'01 Audi A4 1.8T quattro TDI Conversion

Nearly there!

What are those wheels? They look almost like Fuchs reps?

Mikkijayne said:

What are those wheels? They look almost like Fuchs reps?

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They are in fact Fuchs repros. They're Outlaw wheels by Fifteen52, with cutouts in the petals for increased airflow. They've been sitting in my garage for a year, just waiting to be installed. They only make them in Porsche bolt pattern and hub, so I had to get wheel adapters and specific lug nuts to get them to fit.

If anyone's interested, the BHW+01E combo weighs 536 pounds (no fluids, no wire harness, no transmission brackets, no A/C compressor, no power steering pump)

The old AWM+01A combo weighs 473 pounds under the exact same conditions.

I was very surprised that the total difference in weight is only 63 pounds. I've almost negated that just by moving the battery to the trunk.

Fixed the brake master cylinder issue, now the car brakes like a champ.

But while bleeding the left rear, I noticed a ton of grease everywhere. Bad outer CV joint on the used axle I put in. I had replaced the inners, but I thought the outers looked fine. Guess I was wrong.

Soon I'll run out of things to fix... and then my life will be an empty, hollow shell

Holy crap this thing is fast... I've grown used to driving the worn-out A6 with 2.8/auto. On that car, flooring it provides adequate acceleration. But on this beast, anything above light pedal pressure provides neck-breaking acceleration. It's amazing! Smokes like a stack if I press too hard on the go-pedal, though.

I found myself going 100mph on the highway without even meaning to. I immediately took it back down to 75mph once I realized how fast I was going.

No transmission issues this time, it's smooth through every gear, especially 6th.

The alignment is crap. I need to go to an Audi dealer where I can get a proper alignment done. It blows my mind that in a state where Audis are so prevalent, almost no mechanic can do a proper alignment on one.

I really need to get the cruise control working on this car... maybe it's time to finalize the tune, now.

Glad to hear she's running! This is a great turbo, really trying to avoid doing this kind of build myself (the PD wagon serves my purposes and it doesn't snow here).

GoremanX said:

I spent $742 on a custom tune (and flashzilla tune loader) and have almost nothing to show for it. Granted, this was over a year ago and I'd totally expect to have to pay more to get the tune finalized at this point.

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We'll look after you when the time comes. Always nice to see this kind of dedication with custom builds. Just send some solid photos our way

Some photos I took today:

New TDI Badge

That tailgate will be getting replaced soon, it's not salvageable. The Quebec license plate is only temporary until I can pass Vermont inspection, hopefully next week.

Engine layout:

The orange hoses run to/from the ProVent filter. I used a BEW valve cover to get the crankcase vent to point that way. The coil of copper tubing above the alternator is the cooling coil for the exhaust pressure line. Everything else just fits as intended.

The clearance between the turbo and airbox:

It's a tight fit, but I rocked the engine side-to-side as far as it will go using a puller to make sure the turbo wouldn't hit the airbox. Because of the angle of the engine, the turbo mostly moves up/down as the engine rocks. The ceramic coating on the turbo housing keeps the radiating heat to a minimum.

I bought an Audi TDI engine cover:

It needs some small modifications to fit. One of the bolt holes doesn't line up, and the copper coil is in the way at the front. Also the EGR/ASV opening doesn't quite match. None of this is urgent, though.

Using the stock airbox has made the engine SO MUCH QUIETER!!! It's a night-and-day difference compared to the open cone setup I had a year ago. This is still a loud engine, no doubt about it. But at least now it's not embarrassingly loud. It just has a nice growl to it.

Seems like ALL the used parts are failing one after another. The MAF that I re-used from the Passat is now dead. Hoping to get a new one by Wednesday. I should've just replaced that to begin with...

edit: oops, I replaced the MAF a year ago with a brand new one. There's nothing wrong with it. With all the finangling I've been doing to the turbo actuator, I somehow ended up leaving the wire harness sitting on the exhaust manifold. A couple wires melted, and this was causing the MAF fuse to blow. All resolved now.

Got an updated tune from Malone Tuning today. Everything's running real smooth.

...but...

Still can't get cruise control to work!

Malone confirmed that the gear ratios in the tune are correct and match my FTL 01E transmission. But VCDS shows a speed that's 18% higher than what my speedometer shows, and I know my speedometer is (mostly) accurate. Pretty sure cruise control won't work unless the ECU and instrument cluster reported speeds are within 10% of each other. So why is the ECU reporting a vehicle speed that's so completely wrong?

Epic thread and you've been through a lot, glad to see it's done. Another TDI Quattro! Yeah!!

Does cruise work in any gear? I had to get Malone to adjust mine when he got the 6th gear ratio wrong, it would work in gears 1-5 though.
Have you checked that the cruise switch and clutch/brake switches are working in VCDS?

LukeWilson said:

Does cruise work in any gear? I had to get Malone to adjust mine when he got the 6th gear ratio wrong, it would work in gears 1-5 though.
Have you checked that the cruise switch and clutch/brake switches are working in VCDS?

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Cruise works in no gears. According to VCDS, the ECU sees all the switches (clutch, both brake switches, all cruise switches) and cruise control is enabled. But the reported speed in the ECU is about 15% to 18% off from the instrument cluster speed. The instrument cluster is accurate, so the ECU speed is somehow being calculated wrong. From what I vaguely remember reading, cruise will not engage when ECU vs cluster speed difference is more than 10% because the calculated gear ends up being wrong. The ECU has no way to know what gear I'm in except by calculating RPM vs speed and referring to its internal gear ratios table, including the final drive.

My thinking is that the ECU is still somehow calculating the speed based on the old BHW final drive ratio rather than the new 01E ratio, even though that was supposedly fixed. The numbers kind of match up for that scenario. Malone Tuning is still working on the issue. This is the first time they work on a tune for an FTL 01E.

Dammit! The tone ring on my right axle has come loose. It's a brand new axle that I ordered from Europe a little over a year ago. It has 300 miles on it. It's wreaking havoc on the ABS system, causing the car to pull left into oncoming traffic every time I press the brakes.

Seems like this damn ABS system is more dangerous than beneficial. I wish there was a way to disable it and not have the ABS light on in the dash. Oh well, I only just passed the safety inspection, so I guess I have a year to fix this issue. Meanwhile, I have a pretty bright yellow ABS light to look at.

I've been driving my TDI-swapped A4 for a few weeks now, and in a word: WOW!!!

I keep trying to find excuses to go for another drive. It's a blast to drive in town, it's a blast to drive on the highway. It's awesome on dry pavement, it's awesome in the rain. The subtle suspension modifications I've made, coupled with the weight transfer toward the rear of the car, has made it ride like its glued to the pavement at any speed. After about 1000 miles, I've gotten the hang of where the engine likes to live in the rev range. The gear ratios are absolutely perfect. Merging on the highway is way more fun than it has any right to be. I can pull away from anyone in the blink of an eye.

Only 2 lingering issues remain: A/C needs to be charged, and cruise control still isn't working. The former should be resolved in the coming days, and I hope Malone Tuning can fix the latter soon. They've been absolutely fantastic about getting this custom tune dialed in for all my crazy requirements, even sending me updated tunes to test on a Sunday! Night and day difference from my earlier experience through a separate dealer.

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go for a drive...

Good to hear, Frank! :thumbup:

sweet victory after a LONG battle!

Great news!

2500 miles, just did a full oil change. Wasn't missing an ounce of oil, which is a good sign. Drove to Montreal and back twice, once in heavy rush hour traffic and once late at night for an airport drop off. The car drove amazing each time. I average close to 40 mpg at 70mph on the highway, and it keeps getting better.

I finally caved and added a switch and relay to turn on the A/C manually. It's too hot and humid out there to not have A/C. Ideally my tune will just support the OEM climatronic functionality very soon, so hopefully this is a very temporary kludge.

Still no cruise control I've mostly figured out why, now. The ECU is interpreting the speed signal as if the transmission had a 3.339 final drive, the OEM final drive of a BEW (that's the file Malone uses as a base for manual transmission tunes for BHWs). The numbers match up perfectly with this scenario. I REALLY hope this can be resolved soon, because Vermont highways practically beg for cruise control.

Would love a recent driving video!

The best car is a wagen awd diesel right ?.
Its an old thread bit i hope to see some progress.

Nickel_5000tq said:

The best car is a wagen awd diesel right ?.
Its an old thread bit i hope to see some progress.

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Oh I've been driving it for almost 30k miles this thing is by far my favorite car ever