A4 B7 Avant License For Less
The third generation of the Audi A4 B7 (Typ 8E / 8H) was produced from 2004 to 2008. When I was shopping for my first car I had a real predicament in finding something that wasn’t an absolute shitbox but also didn’t destroy me on insurance, which anything did anyway.The Audi A4 B7 is much more balanced, making it better for driving on all types of road in all conditions. Owing to this, and the fact that I live in London, my insurance is insane. Audi A4 Quattro Avant Wagon B7 8E (2004-2008) Cars belonging to Audi A4 Quattro Avant Wagon B7 8E submodel, manufactured or offered in the years 2004-2008 with station wagon body type, equipped with engines of 1781 - 3123 cc (108.7 - 190.7 cui) displacement, delivering 103 - 190 kW (140 - 258 PS, 138 - 255 hp) of horsepower:Our Audi A4 B7 8E Avant Coilovers give you the option of lowering your B7 25mm to 75mm below the stock height with the use of our adjustable CNC-machined.I’m a relatively new driver, at the time of writing I’ve had my license for less than a year and half.
I’ve made sure to use Diesel cleaners in fuel top-ups, as well as injector, EGR & DPF cleaning additives. After all was done, the belts, water pump, tensioner and an idler were changed, after which she was purring like a tractor.Of course, the oil was flushed and changed with performance oil, and coolant drained and refilled so I knew what was in there, which had to be drained for the water pump in anycase.After doing 5000 odd miles or so since that job, the car has performed well bar the issues coming later in this post. Maintainance.Unfortunately there was no service history with the car, so I’ve made it my mission to make sure everything is healthy and fully documented for when it’s time to say goodbye.First on my list was a complete service, including cambelt & water pump change as well as the auxiliary belt.I made sure to get this done as soon as possible, so within days I had someone come and help me change all these parts as well as give the car a once over once everything was opened up.Owing to the engines longitudinal placement the entire front end had to be removed to get to the belts. He’d also persuaded me that older cars were more fun with more possibilities for modifications, previously I wouldn’t have considered a car of this age but here we are.Note: Because I’ve taken so long to write this post, he’s actually gotten the exact same car now after wanting one for a while and enjoying mine :D.
I have read a lot of people talk about limp mode as a minor inconvenience but limp mode in this car is pretty full-on, especially when travelling at speed.The car pretty much cuts off the turbo and you lose almost all power, so cruising on the motorway becomes an impossible task, it struggled to maintain 40MPH and hills were a real struggle.Turning the car off and on again seemed to fix the issue for a little while, sometimes enough for me to get home or a decent chunk to where I was going, sometimes it would fail instantly. This actually doesn’t annoy me as much as it should, especially since spraying the metal cage around it black but I will eventually 3D print something to go around it, but for now I’m really happy with this setup.Navigation like this is a lot better than having my phone on the windscreen, and since everything works with the steering wheel controls (which are fully remappable) it’s turned out to be a really worthwhile purchase.The GPS antenna and microphone were run down the A pillar with the WiFi antenna just shoved behind the dash.The girlfriend and I have had a fair few lunches in the car watching Plex on it too which has been very useful when on the road! Limp Mode Is No Fun.Unfortunately, on my first long trip the car decided to yeet itself into limp mode which was a very real experience for me. Below is the finished loom for the head unit including the high to low converter spliced in.The only real issue I have with the unit is that I don’t have a fitting bezel to fit around it as you can see below. One of the main reasons for choosing this particular one was that I really wanted a proper volume knob.After ordering the correct Audi ‘Quadlock’ to ISO connectors I installed the unit and was pretty impressed, but the speakers had awful alternator whine and when using the headlights it was impossible to ignore the high pitched screeching through the speakers.I opted for a high to low-frequency converter instead of using the RCAs on the back of the head unit and this has worked really well. This was pretty annoying for a long time and the use of FM transceivers was driving me nuts.The Bose speakers and amp in the car sound pretty good, so there isn’t any need to change this in my eyes, but the Audi Symphony had to go.After a lot of deliberation I decided to give an Android head unit a go instead of a branded one, as I like to tinker (see this blog…) and the functionality is far superior.The OEM look was something that I would have ideally liked but I did want something as functional as possible, so retrofitting Linux/Android Auto into an RNS-E was still a no go for me owing to the smaller screens size.Now, when I say Android head unit I do not mean the cheapest of the cheap Aliexpress buy, I did opt for a branded, well-reviewed unit from Amazon, namely this Pumpkin unit.
The image below shows the last step before putting the steering wheel back on, you can see the cruise stalk on the bottom left.Here is how everything looks when sitting in the drivers seat. Once this is done it’s a piece of cake really. Cruise Control.One very crucial thing that I had to retrofit immediately was cruise control, thankfully this is as easy as buying a stalk for around 20-30 GBP, removing the steering wheel, cowling and a few modules, installing the stalk and coding using VCDS.The things to remove come out really easily, as long as you have the right tools. Minor Modifications + Retrofits.
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