My new (to me) FSI SE (Elsie)

[Jeetesh]

Following a good idea from a fellow member to add my car to ‘Members Car’s’ area of the forum, here is my car purchased in Nov 19 prior to doing anything to it.

It’s a Jan 2004 1.6 FSI SE in Akoya Silver with 26k miles (2 owners) with the following spec:

Ayoko Silver (metallic), Sports Seats, Lumbar Support, Rear Parking Sensors, Auto Dimming Rear View Mirror, Winter Pack, Colour DIS, Xcarlink Bluetooth kit, Bose.

Having had a SE TDI 75 previously (bought new and specced to the hilt), company cars followed thereafter but pined for another as I originally bought into the engineering ethos which never waned. I decided on an FSI with good spec and needed to be clean as it would be my local runabout (I have another car) therefore I’m able to keep miles low. Having read lots about FSI’s (good and bad) it needed to be low mileage. The only grey area was service history, there were 6 years of missed services however it had only done 5k miles in those 6 years (potential red flag especially for an FSI) however there after annually (inc pump and timing belt) under 2nd owner together with V-Power throughout so I was told. I took a view on the missed services as everything checked out.

On purchase I’d decided I wanted it up to my standard (pristine, tidy, OEM and everything working). If it proved to be a donkey then maybe an engine swap however not until it was terminal (hopefully decades).

My to do list was as follows:

1. Rear discs and pads. ✔
2. Repair plastic near lumbar on pass side. ✔
3. Adjust washer nozzles to spray screen. ✔
4. Repair rear cabin light - not working. ✔
5. Clean misted front fog lights. ✔

Today I.....

Wow, I bet that looks just mint ... take lots of interior photos while it still does! I wonder where they found one? O miss this mint look ...

www.a2oc.net

6. Fix glove box poll and mechanism. ✔

Today I.....

Wow, I bet that looks just mint ... take lots of interior photos while it still does! I wonder where they found one? O miss this mint look ...

www.a2oc.net

7. Fix glove box light actuator. ✔
8. Adjust headlight N/S aim. ✔
9. Sort the door edge scuffs. ✔
10. Paint scuffs on the base of boot lid. ✔
11. Clean and refresh carpets. ✔
12. Replace seat track cover on pass side. ✔
13. Replace missing drivers door rubber seal. ✔
14. Clean limescale from under rear spoiler. ✔
15. Replace out of date contents of first aid kit. ✔
16. Clean front seats with upholstery shampoo. ✔

Today I.....

sounds like the previous owned may have physically pulled out the ashtray.... ahem I should know :rolleyes: Haha!!

www.a2oc.net

17. Repair window trim near front 3/4 light. ✔
18. Clean fuel injectors with additive.✔
19. Source ‘Dot’ for Between the 1 & 6. ✔
20. Paint trim on underside of rear spoiler. ✔
21. Clean chrome badges with WD-40. ✔
22. Clean the marks on all door cards. ✔
23. Refurbish all 4 alloy wheels. ✔
24. Replace /refurbish centre caps. ✔
25. Replace instrument cowling (broken clip) will change when next removed, until then it’s fine.
26. Replace interior motion sensor switch. ✔
27. Adjust drivers door, doesn’t sit flush. ✔
28. Refurb/replace yellowing door cards (platinum), eventually.
29. Roof gutters have discoloured, need repainting.
30. Replace lanyard for filler cap. ✔
31. Replace cracked cap for sun visor clip. ✔

Most things are cosmetic and brings the car up to my very high standard. There a few things still to do and will probably add more together with routine checking of FSI specific items however now feel the car is something to be proud of.

Why ‘Elsie’ - my 5 year old thinks it looks like a small baby elephant being pale grey with a hunchback. I’m not one for naming cars despite getting attached to them however as the other one is masculine, my daughter thinks it’s a girl. Hey, if it helps my kids look after it then I’m agreeable. ?

Goal - look after, keep it forever, it will be a classic someday and hopefully it may appreciate (it’ll probably depreciate a bit more first), until then a perfectly able, spacious small car which looks 10 years newer now I’ve hidden it’s age with a private plate.

Some of my other posts (some FSI specific) so they are in one place. I’ll add more FSI specific stuff in time.

Check/monitor carbon buildup.

FSI carbon buildup

I’ve been doing a bit of reading around carbon buildup around the intake/valves with FSI engines as this seems to be a problem across direct injection engines in general. Whilst my FSI doesn’t have this problem now, I can imagine at some point it will happen due to the design of direct...

www.a2oc.net

Decent fuel economy

Today I.....

hmm yes I should change the O/S as that's crusty where the N/S is just surface. Can I swop them both to cast or is that not an option. John Yes, assuming you plan to keep it, cast is the best option. There's extensive discussion regarding the options though Lemforder are OEM supplier I believe...

www.a2oc.net

Considering a different tyre choice

185/50 R16 vs 195/45 R16

I have recently bought an FSI SE with 16” 6 spoke wheels. The car has 185/50 R16 Continentals on it and whilst I have some time before I need to replace all four tyres, I thought I’d ask for some opinions. I’ve read the definitive tyre thread amongst others but I have a slightly different...

www.a2oc.net

 

[timmus]

Rarely have I worked on such a pristine A2. When I retrofitted Bose and Colour DIS, I had to remove a lot of the interior, and it was all so factory fresh. I guess that's what you get when buying an A2 with only 20-odd-thousand miles on the clock.

Enjoy!

Tom

 

[Jeetesh]

Rarely have I worked on such a pristine A2. When I retrofitted Bose and Colour DIS, I had to remove a lot of the interior, and it was all so factory fresh. I guess that's what you get when buying an A2 with only 20-odd-thousand miles on the clock.

Enjoy!

Tom

Thanks Tom, very kind comments. I’d love to see pictures of those cars with even less mileage, from my recollection there are a couple with 12-13k miles?

Since you saw it last it’s even cleaner and tidier as I’ve done a lot of the detailing since then, I’ve got more to do but it’s weather/time permitting.

 

[greywolfhound]

Thanks Tom, very kind comments. I’d love to see pictures of those cars with even less mileage, from my recollection there are a couple with 12-13k miles?

Yes they are both mine ?
Yours is exceptional and a high spec you have done a cracking job my friend truly ? my two low milers are 1.4 petrol and fairly basic one with ac one without ..pics to follow next couple of weeks ..new one has oss

 

[Jeetesh]

Yes they are both mine ?
Yours is exceptional and a high spec you have done a cracking job my friend truly ? my two low milers are 1.4 petrol and fairly basic one with ac one without ..pics to follow next couple of weeks ..

Thank you for the kind comments too.

I’ll look forward to seeing the pictures of your two, I bet they are better looked after than even Audi’s heritage cars that the press teams use periodically. They’ll be higher mileage and will have had no end of lead footed journalists driving them.

 

[Darren C]

A thoroughly enjoyable read and browse of the pictures. A cracking example you have Jeetesh. I'm impressed by the volume achieved on the 'to-do' list already.

From a fellow FSI owner, enjoy pal.

 

[Jeetesh]

A thoroughly enjoyable read and browse of the pictures. A cracking example you have Jeetesh. I'm impressed by the volume achieved on the 'to-do' list already.

From a fellow FSI owner, enjoy pal.

Thank you Darren, I had been looking for about 4 months previously for as good an example as possible. As you know, good examples get snapped up really quickly and remember two others I’d looked at were gone by the time I enquired (within hours or a day or so). Clearly it was this one that I was destined for and happy the others went now.

I had a fair few holidays to use up before Christmas whilst kids were at school, the perfect opportunity to crack on with a number of items so got lots done. The biggest challenge to date was the glove box which felt like I was damaging my A2 especially when dismantling the lid (plastic weld, what happened to good old fashioned clips and screws!). Once finished however it felt like aachievement.

Items 25, 27, 28, 29 are more challenging so we’ll see when I get around to them. The drivers door however whilst no water ingress, I have noticed that the minor gap results in a slight whistling noise (normally drowned out by Bose). It may need to be prioritised.

Oh by the way I forgot to add one picture, whilst it had been sat stationary for prolonged periods, the face of the alloys were fine, inside however there was a fair bit of corrosion on every alloy, see below. In my mind clean and tidy alloys can lift a car even if said car is a bit ropey, fortunately my car and alloys are in the same condition now.

 

[thejohn]

a great looking car well looked after and it seems it's even more cosseted now you have custody. well done and keep up the good work Jeetesh
John

 

[Vorsprung durch Technik]

Ha ha, glad you went ahead and provided us with this thread! ?

Great pics of a great looking car, it all looks truly mint ? and those se wheels look superb! I love the sports wheels but do love a set of the se variety too as they look like what i call traditional 'Avus wheels' first seen on the 1991 Avus Quattro concept car and subsequently tweaked and called Avus wheels on the S2 S6 and very 'Vorsprung durch Technik'. Lol

Liking the unusual pic of the alloys hanging there they look superb, who did them? I need to get mine refurbed to to get those stupidly good mpgs back the fsi is capable of.

I have a feeling your engine needs more running in so you may get even better miles per gallon as you go forward.

Great thread - looking forward to seeing how it develops, oh and we love lots of pics. ?

 

[Jeetesh]

Ha ha, glad you went ahead and provided us with this thread! ?

Great pics of a great looking car, it all looks truly mint ? and those se wheels look superb! I love the sports wheels but do love a set of the se variety too as they look like what i call traditional 'Avus wheels' first seen on the 1991 Avus Quattro concept car and subsequently tweaked and called Avus wheels on the S2 S6 and very 'Vorsprung durch Technik'. Lol

Liking the unusual pic of the alloys hanging there they look superb, who did them? I need to get mine refurbed to to get those stupidly good mpgs back the fsi is capable of.

I have a feeling your engine needs more running in so you may get even better miles per gallon as you go forward.

Great thread - looking forward to seeing how it develops, oh and we love lots of pics. ?

Thanks for getting me to do this together with the best practices, tips and complements on my car.

Sports/SE wheels.... I love both too and remember that 1991 Avus Concept Car. I also remember the sport wheels used to buckle frequently on the RS4, did that ever happen on the A2?

Alloys were done by wheelrepairs.co.uk They are highly a recommended Leeds company who do the work for all the high end brands. Weird turning up when mine was the cheapest car being worked on where the next cheapest was 10x the value and the most expensive was 100x (Aventador SVJ) yet the owner wants to talk to me about my A2.

It will be interesting to see what mpg I can squeeze from it however it’ll largely depend on the proportion of town vs motorway driving.

thanks once again for your help.

 

[Vorsprung durch Technik]

Thanks for getting me to do this together with the be practices, tips and complements on my car.

Sports/SE wheels.... I love both too and remember that 1991 Avus Concept Car. I also remember the sport wheels used to buckle frequently on the RS4, did that ever happen on the A2?

Alloys were done by wheelrepairs.co.uk They are highly a recommended Leeds company who do the work for all the high end brands. Weird turning up when mine was the cheapest car being worked on where the next cheapest was 10x the value and the most expensive was 100x (Aventador SVJ) yet the owner wants to talk to me about my A2.

It will be interesting to see what mpg I can squeeze from it however it’ll largely depend on the proportion of town vs motorway driving.

thanks once again for your help.

Your welcome.

Sadly the A2 sports wheels suffer too according to many on here.

I'm not sure how bad they can suffer i can only go from my experience. We have hit a few pot holes over the last few years at night, either we didn't hit them hard enough or i was lucky as we haven't had to have them rebalanced as there's no vibration through the steering wheel.

 

[Jeetesh]

Your welcome.

Sadly the A2 sports wheels suffer too according to many on here.

I'm not sure how bad they can suffer i can only go from my experience. We have hit a few pot holes over the last few years at night, either we didn't hit them hard enough or i was lucky as we haven't had to have them rebalanced as there's no vibration through the steering wheel.

It’s the way of the world nowadays with super low profile tyres and large wheels although happy to hear you’ve been lucky. My merc has 20’s and whilst they look spectacular, I hit a motorway pothole at speed and cracked an alloy, it was eye watering expensive to replace and was part of the reason I wanted an SE.

 

[Jeetesh]

After spending a week and a half admiring the form of a brand new centre storage tray I decided it was time to utilise it’s function and get it fitted.

Before, during and after pictures below.

Considering the brute force required, nothing was damaged or broken so very happy about that.

 

[Darpod14]

After spending a week and a half admiring the form of a brand new centre storage tray I decided it was time to utilise it’s function and get it fitted.

Before, during and after pictures below.

Considering the brute force required, nothing was damaged or broken so very happy about that.

View attachment 65848
View attachment 65849View attachment 65850View attachment 65851View attachment 65852

I would love one of these on my car, looks fantastic! Sadly, swing grey interior makes this highly unlikely (or impossible?)

 

[steve_c]

I would love one of these on my car, looks fantastic! Sadly, swing grey interior makes this highly unlikely (or impossible?)

Swing grey is certainly not impossible! Buy a tray in any colour, then spray it. Volico make the exact paint you need:

VLC-COLOR Leather & interior paint (150 ml) Audi Dark grey steering wheel (Swing)

This paint is used in leading car manufacturer factories for remedial works on leathers and plastics. It is characterised by a high degree of pigmentation, which guarantees good coverage and adhesibility and meets the quality requirements of the automobile industry in every way. The type of...

volico.de

 

[Jeetesh]

@steve_c has the answer if you can’t find one. Put a wanted advert up and you never know, one may turn up.

 

[Darpod14]

Swing grey is certainly not impossible! Buy a tray in any colour, then spray it. Volico make the exact paint you need:

VLC-COLOR Leather & interior paint (150 ml) Audi Dark grey steering wheel (Swing)

This paint is used in leading car manufacturer factories for remedial works on leathers and plastics. It is characterised by a high degree of pigmentation, which guarantees good coverage and adhesibility and meets the quality requirements of the automobile industry in every way. The type of...

volico.de

I am still debating this option Steve, but my whole centre console, plus glove box and under wheel section has marks here and there. I would probably need at least 2 cans, so I am into 60 euros, plus prep bits and I am not sure how it would stand up in heavier traffic areas. The areas you have done (which as you know I think look great!) will not really get any knocks so you can get away with it. I think for me the better option may be to change the areas affected to soul (or platinum if it will look better?) keeping all my other areas swing.

 

[steve_c]

The areas you have done (which as you know I think look great!) will not really get any knocks so you can get away with it.

You are confusing me with @2work. Nevertheless, I'd be pretty confident that Volico paint would prove sufficiently durable. Lots of unsolicited recommendations across multiple car user forums attest to the quality.

 

[Darpod14]

You are confusing me with @2work. Nevertheless, I'd be pretty confident that Volico paint would prove sufficiently durable. Lots of unsolicited recommendations across multiple car user forums attest to the quality.

Apologies! to you both! I find it strange that they are painted in my car, it has a tacky feel to it where it is painted, peels really easily, yet the plastic that is underneath is only a bit lighter in colour, are all the other colours painted also? is it easy to take out the centre console do you know?

 

[Jeetesh]

Despite not driving so much these days due to working from home (seems to be permanent now), looking out of the window and my A2 not being there (was out for its MOT and rear coil springs), it’s felt like part of the family was missing. Now I’ve got it back I decided to tend to a job I’ve not found time to get sorted.

No. 31 - a replace cracked cap that the sun visor hooks onto.

I was just going to swap out the cap for the replacement that I got from @A2Steve a few months ago, the hook was okay although looked slightly discoloured and didn’t cause issue. To my surprise, removing the cracked cap the hook itself was Twist and not Platinum, even though the cap was Platinum. I could be mistaken however as it could be a discoloured platinum??

Needless to say I’ve swapped out the hook and the cap to the correct platinum one.