Tuning options and insurance for S4 (B6) V8
Discussion
I'm considering going for an ecu remap (probably AMD) and possibly Milltek cats/exhaust. Not expecting massive performance gains, but hoping for some gain plus a better throttle response and louder/more exciting exhaust note!
Does anyone on here have experience of these upgrades? If so, is it worth doing or am I likely to be disappointed? (I'm looking for an upgrade that's likely to persuade me to keep the S4 for at least another year or two, rather than the alternative of splashing out another £20K or so on part/x for an RS4 or a 911!)
Also, are there any insurance companies who are likely to take a "relaxed" view to minor tuning such as the above, rather than hiking up my premium or (like my current insurer Liverpool Victoria) refusing cover?
Cheers for any help.
Does anyone on here have experience of these upgrades? If so, is it worth doing or am I likely to be disappointed? (I'm looking for an upgrade that's likely to persuade me to keep the S4 for at least another year or two, rather than the alternative of splashing out another £20K or so on part/x for an RS4 or a 911!)
Also, are there any insurance companies who are likely to take a "relaxed" view to minor tuning such as the above, rather than hiking up my premium or (like my current insurer Liverpool Victoria) refusing cover?
Cheers for any help.
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...
Doesn't seem to be a lot for our choice of engine. I wish someone made a carbon induction kit. Imagine how our V8s would sound with that..................
Doesn't seem to be a lot for our choice of engine. I wish someone made a carbon induction kit. Imagine how our V8s would sound with that..................
I insure my S4 with Swiftcover, and it has a Milltek cat-back exhaust. They list such an upgrade as "modifications you don't need to tell us about" on their site, and IIRC the full system is viewed similarly. I need to confirm this myself as I'm planning on having the hi-flow cats and downpipes installed in the near future.
I'm not sure about remaps, but give them a try.
I'm not sure about remaps, but give them a try.
JohnP68 said:
I'm considering going for an ecu remap (probably AMD) and possibly Milltek cats/exhaust. Not expecting massive performance gains, but hoping for some gain plus a better throttle response and louder/more exciting exhaust note!
Does anyone on here have experience of these upgrades? If so, is it worth doing or am I likely to be disappointed? (I'm looking for an upgrade that's likely to persuade me to keep the S4 for at least another year or two, rather than the alternative of splashing out another £20K or so on part/x for an RS4 or a 911!)
Also, are there any insurance companies who are likely to take a "relaxed" view to minor tuning such as the above, rather than hiking up my premium or (like my current insurer Liverpool Victoria) refusing cover?
Cheers for any help.
Supercharger is the way for big gains. 450bhp, 491 torques. Although a full flow system and remap will give you about 380bhp. A member of TSN has a stage 3 and thats 384bhpDoes anyone on here have experience of these upgrades? If so, is it worth doing or am I likely to be disappointed? (I'm looking for an upgrade that's likely to persuade me to keep the S4 for at least another year or two, rather than the alternative of splashing out another £20K or so on part/x for an RS4 or a 911!)
Also, are there any insurance companies who are likely to take a "relaxed" view to minor tuning such as the above, rather than hiking up my premium or (like my current insurer Liverpool Victoria) refusing cover?
Cheers for any help.
Ess-Phwoar said:
JohnP68 said:
I'm considering going for an ecu remap (probably AMD) and possibly Milltek cats/exhaust. Not expecting massive performance gains, but hoping for some gain plus a better throttle response and louder/more exciting exhaust note!
Does anyone on here have experience of these upgrades? If so, is it worth doing or am I likely to be disappointed? (I'm looking for an upgrade that's likely to persuade me to keep the S4 for at least another year or two, rather than the alternative of splashing out another £20K or so on part/x for an RS4 or a 911!)
Also, are there any insurance companies who are likely to take a "relaxed" view to minor tuning such as the above, rather than hiking up my premium or (like my current insurer Liverpool Victoria) refusing cover?
Cheers for any help.
Supercharger is the way for big gains. 450bhp, 491 torques. Although a full flow system and remap will give you about 380bhp. A member of TSN has a stage 3 and thats 384bhpDoes anyone on here have experience of these upgrades? If so, is it worth doing or am I likely to be disappointed? (I'm looking for an upgrade that's likely to persuade me to keep the S4 for at least another year or two, rather than the alternative of splashing out another £20K or so on part/x for an RS4 or a 911!)
Also, are there any insurance companies who are likely to take a "relaxed" view to minor tuning such as the above, rather than hiking up my premium or (like my current insurer Liverpool Victoria) refusing cover?
Cheers for any help.
How many what...... If your referring to the figures QST have done a S4 Cab fitted with a supercharger. The figures I quoted are from a write up on the Fourtitude website. The cost was 10K for the supercharger alone. It also had a Movit brake upgrade to handle the extra ponies.
Edited by Ess-Phwoar on Friday 3rd August 15:49
I have two good mates with V8 S4 Avants, one standard amd one with AMD stage 3 / Milltek exhaust etc. This was advertised at 400bhp but talking to AMD my pal was advised 380 is more like it.
Im not an owner so all IMHO but have driven both cars back to back several times and have to say I was suprised by the difference. The AMD car has noticably more grunt than the standard car and felt less peaky. I know these things are relative, but I found the standard car needed plenty of revs to really fly. The AMD car also sounded about 200% better with a proper V8 burble lacking in the more mechanical sounding standard car.
Fuel economy is identical in both (ie bad!).
However the modded car uses a LOT of oil, even accounting for a slightly higher mileage.
I cant comment on the insurance impacts.
Im looking at buying one in September and am erring towards a standard car but adding a Milltek exhaust.
Im not an owner so all IMHO but have driven both cars back to back several times and have to say I was suprised by the difference. The AMD car has noticably more grunt than the standard car and felt less peaky. I know these things are relative, but I found the standard car needed plenty of revs to really fly. The AMD car also sounded about 200% better with a proper V8 burble lacking in the more mechanical sounding standard car.
Fuel economy is identical in both (ie bad!).
However the modded car uses a LOT of oil, even accounting for a slightly higher mileage.
I cant comment on the insurance impacts.
Im looking at buying one in September and am erring towards a standard car but adding a Milltek exhaust.
There are planty of mods that can be done but few that have done them. The standard mod is full system s/s exhaust with including downpipes and sports cats. You could specify a resonated or non-resonated system, the latter sounds like a BTCC car and v.loud and either 200 or 100 CPSI cats. Milltek is the best known system but you can find places that will custom build a system for you for a fraction of the price, I chose the latter route.
Remapping wise I also have this on my S4, went for REVO in the end which was installed at WRC technologies at Silverstone. I had heard adverse things about AMD remaps at the time with some cars having to have their remaps taken off again due to ECU management issues, however as AMD are no more in Bicester, REVO, APS (Superchips), Awesome GTi or Star Parformane in Scotland would be your best bet.
It gives you far more low down torque, the peak torque band runs from 2000-4500 rpm and extends the peak bhp from around 6750 to 7250 and takes off the speed limiter. Driving wise you will feel far better acceleration, mid range pull and it revs more freely. Mine now gives better fuel economy than it did standard.
Insurance wise I'm with Greenlight, nothing extra for the remap bar admin charge of £20 to have it included on the policy and includes track day and European cover as standard. Car now roughly produces 380+ bhp and 360+ ft.lbs of torque.
Superchargers are anywhere between £8K and £12K installed, Lysholm or MTM, Carbonio do a carbon CAI for a V8 S4 but there are no results to say there is any performance gain for the £400 you'll spend (talk to Awesom GTi about these). Irrespective of what you do, I would recommend upgrading your brakes to the B7 RS4 Brembo front assembly, you'll need a little better stopping power.
Beyond that I have enquired about custom manifolds and headers, would do these before a supercharger. This would potentially release another 20-30bhp and cost between £3-4K to do.
Remapping wise I also have this on my S4, went for REVO in the end which was installed at WRC technologies at Silverstone. I had heard adverse things about AMD remaps at the time with some cars having to have their remaps taken off again due to ECU management issues, however as AMD are no more in Bicester, REVO, APS (Superchips), Awesome GTi or Star Parformane in Scotland would be your best bet.
It gives you far more low down torque, the peak torque band runs from 2000-4500 rpm and extends the peak bhp from around 6750 to 7250 and takes off the speed limiter. Driving wise you will feel far better acceleration, mid range pull and it revs more freely. Mine now gives better fuel economy than it did standard.
Insurance wise I'm with Greenlight, nothing extra for the remap bar admin charge of £20 to have it included on the policy and includes track day and European cover as standard. Car now roughly produces 380+ bhp and 360+ ft.lbs of torque.
Superchargers are anywhere between £8K and £12K installed, Lysholm or MTM, Carbonio do a carbon CAI for a V8 S4 but there are no results to say there is any performance gain for the £400 you'll spend (talk to Awesom GTi about these). Irrespective of what you do, I would recommend upgrading your brakes to the B7 RS4 Brembo front assembly, you'll need a little better stopping power.
Beyond that I have enquired about custom manifolds and headers, would do these before a supercharger. This would potentially release another 20-30bhp and cost between £3-4K to do.
Edited by GSCollie on Friday 10th August 10:24
Ok dropped off my S8 at PW motorsports for a quick oil change and took out their S4. It's had re-map and milltek and it is a LOT more responsive than the S8. The noise is just something else also. However if you do drive a lot of miles I think I'd steer clear of the re-map as it is potentially tiresome. It makes you WANT to change gear incessantly to hear that awesome engine note. As I don't drive a lot of miles I was tempted to take the car home. Even my natural tightness was letting me down!!!
Gassing Station | Audi, Seat, Skoda & VW | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff