[s-cars] New Purchase - 1992 S4

[Kirby Smith]

Welcome to the club.  Some comments follow your questions.

Mike Bishoff wrote:
>
> Hi folks,
>
> My wife and I just bought our first urS4 and it's a rocket ship! What a
> blast to drive. It doesn't quite have the acceleration of the Kawasaki ZX9R
> and ZX11 we drive, but it moves quite nicely. It's clear why this is such an
> amazing vehicle. We're pretty pumped on the car and have sent off our dues
> to Audi Club of NA, purchased a Bentley manual on CD and parts diagrams. The
> car has 79,000 miles, cosmetically in very good condition in and out, but
> there are some anomalies.
>
> Please keep in mind that I'm an Audi newbie as I possibly ask stupid
> questions. I'm very mechanical, but need some advice on a few items. Your
> help appreciated.
>
> 1. The S4 pulls noticeably to the left, so I had it aligned, but the same
> thing happens. The shop I had the alignment done is reputable and I've had
> other cars done there to my satisfaction, but not the Audi. The mechanic
> stated he couldn't get the steering wheel straight because some nuts were
> "frozen", but I'm wondering if he simply didn't have the right tools.

Your mechanic just admitted that he didn't really align it.  Step one of
an Audi alignment is to spend the hours needed to loosen all needed
connections and replace any links that won't cooperate.  Stip two is to
setup the alignment equipment, which is next most time consuming.  And
Step three is the actual adjustment.
>
> 2. Audi Bose Radio - this makes a horrible high volume, high pitched noise
> when turned on. What's going on there?

One of the antennas may be disconnected.  You will have to pull the
radio and check behind it.
>
> 3. Windshield Fluid Warning - Comes on often. I just filled it to the top
> and the warning comes on intermittently.
>
> 4. Intensive Windshield Thing - I can see where the resevoir is for this,
> but I don't understand what it does. Do you put acid in here to keep things
> really clean? :-)

I don't have this model
>
> 5. Seat Heaters - The passenger seat works well, but is controlled by the
> driver's control. The driver's seat does not work even when using the
> passenger control. Any ideas here?

Somebody took a shortcut fixing a seat heater circuit.  Obviously the
driver side control should work for the driver's seat.  Step one would
be to hook it to the correct connector and see if the drivers seat
works.  Maybe the passenger was insistent about having a heated seat but
had a bad control someone was too cheap to repair.
>
> 6. Headlights - The lighting while on low beams only is very poor in my
> opinion. Hitting the high beams works well, but obviously is irritating to
> oncoming drivers. I now ride with the fog lights on all the time to get
> extra lighting up front. Can this be remedied with higher output halogen
> bulbs for the headlights? Something like 85w for the 9005 and 100w for the
> 9005?
>
Headlights need to be disassembled and surfaces cleaned.  Then the lows
will be merely mediocre.

> 7. More Horsepower - There seems to be a wealth of information on basic
> chipping to boost horsepower. Is there a "most popular" tried and true
> technique?
>
> Thanks all!
>
> Mike
> Seattle, WA
>
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