Audi A4 B5 Stratmosphere Shortshifter Install

Required tools:
1. 3/6mm allens (6mm allen should have an 8" reach)
2. Socket set with metric sockets, extension, ratchet 8mm and 10mm open end wrench.
3. Circlip Pliers
4. Torx25 driver
5. Loctite (although not a tool, also not supplied but HIGHLY recommended)
6. Shop towels to wipe your hands free of grease!
7. A friend is a valuable tool to assist you in the install, although not required
also highly recommended.

Step 1: is to remove the shift knob by turning the knob counter clockwise till
the knob is off. Then carefully lift up at the seem between the shifter assembly
cover and the center console as depicted by the red arrows.

Step:2 With a 10mm socket wrench, remove the 2 10mm nuts holding the foam padded
sound break.

Step 3: You will then see the core of your shifter assembly. Now with your 6mm
allen wrench remove the two bolts and the one metal plate that connected the
shifter linkage to the transmission linkage. They are loctited from factory
and so a standard allen wrench may not allow you to provide enough torque to
remove them. In this case, use a 6mm socket wrench adapter to remove these bolts.

Step 4: With the 2 6mm bolts removed, loosen the front 2 10mm nuts holding the
shifter "bucket". You do not need to remove these two nuts, just loosen.

Step 5:Completely remove the rear 2 10mm nuts. This will allow you to gain access
to the 4 torx bolts.

Step 6: CAREFULLY remove the 4 torx bolts (T25) that hold the shifter assembly
down. Be careful to not drop/lose one of the bolts between the shifter bucket
and the center console.

Step 7: Once you remove the 4 torx bolts, work the shifter linkage free from
the transmission linkage (bottom arm). Once that's done it's easiest to get the
assembly out by pushing the top connection to the left as shown and pulling
the linkage out. It might take some work to get the assembly positioned to remove
it.

Step 8: With the shifter assembly out, take your circlip pliers and remove the
circlip that holds the linkage to the assembly.

Step 9: At the joint where the bottom linkage connects to the upper linkage,
remove the 10mm nut/bolt holding the linkage together. This will allow you to
remove the stock linkage from the assembly.

Step 10: Now remove the 2 rubber dampers from the flexible pivot cup, then
remove the pivot cup from the stock shifter linkage.

Step 11: Take the packet of silicon grease and liberally apply to the ball.
Install the flexible pivot cup to the Stratmosphere shifter linkage. Tie the
zip tie around the pivot cup. You should notice a decrease of slop/play in the
shifter. Do not over tighten.

Note: put the side with the notches facing upwards away from the bearings. Reassemble
the black dampers, the linkage should look like the following.

When replacing the circlip remember to place the metal spacer from the original assembly between the damper and the circlip.

Step 12: Assemble the lower portion of the linkage. Place one shim between the
bearing and the lower linkage on each side(3 were included, you only need 2)
Use a pen/small screwdriver to position the shim and secure with the provided
bolt and locknut. Tighten until the bolt does not spin freely, but do not over tighten.

The assembled linkage should look like the picture above. Note the position
of the lower linkage in relations to the shifter arm. The hole is facing the
bottom. This is crucial during reassembly.

Step 13: Now reassemble the shifter assembly into shifter bucket. Place one
of the 4 aluminum spacers under the ends of the 2 rails that hold the shifter
in place. Again be careful to not lose a spacer. Tighten down the 4 torx bolts
at this point.

Step 14: Reverse the disassembly process. First replace the two 10mm nuts at
the back, and tighten down the two in the front of the console. Now using the
unsupplied loctite you purchased, place a small amount on the thread of the
2 6mm bolts that connect the shifter linkage to the transmission linkage. This
is a very important step in preventing the bolts from vibrating loose
over time. Now position the shifter so that the bottom linkage is easily accessible,
reinstall the plate and the bolt. Do not completely tighten the bottom 6mm bolt,
you will adjust this later to ensure proper alignment of the assembly. Reinstall
the top 6mm bolt, again do not tighten completely. Now with both bolts partially
tightened, align the shifter in the position sliding it forward and back until
it's sitting in the position you want it to be. Now tighten the two bolts (snug)
and reinstall your shift knob. With the engine OFF, test that you can
easily shift through each gear including reverse. Make sure that the distance
between shifting from neutral to third, and neutral to fourth is the same. If
you can engage all gears easily, and the bottom linkage doesn't come in contact
with the shifter bucket, tighten down the 2 6mm bolts completely. Now reinstall
the sound break, and the 2 10mm nuts that secure it. Carefully reinstall the
shifter cover/shift knob and take your car for a spin! You're done! Now how
hard was that???? *DON'T ANSWER THAT!* =)



Pictures used in this how-to are of Alan's fingers and his gorgeous pearl white
A4.

ALL Audi 1.8T: Boost leak tester

This is another way to finding boost leaks other than the tennis ball method. I've used this with good results on all my DSMs though the concept is the same for the 1.8T.

Originates from www.vfaq.com


How to build an Intercooler Pipe Pressure Leak Tester

Parts Needed:

A 4 inch long piece of 2.5" O.D. (outside diameter) hose. (I used some radiator hose I got at NAPA)
1.5" I.D. (inside diameter) PVC end cap.
2 band clamps that will fit around the 2.5" pipe above.
A valve stem (I used the rubber type you press in)

Note that if you have a larger turbo, the sizes of the end cap and hose may need to be larger in order to fit the turbo inlet.

To assemble, just put everything together as shown.



To get the valve stem in, I had to drill a hole in the PVC cap.

To use it, just remove the intake pipe from your turbocharger inlet, and attach this in its' place.

Now you need to hook something up to the valve stem to pressurize the intake so you can listen for leaks. I use a 7 gallon air tank I got from Walmart, I just fill it up with air at the local gas station. You can also use a simple bike pump.

If you have a manual boost controller hooked up, you might want to plug off its' intake hose, as they leak a lot of air, making it hard to pinpoint the real leak.

Pressurize the system, and listen all over for leaks. Make sure you or a friend listens under the bumper too, wherever there is IC piping.

A leak will be obvious, they make a loud hissing sound.

You might want to have a friend check out your boost gauge while you are pressurizing things, to make sure you don't put too much pressure on things. (20 psi should be safe, or whatever you run safely for boost)

Places I have heard of leaks occuring:

BOV flange
Intake manifold ports
Throttle Body gaskets
Holes in the intercooler
Holes in the intercooler piping (sometimes the rubber pipe inside the stock woven mesh pipes cracks, and you can't see it from the outside... the pressure tester will find it though!! )

B5 A4 1.8T: FMIC Install

Since I just got done with my FMIC install I decided to do a writeup on how I did it. There are a ton of different ways you can do it.
Disclaimer: You mess up your car, yourself it's not my fault.

I bought my kit off ebay from just-intercoolers who are also cxracing.com. On ebay you can choose the piping, silicon couplers, and clamps from a big list. I choose to go with 2.25" aluminum piping. I have a k04 in the car and lost about 1 to maybe 2 psi. The car does feel quicker however.

The piping: With my kit I choose to get 3 short 90 degree pipes, a 45 degree pipe, a u pipe, and 2 long 90 degree pipes. I ended up buying more pipes then included in the original kit but the cost was minimal and I wanted to make sure I had enough to do the job.

The couplers: I choose to upgrade all the couplers to hump hoses except for 2 2.5"-2.25" reducers which I needed since the outlet on my FMIC was 2.5"


The FMIC: My FMIC is 28x7x2.5 with 2.5" outlets.


My install. I installed this setup on my 98.5 a4 with a reiger rs4 bumper. I ran the piping to the stock rubber hose coming off the tb, and the one coming off the turbo. In the future this will probably be changed and I will relocate the dv but for now it is working well. I helped to install another fmic this way and it held up fine.

Here is how I installed mine. Like I said there are probably a million different ways to do this. Obviously first start by taking the stock bumper off. Then disconnect the hoses on each side of the car going to the cross pipe. You also need to disconnect the hose from the top of the smic. You can access it by removing the driver side headlight. The tabs on my were broken so I just wiggled it out.

The cross bar to hold my fmic is connected to the upper ac mount. I cut a piece of a bar to size, drilled holes in it to use the stock bolts, and then mounted it with washers behind bar. I may in the future buy longer bolts and space the bar out a little more. I then made two bars that will attach to the intercooler. I made the mount out of steel so I needed to heat up the metal in order to bend it. To do this I used a map gas touch.

When mounting the front mount I tacked the bars into place to hold them. You could clamp them instead. This took some trial and error since the center of my car was different from the radiator to the bumper. Leave the bars long at this point till you are done.

Next you can begin to run your piping. This took me a long time. I started out with this idea.

I ened up having to change it since I would have had to hack too much of my bumper to make that fit.

For the driver side I ran a 90 degree pipe to another 90 degree pipe then into the tb hose.


I did have to make a slight relief cut into the car near where the hump hose is.

Running the piping takes a while and a lot of cuts. Patience, which I lack, is key. Make sure to debur the pipes and to clean them of metal shavings. When I was test fitting I just whipped out the ends but once I was done I washed and scrubbed out all the piping. I then let them dry before installing on the car.

I then did the passenger side which is bit trickier. I went with 90 degree pipe into a short piece of the 45 degree into the stock.


This side is tricker since you have to deal with ac line, and horns. With the setup I have I can only run one of the horns. You could also replace the stock horns with an air horn if you have no room. I didn't have to trim the car on this side.

To fit the piping into the stock hoses easier I used a vice grip to grab the hose. I then put the pipe in using the vice grips as leverage. Be careful to not tear the hose or put a hole in it doing it this way. You could also lube it to make it easier.

With the piping pretty much done you can start to fit the bumper. With an s4 and this setup I doubt you would have to touch much of the bumper but don't quote me on this. With the reiger I had to cut all the tabs off my rebar and also trim the bumper itself for the piping to fit.




I probably took the bumper off and on the car at least 25 times throughout this whole process. I went slowly with my cuts though and didn't want to cut too much. I also had to cut the bottom of the bumper to fit the bottom mounts to the intercooler that I am not using, and also to fit the edges of the intercooler.


Once I finished fitting the bumper I took my mount off that was just tacked and welded it. I then painted it so it would blend in with the car.

My state requires a front plate. Since I had to cut all the tabs off my bumper I had to figure out a new way to mount it. I came up with this.

They are always visable and then I made another mount that is attached to my liense plate. I can take the plate off and put it back on in about a minute.


To get my bumper off and on I have to disconnect the front fmic pipes in order to get the front torx bolts into place.

Tools I used: I used basic hand tools, 10mm deep socket for the piping clamps, dremel for the bumper, grinder for the reinforcement bar tabs, welder for my mounting bar and license plate mount(but you could just as easily just use bolts), chop saw with I bought to cut my pipes(any metal cutting saw would do, or grinder), file to debur the pipes, drill vice grips, marker, map gas for bending the metal mounts

This was a god send.


And here it is done.
With plate:


Without plate: