Kris Hansen

Replaced the high pressure fuel pump cam follower, debadged it, hard wired my radar detector, played with the VAG COM to recode the door locks (so they all unlock together) and increased the idle speed, to reduce the idle vibrations..

Only thing I wasn't able to fix was a creaking driver's side front brake caliper. It's coming from what seems to be the back of the caliper, though the vibrations are surely traveling..

Speedy72t

Ha! Congrats Kris! I seem to be following you. I moved from an A4 to an A6 Avant similar to what you ran for years, wrecked it and as of Saturday we are in an 06 A4 Avant. Honestly missing the A6 Avant terribly but the mileage was killing me so back to a 4cyl for us.

Looks like I have to update my VAG COM for the third time for this car. Needs a timing belt ASAP. 104K on the clock. Looks like the dealer put in new camshafts at 68K. I'm pretty surprised they didn't just put a new belt in at that point but they say no.

Other than maintenance and the typical busted arm wrest deal the only thing so far that really seems to be wrong with it is that it has a major hesitation if you gun it away from a stop. I haven't driven it enough yet to get a feel for what's wrong but it almost feels like it's going up to 2nd immediately and then going "wow, they wan't to go faster than that" and dropping back down into first. If you pull away smoothly there's no problem.

Next up - APR 91 Octane Stage 1!