ExDementia
Adventurer
Nice! That's a good idea, I'll definitely be doing that down the road
Project: Expedition Allroad
- Thread starter ExDementia
- Start date
ExDementia
Adventurer
Messed around with the air suspension programming a little bit. Couldn't find anywhere to change the speed thresholds for the suspension self lowering, but I did adjust the height so that it sits more level, as it was sitting a little lower in the front than the rear, which from what I'm reading is something that needs to be corrected for after installing the IPP suspension sensor level arms. I thought the previous owner had done that, but I guess not. Also cleared the codes for the airbag light that was on, I hope those were just a remnant of gutting the car and there isn't actually an issue with any of them, as it was throwing a code for every single bag in the car. Drove around for about 20 mins and they haven't come on yet, so we'll see.
I made a GIF of all the suspension levels from 4 down to 1:
Was hoping to be able to tear down the steering collumn and replace the turn signal stalk today, but from looking at the instructions, I'll need to borrow my buddy's triple square kit because there is just one triple square bolt I need to remove. So annoying!
I made a GIF of all the suspension levels from 4 down to 1:
Was hoping to be able to tear down the steering collumn and replace the turn signal stalk today, but from looking at the instructions, I'll need to borrow my buddy's triple square kit because there is just one triple square bolt I need to remove. So annoying!
ExDementia
Adventurer
Got that light bar mount. The construction is actually pretty solid, and being all aluminum it's insanely lightweight. Shipping weight was only 1.7lbs. Not much at all.
That said, it looks pretty damn stupid without any lights on, hahaha:
Looks like a terrible little mustache from some angles, but from head on, you can barely tell it's there. Oh well, we'll see how it looks once the lights come in. I figure if it bothers me enough, I'll cut off the little bent ends of the bar and put those caps back on the cut ends. The bar sits on there surprisingly solid, so I'm not worried about that even with the lights mounted on it.
That said, it looks pretty damn stupid without any lights on, hahaha:
Looks like a terrible little mustache from some angles, but from head on, you can barely tell it's there. Oh well, we'll see how it looks once the lights come in. I figure if it bothers me enough, I'll cut off the little bent ends of the bar and put those caps back on the cut ends. The bar sits on there surprisingly solid, so I'm not worried about that even with the lights mounted on it.
Jack Stilts
Subaru Ambassador
Just caught up on this thread. She's beautiful. Love the GIF of all the suspension positions!
There will be people say don't do it....but I am telling you from experience.....It WORKS! and WORKS WELL....
thisoneguy
Audi Expositioner
Awesome to see another expo allroad on the road!
ducktapeguy
Adventurer
I've always loved the allroad and wish I could do something like this. Reminds me of the Volvo All terrain concept from a few years back
http://www.autoblog.com/2005/11/01/xc70-at-one-of-two-volvo-concepts-to-bow-at-sema/
http://www.autoblog.com/2005/11/01/xc70-at-one-of-two-volvo-concepts-to-bow-at-sema/
ExDementia
Adventurer
Thanks man! BTW, do you have a thread or anything for yours?
Funny you mention that because some people photoshopped parts from that concept onto an Allroad a while back and it looks awesome:
I'm aiming for as near to that as I can get with this project.
ExDementia
Adventurer
Finally getting to some fun stuff rather than just more replacement parts! Got in the Hella 500s and an Evolution Imports aluminum skidplate today.
I was lucky enough to find a good guy on an Audi forum who actually offroads his Allroad and happened to be selling one (here's his awesome build thread), so I was able to grab it for about half of what a new one costs. This is great for me, but a part of me did actually want to support the company who makes the kit, as I can't imagine they sell a whole hell of a lot of these, as the market for VW/Audi skidplates probably isn't huge. I did buy the hardware kit to mount it from them, though.
Their site: http://www.evolutionimport.com/
Anyway, here is a quick shot of the lights mounted up (but not wired):
My plan is to wire these up to the rear foglight function of the headlight switch. Yeah, it's a little weird, but Audis of this era (not sure if they still do) came with one rear fog light built into the taillight housing, as it is apparently a requirement in Europe. We don't have much use for that here in the states, so I thought it would be more useful to control my offroad lights, and keeps everything clean and OEM feeling inside.
The way it works is you turn the headlights on by turning the switch all the way to the right, and then you can pull the switch out one notch for the fog lights, and then pull it out another notch for the rear fog light:
That will be pretty slick to control the offroad lights as well once that's hooked up. The other thing I need to address is that the plastic that the light mount is bolted to is not very solid. It's fine for now, but it will not stand up to any real abuse, so I'll need to reinforce that with some sort of home made bracket from behind the bumper cover. It will be super easy to do, I just need to take the cover off to do so, which is a bit of a pain. Oh well, I need to take care of a few other things while that's off anyway, so it that will be done then.
Here's the skid plate (pic is from the guy I bought it off of, I haven't unboxed it yet):
It's roughly .2" or 5mm thick and weighs about 18lbs, made from 5052 grade aluminum. It should hold up pretty well offroad, and I've heard nothing but good things about them, so we'll see how this works out. Still need to wait for the install kit to come, so I may or may not be able to install it this weekend, but when I do I'm going to try to figure out a solution for moving my fender liners out a bit to get rid of some rubbing. There's a bracket between the fender and the frame rail that I want to push forward, so depending on how this all lines up, I may be able to tie that into the wings of the skid plate, as those do not need to come off when I drop the pan for an oil change, so that could be a nice, permanent solution for holding that liner out of the way. This skid will also keep the intercoolers and piping better shielded, as right now they are wide open to the elements down there, which is not ideal.
Things are coming together, but there is still a lot I need to address before I take it offroad. I really do not want to be caught out unprepared with this thing. Getting stuck out in the desert and doing trail repairs is bad enough on a Jeep, but on a ************* Audi? Yeah, no thanks. I'm going to take my time and make sure everything is well sorted out before I even consider that.
Thanks everyone!
I was lucky enough to find a good guy on an Audi forum who actually offroads his Allroad and happened to be selling one (here's his awesome build thread), so I was able to grab it for about half of what a new one costs. This is great for me, but a part of me did actually want to support the company who makes the kit, as I can't imagine they sell a whole hell of a lot of these, as the market for VW/Audi skidplates probably isn't huge. I did buy the hardware kit to mount it from them, though.
Their site: http://www.evolutionimport.com/
Anyway, here is a quick shot of the lights mounted up (but not wired):
My plan is to wire these up to the rear foglight function of the headlight switch. Yeah, it's a little weird, but Audis of this era (not sure if they still do) came with one rear fog light built into the taillight housing, as it is apparently a requirement in Europe. We don't have much use for that here in the states, so I thought it would be more useful to control my offroad lights, and keeps everything clean and OEM feeling inside.
The way it works is you turn the headlights on by turning the switch all the way to the right, and then you can pull the switch out one notch for the fog lights, and then pull it out another notch for the rear fog light:
That will be pretty slick to control the offroad lights as well once that's hooked up. The other thing I need to address is that the plastic that the light mount is bolted to is not very solid. It's fine for now, but it will not stand up to any real abuse, so I'll need to reinforce that with some sort of home made bracket from behind the bumper cover. It will be super easy to do, I just need to take the cover off to do so, which is a bit of a pain. Oh well, I need to take care of a few other things while that's off anyway, so it that will be done then.
Here's the skid plate (pic is from the guy I bought it off of, I haven't unboxed it yet):
It's roughly .2" or 5mm thick and weighs about 18lbs, made from 5052 grade aluminum. It should hold up pretty well offroad, and I've heard nothing but good things about them, so we'll see how this works out. Still need to wait for the install kit to come, so I may or may not be able to install it this weekend, but when I do I'm going to try to figure out a solution for moving my fender liners out a bit to get rid of some rubbing. There's a bracket between the fender and the frame rail that I want to push forward, so depending on how this all lines up, I may be able to tie that into the wings of the skid plate, as those do not need to come off when I drop the pan for an oil change, so that could be a nice, permanent solution for holding that liner out of the way. This skid will also keep the intercoolers and piping better shielded, as right now they are wide open to the elements down there, which is not ideal.
Things are coming together, but there is still a lot I need to address before I take it offroad. I really do not want to be caught out unprepared with this thing. Getting stuck out in the desert and doing trail repairs is bad enough on a Jeep, but on a ************* Audi? Yeah, no thanks. I'm going to take my time and make sure everything is well sorted out before I even consider that.
Thanks everyone!
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I would advise against using the rear fog option for the lights. They only are activated on low beam as far as I can remember with my Passat. If that is the case it goes against what the hellas are for. I would wire using the high beam circuit as a trigger for the hellas and put them on a switch as well. So you can run high beam, and high beam with the hella. I have never used mine with low beam. Makes it easier too if you run back roads in the night with minimal traffic, you can just flick your high beams and have instant daylight and down to low when traffic comes your way without hitting any extra switches etc. Makes more sense to do it this way.
ExDementia
Adventurer
Haha thank you!
Hmm, OK you're right, I tried it, the rear fogs do turn off with the high beams. Damn.
The reason I don't want to run them with the high beams is because in California uncertified off-road lights need to be covered when on public streets. That would mean that anytime I want to use my high beams, I would either be running the Hellas with the covers on (and potentially melt them), or I would have to go uncover them. Neither are what I would prefer.
I'll have to do some research and see if I can either disable that feature in VCDS (there's all kinds of crazy stuff you can do) or wire it differently so that the rear fogs are not disabled with the high beams. Otherwise I might have to wire up a separate switch, which is not something I wanted to do, because I wanted to keep the interior as OEM as possible (besides a CB or HAM radio that I was going to install).
Thanks for the insight, guys. Back to the drawing board.
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java
Expedition Leader
I believe the rear fogs are powered off the same circuit as the front fogs IIRC, This mod allows fogs to be controlled separately from the headlights.
http://www.audiforums.com/forum/diy-do-yourself-55/diy-independent-foglight-mod-90540/
I did it on my 01 A4, not exactly sure how close the AR and A4 are, but I am guessing very very close.
http://www.audiforums.com/forum/diy-do-yourself-55/diy-independent-foglight-mod-90540/
I did it on my 01 A4, not exactly sure how close the AR and A4 are, but I am guessing very very close.