christine s

No estimates yet on getting her fixed or repainted. Ouchie!!! <br>

Mark P.

I hit the wall of my garage with the bumper after having the car for a month and put some pretty deep gouges in the bumper. They fixed it up good as new - claimed they sanded, filled the gouges with "melted plastic" and then repainted - cost about $500, but that was at the dealer.<p>Then, a week after getting it back, this guy in a Ryder rental truck decides that the best line to take through the corner next to my house is through my parked A4's bumper, and did the same "modification" to the other side of the bumper. Could have been a *lot* worse, but I was still close to tears as I saw my baby's brand new volcano black paint smeared along five feet of rental truck. It goes back to the same body shop next week, but this time I don't have to foot the bill.<p>- Mark<br>('99 Volcano 1.8TQM with weight-reducing bumper modifications)

Paul H. (in MD)

Hey Snowman...<p>Since mine just happened yesterday I haven't actually had a chance to have it looked at yet. I will let you know what's involved. Most likely they will just order a new skin and paint it. Since some of the aerodynamic "sport" body kits out there involve replacing the bumper skin anyway, I may try replacing my damaged skin with an aftermarket one. We'll see. First order of business is to see if they can match the paint.<p>Fortunately, while this was distressing, I had previously been able to give up some of the emotional attachment that comes with owning one of these cars. I don't mean that in a bad way. I was driving to work one day when traffic stopped real fast but 6 cars behind me someone didn't. There was literally a 5 car pileup and the car DIRECTLY BEHIND ME was hit, but I wasn't! My A4 was less than 2 months old at the time, and didn't have a scratch on it. Talk about adrenaline!! After that happened I stopped doing all those things like taking up two spaces in the very back of the parking lot. Heck, I value the car, YES, but I refuse to be a slave to my paint. It's insured. And if it gets major damage and I can't match the pearl I was considering some of that fancy DuPont paint they put on Jeff Gordon's Winston Cup car a few times that turns different colors (blue/purple) depending on the angle you look at it. I'm not necessarily a Gordon fan (B. Labonte #18!!) but I do like his paint..<p>I can offer you some encouragement, however. From what I have heard, the silver should be MUCH easier to match than my pearl, which I have heard is next to impossible. Have faith.. ) (I'm trying!)<p>You might ask people (even here on this board) for references of body shops in your area who have done work on Audi's (or independent mechanics who work on Audi's to recommend a shop) since some are better than others, and if some have done the silver before they probably still have the mixing formula in their computer. Good luck!!<p>Paul<br>'98.5 A4 1.8TQTipS in Pearl (hopefully not soon to be two-tone pearl)

JeffC

Fortunately, its much better now... if its any comfort, it looks as good as new. In fact, I had the hood completely stripped and repainted eliminating a BUNCH of rock chips. <p>Its been quite a few years since my last auto repair - and the paint technology has come a LONG way.<p>Jeff

Bruised A4

Does it look good as new after the sanding, melting etc????

Bob Petruska

The bumper comes off quite easily. They will sand and fill, then color and clearcoat. A good shop will make it look like new. I even had then match the paint texture of the A4 body which is very, very slightly orange peel than perfectly smooth. The sheen will look the same as the body in the sun when done like that.

Mark P.

(nt)

Morgan

This is in response to Brett's helpful discussion of how the ECU decides when to open the wastegate on the 1.8T. (see archive 6/24-6/25)<p>I'd like to continue this discussion, in public 'cause others are likely to be interested.<p>I think that a pretty good approximation of boost pressure should be derivable from RPM, MAF (mass air flow in grams per second), the altitude compensation pressure sensor and the intake air (I hope this is charge air temp!) sensor.<p>A perfect normally aspirated engine pumps it's displacement of air through every two revolutions (for a 2 cycle). The volumetric efficiency describes how close to perfection an engine is with perfect = 1.0 and a pressurized intake going over 1.0.<p>We know the mass of a given volume of air at various temperatures and atm. pressures and the mass of air flowing in (MAF) so we should be able to determine the actual volume of air flowing in, compare it to displacement*RPM/2 and derive a figure that should be proportional to boost pressure.<p>Humidity is a factor I didn't consider until I saw Brett's note. Not sure what to do about that.<p>The MAF is very sensitive as it's trying to balance air/fuel mixture to the nth degree to maximize power & minimize emissions (considering oxy sensor inputs also). I'd bet by approximation, 1/2 PSI precision is possible.<p>Comments?<br>

Morgan

(nt)<br>

KLHI

It's a good idea. The only way to really find out would be to compare the readings from your setup with a conventional analog boost gauge. Humidty will probably be a problem but . . .