Ya know, I haven't been enjoying driving my car much at all lately. It's falling apart...
02-18-2003, 06:58 PM
#1
AudiWorld Expert
Thread Starter
Ya know, I haven't been enjoying driving my car much at all lately. It's falling apart...
...I have 55k miles and have owned it for 41 months now. I even bought an extended warranty. There are 2 things under warranty I've been putting off getting fixed since before Christmas. Those are that the heater core is leaking coolant when used (so I've rarely been using it -- it is a Houston winter after all and my car is garaged in an attached garage at night), and my coolant temerature gauge for the instrument cluster isn't working properly (it reads a tick below the middle even if the climate control computer shows 90C when doing freeway driving with the temperature below the mid-50's). I'll get around to going to the stealership for those next week I guess.
But my car also creaks a lot more than it used to, and that is especially noticeable in the cooler weather of winter. I can't imagine how bad it must be below freezing because the coldest I've seen the temperature gauge in my car this year has been about 36F.
I don't like my new S-03's (ride's a little rough, but bearable, and the tramlining is terrible), but I won't take the hit and swap them out for something else until I wear them out a year or so from now.
My suspension is shot at 55k miles, and I'll need to drop at least $2500 to upgrade to Stasis and get it installed (I won't settle for anything less that I'll have to live with every second I'm driving the car).
My Coleman rotors I ordered last month seem to be warped, degrading the joy of touching the brakes, so I need to go to a shop to have those turned. Plus, I thought I ordered them slotted, and they came smooth, but that's probably a result of a miscommunication between us, and since I knew what I wanted, I should have taken the responsibility to make sure the order I placed was correct, so I'll live with that.
My rear rotors have never been replaced, so at 55k miles, I probably need to replace them, and if I do, I'll be out another several hundred dollars so I can upgrade to Stasis' rear rotor setup with an aluminum hat. I need the aluminum hat because whenever I change wheels my 5mm spacers that came with my Ronal LZ's stick to the hubs from the brake heat buildup, and they are a royal PITA to remove in that situation. If I had to change a rear tire in a flat situation out on the road, it is questionable if I could get the spacer off in order to do it.
My clutch engagement is jerky, and on a few occasions on the coldest of mornings, I felt my untuned K04 power slipping my clutch in high gears around 3000rpms, so I need a new clutch to get around that, but streetability (i.e., being able to seemlessly do 2nd gear starts) is my prime concern, but since I might go GIAC X-chip for K04's the RS4 clutch may not be able to handle that power, so I'll need a custom clutch, so I'm worried I'll get something I'll hate. Mike Staley...hook me up with something good that's in the 3-figures!!! I don't trust WOA.
My hood, front bumper, rear bumper and trunklid had fairly major scratches/chips I wanted to get repainted, and I keep putting those off. Then a couple days ago, I noticed a chip on my left front quarter panel that was down to the metal. So there's at least 4 figures in painting I'd like to have done, but can't seem to justify doing given the other things that need attention.
I also just replaced one of my Ronal LZ's (at $400) that got dinged by a pathetically designed and built handicapped crosswalk in a residential neighborhood. Of course, I notice one of the remaining ones appears to have more blemishes than I ever recall seeing before either. Good point though: I now have 5 LZ's (although one's dinged up) so I have a matching spare with a 235/40-18 tires (the same size as I'm running on the 4 driven wheels).
I'd like to finish my Stage III upgrade, but I'll guess that will wait until after my suspension now, especially since I wouldn't dare track my S4 with the suspension worn out (it's handling is very spooky in lift throttle situations now).
Like that matters, because before I go back to the track (for more than about half a day anyway), I'll need a new set of track tires, since my Victoracers are just about worn out.
Oh, and I've got a thousand bucks worth of stereo equipment (including some brand new (like 2 years old, but never installed) Image Dynamics speakers sitting in my garage that I can't justify installing in my performance car now that I've realized it is a performance car, and I want to spend money on performance mods. Plus, I realized when my battery was replaced 5 months ago, I never reset my hidden EQ settings. At least I did that tonight, to 38679857, but it now sounds a little bright since I've gotten used to the dull sounds of an untuned stereo.
Plus I've still got 19 more payments at $758/month. It's time to refinance this puppy out to 36 months at a better rate, because I still plan to keep it for a total of 8 years as a daily driver.
At least my timing belt and tensioner was replaced under warranty 12k miles ago. But my water pump wasn't. I also seem a little suspicious of my power steering rack as steering as seemed a little loose lately, but that could be the S-03's, bad alignment, and the shot suspension.
But my car also creaks a lot more than it used to, and that is especially noticeable in the cooler weather of winter. I can't imagine how bad it must be below freezing because the coldest I've seen the temperature gauge in my car this year has been about 36F.
I don't like my new S-03's (ride's a little rough, but bearable, and the tramlining is terrible), but I won't take the hit and swap them out for something else until I wear them out a year or so from now.
My suspension is shot at 55k miles, and I'll need to drop at least $2500 to upgrade to Stasis and get it installed (I won't settle for anything less that I'll have to live with every second I'm driving the car).
My Coleman rotors I ordered last month seem to be warped, degrading the joy of touching the brakes, so I need to go to a shop to have those turned. Plus, I thought I ordered them slotted, and they came smooth, but that's probably a result of a miscommunication between us, and since I knew what I wanted, I should have taken the responsibility to make sure the order I placed was correct, so I'll live with that.
My rear rotors have never been replaced, so at 55k miles, I probably need to replace them, and if I do, I'll be out another several hundred dollars so I can upgrade to Stasis' rear rotor setup with an aluminum hat. I need the aluminum hat because whenever I change wheels my 5mm spacers that came with my Ronal LZ's stick to the hubs from the brake heat buildup, and they are a royal PITA to remove in that situation. If I had to change a rear tire in a flat situation out on the road, it is questionable if I could get the spacer off in order to do it.
My clutch engagement is jerky, and on a few occasions on the coldest of mornings, I felt my untuned K04 power slipping my clutch in high gears around 3000rpms, so I need a new clutch to get around that, but streetability (i.e., being able to seemlessly do 2nd gear starts) is my prime concern, but since I might go GIAC X-chip for K04's the RS4 clutch may not be able to handle that power, so I'll need a custom clutch, so I'm worried I'll get something I'll hate. Mike Staley...hook me up with something good that's in the 3-figures!!! I don't trust WOA.
My hood, front bumper, rear bumper and trunklid had fairly major scratches/chips I wanted to get repainted, and I keep putting those off. Then a couple days ago, I noticed a chip on my left front quarter panel that was down to the metal. So there's at least 4 figures in painting I'd like to have done, but can't seem to justify doing given the other things that need attention.
I also just replaced one of my Ronal LZ's (at $400) that got dinged by a pathetically designed and built handicapped crosswalk in a residential neighborhood. Of course, I notice one of the remaining ones appears to have more blemishes than I ever recall seeing before either. Good point though: I now have 5 LZ's (although one's dinged up) so I have a matching spare with a 235/40-18 tires (the same size as I'm running on the 4 driven wheels).
I'd like to finish my Stage III upgrade, but I'll guess that will wait until after my suspension now, especially since I wouldn't dare track my S4 with the suspension worn out (it's handling is very spooky in lift throttle situations now).
Like that matters, because before I go back to the track (for more than about half a day anyway), I'll need a new set of track tires, since my Victoracers are just about worn out.
Oh, and I've got a thousand bucks worth of stereo equipment (including some brand new (like 2 years old, but never installed) Image Dynamics speakers sitting in my garage that I can't justify installing in my performance car now that I've realized it is a performance car, and I want to spend money on performance mods. Plus, I realized when my battery was replaced 5 months ago, I never reset my hidden EQ settings. At least I did that tonight, to 38679857, but it now sounds a little bright since I've gotten used to the dull sounds of an untuned stereo.
Plus I've still got 19 more payments at $758/month. It's time to refinance this puppy out to 36 months at a better rate, because I still plan to keep it for a total of 8 years as a daily driver.
At least my timing belt and tensioner was replaced under warranty 12k miles ago. But my water pump wasn't. I also seem a little suspicious of my power steering rack as steering as seemed a little loose lately, but that could be the S-03's, bad alignment, and the shot suspension.
