Hey everybody,

I'm new to Audi's, I just bought my first A4 the other day. It's an '01, first owner and family owned, only 88,000 miles, 5-speed and 1.8T Quattro. The car rides great, I love it (except for maybe the wheels haha). Anyways, I just hoping that maybe some of you guys can help me out in how to pursue tuning the car, what bolt ons I should and shouldn't get, etc. I'm 20 years old and my experience under the hood is lacking especially for Audi's, but I've built my way up around four-cylinder turbos for the past four or five years so I'm a novice I guess you could. I don't have of a budget to start but I'm hoping that'll change soon. Anyways thanks for your time, and any help with this subject is MUCH appreciated.

 

Before you do any tuning, take care of maintenance. Never disregard maintenance or you will be so far in debt when everything starts to break. If it hasn't had a new timing belt/pulley/tensioner put in (im assuming it hasn't because most people sell them around 90k since thats when you have to replace it) you need to do that. Also scan with vag-com for any codes and just check up on everything more or less (others will probably elaborate). After all the maintenance is done, you can start tuning. The biggest bang for your buck will be a good chip, if you chip it upgrade the diverter valve to a oem 710n or better. Don't bother with a CAI (i have one but only because it looks/sounds amazing and i got an amazing deal on it), our stock airboxs are good unless you go big turbo (search). Also test pipe/full exhaust/front mount intercooler will also give you some power increases

 

try to just do some research. i, as well as many other guys on here, could write many pages, and have wirtten many pages about this stuff. not trying to be a dick, but there is a search function for a reason. also the newbie guides

 

I agree with the first reply, take care of maintenance first. There's no point spending $5k for a tune, turbo, and bolt-on's if your stock clutch and motor mounts asplode the first time you hoon with your newly found power.

First and foremost, if you don't have documentation in your hand from a reputable shop detailing when the timing belt was changed last, assume it hasn't been done and move that to the top of your list. No sense risking $3k worth of engine/head work for $300 worth of parts and a few hours of your time.

Apart from that, check out the https://www.audiforums.com/forum/b5-...%2A%2A-109459/ and the https://www.audiforums.com/forum/b5-...rmation-93439/ threads.

Incidentally, the car you have is very well liked in the tuning community because of the ECU and wide band O2 sensors, among other things. This will give you more options down the road for things like MAFless tunes and wideband A/F monitoring.

Above all, do research, read threads, read some more threads, and then read some threads. There's lots of technical info on forums like ours and Audizine.