AudiWorld Project Allroad update – Protection, Appearance, and Lighting

We have had a busy summer and fall with our Allroad, and while we haven’t started the real nuts and bolts upgrades, we did manage to get 3 new products attached to the car.

Rearguards bumper protection – The best thing about having an Avant is the ability to load lots of bulky things into the back. Whether its luggage, shopping, tools, you name it, you can probably fit it in the car. The only bad thing about this is the top of the rear bumper is an incredibly easy target for bumps and bruises. The factory fits a very thin layer of clear tape, which works to a point, but doesn’t really cover that large of an area. When we picked up our allroad, the previous owner had clearly used the car. There were scratches and dings all over the top of the rear bumper, and we were determined to find a product to not only hide the damage, but prevent future damage.

For some amazing reason, it was incredibly difficult for us to find a solution to this problem at first. There are many companies who make protective covers for many models, oddly B8.5 avant isn’t one of them. For some odd reason, it took us a lot of internet searching to find the one we are showing you here.

When we first found Rearguards, which are made by a British company. we didn’t find any American distributors at first. Almost by accident we discovered that our friends at New German Performance were distributors for this decidedly non-sporty but nevertheless great add on for folks who use their cars for mundane tasks.

Assembly is pretty straightforward – its held on with double sided tape. Clean the area really well with soap and water, then give it a good wipe with a bit of diluted isopropyl. We added a bit more tape than comes on the piece, just for added security, but have had no issues with this piece flying away.

Audi allroad add on rear spoiler –  As with the rear bumper of our allroad, the rear spoiler above the high mount brake light had some rather interesting scratches and even a dent on it. We had seen an add-on spoiler in some of Audi’s parts literature, so we reached out to the folks at Audi to see if we could get our hands on one.

We were extremely pleased with the quality of the piece, which shouldn’t be a surprise, considering it’s a factory part. The finish is perfect, and ours arrived pre-painted in LY9C/T9/Y9C (Ibis White). We’ve seen them available in primer as well.  Installation is once again via double sided tape, which we’re fine with. The fewer holes in the body, the better. Interestingly, the spoiler came with a very comprehensive instruction booklet, in nearly every possible language. The instructions stressed to clean the surfaces extremely well, have several helpers to align it, and to give it time to sit to allow the adhesive to bond fully. Also it seemed that they preferred to avoid high speeds for a few days.

We were thrilled with how this relatively simple addition transformed the rear of our allroad. not only is the unsightly dent hidden, the rear has a slightly more aggressive look now.

The part number for the spoiler is 8K9-071-640-A (then append your paint code) and is available from Audi dealers, and many other resellers.

deAutoLED LED H11 fog lights

With all of the ultra slick lighting on our allroad (full LED and HID exterior lighting, as well as a full deAutoLed interior kit we had one more aspect of the car to finish, the fog lights.

Our friends at deAutoLed sent us an H11 kit, which consists of 2 bulb assemblies, and 2 ballasts, along with some mounting hardware.

This is really a plug and play kit, though the wiring does gain a bit of length with the addition of the ballast. The kit includes some double sided tape, which we used to stick the ballasts in a safe place in the nose bodywork. You only have to remove the front bumper grilles, then the foglight assemblies, pull the old bulbs out, swap the new bulbs in, secure the wiring and ballasts, screw it all back together, then enjoy the new bright light.

The light pattern from the OEM fog lights is not what we’d call precise, but it is reasonably flat, and very wide. The fogs really light up the edges of the road very nicely, which is want you want from fog lights in reality. With the LEDs installed, the light is more powerful, and certainly more white. The color of the light is actually a bit more white than the LEDs in the headlights, but very close to them, and the HIDs in the headlights.

All said and done, we’re really happy with these 3 upgrades on our allroad. Each has solved one seemingly small issue with the car that only bothered us, but isn’t that what it’s all about? Yes, we think so. There’s an entire industry devoted to making people like us find products that make us very happy with our cars.