Audi A4 Avant B7 TDI S-Line Special Edition
Discussion
Hi Folks,
I already have a couple of threads running on here (my Supercharged Eunos and a Mk2 Golf GTI 16v) but this is my new daily.
Buying criteria for this was fairly straightforward and provided mostly by my wife:
Now, before anyone panics and mentions the hex drive / balancer shaft issue... fear ye not. It's been done, along with a cambelt replacement (I have the old hex key as proof). As you can see... it was wearing out. The car now has a modified balancer with a 100mm hardened keyway and drive.
The car is otherwise unmodified (except by me... see below) and is in exceptional (near mint) condition for its years (15).
I'd always liked the B7 A4 when they were new. I used to have a B5 back in the day and liked the styling of that, but thought the B6 looked rather drab and dull by comparison. The B7 isn't much more than a heavy facelift of the B6, but (to my eyes at least) it looks more elegant, smart but inoffensive and hasn't dated too badly. Design wise I think it's probably the last Audi prior them becoming all aggressive and sharp angled and a bit "in your face".
Initially I was looking for an SE model (which confusingly also standards for "Special Edition") as distinct from the S-Line, as I'd tested a B6 S-Line and the ride was atrociously bad. I was braced for the same thing when test driving this one, but was delighted, and quite surprised, to discover that Audi must have fixed the S-Line suspension with the facelift. The B7 is still firm, but it's not harsh like the B6 S-line. Some articles online suggest the B7 S-line ended up with the S4 suspension from the B6... not sure if that's true, but whatever they did, it worked.
I also didn't want a quattro. Nowhere we go needs 4WD and if it gets really bad in winter, I'll buy a set of rims with winter tyres if necessary. Less to go wrong.
With a satisfactory ride, the S-Line is the better package overall. It lowers the car a little, adds in a little more styling; more aggressive front end, side "flares" and a little spoiler on the boot. Most of them come with the meaty 5 spoke alloys, but this one stuck out from the crowd with the twin arm RS4 style rims.
I thought they might have been retrofits, but it turned out they were OE. What we had ended up with is a car which is an "S-Line Special Edition" as apposed to a normal "S-Line" and also distinct from the entry level "SE".
So what do you get exactly? Well, it appears to be Audi's last hurrah for the B7 A4. It's essentially an S-Line with a few extras chucked in.
You get:
):
Also included in the spec were auto lights, auto dimming mirrors and auto wipers. The boot also has both a luggage cover and a luggage guard, plus a 12v socket in the back. All handy stuff.
It's certainly keen on reminding you that it's an S-Line. There is a badge on the front grille, the tailgate, both rear doors and all 4 sill plates... oh... and one on the dash too.
Being a bit of a fan of the B7 RS4... not that I could ever afford to own or run one... and with the wife happy with the rest of the car, I think these few extras won me over. It looks the part, even if it's a humdrum diesel rep-mobile underneath. It will almost certainly be the last ICE car we buy as a daily.
It does has an EGR and DPF and it is an older PD unit rather than the newer CR types, but everything is behaving itself at the moment. Economy is low 40s around town and 55+ on motorway runs. It's a 170 bhp engine, which seems eager enough.
Mods will be limited to comfort and practicality.
So far I've done the following:
Fixes required based on VCDS code scan:
Cheers,
Drew.
I already have a couple of threads running on here (my Supercharged Eunos and a Mk2 Golf GTI 16v) but this is my new daily.
Buying criteria for this was fairly straightforward and provided mostly by my wife:
- Not an SUV
- VAG Group car
- "Nice, but not flash" - Which I worked out pretty much meant must have heated leather seats
- Estate, but not too big
- Capable of getting to Scotland from Kent without refuelling
- Manual gearbox
- No electronic handbrakes
- No touch screens
Now, before anyone panics and mentions the hex drive / balancer shaft issue... fear ye not. It's been done, along with a cambelt replacement (I have the old hex key as proof). As you can see... it was wearing out. The car now has a modified balancer with a 100mm hardened keyway and drive.
The car is otherwise unmodified (except by me... see below) and is in exceptional (near mint) condition for its years (15).
I'd always liked the B7 A4 when they were new. I used to have a B5 back in the day and liked the styling of that, but thought the B6 looked rather drab and dull by comparison. The B7 isn't much more than a heavy facelift of the B6, but (to my eyes at least) it looks more elegant, smart but inoffensive and hasn't dated too badly. Design wise I think it's probably the last Audi prior them becoming all aggressive and sharp angled and a bit "in your face".
Initially I was looking for an SE model (which confusingly also standards for "Special Edition") as distinct from the S-Line, as I'd tested a B6 S-Line and the ride was atrociously bad. I was braced for the same thing when test driving this one, but was delighted, and quite surprised, to discover that Audi must have fixed the S-Line suspension with the facelift. The B7 is still firm, but it's not harsh like the B6 S-line. Some articles online suggest the B7 S-line ended up with the S4 suspension from the B6... not sure if that's true, but whatever they did, it worked.
I also didn't want a quattro. Nowhere we go needs 4WD and if it gets really bad in winter, I'll buy a set of rims with winter tyres if necessary. Less to go wrong.
With a satisfactory ride, the S-Line is the better package overall. It lowers the car a little, adds in a little more styling; more aggressive front end, side "flares" and a little spoiler on the boot. Most of them come with the meaty 5 spoke alloys, but this one stuck out from the crowd with the twin arm RS4 style rims.
I thought they might have been retrofits, but it turned out they were OE. What we had ended up with is a car which is an "S-Line Special Edition" as apposed to a normal "S-Line" and also distinct from the entry level "SE".
So what do you get exactly? Well, it appears to be Audi's last hurrah for the B7 A4. It's essentially an S-Line with a few extras chucked in.
You get:
- Sporty aluminium pedals from the RS4
- Two-tone Graphite/Black Volterra heated leather seats with the word "S-Line" embossed on them
- A black headlining rather than a white one
- "Black Optics" pack - All the exterior chrome trim is replaced with black trim instead (most notable around the grille and the windows)
- 8J X 18 '7-arm double-spoke' RS4 design alloy wheels (with 235 tyres, not the 19" that the RS4 wears)
- 3-spoke sports leather/Alcantara multi-function steering wheel with gear knob and hand brake handle in Alcantara with silver stitching.
- Black roof rails on the Avant
):- Cross drilled front discs
- Black exhaust tips
- 20bhp more (220 total)
Also included in the spec were auto lights, auto dimming mirrors and auto wipers. The boot also has both a luggage cover and a luggage guard, plus a 12v socket in the back. All handy stuff.
It's certainly keen on reminding you that it's an S-Line. There is a badge on the front grille, the tailgate, both rear doors and all 4 sill plates... oh... and one on the dash too.
Being a bit of a fan of the B7 RS4... not that I could ever afford to own or run one... and with the wife happy with the rest of the car, I think these few extras won me over. It looks the part, even if it's a humdrum diesel rep-mobile underneath. It will almost certainly be the last ICE car we buy as a daily.
It does has an EGR and DPF and it is an older PD unit rather than the newer CR types, but everything is behaving itself at the moment. Economy is low 40s around town and 55+ on motorway runs. It's a 170 bhp engine, which seems eager enough.
Mods will be limited to comfort and practicality.
So far I've done the following:
- New CD giving 7 digit postcode search for the RNS-E satnav (amazing that wasn't offered as new)
- Fitted a cargo management system into the boot (love this gadget - see pics below)
- Personal plate
Fixes required based on VCDS code scan:
- Recirculation flap in the aircon system is stuck/busted
- Rear left door module is dead, needs replacing
- Retrofit cruise control
- Retrofit Aux in/Bluetooth streaming
- Remap to 200bhp
- Pretty much everything to be honest, particularly the quality feel of interior
- The RNS-E stereo is old-skool, but in a good way. It's simple and it works. And it integrates with the LCD on the dash in a very clean and pleasant way.
- "Privacy glass" - don't know if there's anyway to remove this, but it looks a bit "drug dealer" to my eyes and makes it gloomy in the back.
Cheers,
Drew.
Edited by drewwa on Thursday 9th February 10:47
The oil pump is driven off a balancer shaft in the sump. The connection between the shaft and the pump is essentially nothing more than a 6mm allen key. Worse still, the key is only connected at the edges within the balancer keyway, it's not a properly machined hexagonal slot.
The result is that with only 0.5mm of wear on the key, the oil pump stops turning. Unless you're very quick when the oil light comes on ... your turbo and engine are toast. As you can see in the pic, this one was wearing close. It's a serious design flaw on an otherwise solid engine. Cynically, you can take the view it was designed at fail at 100k miles or thereabouts... Audi never admitted liability, but the design was changed for later TDI engines.
There are lots of horror stories online about it.
The fix is a rebuilt balancer shaft with a proper hex fitting and a longer hardened key. Unfortunately, it's a tricky job, subframe off, engine supported etc...
But... peace of mind.
Cheers,
Drew.
The result is that with only 0.5mm of wear on the key, the oil pump stops turning. Unless you're very quick when the oil light comes on ... your turbo and engine are toast. As you can see in the pic, this one was wearing close. It's a serious design flaw on an otherwise solid engine. Cynically, you can take the view it was designed at fail at 100k miles or thereabouts... Audi never admitted liability, but the design was changed for later TDI engines.
There are lots of horror stories online about it.
The fix is a rebuilt balancer shaft with a proper hex fitting and a longer hardened key. Unfortunately, it's a tricky job, subframe off, engine supported etc...
But... peace of mind.
Cheers,
Drew.
Edited by drewwa on Thursday 9th February 10:48
Ended up doing a few minor jobs on the A4 this month.
I bought an "OBD11" so I could query any faults on the car that cropped up... quite timely as it happened! This is a neat little gadget which plugs into your OBD port and then talks to an app on your phone where you can do diagnostics, checks and coding. Much cheaper than VCDS for occasional use, but does have a subscription model which might not suit longer term users for some of the advanced stuff (long coding for example).
Detected my car straight away.
The car was occasionally misting up in the damp and no fiddling with the air-con controls would stop it. Then the rear left door stopped working entirely (no central locking, no windows and no speaker). As the weather warmed up it became clear the air-con had stopped working and the ECON light was lit permanently.
As for the door, internet wisdom suggested that the cables to the door would be broken, but on inspection mine turned out to be fine. A quick scan later and:
and...
A bit of internet searching found the part numbers for the pressure switch and the door control module. £27 for the pressure switch (new from autodoc) and £10 for a 2nd hand door control module from ebay.
The pressure switch was a bit fiddly, but essentially you pop the near side front bumper off and wiggle inside to get at it. It's just underneath the headlamp. 5 mins to change the sensor, an hour to get at it!
Great result in the end though, air-con fired back up nice and cold, the ECON light was off and the error code was gone. Happy days.
Door module was pretty straightforward too. Hardest bit is removing the interior trim. I bought a bunch of new clips for it as these are brittle after 15 years and (predictably) 3 of mine snapped on removal. The module unclips from the electrics and 3 screws hold it in to the door. Another job completed in an hour. Result, central locking and electric windows working again. Another error code gone. Happy days again!
I'm looking at the flap motors next as per the error codes. Managed to find a complete set of 2nd hand motors on ebay for £60, so they are enroute. Access is via removing the glove box, which doesn't seem to onerous.
Thus far I've been quite buoyed with the success of fixing these issues, the car is very well designed and, so far, easy to work on!
Cheers,
Drew.
I bought an "OBD11" so I could query any faults on the car that cropped up... quite timely as it happened! This is a neat little gadget which plugs into your OBD port and then talks to an app on your phone where you can do diagnostics, checks and coding. Much cheaper than VCDS for occasional use, but does have a subscription model which might not suit longer term users for some of the advanced stuff (long coding for example).
Detected my car straight away.
The car was occasionally misting up in the damp and no fiddling with the air-con controls would stop it. Then the rear left door stopped working entirely (no central locking, no windows and no speaker). As the weather warmed up it became clear the air-con had stopped working and the ECON light was lit permanently.
As for the door, internet wisdom suggested that the cables to the door would be broken, but on inspection mine turned out to be fine. A quick scan later and:
and...
A bit of internet searching found the part numbers for the pressure switch and the door control module. £27 for the pressure switch (new from autodoc) and £10 for a 2nd hand door control module from ebay.
The pressure switch was a bit fiddly, but essentially you pop the near side front bumper off and wiggle inside to get at it. It's just underneath the headlamp. 5 mins to change the sensor, an hour to get at it!
Great result in the end though, air-con fired back up nice and cold, the ECON light was off and the error code was gone. Happy days.
Door module was pretty straightforward too. Hardest bit is removing the interior trim. I bought a bunch of new clips for it as these are brittle after 15 years and (predictably) 3 of mine snapped on removal. The module unclips from the electrics and 3 screws hold it in to the door. Another job completed in an hour. Result, central locking and electric windows working again. Another error code gone. Happy days again!
I'm looking at the flap motors next as per the error codes. Managed to find a complete set of 2nd hand motors on ebay for £60, so they are enroute. Access is via removing the glove box, which doesn't seem to onerous.
Thus far I've been quite buoyed with the success of fixing these issues, the car is very well designed and, so far, easy to work on!
Cheers,
Drew.
I've done one of the actuators to the right of the glovebox. If I managed to do it I am sure you can.
With regard to the damped strut for the glovebox lid causing problems I drilled the end and squirted some lube in there which resulted in the glovebox lid just flopping open and bouncing undamped so I sealed the hole I made in the end of the strut with some tape.
A crank sensor, one of the AC trunking actuators and the clutch pedal switch for the cruise control failed around the same time.
Is the body control module under the passenger seat? I think the B7 did away with the scuttle cover around the wipers. There are two centrally mounted drains between the passenger compartment and engine bay bulkheads. if the drains get blocked with detritus water can get as high as the pollen filter and then get into the passenger compartment and upset the body control module. Once you've checked those two drains I don't know if it's worth fitting a scuttle cover from a B6?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1N4U_IFuDE
With regard to the damped strut for the glovebox lid causing problems I drilled the end and squirted some lube in there which resulted in the glovebox lid just flopping open and bouncing undamped so I sealed the hole I made in the end of the strut with some tape.
A crank sensor, one of the AC trunking actuators and the clutch pedal switch for the cruise control failed around the same time.
Is the body control module under the passenger seat? I think the B7 did away with the scuttle cover around the wipers. There are two centrally mounted drains between the passenger compartment and engine bay bulkheads. if the drains get blocked with detritus water can get as high as the pollen filter and then get into the passenger compartment and upset the body control module. Once you've checked those two drains I don't know if it's worth fitting a scuttle cover from a B6?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1N4U_IFuDE
Someone I know with another VAG product had their car outside work with the horn beeping, the wipers going and possibly the windows going up and down as their scuttle area was full of conifer fronds from when they'd been parked on holiday. Weeks later when parked outside work in the rain the water got into the car and to the body control module.
Regarding that video, I think the other drain is under that black plastic shelf the battery sits on.
I didn't know about that hardened keyway and balancer shaft.
Regarding that video, I think the other drain is under that black plastic shelf the battery sits on.
I didn't know about that hardened keyway and balancer shaft.
Today was flap motor day! Ooo... the excitement.
Was actually quite a satisfying job. To get at the motors you have to take the glove box out, but that's actually pretty straightforward on the B7. I had to first remove the CD changer (I know, how retro!) and then the glovebox is held in by six bolts. With those done you can simply remove it.
Access to the motors is then very easy indeed.
Each motor is colour coded as well for ease of identification. The OBD-11 had told me that two of the motors were not responding... and lo and behold, it was right.
Red and Green motors (hot air and demist vents I think) were fine, but the central flap (Black) motor was dead, as was the recirculation valve motor (Blue)... with the recirc valve stuck in the closed position - meaning no fresh air from outside of the car... hence why it kept misting up in the damp.
Apparently there's also a yellow motor on the drivers side which is more of a faff to sort out, but I don't (yet!) have any known issues with that one.
Changing the motors was simple.. a few small bolts... the only tricky bit was figuring out where to put the various flaps so that they would match up to the slots in the motors.. but it all came good in the end.
Pushing various buttons on the HVAC controls had the motors whirring and doing their things and a rescan for codes showed... none at all. Result!
Cheers,
Drew.
Was actually quite a satisfying job. To get at the motors you have to take the glove box out, but that's actually pretty straightforward on the B7. I had to first remove the CD changer (I know, how retro!) and then the glovebox is held in by six bolts. With those done you can simply remove it.
Access to the motors is then very easy indeed.
Each motor is colour coded as well for ease of identification. The OBD-11 had told me that two of the motors were not responding... and lo and behold, it was right.
Red and Green motors (hot air and demist vents I think) were fine, but the central flap (Black) motor was dead, as was the recirculation valve motor (Blue)... with the recirc valve stuck in the closed position - meaning no fresh air from outside of the car... hence why it kept misting up in the damp.
Apparently there's also a yellow motor on the drivers side which is more of a faff to sort out, but I don't (yet!) have any known issues with that one.
Changing the motors was simple.. a few small bolts... the only tricky bit was figuring out where to put the various flaps so that they would match up to the slots in the motors.. but it all came good in the end.
Pushing various buttons on the HVAC controls had the motors whirring and doing their things and a rescan for codes showed... none at all. Result!
Cheers,
Drew.
Well, life has been fabulously dull with the TDI for a couple of months, but now we have a slightly weird issue...
Rear parking sensor warning stopped working, replaced with a solid tone. Visual inspection of the sensors revealed nothing amiss, so I got out the ol' odb-11.
No error codes showing up... and the live data shows that all the sensors are apparently working, but all showing that they are detecting an object at point blank range (25-35 cms or thereabouts) despite there being nothing there, whenever they were engaged - presumably hence the solid tone.
Putting an ear to each sensor I can hear the clicking noise from them... so I'm a bit bemused as to what to do next.
Any suggestions O' interwebs?
Cheers,
Drew.
Rear parking sensor warning stopped working, replaced with a solid tone. Visual inspection of the sensors revealed nothing amiss, so I got out the ol' odb-11.
No error codes showing up... and the live data shows that all the sensors are apparently working, but all showing that they are detecting an object at point blank range (25-35 cms or thereabouts) despite there being nothing there, whenever they were engaged - presumably hence the solid tone.
Putting an ear to each sensor I can hear the clicking noise from them... so I'm a bit bemused as to what to do next.
Any suggestions O' interwebs?
Cheers,
Drew.
Edited by drewwa on Wednesday 16th August 12:21
drewwa said:
Well, life has been fabulously dull with the TDI for a couple of months, but now we have a slightly weird issue...
Rear parking sensor warning stopped working, replaced with a solid tone. Visual inspection of the sensors revealed nothing amiss, so I got out the ol' VCDS.
No error codes showing up... and the live data shows that all the sensors are apparently working, but all showing that they are detecting an object at point blank range (25-35 cms or thereabouts) whenever they were engaged - presumably hence the solid tone.
Putting an ear to each sensor I can hear the clicking noise from them... so I'm a bit bemused as to what to do next.
Any suggestions O' interwebs?
Cheers,
Drew.
I know that on the B7 RS4 the parking sensor antenna is prone to failure - it detects the signals from the sensors. I had to replace mine. On the Avant it is located behind the rear bumper. I don't know if it's the same on the TDI, but might be worth checking.Rear parking sensor warning stopped working, replaced with a solid tone. Visual inspection of the sensors revealed nothing amiss, so I got out the ol' VCDS.
No error codes showing up... and the live data shows that all the sensors are apparently working, but all showing that they are detecting an object at point blank range (25-35 cms or thereabouts) whenever they were engaged - presumably hence the solid tone.
Putting an ear to each sensor I can hear the clicking noise from them... so I'm a bit bemused as to what to do next.
Any suggestions O' interwebs?
Cheers,
Drew.
I've only just realised you have this thread running, and I like reading your threads!
Funnily enough earlier this year I bought a very similar B7 Avant but in 2.0tfsi flavour. You mention the aluminium pedals and cross drilled discs which my car has! I thought the brakes were a previous owners modification.
Funnily enough earlier this year I bought a very similar B7 Avant but in 2.0tfsi flavour. You mention the aluminium pedals and cross drilled discs which my car has! I thought the brakes were a previous owners modification.
Gallons Per Mile said:
I've only just realised you have this thread running, and I like reading your threads!
Funnily enough earlier this year I bought a very similar B7 Avant but in 2.0tfsi flavour. You mention the aluminium pedals and cross drilled discs which my car has! I thought the brakes were a previous owners modification.
Hello! Nice choice of car - I wonder if I should have bought the petrol version sometimes, but getting 55 mpg is a nice feeling on our long drives to Scotland and back. Funnily enough earlier this year I bought a very similar B7 Avant but in 2.0tfsi flavour. You mention the aluminium pedals and cross drilled discs which my car has! I thought the brakes were a previous owners modification.
Still have the Golf by the way - will get around to updating that thread!
Cheers,
Drew.
Another small but very very satisfying update on the Audi A4.
I actually really like the built in RNS-E headunit. It sounds great, the map navigation works nicely (and I've done an update for 7 digit postcode). It's lovely to use but....
My version is the older low-res screen, and crucially only supports ancient SD cards... max of 4GB for onboard mp3s, which is a limit that's all to easy to hit even with a small music collection. I understood that the hardware doesn't support 32GB SDHC cards... this turns out not to be true.
The later version is about on ebay for about £250, but it's an expensive upgrade for not much at all other than 32GB SD card support and a higher res screen.
Of course, I could get a modern headunit with android auto or similar... but I don't really want to spend much money on this car.
However, I discovered this - https://rnse.pcbbc.co.uk/ - Customised firmware for the RNS-E... and amazingly it offers 32GB SDHC support for a £15 firmware update/license.
It's unofficial of course and no warrantees given etc etc... but I thought it was worth a punt.
I had to dig out an old PC to burn an ISO onto a CD, but....
That got me into an "Engineering" Menu where there were lots of goodies to play with...
Such as raw GPS data...
And the ability to customise the start up screen.
The RNS, totally unmodified hardware wize (didn't have to remove the stereo from the dash) does now read 32GB SDHC cards, which I thought was impossible.
This means I now have my entire music collection in the car and accessible at the click of a button. Stonking. I'm well chuffed.
Can't recommend this more highly if you have the older RNS-E system in your Audi, VW, Skoda, Seat or Lambourghini!
Cheers,
Drew.
I actually really like the built in RNS-E headunit. It sounds great, the map navigation works nicely (and I've done an update for 7 digit postcode). It's lovely to use but....
My version is the older low-res screen, and crucially only supports ancient SD cards... max of 4GB for onboard mp3s, which is a limit that's all to easy to hit even with a small music collection. I understood that the hardware doesn't support 32GB SDHC cards... this turns out not to be true.
The later version is about on ebay for about £250, but it's an expensive upgrade for not much at all other than 32GB SD card support and a higher res screen.
Of course, I could get a modern headunit with android auto or similar... but I don't really want to spend much money on this car.
However, I discovered this - https://rnse.pcbbc.co.uk/ - Customised firmware for the RNS-E... and amazingly it offers 32GB SDHC support for a £15 firmware update/license.
It's unofficial of course and no warrantees given etc etc... but I thought it was worth a punt.
I had to dig out an old PC to burn an ISO onto a CD, but....
That got me into an "Engineering" Menu where there were lots of goodies to play with...
Such as raw GPS data...
And the ability to customise the start up screen.
The RNS, totally unmodified hardware wize (didn't have to remove the stereo from the dash) does now read 32GB SDHC cards, which I thought was impossible.
This means I now have my entire music collection in the car and accessible at the click of a button. Stonking. I'm well chuffed.
Can't recommend this more highly if you have the older RNS-E system in your Audi, VW, Skoda, Seat or Lambourghini!
Cheers,
Drew.
Edited by drewwa on Tuesday 3rd October 17:26
jeremyc said:
ood find! How did you update to 7 digit postcodes?
Got a new "unofficial" disk from here. The map is 2016 era, so not all roads included obviously.https://www.satnavishop.co.uk/audi-rns-e-sat-2016-...
There is a 2020 map version available, but no 7 digit postcode on that alas.
Cheers,
Drew.
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