Frenchy's Audi S5

[Frenchy_Pop]

Re: Frenchy's Audi S5

For those that are interested in the overall weight cost of the conversion, I did weigh each component, but have not yet pulled together the math to get the final number. The new front rotors were heavier despite being slotted, cross-drilled and 2-piece with the aluminum hat as I went from the 340mm stock rotors to a 380mm 2 piece rotor.


However, there was significant savings on the calipers themselves. Below is a comparison between the old caliper vs the new caliper both without pads.



Appreciably there are likely some purists who would frown upon the comparison as there is likely a few ounces more of total brake pad in the new setup vs the old. My contention there is the difference is not enough to impact the corner weight such that the new setup would be more than the old.

[Frenchy_Pop]

Re: Frenchy's Audi S5

Last post for the front (until I find some time to bleed the whole system, I am sure there will be a plethora of curse words to describe the experience). A comparison of the old vs the new setup.


From a stance perspective, the spacers I am using are 15mm H&R Trak+ DR Series, so it pushes the wheel out to be tread flush at the top of the arch.



While not required for clearance, spacers are also run on the back to square up the stance of the car. Additional posts on the rear later today...

[Feens]

Re: Frenchy's Audi S5

Great work frenchy they are a vast improvement, i really want to do something with my car, but not many options with the S5 which is leading me to think about a change in spring time, i like the car but im getting bored with it not being able to mess around with the V8, plus values on these seem to have drooped quite a bit

[Frenchy_Pop]

Re: Frenchy's Audi S5

Hey Feens, maybe have a look at JHM as they had some compelling N/A results and tout themselves as N/A specialists. Their tune for the 4.2L motor pushes the car into the mid-12s in the quarter for fairly modest prices. I haven't seen dyno info on the tune and they probably have all of the low hanging fruit installed as well (exhaust, intake etc.). They also have a centrifugal supercharger system for the motor as well whuch would likely put the motor into the mid-400bhp range. You could also pig the cats which supposedly has a decent impact. Maybe you've looked at them already but I thought I'd offer another angle that I had researched in the past.

[danno]

Re: Frenchy's Audi S5

That’s a lot of upgrades at once, must be fun doing it all. With these v8 s5’s do they have cam chain issues like previous the b7 s4?? I’ve never loooked at s5’s so I didn’t know they had a v8 i assumed they had the v6 supercharged that the s4 has, I finally looked into them last year.

[Frenchy_Pop]

Re: Frenchy's Audi S5

So for the rear brake update, I didn't really find much available to update the existing S5 brakes. Brembo does offer a BBK for the rear, but to my knowledge it also deletes the electronic parking brake (EPB). ECS put together what they call a Stage 1 upgrade, with is simply slotted and drilled 2-piece rotors as well as stainless lines. I also optioned for the Hawk HPS 5.0 pads. I approached the job similar to the front, swapping in the stainless lines and connecting them to the old lines on the front rotor. This way, I could take off the rear calipers and take the time to mess around with them.
Maybe I should have left them, but to me, the front calipers being larger and bright red made me want to update the color of the rear calipers in order to at least get them close. So while I had the rear calipers off of the car, I fully disassembled them, taped them off, buzzed the old paint off and sprayed them. One issue that I encountered while doing this is that despite ensuring the paint cans were warmed prior to using, the ambient temperatures are low for painting and my garage is not heated, so the paint will likely cure for weeks. You are supposed to bake the components to fully cure the paint, although the normal amount of heat from braking would also be enough to cure, so they will be left on and curing basically until spring, lol.
Before asking, I have the Ross-tech license, which is the method I used to disengage the parking brake and remove the rear calipers. I know there is a way to do this without VAG-com, but I also service my wife's A4 so the software made sense for me years ago.


Old vs New



Weight savings on rotors



Assembled



Stance



One thing that I was disappointed in the ECS kit is that again, the caliper bolts are stretch bolts and technically should be replaced. Unfortunately the Stage 1 kit from ECS does not include replacement bolts and no-one seemed to carry them outside of the dealer. Which as you may imagine, I was charged a healthy amount to replace these bolts, yaaay!

[Feens]

Re: Frenchy's Audi S5

Hey Feens, maybe have a look at JHM as they had some compelling N/A results and tout themselves as N/A specialists. Their tune for the 4.2L motor pushes the car into the mid-12s in the quarter for fairly modest prices. I haven't seen dyno info on the tune and they probably have all of the low hanging fruit installed as well (exhaust, intake etc.). They also have a centrifugal supercharger system for the motor as well whuch would likely put the motor into the mid-400bhp range. You could also pig the cats which supposedly has a decent impact. Maybe you've looked at them already but I thought I'd offer another angle that I had researched in the past.

Ive looked into it alright just seems like alot of money for not that much of a gain, im a BMW guy at heart and have messed with them for years with great results tuning wise, i just feel like if i start modding big items right now ill have to keep it as id want to get return on my investmen, the other part of me is thinking trade up to an m4 or somthing while the car still holds some sort of reasonable value, i paid 34k for my car a few years ago and i think id do well to get close to 30k on a trade in

[Frenchy_Pop]

Re: Frenchy's Audi S5

Fair enough! Yah doing anything on the car is generally pretty costly that's for sure. This car is likely not going anywhere as I still love it. Probably has something to do with only driving it half the year...

[fbatwork]

Re: Frenchy's Audi S5

Fair enough! Yah doing anything on the car is generally pretty costly that's for sure. This car is likely not going anywhere as I still love it. Probably has something to do with only driving it half the year...

Nice upgrades - I'm sure you'll enjoy the additional performance...