My very own update thread by BaseDrifter

3 minute(s) of a 155 minute read

Oh what a glorious day. A glorious day of driving my car for the first time after 9 months. While I was living in the Czech Republic there weren't many things I missed about the US. I did miss my car though and it feels great driving again.

While I was gone I left my car with my dad and he made sure to drive it at least once a week to keep the fluids fresh and moving. He also replaced the battery while I was gone. (He has his own 99 A4 1.8T, although bone stock.)

Today I cleaned up the engine bay, polished my carbonio intake cover, checked all the fluids and put a little more coolant in, checked tire pressures, and vacuumed the interior.

This evening I'll be detailing the interior, claying the car, and putting new wax on it.

I've still got a shadow of the "A4" from when I shaved it off, anyone got some tops on removing the shadow? Just polishing compound?

One other thing...about a year ago I had the front end rebuilt with a 12 piece Meyle kit. I didn't notice it right away, but the front end seems to sit higher now than before. At first I attributed it to the new parts needing to settle in, but the car still has some noticeable negative rake.

Could I reset the front ride height by loosening the control arm bolts while on the ground? Or any other ideas? (I could take it back to the shop and "complain" but I'd rather just try to solve the issue myself, assuming it is even solvable.)

7-25-2012

So I've got a few updates.

It turns out my right rear wheel bearing needs to be replaced as I thought. Either this week or next week I'll be pulling the rear spindles out and having my shop press in some new bearings.

I removed my S4 front sway bar and replaced it with the stock A4 bar and I've been happy with the results so far. The car doesn't want to oversteer as bad as before, I'll need a few more months to make a final conclusion though. Speaking of changing back to old parts, I think I'll remove my N75J and put the stock one back in and compare results.

I finally finished getting my carbonio intake mounted so I'm no longer embarrassed to post pictures (it was just zip tied in place earlier.)

I'm long overdue to take a bunch of new high quality photos, but these will have to suffice for now.