Congrats on the kid man! Hope all is well down there.

 

on the addition!

Personally, I like the black roof, and would go for a satin finish over glossy piano black on the interior. I loved the matte black wood in the C. Looked much better than the Burl or Piano glossy finishes.

 

Congrats on the baby! Happy to hear everyone is healthy.

For some reason I thought the Touareg brakes were already in... haven't you had those parts for months now?

 

I've had some of the parts for almost 2 years ... I got the rotors like 2-3 months ago ... .

One of these days ...

 

not like you're not busy as fuck with house and wife and babe

 

No big updates but, I have been enjoying the car quite a bit:



It was time ... I took my car down to an exhaust shop and have my mid-muffler removed so now, I am running 3" DPs, 3" mid-pipes, merged into a 3" catback with 1 x Miltek muffler at the back.

I know I know .. no sound clips, but I do plan on charging up my GoPro and getting a few recordings. It sounds perfect .. has some burbles up shifts, downshifts sound great, no drone.

I am one happy camper!

Additionally, I removed my stud conversion ... I swear - every wheel setup I've had with this has had some kind of vibrations / it was really hard to get it right.

I ordered some M14x1.5 37mm R13 ball seat lug bolts and removed the stud conversion all together ... no more vibrations and I know this makes @rockstar143 very happy! Nur Werksspezifikation!

What's next? Well ..I would like to get the following done before the end of the year:

- Remove black vinyl wrapping and get my roof repainted.
- Install Toureg big brake kit (I sound like a broken record).
- Install new ECS rear differential mount
- Get a new driveshaft - my center bearing is good, however the bushing around it is very tired and there's definitely slack in the driveline due to that. Differential mount should help immensely, but a new bushing around the center bearing will do wonders as well.

Thanks for reading.

 

Sound is such a huge part of the driving experience. Glad you're happy with where your exhaust is at! May have missed it, are the downpipes government-happy or government-unhappy units?

 

100% government-unhappy.

Car spools so nicely when it's catless

 

We don't talk about that around here

 

Happy to hear you are satisfied with the exhaust setup, dude!

 

Wait .. was that ...

 

Having a exhaust note (assuming the car sounds good) is a necessity IMO.

So ... the newer 3.0Ts sound phenomenal with exhaust ...

Catch my drift?

 

Be hard pressed to make this sound good...

 

Harder for this one


 

Can people behind you "see" the horsepower?

 

I remember my white S2k was catless for a while and i took a girl on a date... she had this expression on her face the whole ride there - WTF is that smell?
But she didnt say anything since it was our first date... we didnt have a 2nd date.. i dont know if it was me or the catless TP

 

Plot twist - the smell was you.

 

I wouldn't be surprised, which is why i never even asked her

 

If a girl can't deal with you catless
she doesn't deserve you with high flow and j's racing

 

 

Sorry I'm so late on the on having the but on having the !!! No better feeling in the world than being a dad. Enjoy it now before they can talk back to you and roll their eyes at everything you say. I mean they're great, you'll love them even more when they grow up.

The car is looking very fresh. And glad you got the vibration worked out. I just did the same on my car and it's so, so much better with a smooth ride. And I bet the improved exhaust sound is just icing on the cake.

 

I love brick

 

I swear ... Nogaro blue might as well be "Recycle bin blue" instead

Took the S4 to cars and coffee and brought the wifey & kiddo along .. .car packs a stroller & bassinet pretty well!






Also .. wifey gave me 5 hours on Sunday to work on the S4 while she hung out with her sister.

Gave me an opportunity to knock out my upgraded differential mount - install was super easy and bolts broke free without too much headache. Unfortunately, I haven't driven it yet .. but, I know there will be added vibrations and I'm fairly confident I'll have 0 back and forth movement of the rear diff.

Additionally, I repaired one of my exhaust hangers that hangs on my rear differential carrier - exhaust now sits nice and straight.

Previous owner sheared both bolts flush so the exhaust would sit a bit crooked - gave me an excuse to try my garage sale drill & tap set.

Worked like a charm!

I love little repairs like that.

OEM mount is totally disintegrated / could be moved with my finger.

 

Life gets so much easier when you don't have to lug strollers and car seats around. So the upgraded diff mount... is it a solid mount?

 

doesn't look to be...
love that you're still focused on being you, T...not losing yourself is as important as anything else to being a good dad.

 

Oh yeah I missed the bright red squishy bushing right in the photo. Must have been dad brain.

 

Love that Nogaro blue recycling bin

 

I will now refer to Nogaro as recycling bin blue lol.

Found out that the Golf will also, in fact, baby just fine. However the trunk space only fits a stroller, no bassinet.

 

I'm bummed .. S4 can't fit my carseat base because it lacks some of the hardware brackets vs what the BMW has.

Pain in the ass to get the carseat level & secure with the lap / regular seat belts.



Keeps me sane! Sane Tyler is a happy Father ... therefore, a good Father.

Or .. at least I try

To what Todd said .. it gets so much easier when you don't have to lug around a stroller.

Can't wait.

Hope all is well dude!

 

@ "Recycle-Bin Blue" term...

 

It's fine, I call my car "Gwai-Ro White".

 

If you give yourself up you resent and that affects how you deal with the whole scenario.
It's a balance...you know, don't skip teaching your kid to read for a timing belt but also don't
forget who you are and what makes you tick and SHOW that to her.

 

I hope so. I guess it helps that we aren't really going anywhere as it is so whatever.

All is well here, little munchkin turns two weeks old on Wednesday! How are things going for you?

 

LMAO for the record I never lugged around a basinet.

 

Sometimes .. you just need to push yourself in the right direction sometimes

I pulled all 4 wheels and started my disassembly ...

You know how I'm committed? I removed a front brake line and let the reservoir empty itself over night

As stated a million posts over the last 2 years, I'm finally doing my budget BBK project:

ML55 330mm rotors - $100
Toureg BM5 Brembo 4 piston calipers - $250
EBC Red pads w/ wear harness - $140
Stoptech stainless steel lines - $55
Remanufactured rear calipers (reusing old rotors / pads since they have less than 10k miles on them) - $110 after core return
2 x cans of Silver caliper paint - $20
1 x set of blue Brembo high temp decals - $5
2 x bottles of Brake fluid - $40 (ze good German shit)

On stands / wheels pulled:



Size difference is pretty apparent.

I thought the rotor size would be quite a bit bigger but, it's only about 9mm total. However, the pad surface area is pretty apparent - I would say it's at least 2 x more with 2 more pistons clamping down .

Should be in for quite the upgrade.

Calipers will need some thorough cleaning, but you get the idea:



Stainless steel lines:



I have pretty limited time nowadays .. but next update hopefully the car will be moving / braking

Thanks for reading.

 

Photo illusion, or do the new pads look smaller?

 

Photo illusion, much more pad surface.

Cool little snippet from a resident brake expert on Audizine:

”Something to be aware of is that these calipers have 4x 46mm pistons- which gives a massive piston area. 9% more than 17Z (of which the area is already quite large) and 20% more than 18Z. But, they do bolt up the same as 17Z- they just use different pads and pad hardware.”

Problem with the factory HP2 calipers that came on the car originally is they’re only 2 piston / free floating.

Means, pistons are only making direct contact on one side of the caliper pulling the other side together. Or at least that’s how I understand it.

These BM5s have 2 pistons on each side pressing. Should make for some good bite .

 

I see you have more recycle-bin-blue stuff like the Duralast, the cases on the shelf...

 

Ahem, that's Nogaro blue to you!

 

As always, good shit man.

Also, I'm a bit late to the party but congrats on the kid..