Frenchy's Audi S5

[Frenchy_Pop]

Re: Frenchy's Audi S5

The other consequence to the power increase is that the tires, which were already getting low on tread, burned out pretty fast. The car came with stock 19x8.5 peelers flossed with 255/35 Dunlop SP Sport Maxx GT rubber, which I should say were a great tire...until they weren't and unfortunately the time between those two is not very long. This was the worst one by far when they finally came off, which was WAAAAAY overdue, and there is a reason why...



And so the wheel saga begins...

[Frenchy_Pop]

Re: Frenchy's Audi S5

I have a nasty habit of shopping for all sorts of car parts at the same time, but fortunately for me, it makes the process quicker when I am actually ready to buy, or so I thought. I had been toying with the idea of some HRE's until my parking buddy at work (TTRS) turned me on to some Rotiform designs.
Again, I reviewed extensively, himmed and hawed over offset, width, size, finish etc. until I was ready.
Excitedly I put a deposit on a set finally and patiently waited for 8-10 weeks for them to be made.
Wheels arrived at 8 weeks on the money and I picked them up and took them home and just couldn't contain the excitement.



I bought the tires early from PMC and got the new Michelin Pilot Sport 4S's. Unfortunately this is not where the story ends.

[fbatwork]

Re: Frenchy's Audi S5

Would be nice to hear everything at full song... Oh and don't leave us hanging on the rest of the story!

[Frenchy_Pop]

Re: Frenchy's Audi S5

K, so I had the wheels right, what could go wrong? Ooooooh just wait.....
So this was my first time getting wheels custom made, so perhaps I had some oversight, but I really don't think so. Also, this post is not intended as a dig on Rotiform, or any of the shops involved so I'll leave the names out unless you specifically want to know. This is just straight up, what happened, no BS.
I had the wheels and tires, but I don't own a tire machine and honestly preferred to have these professionally mounted. The shop that sold the wheels was a bit pricey on the mount, so I took them to another shop (not CT) who also dealt in Rotiforms, so I knew they would heed the proper attention that a custom set deserved.
Rotiform, bless them, has plenty of warnings about mounting the wheels to the car at all mounting locations prior to mounting rubber to the wheel, lest there be consequences. Those consequences are that you cannot return the wheel, you own it after the rubber is mounted, for better or worse. There's warnings on the box, there's warnings on each rim, hell there were probably even warnings on the shipping manifest. So trust me when I say, that I really did take the time to mount all four to both the front and the back to ensure there were no clearance issues, and there weren't, but this comes back.



If you didn't notice, this picture is upside down and was taken while the rim was mounted to the car (on the front I believe). I have pictures of all of these mounted, but I won't bore you with those as they all look like the same rim anyways.
So, I won't keep you in suspense any longer, here are a few pictures of the wheels as received. They are Rotiform's 3-pc forged BLQ-T 20x9.5 et29 using a reverse polished lip, exposed hardware and rear loaded with their "brushed" finish. I had considered gold centers for the wheels similar to one of the pictures on Rotiform's catalogue pictures for this wheel, but in the end it didn't fit with the rest of the trim/color scheme.






Just going to break this up into 2, as unfortunately the story gets longer...

[Frenchy_Pop]

Re: Frenchy's Audi S5

So as you can see in the last picture, the rubber got mounted. Here's how this went down.
I had called looking for an appointment, and was told that if the wheels were not on a car, I could just bring them in and drop them off and they would get to them between appointments. Awesome. I dropped them off in the morning, and received a call maybe 3-4 hours later (can't remember specifically).
Me: "Hello?"
Shop: "Hey there's a problem with one of the wheels you brought in."
Me (internally: WTF do you mean there's a problem with brand new wheels): "what's the problem?"
Shop: "One of them is bent."
Me: "Ok, well you didn't mount the rubber to it then did you?"
Shop: "Well we only noticed after the rubber was mounted?"
Me: (internally: All of the curse words, ever.): "Eff. Ok well, I guess I'll come pick them up"
I feared the worst, as this shop didn't sell me the wheels and despite them knowing what has transpired, I have no recourse with them. In addition, I feared that the shop that I did buy them from would point the finger at the second shop and so on.
When I picked up the wheel, they let me in the back and showed me the issue which could really only be detected while the wheel is mounted on the balancer and spinning. Sure enough, there was the slightest little hop in the rear barrel as the wheel spun. They told me: "you know, if you just mounted this on the rear passenger side, you probably wouldn't even notice". Which, ok, maybe if this was my pickup would be acceptable. But for a brand new set of custom wheels, I was not prepared to deal in probabilities and compromises.
I emailed and called Rotiform for guidance on what to do, as I had done previously with APR. They instructed me to work with the dealer where I purchased them to rectify the issue.
I talked to Shop#1 (let's just call them that), who to my surprise, told me to bring it in and they would take pictures and video to send to Rotiform if necessary. I dropped the problem wheel off the next day.
Shop#1 was very nice and told me they'd need the wheel for a day or two to validate the issue with Rotiform. Awesome. You do you, just so long as it gets fixed.
Shop#1 got back to me the next day on the phone and said that Rotiform needed the wheel to be shipped to their Vancouver warehouse as the believed that it could be fixed there (and the parts were available). To me this meant that they were going to replace the rear barrel, thus removing the bend, but I never did actually find out what was done. They went on to inform me that if the wheel couldn't be repaired in Vancouver, it would be shipped to L.A., to their main distribution warehouse for repair.
Great. I had to wait some more for the wheels, but at least it was going to be repaired at no cost to me.
Me: "Oh hey, shop#1, are you shipping it with the tire, or are you taking the tire off"
Shop#1: "Oh, we'll take the tire off and ship it for you, no worries!"
Me: "Great, should I pick the tire up, or should we leave it at your shop?" Not knowing what kind of timeframe we were talking about at the time.
Shop#1: "Leave it here, it's fine."
Ok, so repairs on the way now. It was only about a week later that Shop#1 contacted me again to let me know that the wheel was not repairable in Canada and was being shipped down to California for the repairs. Ok, no problem, patience is a virtue and this was not totally unexpected.
It was another 5 weeks less a day until the wheel came back to Shop#1. That's not an embellishment, that's simply how time works.
Shop#1: "Your wheel has arrived!"
Me: "Yay! Silly question, but have we confirmed that it is true?" It would be just my luck to pick it up after repairs and the friggin' thing not be repaired at all.
Shop#1: "Haven't even had the chance yet, will let you know."
Me: "Ok, no worries, I'd love to take it home, so please let me know as soon as you get a chance to spin it and mount the tire and I'll be on my way"
~2 hours later
Shop#1: "Spun it, and it looks good!"
Me: "Great, I'll be there in a few hours, and you had a chance to mount the tire right?"
I've learned the hard way to ask things explicitly multiple times from Shop#1. I mean, maybe I was being hyper-critical at this point, but I would phone and ask for updates on the wheel, and would get responses like "hmm..which one is this again?" Seriously, how many friggin' wheels of this caliber are being shipped around North America for repairs!? Am I that naïve? If you have this much trouble remembering otherwise memorable transactions through your shop...I dunno, maybe write more things down....end rant.
Shop#1: "We have the tire here!?"
Me (internally: OMFG, there's no way this is happening right now): "Yes, the tire was dismounted and kept at your shop, it's this *description* tire."
Shop#1: "Are you sure? There are no 20" tires here"
Me (internally: am I being punked right now!? *All of the curse words, ever.) "Yes, I am sure"
Shop#1: "Ok, I've ordered a replacement tire for you from Edmonton, it'll be 2 days to get here, but if we find yours we'll just send it back. No cost to you."
Well, I should think not, as I wasn't the one who lost the tire. As you may imagine, I was running low on patience and high on curse fueled descriptions of Shop#1. So many more unanswered phone calls and emails later we get to this:
Me (to multiple people at Shop#1): "6 days ago it was 2 days for a tire to come in to replace my tire that went missing from your shop. What is the status of the wheel and when can I pick it up?"
It had been 16 weeks since I ordered the wheels.
Shop#1: "We found your tire among some other tires and we'll have it mounted tomorrow"
Slight feeling of vindication, I'm not going to lie, knowing that the doubt that was cast over my account of what had occurred was now gone.
I called the shop the next day to validate that the tire was going to be mounted by the time I got there. I was told by the owner, yes that he was going to personally mount the tire and it would be ready in about 30 minutes. Excellent.
Now... bear with me, but the characters of this story go:
Owner- Obvious
Guy#1 - Wheel department
Guy#2 - Don't know what he does, as I've never dealt with him previously
Girl#1 - She's new, never seen before
Girl#2 - Parts
45 minutes later, I swing by Shop#1. Two folks who I have never dealt with before are in the front.
Girl#1: "Can I help you?"
Me: "Yes, I'm here to pick up a wheel...umm... *owner* knows about it"
Girl#1: "ok...um...*confusion*...do you have a phone number with us?"
Me (internally: oooooohhhh no.)
Girl#2: "I think I actually know about this one, let me go and grab guy#2"
Me: "Ok, thanks"
Guy#2: "Hey, so you are looking for this wheel?"
Me: "yes, *owner has mounted it for me, I chatted with him on the phone earlier"
Guy#2: "Oh, well...um...It's not mounted yet"
Me: "Are you effing kidding me!?"
Guy#2: "Let me go find *owner"
Now he goes for a few minutes but *owner can't be found. I really felt bad about this after, because this person really had nothing to do with this at all, but I cursed at him a few times and told him to have *owner phone me ASAP.
*I figured out later the reason that Guy#1 hadn't returned any phone calls or emails is that he went on vacation...seems like the ball was fumbled a little bit in the middle there among all the other fumbling that was going on.

[Frenchy_Pop]

Re: Frenchy's Audi S5

Apologies for this getting so long, but I need to illustrate how ridiculous this saga was... I can't make this stuff up!
So the next day, *owner gets in touch with me and apologizes (Shop#1 despite any shortcomings, was extremely nice the entire time), and lets me know the tire is mounted and ready to go.
Just to be explicitly clear, I tried to verify that once I showed up, it wasn't going to be some dogsh*t Canadian Tire special mounted on my rim, or a 33" MT tire, or some other thing that could possibly go wrong at this point that would be additional delay. I was assured that it was ready.

That afternoon, I am on my way to the shop, and I kid you not, I am sitting at the last set of lights before I get to the shop and the car literally dies in the street.
Well, FML, that smells a helluva lot like gas to me. Hazards on, hood popped, let's check it out. I was with a buddy from work, and between us, we've seen our fair share under the hood, including full motor and tranny pulls, fabrication, and design. But, the company we work for is extremely safety conscious...not an exaggeration by any stretch. So wouldn't it be a damn thing if two of their employees were run over in traffic over the lunch hour.
Anyways, quick look and outta the road. What are my options?
I call a tow truck that I know for a fact has their dispatch less than 8 blocks away. They give me a quote for 4 to 5 hours. Awesome....no wait, the opposite of that.
Decide to go for the Hail Mary, and I phone *owner at the shop and explain the situation. He says he can pop over and maybe we can figure it out.
A few minutes later, he comes by in his Touareg and picks us up. We decide that we are going to push it through the intersection at the next green light and into a close parking lot to have a better look.
So for reference (bc it's pertinent to the setting of this story), I am 6'2" and roughly 210lbs, and my work colleague is around 6'6" and likely pushing around 275lb if I had to guess. The owner is smaller than both of us, but insists that I steer the car while he and my friend push it through. Well, that was a bit of a trip.
We get it into the parking lot and have a closer look.
Turns out, this random little hose clamp on the LP fuel return line simply let go, and the hose came off. Owner gets in his car, goes the now block and a half to the shop, gets a new clamp and a setting tool and we put it back on. The car fires right up, no issues.
In the morning I knew there would be another hurdle to get these wheels home, I just had no idea that this would be a possibility. Maybe divine intervention? Maybe I should sell the wheels immediately. Honest question at this point.
Anyways, so closes the wheel saga. I picked up the repaired wheel mounted with my fugitive tire and took it home, wiped the dust that had been collecting on the 3 sisters in my garage and put them on the car. BTW, I never noticed this before, but this design comes in pairs, so two belong on one side or the other, but if they are mixed up, then on one side you would have one wheel "torqueing" and one wheel forwards...

[Danaldson]

Re: Frenchy's Audi S5

ahh now i know who you are haha! we met at cardel on saturday.

Love the car man. Crazy story! hopefully no more issues come up!

[Frenchy_Pop]

Re: Frenchy's Audi S5

I figured the wheels would jog your memory once I got through posting them. I wanted to come to the Summer Send-off but just couldn't swing it with everything else going on. Plan to come for the next one and have a few other projects on the go for the car that should make it interesting.

[witchcraftz]

Re: Frenchy's Audi S5

Once it's all sorted out it makes a great story. I've had my share of auto hiccups but they usually don't take 3 months to get through. At least all is good now. I think your car so so excited to finally get the new wheels is just peed itself a bit.

[Frenchy_Pop]

Re: Frenchy's Audi S5

So I think that's it on the project so far. A couple of things in the hopper are:

Stage 3 Southbend clutch - the factory clutch is holding so far, but care needs to be constantly exercised as it will slip under too much throttle in 1st, 2nd and 3rd gears

Ignition projects coil packs - It's rare, but on occasion I have some issues with detonation in the cylinders, not sure if this will specifically help (read a few forums that suggest it) but could be a solution. Also, the car is tuned on 91, so I was thinking about maybe trying out some boosters or finding the closest station that sells 93 or better (haven't had much luck with this, suggestions in far SE welcome)

One day a BBK or swap to S7 brakes would be awesome...I honestly probably don't need this, but I also didn't need to s/c the car.

Plan to pull bumper off this winter to remove LEDs and modify the tow hook cap to be reusable, this will allow me to get the car on they dyno and see what it's doing, maybe put on the 93 tune or get it professionally tuned once the new clutch is in.

Oh and also this: OMW home one day this summer, 17th ave, heavy traffic, catch a glimpse of something kinda rusty brown sitting in the road just a moment before it goes under my car and BANG! Well eff. Wonder what that was. I get home and have a look and find this little guy hitchhiked his way home with me.



A prize for the first one to name it. In any case, I hope whoever lost this has a beautiful son, an athlete, and he gets his legs taken from him... anyone!? All joking aside, but obviously I took some battle damage to the underbody panels.



So I have some plans to "tankify" the underbody. It'll definitely add some weight but I am going with aircraft aluminum to keep it at a minimum....keep ya posted.

[Frenchy_Pop]

Re: Frenchy's Audi S5

Would be nice to hear everything at full song... Oh and don't leave us hanging on the rest of the story!

I'll work on the soundtrack for ya!

[witchcraftz]

Re: Frenchy's Audi S5

So I have some plans to "tankify" the underbody. It'll definitely add some weight but I am going with aircraft aluminum to keep it at a minimum....keep ya posted.

I have a bunch of broken plastic underside too. Doing the Vancouver/Calgary drive there's always something falling down into the road. Let me know what you end up doing as I was thinking of some shaped aluminum myself.

Like this:

[Blau_RS2]

Re: Frenchy's Audi S5

Great write up! Would love to see the car in person as I was considering some of the same mods for my S5. I was also considering the non-resonated Touring Exhaust setup but wanted to hear it first. Hope to see you at a Cars and Coffee some time soon.

I might have a solution for your BBK.

[Frenchy_Pop]

Re: Frenchy's Audi S5

I have a bunch of broken plastic underside too. Doing the Vancouver/Calgary drive there's always something falling down into the road. Let me know what you end up doing as I was thinking of some shaped aluminum myself.

Like this:

I picked up some 6061 aircraft grade aluminum. The plan is to pull the panels off this winter and bend with a sheet metal brake and trim off excess to replicate/approximate the old one. Depending on how difficult it is, I may incorporate some simplified brake venting as I've seen something similar retrofitted on an S5 using the RS5 brake vents as a template. I'll post updates as I dig into it later this year.

[fbatwork]

Re: Frenchy's Audi S5

I'll work on the soundtrack for ya!

Excellent!