B9 A4 post stage 2 back to stock - stage 2 review and guide for future A4 B9 owners

[Pandemic]

I'm hoping this thread helps future A4 B9 owners, I know when I was modding there was a lot less info. The A4 B9 is not a very popular platform for most tuning companies to support, however I believe and many of us here know it's a great platform with great power to weight ratio compared to it's S4 sibling (stock) when tuned with a DSG.

I'm simply going to list the mods I did and whether or not I recommend it.

(1) 034 strut brace - recommended. makes engine bay look great, improves how planted the car feels, I drove the car through a wind storm and it was extremely planted. If you get it, make sure you torque all the bolts down, had some clunking noises from screws coming loose from initial install
(2) ECS intake with carbon lid, actually recommended! here's why, of all the intakes it sounds the most crazy since it's an open intake. however, the creative heat shield design helps to offset some of the hot air intake characteristics that other open lid intakes have. they designed a custom heat shield over the HFC where a lot of heat comes from. avoid early versions of that design as the shield used to shear off and cut hoses but they fixed it pretty early on. it has a massive heat soak that is then sealed with the carbon lid + gaskets. they added gold reflectors to put on the heat shield which makes the whole setup look cool. the intake sounds are just crazy with this setup. it felt like it improved throttle response as well but that might have been placebo
(3) ECS carbon fiber exterior bits - avoid, go for gloss black, the clear coat ends up flaking due to thermal expansion mismatch of the resin matrix to the clear coat. no PPF or ceramic coat can prevent this
(4) 034 lowering springs - recommended BUT with two major caveats (1) get it professional installed if possible, my suspension was installed as a hack job in a drive way and it took literally two years and completely new fasteners and re-install to get rid of all the clunking noises. there are factory torque specs and a rushed mechanic will just torque everything to what feels right. also doing this wears your shocks more quickly, given the high labor cost to do this install, recommend pairing it with Bilstein shocks for an insanely good setup
(5) transmission mount insert by 034 - recommended, getting drive of driveline slop just improves responsiveness
(6) 034 rear sway bar - recommended helps with understeer, my bushings have head up surprisingly well

for tuning, I went with Unitronic so I can't speak about APR or IE for unitronic, recommended, here's why. They released the the DSG tune before anyone else and they did not update the tune at all after I got it. However there was nothing wrong with my tune and it's been reliable for 20k miles on stage 2 with no issues and it drives great. A great example of a company releasing a finished and tested tune.

HOWEVER, I do not recommend stage 2. IMO stage 1 is enough power on this platform and the gains from stage 2 are not worth the cost. Esp in Cali where you have to smog.

Okay finally, here are the two parts that I absolutely would not do if I could do it again, these are very popular mods
(1) AWE touring exhaust - this exhaust is simply terrible and AWE refuses to acknowledge there is a design issue on the A4 B9 AWE touring. The issue is that it sounds very raspy like a clapped out civic AND it has a terrible hiss. The hiss is also present on B8.5 S4, there's a big thread that you can read up on there. it has to do with their "innovative" 180 degree cancellation anti drone technology. It's a Helmholtz resonator (they just market it as something fancier) but their design has an issue, at low RPMs, there must be some sort of turbulent flow over their resonators because it creates and audible hiss and has a raspy sound. I tried adding a vibrant resonator but nothing fixes it. I tested two other local cars with the AWE touring, same sound. It honestly sounds like a weed whacker. Lots of other threads on this on B8.5 S4 with have great clips to show the noise. Avoid at all cost, the exhaust sounds so bad
(2) 034 HFC, the core delaminates after mild usage which creates a terrible smell as exhaust gases as a catless path around the sides of the HFC and it also sounds very raspy (see my other thread on this)

All in all, I ended up going to a RS5 which after all the modding experiences on the A4, I do not plan to tune for a long time. the AWE touring combined with chasing suspension noises and dealing with the HFC just made the whole modding process a huge pain in the ass. If I could do it again, stage 1 is plentiful enough for the A4 and just save your money for your next upgrade.

[dmski]

Thanks for the post, this seems to line up with what others are saying and I'd agree with pretty much everything you've stated here. Would you recommend doing other suspension components at the same time as the lower springs/shocks to minimize other noises (obviously depends on the mileage I suppose), but it sounds like you had a heck of a time chasing creaking issues.

And did the 034 trans insert help with the shifting at low speeds? I've noticed this to be rather clunky rolling to a stop for example and looking for options to resolve. It could be the mounts themselves are wearing out, but no visible leaks on motor mounts yet.

[A4B7Avant]

I believe the 'Hissing' noise is due to having the resonators in the stock muffler position. The gas flow over the hole in the pipe causes the hissing. If they had put the resonator in the middle and normal muffles at the back, this wouldn't have been a problem as the mufflers would've absorbed the hiss.

Ironically, I had my 034 springs installed at AWE. They did an excellent job, not funny noises what so ever.

[Pandemic]

@Dmski, the 034 lower springs would not cause noise if they are installed correctly, it's just labor cost if you can't do it yourself to do springs are crazy post inflation. when i got them installed, I paid for the lowest quote I got to install it which was like it $200 or 300 or for all 4 springs but the guy did it without torqueing everything back to spec or re-assembling the suspension carefully and I had to debug the noise for a long time. once your suspension is fucked, it's really hard to get to the root cause of the noise.

034 trans insert helps a lot, the physics makes sense, just watch some youtube videos of how these inserts work, it reduces drive line compliance which helps to dampen gear shock for regular customers. this shit stiffens up the driveline and thus it responds more quickly. I didn't mind the NVH but my bar is really high for being annoyed

@A4B7Avant, that makes sense, it's such a shitty exhaust that cost almost $2k new, embarrassing for a big name like AWE to design it this way and provide 0 after market support or solutions. I sent them many audio clips, emails, called them. showed them the same issue on the B8.5 S4s and they could care less. I just got into a B9 RS5 and believe me, if i ever get an exhaust it's not going to be AWE. I'm never touching an AWE product ever again, those guys are clowns.

[Pandemic]

If you're near AWE, can I send you my compilation of audio clips compiled from audizine and audiworld and can you show someone that cares there how shitty their exhaust sounds at low speeds? it's like a weed whacker. I'm sure if the right person found out about this at AWE, someone who cares about the brand, would probably take action but the customer facing staff I've worked with could care less

[Daaavid]

Approaching ~55K miles on my '19 B9 A4 that I've had since new, ~30K of it being tuned by both Unitronic and IE. I'll callout some points you made and the platform as a whole, but first, congrats on the RS5. Where are the pics?

Holistically, the B9 A4/A5 aftermarket scene is best summarized, in my opinion, as generic versions of professional tuning in comparison of other Audi models. Yes, we have access to high quality aftermarket parts/software (and that's cool, don't get me wrong), but it's only because it's a derivative from a more extensive platform (VW GTI/R, Audi S4/S5/RS5). For instance, 034 has been constantly teased and teasing us releasing a B9 2.0T tune for years, developments from Unitronic for this platform are null, and IE seems to be the only last hope to keep the software tuning up-to-date. It just so happens that part sharing is prevalent to create a market, but it stops right there. We'll never get the immediate community/tuner feedback like the other models due to market share, and for those who have never modded a car or new to European modding, this is something serious to consider because this platform has plateaued. The exception goes for this '19 Avant that's Stage 3 with an aftermarket turbo and TCU-tuned! (https://carsandbids.com/auctions/3z7...llroad-quattro).

I recall your post inquiring about the weed whacker noise on the AWE Touring exhaust on low revs. I can confirm I've heard it, but what's weird is that I replaced my AWE Touring exhaust for reasons and the noise is no longer present. I'm not sure if there's a particular defect in the mufflers as they age where the internals are broken and rattling inside or something else. This doesn't change the fact that the exhaust is not cheap, and is expected to be high quality, so QA should be considered. I still recommend it because going back to my first point, it's still the only exhaust worth a damn that doesn't drone on the highway, even with a HFC. All other exhausts, like the CTS, are imitations of it. If we continue to support cheap knockoffs, we only add to the issue of "generic" tuning options. With the JHM HFC and AWE Touring, my car sounds 100% like a modded Golf R - I like the way it sounds, but I can attest that it is not the greatest sound out there.

Stage 1 and 2 tuning is definitely a personal opinion, and in my opinion, this can be said also for any platform or tuner. If you deal with smog and emissions testing, there is no Stage 2 that is worth it if it involves modifying emissions. With that said, I do not have experience with Unitronic's Stage 2, but I do have experience with IE Stage 1 and 2. Stage 2 is worth it for this platform due to the small turbo and it extracts the last bit.

So TL;DR, if you enjoy buying and spending money on "generic" to only get a taste of what a more defined platform can be, modding the B9 A4/A5 is a great way to get started. But, at the end of the day, your money is best spent on just getting a car that came with the performance you wanted from the start. And that's why I did both, a Macan GTS and an A4 isn't too bad, right? lol

[Pandemic]

good points all around, i.e stage 2 probably squeezes more out of the car than Unitronic stage 2. Does your macan GTS have the same 2.9T as the RS5?

[Daaavid]

good points all around, i.e stage 2 probably squeezes more out of the car than Unitronic stage 2. Does your macan GTS have the same 2.9T as the RS5?

Correct, 2.9TT with a slight detune from the B9 RS5, however it has Porsche's PDK. Ironically, it's Audi's DL501 from the previous generation RS5, but with Porsche's programming and it's absolutely wonderful comparatively.

[Pandemic]

Dang, that sounds like a great recipe. the ZF8 is fast for a torque converter automatic but it's no DSG

[Pandemic]

Want to emphasis, avoid AWE touring at all costs on this platform and AWE track is just a straight pipe. Ive heard miltek and its better


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