Just Rob

ideally you want 235/40 18 tyres but 35 is not too much lower, you may find the wheel arch gap looks much bigger thou.

As much as everyone loves the oem units and they look well, oem , they are outdated now in terms of tech and connectivity. Good aftermarket devices are soo much better and if installed and setup are by far the way ahead in an older car. I'm not IC expert in fact i hate messing around with it but they are not that complicated with only a few wires to connect to be honest, most instructions are very clear and few owners that do it DIY have issues, that said B7's do have some specific wiring , but its pretty straight forward.

indeed.

different wheels and tyres would totally transform the look to be honest, but personal choice really what ever works for you.

Hu units, swapping to aftermarket devices requires a fitting kit which will inc the frame and surround, also a suitable adapter loom , most double DIN oem B7 hu's have the quad lock setup so the fitting loom will get your ISO sony wiring into the Audi quadlock inteface. depending on what audio spec was fitted at the factory the previous owner may not have fitted DAB ariel into the correct plug as there are two fakra plugs on some units , also the Ariel adapter needs power which many over look. those alloys may infact be spaced aswell, suspenion ride height looks a bit high but possibly still on oem kit or similar spec , maybe the tyres making it look a bit too chunky though.

its got headlamp wash so xenons are fitted at factory.

Ok, front bumper is aftermarket with what looks to be a genuine RS4 grill. Rear valance is aftermarket S4 , looks like an ecs one but sticks out a bit too much for ecs valance, cant recal the other brand but it will come to me. Alloys are wrong offset or width , maybe both from for looks tyres dont help. Still like we all say , it was the previous owners preference and if he liked it that way then fair enough.

19" alloys are not an issue on B7 provided they are the correct offset and tyres have been reduced in profile. OEM setup on the special edition is 18" 8j et43 ronal alloys with 235/40 18" tyres, going to 19" is fine but that needs to change to 235/35 19" and offset can be upto ET 35 to retain clearance of the rear wheel arch liner, and certainly no more on the front. I run 19" 8.5j OZ alloys on ET38 which is perfect, with KW coilovers, absolutely spot on and still retains a level of OE appearance too.

It most likely fitted with a sports cat or similar HFC , maybe just a straight decat pipe connected to that straight through system, eitherway can be a challenge at MOT time with emmisions, a look under the ECS cover will confirm which. quad tips indicates an S4 rear valance or similar aftermarket valance. special edition had 320mm drilled front disks from factory but its common for owners to uprate to larger s4 disks and caliper carriers, brembo 18z kits are popular too, so check your brakes. Suspension is not brilliant and another area that gets uprated to something vastly improved .

Any pics of your car.?👍

Gauge

As you may find out along the way during ownership , there are a lot of options, and i do mean a lot, for the B7 variants and a lot are interchangeable from model to model. you will very rarely find two with the same spec and more often than not some special editions have very few options given there original cost, which is annoying but hey thats audi for you. Full electric mem seat are great along with folding mirrors and adaptive xenons.

Thats the Lambda pre-cat sensor lead , the black grommit bit should be pushed into the clip not next to it.

thats an ECS carbon induction intake kit, just an uprated air filter box that covers a larger area, performance gains are questionable on the B7 platform but it does look much better that the OEM layout.

I forgot to say, on the rear seat questions. The bench is only held down by two push in fixings , one on each side sort of central behind the front seat back, the plastic retainer part that fits into the floor can split and break or just fall out, the metal loop of the base of the bench just lifts up and down loosely. If yours are flopping up and down the the plastic retainer is broken/missing or possibly the bench is not quite in the correct position . the rear of the bench just pushes under the base of the backrest. just lift up the front of the bench and have a look, all will become clearer straight away. part number 5 , plastic/rubber grommit ,it fits into floor section, that is all that holds the bench in place on the front and stops it flapping around.

I would also imagine that the previous owner that spent on those parts, and that ECS induction kit is not cheap by itself , may well have uprated the suspension too, if he didnt then he had his priorities around the wrong way. check under the arches to see what fitted. may have even fitted an uprated Rear ARB if you are really lucky, rs4 ARB is a good option. on the performance side of things, if one has driven a standard mapped BUL powered B7 for a period of time then driven an uprated one, if it been upped a fair bit it's noticeable to be honest, as it is new to you thats not really an option so dyno will be the best route.

Hi I'm new to this forum but have owned for the last 8 years the same variant, I'm no expert but have become very close friends with it so know all to well about the ups an downs of living and owning one. With regards to the HU, you need to pull it out of the centre console and check what wiring is there and fitted , it is possible that a wire has become detached or similar. It will also indicate what fitting kit has been used to connect the sony HU to the OE loom. Coding is not required with aftermarket HU's as they are not recognised. Reception can vary a bit but again depends on wether or not the HU has been wired up properly and if you have Full or part ampified Bose system. 300 is very doable on a stage 2 depending on whats be done. normally it will be a remap, FMIC , HFC and performance exhaust but some get similar gains with less. without any documentation output will unknown without a session on a dyno. Factory it was 220 for the BUL code engine , and its a specific ECU map the BUL engine, the same engine and map as used on the DTM. rear seat conversions are doable but depends on what spec interior you have as some have rear side air bags etc , either way its doable if you source the correct parts, which is normally the hardest part. depending on varaint and spec, some with have folding backrest and some wont. If you know your option codes then i can clarify what options are fitted to your car. CC is also a good retro fit and very much a DIY mod but you need to know a bit about what you have fitted at the moment so as to get the correct parts and it need coding in , so unless you have access to vcds or similar then get it done properly. hope thats hepled a bit , you have choosen a great car.

Most leather seats can be a bit clingy in warm weather to be honest but with the aircon running and a cool cabin its ok. S-line leather is nice, the finish does vary depending on what the spec is though , comfort Recaro's are brill but that's another subject. If you fancy a change then worth doing just check what wiring you have in your car as depending on what car they were removed from they may be all electric etc etc and you may need to modify or add to your loom to use the replacement seat functions. Most S-line have elec lumbar as a min, then heating, full motion control and the like. rob

Have you carefully inspected the coolant flange on the rear of the block close to the bulkhead, its a well documented point for leaks and it easy to overlook. A closer inspection with a torch around the joint will soon show up a leak, its a common fault on the 2.0tfsi. best of luck .

Is this to retrofit an aftermarket double DIN HU or OEM HU? Assuming you have an OEM single DIN HU currently installed. Rob

Stressed

Hi all, New to the forum but not new to Audi's. currently have an A4 B7 2.0tfsi special edition quattro Avant that's not entirely standard, owned it for almost 8 years now and still enjoying it. Looking forward to sharing my B7 experiences and mods etc. Rob

New here but all sounds good.👍