Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Sick A3

http://www.vwhome.de/wsee/2007/forum/011/015.jpg

This A3 is making me rethink my body kit choice... shiettttt

S-Line Rear Bumper



Got it!!
Its used... and not treated very well.... scratched up and stuff...
But its ok, cuz i need to paint it anyways.... cant freaking wait.. it'll look sick

Check how they shipped it tho... no box or anything... only bubble wrap.. it worked out alright though...

Sunday, July 29, 2007

Suspension Install Failure

I had a really good feeling about the shop... I called on Thursday for a quote, he asks me "what is the best quote youve gotten so far?" I tell him 250$, and he thinks for a second and asks me "how does 180$ sound?"
Sounds freaking good to me... saving money is always good. I call back on Friday to see if they have time to install my suspension... they dont, but he says he can do it on Saturday if I get there first thing in the morning...

So im supposed to be at the shop to install suspension at 10:00, and i get there at 10:30 (the shop is in Rowland Heights, like 40-50 min away). I didnt even have their address either... i tried looking it up online... nothing. Tried calling the shop... no answer... Left a voice message... nothing... Tried calling the person who recommended them... he doesnt answer... Finally I'm like "fuck.... i'll just go in the general direction and hope the shop answers before i get there." They never do.. until i think of trying to search their phone number online... so i call up scott and ask him to do it for me.... and it works!

I get there... and the guy is like "shit, i didnt know your car is a new audi, i thought it was old... this car is hard as hell, i'm gonna have to charge you a lil more." I tell him thats fine. So it goes from 180$ to 200$.

So i left at 9:30 and got there at 10:30... We begin, he takes off the inside panels of my trunk... thinking thats how you unbolt the shocks. We spend half an hour trying to do this... until he realizes we dont need to do that... so we put everything back on.

The shitty thing about the day was... the guy would start working on my car for 10 minutes, then some customer would show up and hed have to go talk to them for like 15-20 min, and I had to just wait....
This happened the whole time... By 1pm, my front wheels were barely off.... To make things worse, I had to be in Irvine at 3!!
To make things worse... the guy at the shop is completely stuck on the install... he cant unbolt the axel bolt, so he couldnt get the front shocks out... he has to try another, more difficult way....

Lucky for me... my dad was actually in Rowland heights too.... so he gave me a ride to Irvine, we left at like 2. The shop guy tells me to be back by 5... he should have it done by then...

I go to Irvine to sign my apartment renting papers, and get back to Rowland by 4.
I hoping with all my heart that im gonna drive in and see my car outside slammed to the ground....

What do i see.... my car still on the lift, the rear wheels arent even off yet....
They gave up.... the whole day, they didnt get past trying to do my front...
So i spent the entire day... from 10:30-4:30 for nothing...

But still.... the guy was really nice.... what waste of my day tho!!

Proof i went:


I seriously think god doesnt want me lowered....
First the Tein incident, now this...

A3 vs E46

So i was on the 101 freeway at 3am goin like 75mph... and i this car coming up on my left at like 120mph. It turns out to be a Blue E46 prefacelift coupe w/ wheels and led tails... and right behind him at like 110mph is a stock 335 coupe. And then the e46 puts on his hazards, so I'm like" wtf, did an E46 just beat a 335?"

The two drive off together... and like 5 min later i end up catching up to the E46 by itself...
I'm curious to see if this guy really beat a 335, and how my A3 stacks up against a E46 so I gas it a lil next to him and drive ahead... and he starts going too.
We both floor it and i pull ahead of him, by like a car length..

I go up to like 110... the whole time 1+ car lengths ahead. I let off at like 110mph cuz thats just too fast for me... I'm not crazy. But the E46 he keeps going to like 120 and he gets ahead of me
after I've already let off the gas and flashes his hazards.

So he obviously didnt beat the 335, just did a ricer flyby and flashed his hazards....

But its nice to know i can beat E46s now...
However, the thing thats bothering me is that I dont know if he has a 330 or 325...
Im hoping 330... but i have a sneaking suspicion its a 325. I just need to chip now...

Disclaimer: I usually NEVER race.... EVER. This is like the first time I've ever really "street" raced... However, this was really late at night on a empty road....
Also i really wanted to know how my car would stack up against an E46!!! lol



Oh yeah, the suspension install today went horrible... more info on this tomorrow... too tired right now.

Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Whats next?

Hmmmm....



It looks like this.

Sunday, July 15, 2007

By the way....

Already way past 5000 miles (like 5100+)
And its only been like 3 months.... jesus......

The car is just too damn fun to drive! I want to take it everywhere

Neuspeed Engine Torque Arm Installed



All I have to say is WOW!

I installed it last Thursday.
After finally picking up the bolt I needed from the dealership. I borrowed Scott's jack and jack stands....
And i installed it in like 20 minutes.
So easy, as long as you have the right tools...

First, you need a very long torque wrench, makes loosening and tightening the bolt much easier.... I cant even imagine trying to do that with like a 6 inch ratchet.
Also... you need 2 jacks... one to jack up the car, and the other to push the Torque arm in.
I could barely get it in more than an inch just by pushing with my hands.

Once i got everything in.... i went for a drive... and i was blown away.
This is a mod for any manual A3 driver regardless of whether or not they mod... It should have been like this from the factory...

First thing:
One thing i noticed about the stock a3, is many times when you start off... you get a shuddering... kind of like what you feel when you're about to stall... but its not stalling... its like a mini version. At first, i thought this was because i was a newb manual-driver (since this is my first manual car), and i just wasnt getting my starts down every time... but after reading, apparently, its something very normal with the car....
After the torque insert:
WOW! The shudder is almost completely gone... starts are like butter now.... Every once in a while, the shudder comes back, but its MUCH less noticeable now, and barely there. Amazing....

Second thing:
Under hard acceleration, the shifts are not very smooth, due to engine movement.... It feels like the shifts are not going through a "straight/smooth" path, rather a jagged one, and you have to shift past notches along the way.... I think this is due to the engine moving under hard acceleration, and misaligning from the transmission or something slightly....
With the torque arm insert:
Shifts are totally smooth! There are no longer problems under hard acceleration... Totally awesome.... Makes the driving experience like 20 times better

Cant believe i waited so long to get this mod!

Anyways, if anyone was wondering how a little 40$ mod could make such a difference... Basically, in stock form, Audi designed the car with "comfort" in mind, so they made the engine mounts very soft and flexible... I guess it helps the car ride smoother or something...
By doing this, the engine moves a lot, and shakes and flexes under load...
For example: You can see it happening here between shifts on this Mazda 3 dyno.
What this insert does, is it squeezes into the gaps of one of the engine mounts... stiffening them up.... so that the engine is not able to move as much.... Resulting in smoother shifts and starts!!

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Sad News

Damn that sucked, went to the dealership to set up a service appointment and buy a part the dealership guy said hes never heard of a stretch bolt in 18 years of him working there....

and he pretty much treated me like a retard the whole time...

Eventually he found it tho...
They had to special order it, so i cant get it till Thursday
I wanted to install my torque insert today!!!


On a lighter note:
When i went to the dealership, one of the sales persons was like "nice car, what is that, an A4?
Me: no... A3..
Sales Person: oh nice, is that the 2.0t or the..... is it 3.4?
me: 3.2.... and I have the 2.0T

lol, but he admitted he was still new... but damn, at least be able to recognize the diff between an a3 and a4

He was a nice guy tho..


Another thing... the dealership guy said I should wait until after my maintenance to lower the car b/c its difficult for them to service a lowered car... Dunno if i want to wait... we will see...

FK Highsports: Recieved!!!



Recieved my FK coils finally today!!!
I was supposed to get them yesterday, but my bro slept through the Fed-Ex man....

So i finally got them!
I tore the box open like a freaking kid at christmas....
Hopefully i can get them installed within the next week or two....



I recieved my Neuspeed Torque Mount yesterday too... (finally)
But i still need to buy a part from the Audi dealership...
I'll try to get it all done after my nap... lol


Friday, July 6, 2007

Finally.... It shipped

Fucking Eurocode tuning...
Wow, after more than a week, my torque arm insert has shipped....
It shouldnt take more than a day to get here... but of course... they shipped it on Friday
So i have to wait over the weekend now... plus i dont have 4th of July or the weekend to install it now like I did this week....

Not only this, I sent them an email to them on Wednesday, only to get no response, and get ignored...

Last time I ordered from them, I received the package the next day....
Order Date: 03/06/2007 $64.95 Shipped/Completed: 03/07/2007

This time it took more than a week w/ no explaination or email or email response....
Mofos.

VWvortex Forums: Airride is for pansies...

Just a lil something until i get my coils on
This is what a set of FK Coilovers are capable of






Got bored, did a photoshop...

A Few New Mods Today

Carbon Fiber Mirror Covers

If you remember from my 2nd post... I bought some CF mirror covers, but they didnt look right w/ white showing from the mirror underneath still.

So i needed go get black mirrors.... I looked for a while, and couldnt find anyone that would sell me theirs... So finally today I had time to paint my own...

Took off the mirror covers... that was easy.... sanded them down really quickly.... cleaned them off


Test fitted the mirror covers...
Passenger side was perfect... driver side was ok....


Some parts were too thick and not sitting flush... so i whipped out the best tool known to man, the dremel, and got to work.... Dremeled it down a lil bit, and it fit better. Not perfect... but better...

Finally I spraypainted the mirrors with black... and And let them dry.... and attached the covers.

Finished product looked like this

Not too bad, i like the black a lot more than the white....

Then just my luck, another A3er posts up his black mirror covers right after i spraypaint my mirrors.....
SHOOT!
I ended up buying his mirror covers too, just in case i get sick of my quick DIY job, or want just black mirrors...


License Plate Delete Plate

Also picked up this piece off of the guy with the black mirrors....


Looks good!

Thursday, July 5, 2007

Wanna know something ridiculous?

That freaking Neuspeed Torque Arm Insert I ordered last Thursday hasn't even shipped yet!!!!
WTF!!! The place is like 1 hour from my house, and its been a full week and it hasn't even left the store yet.

Monday, July 2, 2007

The Wait Begins....

Hi Jason,
thank you for the payment of $xxx.00
for FK HIGHSPORT COILOVER KIT MKV A3
the package was shipped today in an original FK box by FedEx tracking # 671609310009394 check the number everyday for updates

Sunday, July 1, 2007

Has this happened to anyone else?!?! Roof molding/lining coming off

Audi quality FTW

Not too big of a problem... audi will most likely be able to fix this for me no questions asked.