gibsonl

Has anyone used the JHM setup and able to share their experience with me? I remember when I put a lightweight flywheel and clutch in my 3 series it helped me get through the power curve a lot faster which could certainly help out the RS4. How many hours of labor should I expect this to cost me?

BenSti

I have the Stage 4 Clutch and LWFW in my car and it feels great, it is a little hard to drive at first, but you will get used to it quickly.

Factory service manual quotes warranty time as 9.6 hours and 13.7 hours normal service time. I believe most shops around here do it for $800 or so.

I would recommend you replace the slave cylinder while you are in there. You may also want to consider doing the JHM shifter linkage and bushing while the transmission is out as it makes the job much easier. All are relatively inexpensive compared to the additional labor you would spend to do them later.

sakimano

on the S4 it cuts about 13 lbs of unsprung, rotating mass. That's like a shot of horsepower. When I went with LW front rotors (S4 also) they cut 20lbs and it was incredible. Doing so at the crank/flywheel I can only imagine would feel better still.

As for the clutch, it holds incredibly well for hard launches and spirited driving. If you take it to a track day and put 1000 brutal shifts on it pretty much anything has potential to fail so keep that in mind when you're reading the forums. To my recollection I've seen about 5-6 of these fail...and half of those were installer error. The other couple are again heavily abused parts that failed at track days. Go figure. That's out of a few hundred sold.

It's more about the driver and driving style than it is about the part.

gibsonl

I think I'll go ahead and give it a try. I'm doing the lightweight rotors as well since mine warped after 1 track day. Also having the piggie cat mod done so hopefully I can pick up a quick 30-50hp. I have no need to do hard launches since I'm doing road courses and not drag strips so hopefully it lasts. Have either of you tried the short shifter?

BenSti

Don't expect to gain anything close to 30-50hp. Especially if you have no tune.

sakimano

if you piggie your downpipes you'll definitely pick up some good torque but not sure if 30+hp is anywhere near realistic.

A JHM tune paired with piggies will give you a much better experience. Having driven enough stock tuned RS4s...and comparing them to JHM tuned cars it's really night and day.

gibsonl

I'm on the East coast so I'm going with the APR tune since that's what my local performance shop uses. I'm looking forward to getting out to VIR when everything is done!

sakimano

sorry, but the APR tune is a virtual waste of money on an RS4. I don't mean to be crass or rude about it, but the facts are the facts. Try posting up on quattroworld (big RS4 community) if you should grab an APR tune. You'll hear in a real hurry that it's probably the worst possible RS4 tune.

Since you're on the east coast, it doesn't matter. You can have JHM's tune put on your car by yourself. They'll send you a cable to load the flash. You don't need to pull your ECU or anything...and don't need to go to California.