Matt Danger's B5 S4 Owner Log

Went up to Innovative Tuning today. Put down almost 400 wheel, not bad for a base tune with no revisions. I’m very happy with the torque numbers, although that boost spike needs to be sorted and will likely bring the numbers down a little. Time to throw the MBC back on.

This weekend I painted my wheels a lighter shade of silver (Duplicolor ultra silver) and put on the center caps I ordered. So much better.

I then finished a project I started 2 years ago. RS4 style bumper grills. This used to be the cool thing that S4 guys would do. It might be played out now, but I wanted to finish the project. If I decide I like it I’ll cut out and install the RS4 mesh in the center section. If I get sick of it I’ll put the old grills back in.

I also got rid of the faded S4 emblem when I buffed the car a few weeks ago.

My friends Steve, Jack and I worked late Thursday night repairing the wastegate line so that we could be ready for our trip to Vermont on Friday. We were traveling there so Steve could pick up a 16 swapped MK2 Scirocco.

The car performed very well, the only incident being the washer tank leaking from a cap on the headlight washer squirter.

I have been experiencing over boosting ever since I got the car back together. I installed a manual boost controller (MBC) in parallel with the n75 and the boost would still creep up, so I suspected a torn wastegate line.

I hooked up a air nozzle with about ~10psi and could hear a loud hissing from the lower passenger side. When I crawled under the car I saw that the wastegate line on the actuator had torn clean in half.

Removing the old line was not as difficult as I feared. I was able to reach my hand up from the front of the motor, underneath the exhaust maniflold and above the motor mount and slip the hose off the actuator. and installing the repaired line.

I cut the metal line just past the bend and slipped on a new vacuum line. I should have used actual wastegate hosing with some shielding but it was late and was leaving for a trip the next morning.

Installing the repaired line was much more difficult than the removal. The wastegate actuator nozzle was just far enough out of the reach of my hand that I could not get my hand to push the hosing on. It took about 20 minutes to finally get the hose on and then a worm clamp over it to secure it.

My hand looked like I had pulled it from a garbage disposal.