’d be quite happy to leave it as is. But something needs to be done about that gap asap...
In the 3 weeks since I got the car home, not much has happened – it hasn’t left the drive! I rescanned it after the long drive home and only the N75 fault code has reappeared. I’ll keep an eye on it but I’m thinking the lambda code may have been historic fault that has never been cleared? I’ve replaced the standard grill with a genuine RS4 grill I got from Zildjian a while back. I’ve removed the rear S4 badge as it was badly discoloured – I’m undecided whether I’ll be leaving it off or tidying it up and sticking it back on. Oil/filters/spark plugs etc have all been ordered for a service which I’ll hopefully get done in the coming weeks. New reg plates are also required as the current ones are pretty bad. I’m a big fan of the OEM look so I won’t be doing anything crazy. Short term plan is to fit the exhaust as well as some coilovers and spacers. That should pretty much get the car looking as I want it. Brushed aluminium mirrors are also on the wish list but not a priority at the moment.
More than any of that, I’m really just looking forward to giving the car a proper good clean and polish – so far I’ve only managed a quick wash. Same for the interior and engine bay – both have the potential to look great but I just haven’t had the time to tidy them up! Obviously any general maintenance (new N75 for example) and servicing will be done as and when required. When that’s all taken care of, I’ll think about taking her for a remap. I’ve sent a message over to Rick at Unicorn with a few questions; they seem to have a great reputation so looking forward to his reply.
I also had a bit of good news on the cambelt front – I had a more in depth look through the service schedule and it appeared to suggest it may have been changed in 2013. Whatever numpty has filled in the book has ticked both the ‘yes’ and ‘no’ boxes for belt replacement… So I put in a call to Shrewsbury Audi and they were able to confirm it had indeed been done just over 4 years and less than 11,000 miles ago. Happy days!
Anyway, some photos – all taken on an old iPhone 5 so very average quality. As I said it’s only had a quick wash so far, really looking forward to seeing how it comes up after a proper polish!
Front grill change:
There’s something deeply satisfying about a clean filler cap area…
Goodies waiting to go on
A quick shot with my daily B5 – a 2001, 1.8SE with 63k on the clock. Treated it to a rare wash while I was doing the S4. They’ll henceforth be known as the blues brothers….
That’s all for now but hopefully there’ll be some interesting stuff to come – looking forward to the next few months!