Let me qualify this by stating that I possess almost no mechanical aptitude and probably should not be allowed to have (let alone use) the few meager tools that I do own.

I tackled two much talked about issues on the board recently and wanted to give a n00bish spin on it. These steps worked fine for me, but follow at your own peril though.

1)Spare Tire

In typical "story of my life" fashion, I unbeknownst to me at the time, must have clipped some road debris and collected 2 nice little gouges in my right rear wheel (and at only around 500 miles on the car no less). They weren't too bad, but it's such a nice (and brand new) car that it was driving me crazy. I decided to swap out the spare in its place because I'm **** like that.

Now having been a faithful lurker on this board I knew the possible horrors associated with using the Audi jack, so I was not going to risk it. I went to Sears and bought a nice (not to mention inexpensive) Craftsman 2/12 ton floor jack complete with matching stands. I also picked up a 17mm socket, wheel chocks, and a torque wrench while I was there (bonus being all the Craftsman stuff has the lifetime warranty) too. Total bill was under $200.00. I also ordered a uni-body floor jack adapter from Eastwood Co. (item no: 43042). In a pinch you could also use a hockey puck atop the floor jack to cushion the frame lip, but I figured I'd get the proper tool for the job (I highly recommend it in any event).

Procedure:
- Place car in first gear (or park for the Tip) and engage the e-brake.
- Remove spare from trunk.
- Chock diagonally opposite tire.
- Use magical Audi bolt cap puller to take of plastic dust bolt covers from wheel.
- Loosen (1 full turn) wheel bolts.
- Jack vehicle up using clearly identified (triangles underneath the car pointing where you should go) jacking point.
- Fully remove uppermost bolt and install equally as magical Audi plastic alignment rod in its place.
- Remove other lugs and pull off wheel (careful to not allow weight to rest on the plastic tool).
- Reverse steps with new wheel, let car down from jack, and tighten bolts to 90 ft-lbs on torque.

Honestly the hardest part was putting the bolt dust covers back on the bolts. Whole thing took 15 minutes because I was being extra careful. Car is back to being pristine again and besides, I needed a dry run for my winter set up in a few months.



2)Fog Lights

I bought the H11 super whites from the SPP group buy and had been dying to put them in. They are a nice compliment for the Xenon's, and I highly recommend them (for aesthetics anyhow) by the way.

Procedure:
- Using your pointer fingers, reach up under the lower wider grille opening directly under the slats and feel the two lower release tabs.
- Push tabs up and back in the same motion and the covers pop right off (careful not to break top tabs or the far outside tab on the other side of the light).
- Use a Torx T20 bit to take off the top two bolts connecting the light assembly to the car.
- Slide the unit forward (drivers side doesn't have much play) and out and turn the bulb housing (counter clockwise I think, you'll know once you're there) and pull the light assembly off of the car.
- Use a small flat head screwdriver and gently pry the tabs holding the bulb to the connector off (this is really the only "hard" part).
- DO NOT TOUCH THE GLASS AREA OF THE BULBS.
- Carefully pop in the new bulbs and reinstall the light back into the housing.
- Reverse steps to reinstall (alignment is easy as the housing has two plastic pieces that slide into two groves on the car itself and is snug once properly in there).

Total time was 10 minutes.

Sorry for the obnoxiously long post, but I figured if I could do this without a hitch, then anybody probably could. Enjoy and be safe.

*P.S. I'm sleepy, sorry for any glaring omissions.

_______________________________________________
Poor Man's Sig:

03 A4 3.0 Quattro/Manual/Sport/Bose/Premium/etc.

 

Good Info. Thanks!

 

we're all looking for a good replacement.

<img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/36855/im001783.jpg"><ul><li><a href="https://forums.audiworld.com/a8/msgs/35864.phtml">A8 jack is unfit and not safe</a></li></ul>

 

holy crap...