I went with the Akebono Euro Premium Ceramics and they are practically dust free. I used to have to drive through the car wash regularly to clean the wheels, but I haven't been through in over a month and the wheels look fine.

I just bought cheap Meyle rotors that looked decent. I've been happy with this setup. Braking performance is slightly reduced, but I don't drive it like I stole it.

-Chris

 

Why would I need new rotors? Can't I just replace the pads?

 

You might have enough metal left to turn them, but mine were too thin and I needed new ones. They're soft and the ceramic pads are hard.

 

Ahhhhhhhh thanks! I just had the brake system flushed and bled, will I have to have that done again after change out?

 

I had my trusted local mechanic put them on and I don't think he did that. As long as your fluid is good and you don't put any air in the system, I don't see why you'd need to.

 

Yeah, I think that was a money grab. My car is due for inspection this next month, so if they tell me I need brakes, I'll do them. However, the place I am having car inspected at is also doing my Stage 2 flash.

I think that will be the end for the year. I've already started to get too far into the rabbit hole. If anything, the springs and cups are going to wait until I can get the OK on some new rims from the ruling class in the house.....

 

So, after having car flashed stage 1+, the gains were noticeable right away. Then I had the test pipe/downpipe combo installed, and the car seemed to vibrate excessively. Drove me nuts.

Today I brought my car in to be inspected and flashed stage 2. Had garage clear logs, and found misfire on cyl 1, as well as low fuel level (weird, tank half filled). Misfire cleared, low fuel would not. Funny thing is, state inspection OBD II did not catch any faults.

After car inspected and logs cleared, car flashed unitronic stage 2. First thing noticed? Vibrations back to normal. Car felt smoother right away.

Car moves. Moves great. Smiles ear to ear. Need to do something about exhaust. Sounds raspy. All done for year, getting a Glock 23 soon.

 

Question. Where did you get your RS4 sway bar? I've got my eye on the 034motorsport one, seems to be the best deal I've found.

As an aside, I just ordered up the RAI HFC/downpipe combo this past Friday. Should be here mid next week. I'm giddy as a kid at Christmas lol. I looked up some youtubes of the RAI HFC/downpipe mated with stock catback and it is a little raspy, but doesn't sound unbearable to me. I'll be custom building a catback to refine the tone a bit soon as I save up a few more pennies over the winter and find someone who can weld and bend stainless pipe thats willing to do so for a case of beer or something lol

Final point. This thread is awesome. You and I have very similar tastes in our builds (albeit pretty much the same car to boot, color and all :P) so this has been an awesome resource in my own upgrade quest as far as parts to consider and install ease etc. Just about every question thats popped into my head about what to do next, I've found a useful answer from your experience, so this tidbit is simply a thank you for logging your progress as such. Without it, the B7 section would undoubtedly be filled with a dozen different threads by me, asking stupid questions haha I'd buy you a beer as gratitude if you lived closer

 

First of all, you're welcome!

For the RS4 Sway bar, I sourced like this:

RS4 Sway Bar Kit with free shipping

Then I bought new screws at Europaparts:

Bolt (M8x26) 000218 4 pieces
Bolt (M10x18) 000217 2 pieces

Shipping wasn't free for the Europaparts, but I bundled them with the 034 inlet hose, and Hugh gave me free shipping.


Prices are all all still the same.

For the downpipe, I went with the test pipe version, and have some regrets. On cold start up, my car is loud as an MF. The smell is bad but tollerable. The area to have the pipe installed is tight, and I am glad I paid someone else to do it. There are some good how too's (I think I linked one on this thread somewhere) on how to get it done, but plan to take a whole day.

While I have regrets about the sound of the test pipe, I certainly am happy with the end result and coreesponding tune to it.

I'm a big fan of research and talking to people. In fact, there are a few things I am probably NOT going to do now (H&R Springs), but there are things I am definately going to do (B5 Lowering cups, brakes and HPFP upgrade, fuel rail valve upgrade and tune). The list goes on, but the goal is for the car to stay as clean and unmodified (or tastefully modified) as I can go.

Anybody have an upgraded HPFP with less than 15k miles on it they want to sell?

 

So, I do have a few more things in mind for the exterior. I do want to color code the side markers on the front and rear bumper covers. I really don't like the red and orange.