With the rear differential still out being worked on there’s not a lot of urgency to get the Avant put back together quickly.

After reinstalling some of the top end components I am ready to begin refilling the coolant.  With having two engines out simultaneously I’ve had to expand my coolant reclamation efforts.

Three funnels with coffee filters in them are straining out the dirt that inevitably finds its way into the coolant while I am draining it out of the car.  This process proceeds at a reasonable pace and I will intermittently stop what I am working on to refill the funnels so they can resume draining into the “filtered” jugs.

Adding a new upgraded part to the S4 is something I look forward to doing.  This shiny new piece arrived, a 034Motorsport billet aluminum rear differential carrier.

I don’t expect this part to make any difference at all in how the car drives, but it will give me a smile when I work under the back end of the car and see it.

Also, with the car not yet ready to be driven I’ve decided to take the opportunity to have the gauge cluster replaced.  My Silver S4 had a gauge cluster that was removed to be replaced by a sentimental favorite from my original Santorin S4.  Interestingly, even though the Silver S4 only had 43k on it the LCD was showing bad pixels.

The Avant’s cluster now has 290,000 miles on it with a failing LCD display and intermittently the backlighting goes out on the tachometer side.  I was advised to try a lower mileage cluster if possible and the Silver S4’s cluster was a perfect candidate.

I plan to ship this unit off to Tom at Speedosolutions to perform the repair.  Previously Tom replaced the LCD panel on the Santorin’s cluster and also took care of adjusting the mileage to match that of the car.