2001 S4 bi-turbo - known issues

[Smarty39]

Re: 2001 S4 bi-turbo - known issues

Are S4's really that great? Or do owners just like to brag about how much maintenance they've done and overexagerate? Sounds almost like a Corrado forum, "my car's worse than your car". I mean, I really like them but if they are that much trouble why bother? Especially seeing as a lot of cars can compete with it now. I'd say unless you have a fixation it's not worth it.

I honestly don't think that there is ANYTHING out there that you can pump 500+hp out of and retain the luxury of an S4 at the same time. If you maintain these cars they run great. There are always horror stories when you're on forums, but I'd say more than 75% of problematic S4's are due to owner neglect.

I have no complaints with mine (but I knew what I was getting in too). I think a lot of people buy them without doing any research, and then when something craps out on them they think the car is a piece of junk. I bought my car with over 100k, so I knew I would be replacing things. In the 1.5 years I've owned it I have yet to have anything fail on me that I didn't already know I'd be replacing (except for my GOD DAMN HEATER CORE!). Some of the parts are expensive...but you gotta pay to play

[The Brice]

Re: 2001 S4 bi-turbo - known issues

You can go tip but to me it's sacrelige, a german sports car needs a stick IMO.

[Smarty39]

Re: 2001 S4 bi-turbo - known issues

6 Speed is ideal, but can a person "survive" with the Tip?

I think you'd be pleasantly surprised with a Tip. I CHOSE to get a Tip rather than a 6sp because of the amount of time I spend in brutal traffic...and I'm lazy sometimes lol. You'll read that alot of people think the problems are greater with tips but all you'd ever need to replace is the TC (~$800USD)...compare that to rebuilding a 6-speed or replacing bad syncros, which is happening more and more now that these cars are approaching 10 years old, and the price difference is almost zero.

I have to agree that manuals are more fun to drive hard...but with the proper upgrades (I'm getting an upgraded Valve Body and new TC when I go stg3 ), the tip CAN be a very fun car to drive. I got the chance to ride in a full stg3 tip when I picked up my AR in the states and it was a blast! The guy had a L10 valve body and the thing shifted like a rocket...I swear to god is was almost identical to the DSG system in the new GTI.

[Tuna]

Re: 2001 S4 bi-turbo - known issues

I honestly don't think that there is ANYTHING out there that you can pump 500+hp out of and retain the luxury of an S4 at the same time. If you maintain these cars they run great. There are always horror stories when you're on forums, but I'd say more than 75% of problematic S4's are due to owner neglect.

I have no complaints with mine (but I knew what I was getting in too). I think a lot of people buy them without doing any research, and then when something craps out on them they think the car is a piece of junk. I bought my car with over 100k, so I knew I would be replacing things. In the 1.5 years I've owned it I have yet to have anything fail on me that I didn't already know I'd be replacing (except for my GOD DAMN HEATER CORE!). Some of the parts are expensive...but you gotta pay to play

Well I don't think 500hp is your "typical" S4, it's 250 stock. I don't think you can include 10,000 worth of mods in a comparison. Unless of course Jeff was intending on buying a "stage 3" S4 but I didn't get that impression.

[The Brice]

Re: 2001 S4 bi-turbo - known issues

I always thought this was a rather funny and informative (somewhat) noob guide to the b5 s4 that was posted on AZ a few years back just don't take it too seriously enjoy...

Stage 1 = chip
Stage 2 = chip + catback
Stage 2+ = chip + turboback
Stage 3 = Stage 2+ and bigger turbos
Stage 3+ = Created after a few people decided that the first three stages were too easy to understand. This can mean pretty much anything you want. We could make more stages, but we need to be able to flame n00bs for something so it's best for us to keep it confusing.

M and T box are interchangeable. A box is fastest. 2nd gear synchros suck. TIPs suck. TIP chips make TIPs suck only slightly less, but they will eventually suck much more when they grenade. Buy a Level 10 tranny.

The best mod is driving school, although that's not really a "mod," per se. Somebody was witty and called it a mod, now everybody's riding that train. It's very "enthusiast," like a password or secret handshake.

The B6 S4 guys are like the retarded mutant brother you keep locked in the basement, but in this case the basement is the B6 S4 forum. You can lurk their forum and watch as they ask stupid questions and beat each other with sticks, but don't post anything.

B5 S4 has a V6. B6 S4 has a V8.

B5 > B6. 'Nuff said.

Dentist drill means dying turbos. Look, if you have to ask if you have the dentist drill, YOU DON'T HAVE IT! It sounds like 1000 screaming babies in your engine baby. Siren noise also means dying turbos. Does chipping them, making them work at 200% of their designed capacity, make them die faster? Of course not.

We are not clairevoyant, we can't tell you when your turbos are going to blow. When they finally blow, let us all know by making a no-text post with the Turbolady pic...just like everybody else does. Everybody will tell you to get K04s, K04/16s, and K16/24s. While you're at it, get a turbonator, too.


According to UberVier, the difference between K03s and K04s is 1. That's about it. It's like dungeons and dragons. A K04 is a K03 +1, but we just shorten it to K04. Easy.

Intercoolers? Get a DUH FMIC. No, DUH is the shop that makes it. Yeah, it's they're real name. No, I don't know wtf they were thinking. Just order one. It'll arrive just before the second coming of Christ.

You don't need a turbo timer, just install the thermoswitch mod from ECS. The thermoswitch is under the coolant expansion tank, but make sure you release the pressure first. You installed it? Cool, but now your battery's dead. Buy a new one for about the price of that turbo timer you wanted.

The engine can handle nitrous. Get a boost gauge, but for god's sake don't install it yourself unless you're wearing a full suit of riot gear.

The original stock TBB tore alot. They revised it. The revised TBB tears just as much. High five, Audi. Rushing air sound is a boost leak. Spray soapy water on stuff to find it. Blowoff sound is dead diverter valves. No, you can't use blowoff valves. Get 710Ns. No, Forged DVs aren't worth the money.

F-hose is not another word for your penis.

TAP chip is so fast it doesn't even need boost. MTM spikes highest. Everybody is sketched out by REVO. AMS is solid. Neuspeed makes a chip, but nobody buys it since TAP is *way* faster. GIAC is weaksauce, APR is not. After all, if APR is weaksauce why is my 4000mile pair of K03s making the siren again?

-----------------------------------------------
ATTN: Everybody who says the Dorito chip is the fastest.



You are not funny.
-----------------------------------------------

FATS means For Advancement of The S, and a FATS time is a 3rd gear pull from ~4200 to ~6500rpm (60-90). If you measured your FATS time with a stopwatch, *everybody* will laugh at you.

Don't cut your springs. Don't put a wing on your car. Don't buy that LLtek bodykit. You bought it? Burn your car.

Your stock S4 Avus rims are worth approximately tree fiddy. Contrary to popular belief, Ronal makes wheels for Audi.

Shortshifters? Some say the Tanoga is notchy, other say it's not. A handful really like the B&M, but some people say it's too notchy. The UUC is popular, though a few people complained of its notchiness and are happy with a Tanoga, which isn't notchy at all. Many B&M owners go to a Toyguy because it's notchier than their B&M, which they found too smooth. The TIP guys watch all this arguing and laugh, which is about all they can do since their trannies just blew up.

Borla makes the best sounding exhaust. Milltek is overpriced, but "classiest," whatever the hell that means. Milltek owners are snobs. Twin2 sucks. The UUC VelociMax is so damn loud it could drown out the apocalypse. NONE of these exhausts fit right...except Borla, which is awesome. Don't buy downpipes, just make piggies (stock DPs, gutted precats, relocated O2 sensors). Not worth the extra cash. Will somebody please buy that ridiculous Neuspeed race exhaust - I need a laugh. When it comes to exhaust sound, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Speaking of eyes, cancel the eyelid order. Eyelids are rice. Watch out for the AW ricer lynch mobs. They eat babies.

The whistle tips go Woo Wooooooooo.

If you live in NY/NJ/CT, you have two choices. 1) Sleep in your car, shotgun in hand. 2) Just leave the doors open with the keys in the ignition. Your car WILL be stolen. Half the forum will be very sympathetic when it happens, the other half will flame you for not hiring a team of Navy SEALs to sit in your car while you sleep.

Yes, black is fastest.

It's Nogaro. Not noraga, nagoro, nagaro, norogo, or nogara.

Your paint is *what* color? Santrino? God help us.

Achet gray was euro only.

Sure, you can order K04s with any tuner's "Buy it now and we'll never fvcking send it to you, EVER" system. It's going to be so cool when you don't get them. Yes, Garrett kits are in the works. MAHA dynos > other dynos, but don't say so or the forum becomes about as peaceful as the LA riots.

11.5 is the fastest 1/4 et for a *relatively* off-the-shelf kit. It was stripped. Best launch at around 3500rpm on the upswing towards 4k, but you'll probably destroy your motor mounts so buy new ones from APR. Some people say you can install them with the bumper on. They're either liars or contortionists. I tried it with the bumper on and my elbow snapped like a twig.

I don't want to dump at 6000rpm, so you try it and report back to me. If you're gonna try that 6000rpm clutch dump, better do it with a SPEC clutch...they're bulletproof. Once your SPEC clutch obliterates itself, argue with SPEC for a replacement. They won't send you one, so just get a beefed up RS4 clutch from ECS.

RS4 clutch = S4 disk + RS4 pressure plate.

DO NOT try to port your heads with dry sand, or while the heads are still attached...and especially not when the engine is running. If you do, the only way to fix it is to rig your DVs like blowoff valves to get all the sand out.

The seats rattle. Yes, so does the sunroof. Your washer fluid drained? Ha. No, AOA doesn't care about any of this. What's AOA? If Audiworld is the 1960's, AOA is 'the man.' Don't try to fight the man, because, just like the hippies, you'll lose.

Some dealers are mod-friendly, some aren't. Yours probably isn't, but try anyway so we can all find great pleasure in reading about your misery.

Everybody's gonna get banned. Free Autospeed. Eric Fletcher 'knows everything.' Everybody hates Achtuning. S4MadManDan is a postwhore. DocSlow is a white gary coleman. Everybody loves Achtuning. Simmply knows his stuff. The bollocks will be back. Toyguy is alive. Reefer_bob will *always* outbid you. Piggy is the ****. Jacob wishes he had been born a turbo. Verruckt is in Germany (cops like his car). Mpwolf betrayed the clan. I should never, ever, ever be allowed near my car with any sort of tool.

What they didn't tell you when you bought this car was that you were also buying a life so brimming with anxiety and paranoia that it makes Osama Bin Laden's life seem like a Corona commercial.

Oh, and yeah, we all saw the S4 in the Matrix.




***Glossary***

RTFM = I'm an ass, and I don't want to help you, which is why I'm using this acronym you don't understand. Look how cool I am! When you finally ask what this means, ten people will respond with various sexual/offensive definitions that are all hilariously incorrect. I will get a huge kick out of this.

STFA = You probably don't know what this means, either. Anyway, yes, I could answer your question, but I won't. Go spend 30 minutes figuring out that the search engine is completely useless, and then return to explain as much. Still want the answer? RTFM. (Hilarious!)

AID: Essentially, this is the size of your e-penis. However, the relationship between AID and e-dick size is inverse. The lower the number, the larger your e-schlong. There's a pecking order here at Audiworld, and if you've just gotten here, you're at the back of a hundred-thousand person line. Until there are at least ten thousand people behind you, you are only here for our amusement.

FLAMES: Offensive remarks made by other Audiworlders directed towards other Audiworlders. Throughout the Audiworld boards, flame posts make up about 50% of the total posts. In the B5 S4 forum, that percentage rises to about 100%, this post being the one exception.

PEB: These are the extremist weirdos of the S4 world. Their system of beliefs centers around sacrificial rituals that beseech their stupid porcine deity to bless their cars with so-called "Piggie Power." Their group is headed up by a reclusive pig-loving genius that never answers his emails (ever), known only as Mr. Piggy. Their holy texts are the Book of Lemmiwinks and the Scrolls of Homebrew. PEB members, or "piggies," can be distinguished by the @PEB in their handles as well as images of pig worship in their pic posters or sigs. Because they do little other than tweak their cars in the shadowy confines of a garage, exposure to natural sunlight tends to make them burst in to flames.

1 = !

BOOST GAUGE: A mechanical device born in the deepest levels of Hell and is powered by the misery of its owner. Installing a Boost Gauge will help keep you aware of possible boost leaks. However, because this car is so prone to catastrophic boost leaks, the gauge only serves to reduce your life to nothing more than a series of paralyzing anxiety attacks.

TBB: Don't know what this is? Well guess what, yours is broken, and if you don't fix it *right now* your turbos will explode! I see you're sweating now. Welcome to the wonderful world of S4 ownership. No more happiness for you.

O/T: If Audiworld is Ancient Rome (bear with me), O/T is the Colisseum. Violence. Blood. Death. Russel Crowe. Not for the faint of heart.

= Apparently, this means "click here."

BWW: I've taken a lot of cool pictures of either my car or somebody else's car. However, because I'm so artistic (read: ghey) all the images are so slanted they're basically upside down. I don't care what you have to do to view them normally, but if you get hurt, you can't sue -> my AID is lower than yours, bish.

NOS: aka N2O, nitrous, or NAWZZZZZ. Makes your car so fast the world blurs around you. While NOS is usually relatively safe, it will become extremely dangerous if shot at by an asian dude with an Uzi.

PWND: When this is said to you, it means that somebody has made you their *****. When you have been PWND, you are required to post pics of boobies. That said, nobody really knows how to pronounce this.

[R-Audi]

Re: 2001 S4 bi-turbo - known issues

Ive had mine for 1/2 year... and maintenance wise only had to take care of the F-hose, then another PCV hose.. no biggie. Mind you my turbo's have already been replaced... I just find there isnt anything else on the market for the same price, comfort, luxury and performance!

[The_Jerbel]

Re: 2001 S4 bi-turbo - known issues

Have the car VAG'd before you buy! That can reveal many an issue that popping the hood won't discover.

I've had my car for over a year now, and the original K03 turbo's were still plowing along at 256 000 km's when I went stage 3! Just make sure you let the oil temp hit 80 before you start to ream them out and then let the car run for a minute or two after running them hard.

And BTW, the B5 S4 is one of the most tunable, luxurious cars around for the money, that's why we love them. I've spent around 30-40k on mine which includes a multitude of mods, a luxurious interior, and here is the rough tune'd FATS run I did tonight with a 180 lb passenger.
http://nyet.org/fats/?process=LOG-01...-032-xxxVASTHB

What other car can you buy for 20k and then spend 10-15k on to make it run like that with that level of comfort, which also has quattro all-wheel drive (read, great in the winter)? There aren't many, that's for sure.

And BTW, I am in the process of becoming the Canadian rep for VAST performance, so if you guys need any crap, I can get a good price for my eurodrivers brethren

[Tuna]

Re: 2001 S4 bi-turbo - known issues

well, playing devils advocate I suppose, like I said i'm kind of a hypocrite as far as the love of a high maintenance car goes. They are nice no doubt. They just seem to be a lot more troublesome than I would have thought.

Jeff good luck with the decision.

Rob, that was funny, I posted something like that here years ago (although much shorter and not Audi specific).

[R_Ethug]

Re: 2001 S4 bi-turbo - known issues

really jordan?? hrmm i love vast stuff..

yea i agree for the luxury it CANNOT be beat.. like alot of us just have the solid leather seats but is silk nappa and its sooo nice.. i wish i had alcantara though but at the meet i'll show people the little touches.

like on the back seats instead of carpet they have alcantara on them!! audi quality is beyond beyond.

quattro 4 life.. next car is going to be an s4/a4 wagon or allroad like kyles

[Jester B]

Re: 2001 S4 bi-turbo - known issues

Awesome info, thanks a bunch guys.

I think it's going to come down to what I can get for my car, and what the asking price is for the S4 when/if it becomes available. I'm now armed with great questions to ask to try to get some of the history of it.

The nice thing is that there may be an option of either an S4 or a S4 Sport...one with leather, one with Alcantara (and a chip). I don't have a lot of information on them at this point, and the availability is dependent on other things happening first.

Sooooo tempting if the price is right.

[R_Ethug]

Re: 2001 S4 bi-turbo - known issues

lower KMs of course.. as for colors.. if you are set on a certain one GO for it... i wanted nogaro so bad but sold out for good ol' silver since it was in such good condition and had a whopping 50k on it

shop across canada even.. won't hurt

[Dubs]

Re: 2001 S4 bi-turbo - known issues

Mine has 101 or something on it ... only thing I have done is the rear bearing ... and ordinary maintenance. I love it.

[zoik]

Re: 2001 S4 bi-turbo - known issues

damn did i miss out on this thread yesterday!

i've had mine for just over a year and a half. got 118k on it. when i got it, i had to replace the tie rods, a cv boot, and the rotors were warped. since then i've replaced the other cv boot, the battery, did the timing belt, and i had one of the ignition control modules fail. overall, I LOVE MY CAR!!!

i really lucked out on mine, i got the nogaro with alcantara. i actually wanted the white, but i took this one since it was available. after having this thing for a month, my dealer got 2 other ones in with the normal interior. IMO if you can get it, gotta go with the alcantara.

[R_Ethug]

Re: 2001 S4 bi-turbo - known issues

yea i love lennys car.. only thing i'd swap is the blue handles for normal black ones.. other than that the interior is perfect

[R-Audi]

Re: 2001 S4 bi-turbo - known issues

I guess like anything... you gotta pay to play... and an S4 is certainly fun to play with!
its really too bad the S4 was granted inadmissable again.. that would have opened up the doors for importing some fun and cheap performance.