Ok, so the passenger side boot to the steering rack is ripped and looks like a little movement from the inner tie rod end. I dunno yet if the inner tie rods are replaceable, or if it means I need a new steering rack sometime soon. [:@]

 

HAHA Sineo does it again...

I still think thats sweet that you do all this stuff yourself. You should/can do the Timing belt pretty easy. That was my VERY first EVER engine DIY that I did. LOL What mounts did you get? The RS4 ones???

Josh

 

Well, here's my thinking on the timing belt. The kit from ECS costs $350. My mechanic will do the job for $500, parts and labor. I can earn the other $150 in less time than it would take for me to do the timing belt myself, so I can't really justify potentially screwing up my car, knuckles and last few days of Spring Break to do it myself.

I got regular old OEM 30v mounts. They can handle way more horsepower than my engine puts out, so RS4 mounts are a waste of money.

 

Yeah, the other part of the story that never got told was that I did order another set of corner lights, not Depos, installed them and the next day the same one fell out again (this time it took the $24 bulb socket with it). The Depo corner lights sit in there nice and snug and wouldn't ever have fallen out had I not melted the socket with a hairdryer (idiot). Anyway, moral of the story, I wouldn't have ever bought new headlights, but I got this set of heads and tails for a ridiculously low price.

ps. For anyone considering Depos, but is worried about the light output, don't be! Compared to the Valeo headlights, the Depo light output is darn good.

 

That's cool, you'll like the one piece lights so much more than the 2 piece.
I did find out that my inner tie rod end is going to cost $35 and the boot is $15 - not worth my time either, so I'm going to see if the place that did my alignment can do it for a reasonable price.
Post pics of the new lights when they're in.

 

Edit: Nevermind

 

Unfortunately, I don't. My car looks like any other A4 now especially with the taillights untinted. It could belong to any of you ******** ! I'm going to open up the housings and paint them black. I have to open one anyway because I'm pretty sure that the car they came from was driven into a large body of water (which explains why she had so many random and intact parts from an Avant for cheap) because the inside of one is foggy and specked with various bits of flotsam. I don't like all of that chrome. I did do the clear corner mod today, so they're at least tolerable until I get the chance to paint.





I'm glad my cell phone takes such crappy pictures...in the third pic, you can tell the car was dirty, but you can't tell how obscenely dirty.

I really like the way that the reverse light is so bright in the new tails.

Good luck with your repairs, Bogie!

 

Yeah, I even started the process today...got it in the oven and everything, but then something came up and I lost steam.

How involved was removing the roof rails?

 

Dropping the headliner required some patience, but I'm recovering it with a fun fabric anyways as we speak. Taking the rails off was only tricky because finding the holes is hard. Then I cut some panels to fill the holes. Front one is the size of two dimes, middle one is one and a half, back one is one dime. I droppeda dime in my A-pillar sizing it up. My car is forever worth 10 cents more than everyone else's. Then welded the panels in. Ground the welds down, and cleaned up the imperfections with bondo, then sprayed the metal/bondo down. I have to redo the bondo work, I did badly.

 

That sounds harder than I was hoping it would be...I was hoping I could magically peel back enough of the headliner to access some remarkably easy-to-remove screws and that then the roof rails would lift off with ease leaving behind teeny tiny holes...guess not. Come do mine next!