Clean up and repo

Having finished with the driver side front corner yesterday I started out today’s effort by taking care of some house cleaning in preparation for rotating the car.  I’m moving on to the passenger side front wheel-well and the position the car was in was not conducive to working on that corner.

B5 S4 Clean up and rotate
Clean up and rotate

After straightening up I swung the front around (on the dollies) to give myself some work space around the passenger side.

Audi B5 S4 Passenger wheel-well work
Passenger wheel-well work

The rear lower control arm ball joint was quite troublesome, but eventually I got it loose.

Tomorrow I’ll finish removing the lower control arms and set to work installing all the new parts.

Front Driver Side Wheelwell

While I am waiting on some additional parts to be able to commence installing the K04 turbochargers on this S4 I have been directing my efforts at refreshing and upgrading the suspension and brake components.  The past couple of days I’ve been working in the driver side front wheelwell.

Today I wrapped up a bunch of parts swaps.

Audi B5 S4 Suspension and Brake Upgrades
Audi B5 S4 Suspension and Brake Upgrades

Starting at the bottom and working the lines counter-clockwise  we have:

  1.  Both lower control arms (balljoint on the front was a blast trying to get out.)
  2. Swaybar end link
  3. Brake rotor
  4. Vogtland Coilover (Had to visit Autozone to borrow a spring compressor)
  5. Brake pads
  6. 034 brake line
  7. Tie rod end (Surprisingly pesky putting the new one in)
  8. Upper control arms (Neither went in willingly)
Audi B5 S4 Slotted Brake Rotor
Audi B5 S4 Slotted Brake Rotor

The turbochargers have arrived.  I was mistaken about them being Genuine BorgWarner, they are a K04 rebuild from Midwest Turbo Connection.

Midwest Turbo Connection B5 S4 K04
Midwest Turbo Connection B5 S4 K04

Next up will be to check and set the preload on the wastegates to 8 psi so I can take a short break from the suspension and brake work.

Waiting on Turbos

With the new flywheel and clutch installed I reattached the transmission.

Audi B5 S4 Dual Mass Flywheel
Audi B5 S4 Dual Mass Flywheel
Audi B5 RS4 Pressure Plate
Audi B5 RS4 Pressure Plate
Audi B5 S4 Transmission
Transmission Reinstall

I am waiting on the BW K04’s to arrive so I can start reattaching the various turbo lines, so I turned my attention to the front end and the brakes and suspension upgrades.

Audi B5 S4 Suspension and Brake Work
Suspension and Brake Work

Removing the front lower control arm was quite the challenge.  The ball joint remover alone was not getting anywhere, the gear puller was not either, so I combined applying the ball joint tool with a pair of hammers to hit both sides of the lower upright simultaneously.

Audi B5 S4 Lower Control Arm replacements
Lower Control Arm replacements

That did the trick, freeing the pesky ball joint.

The rest of the nuts and bolts have taken some torque to loosen, but so far I haven’t had any others that required taking unusual steps to free up.