replacing front wings A4 Cabrio

[Dave C]

Hi there, new here, i have an A4 Cabrio, which i love, its gorgeous to drive, never have any problems with it but it has developed severe rust on both front wheel arches.

Took to a local bodyshop who came highly recommended, they say cant be filed, needs replacement but this car wont take a generic wing?

quoted over £1000  which i am not sure of as car is probably only worth about £1000 on a 54 plate with 79k on it.  anyone have different experience, i am told it is a common complaint with this model.

Thanks for any advice

Dave

 

[Steve Q]

Welcome to the forum Dave, you'll find the members on here are a friendly and helpful bunch :) 

Yep it's a common issue on various vag cars from this era including the a4, a6, golf, Passat amongst others. They rust because vag put foam inserts between the wing and wheel arch liner which obviously fill with water and thus, cause the rust. 

I had my wings replaced 18months ago and it cost me around £1000 so I'd say this is fair (I can look through the invoices to see exactly how much if you're interested) that price you'll be looking at pattern wings (non Audi) and the cost will include the wings, primer, paint, lacquer, blending in and labour. 

If the cars a good one then I'd say have them changed :) 

Hope I've helped :) 

Cheers

Steve

[Magnet]

Hello David,

Nice to hear from someone from the homeland.

Probably will be understandably considered a bodge, but the likes of Mercedes and some 90s Jaguars had their rusty arches covered over with some chrome over-arches. Not sure if someone has manufactured them for your Audi. If so, you could get get a body shop to cut out your rust and carry out a basic repair which is then covered with the arch trims. May be a more economic repair than the anticipated four figure sum.

Kind regards,

Gareth.

[Steve Q]

19 minutes ago, Magnet said:

Hello David,

Nice to hear from someone from the homeland.

Probably will be understandably considered a bodge, but the likes of Mercedes and some 90s Jaguars had their rusty arches covered over with some chrome over-arches. Not sure if someone has manufactured them for your Audi. If so, you could get get a body shop to cut out your rust and carry out a basic repair which is then covered with the arch trims. May be a more economic repair than the anticipated four figure sum.

Kind regards,

Gareth.

Gareth raises a good point about bodging and depending on how bad the arches are they sometimes can be filled with filler. I was offered this option with my wings and could do it for half the price of the new ones. I was advised by the body shop that this could only last a couple of years before the wings would definitely need replacing. 

The reason why I didn't mention this earlier is because I don't like bodging but I guess it's all a personal thing. 

Cheers

Steve

[bern]

I am considering doing one of the wings and the cost looks to be about £500 for the same service as described above but for just one side.

 

I am also looking in to if there are any other options rather than just genuine Audi manufactured wings. Seems to not be for the convertible so far... 

[Magnet]

Hello Bernie,

Does your £500 estimate cover the cost of a new wing, it's fitting and painting, or for repairing your existing one? Any chance you could post a photo of the extent of the rust? 

Kind regards,

Gareth.

[bern]

Hi Gareth

I believe it is for a new wing, fitting and painting. I can check (as I am probably not going to do it at the moment).

Hopefully my upload of the picture works below.

Thanks

Bernie

 

I put another picture as it is not all bad (apart from the curbed wheels!).

Do you need both wings? 

 

[Magnet]

Many thanks for the helpful photo Bernie. Not sure how long you have had the car to know its history, but i would say someone has already had a go at this before.

Others will have more knowledge of this in terms of it being a problem area for rust on this model, but this sort of issue is normally associated with road muck being held behind the wheel arch lip and the the rust starts from there and the edge. Mercedes had this wheel arch issue on mid 90s/early 2000 cars, and it was common to see such cars being fitted with "chrome" wheel arch over covers which hid the rust. Jaguars of the same period were also problematic, so if you want to investigate this as a cheap way out then try searching on these for those makes and see if the suppliers cover Audi as well.

Back to the Mercedes  - you could go on the Continent and see the same models without rusty arches - even in countries where you had snow! Here, you were lucky to see one without! 

This leads me to wonder weather it might be worth investigating the supply of sound secondhand wings from the Continent rather than fitting new. I would have thought that the estimate you have had for doing this job is reasonable if it for fitting new rather than repairing yours.   

Kind regards,

Gareth.      

 

[Steve Q]

It's definitely a common problem of vag cars from this era as vag fitted foam inserts between the wing and wheel arch liner. Obviously the foam absorbs the water and causes the wings to rust. The a3, a4 and a6 were affected. To rectify it properly you'll need new wings however I'd wait until summer. 

Cheers

Steve

[GrahamS4]

If you don't mind a bit of spannering you could buy 2nd hand from eBay, get them sprayed and fit them yourself as they're only bolt on and the painter should be able to match the colour by its code. For what it's worth I've just come from a 2000 Mercedes SL320 on which I replaced the front wings for the same reason, no pattern wings made for these and the genuine ones cost me over £800 each (£682+ 20% VAT) plus fitting and painting. 

Something like these look a fairly sound base for getting your car sorted - https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Audi-A4-B6-CONVERTIBLE-PASSENGER-SIDE-FRONT-WING-IN-GREY-CODE-LX7Z/202232629491?_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIM.MBE%26ao%3D2%26asc%3D43781%26meid%3Db435a204f69249b5b5ad44626825ce65%26pid%3D100005%26rk%3D6%26rkt%3D6%26sd%3D173127564771%26itm%3D202232629491&_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/GENUINE-UNUSED-AUDI-A4-S4-CABRIOLET-CABRIO-FRONT-RIGHT-WING-8H0821106B-2007-09/232654618221?hash=item362b4bbe6d:g:370AAOSwoF1Zu9qR

[bern]

Thanks for that Graham those look pretty good.

I have been looking for the a new non Audi official wing for the convertible but have trouble finding a supplier. If anyone knows of one that does the b6 convertible specific wings it would be very helpful.

 

In the mean time to stop it getting worse I may try something like this 

http://www.halfords.com/motoring/paints-body-repair/rust-removal-treatment/hammerite-kurust-250ml

Tried it before on my much older 924s and it worked surprisingly well.

Interested if others have any experience using it, as was only a very small area I did.

Thanks

Bernie

[Magnet]

Hello Bernie,

Used to use Kurust when I had hair. Now use Vatcan ( or similar name) - available off the auction site, much cheaper, and I think just as effective. 

Kind regards,

Gareth. 

[bern]

Hi Gareth

Thanks for that I will try at least one of them.

Hopefully it will at least buy me some time!

Thanks

Bernie