Greetings, all! Best parts source?

[Traurig, Scott R]

Hi everyone!

Scott, here, now a proud owner of a 98.5 A4 1.8TQ for a whole week!

As a very experienced Talon/Eclipse tuner, which is also an AWD 4 cyl.
intercooled turbo engine in case you weren't aware, I am looking forward to
tweaking my A4.

I've done quite a bit of reading on the web over the last week or so, and
was somewhat disappointed in the level of detail available with regard to
tuning our cars compared to the Talon community. I still have a bunch of
list archives to go through, but it looks like I'll have to bombard the list
with a million questions in the near future :) I also signed up for the A4
list in digest mode, but I haven't seen any traffic in 3 days. What's up
with that?

Meanwhile, in the short term I need to get a few parts for the car, most
notably a set of factory service manuals. *Where are the best (least
expensive) places to buy Audi parts, i.e. the dealers with the best
discounts?* I could save 30-50% on Mitsu parts in the Talon community
compared to the average local dealer this way, I hope I can do as well in
the Audi community.

Anyway, in closing, the car came with a bunch of mod's already: cone air
filter intake (no airbox at all-I need to build a heat shield), custom 2.5"
cat-back (well, from the flex, anyway) exhaust (not mandrel bent) with a
(horrors!) Super-Trapp muffler, and supposedly a TAP chip (still need to
open the ECU and confirm this, and what stage). So there looks like there's
quite a bit of room for improvement. Any early suggestions on a better
muffler? I'm already going to get a Beasley bypass valve. The stock hose
from intercooler to the throttle body just screams for replacement as well.
An S4 fender well liner or a mod to the stock liner seems like a no-brainer.
Need to get a boost gauge, too.

Does anyone know where to get lower grill inserts that will accept auxiliary
driving lights, or am I on my own here?

Thanks, and looking forward to getting to know you all,

Scott
98.5 A4 1.8TQ