Weight Loss Mods

B6 A4
#1

Hi all,

So I saw some chatter about carbon fiber hoods and it got me thinking: what can I do for free to make my car lighter? Especially if you have/plan on getting the JHM tunes, it would prolly make the cars performance that much sweeter with less weight. As you all know, the 3.0q is pushing 3700lbs, right?

First thing I thought to get rid of was the spare tire and replace it with a flat tire kit. Is that wise?

Also, I remember reading on some other forum (i dont remember) that there is a ballast/weight located behind the rear bumper to improve ballance (since its soooo front heavy).

This also leads me to lighter wheels, since lighter wheels means less unsprung/rotational mass.

These are just a few things to consider. What have you done? If any…

#2

lw wheels are the best bang for your buck mod there is imho. And by light I mean 40lbs with tires or less. It improves acceleration, braking, handling, fuel economy and is normally an aesthetic upgrade as well.

#3

I agree with all but the athestic look, I have yet to see a LW rim that looks good.

#4

idk I think my SSR Comps look awesome, Volk TE37s, OZs, HREs are decently light, Enkeis. I like the JDM motorsport style wheels much better than any bland BBS/OEM designs though so my opinion is swayed. Guess it comes down to taste, and there is no arguing taste.

#5

I’ll have some pics up of my forgestars soon. They’re not super lightweight, but 19 lbs for an 18x9 wheel is pretty good and they look DAMN GOOD.

#6

Thats true you can’t argue taste. Yes, I would love to see some pictures of some of the LW rims people like because honestly I think I might be ignorant as to what options are available. I would like to find something that has a Euro look and doesn’t look like it belongs on a Nissan or some other Japanese Import (no offense against Japanese imports, I LOVE Skylines and G35’s).

Do LW rims even come in anything bigger than 18’s? because I really would like a deep dish very wide 19" with some Pirelli PZero Run flats :slight_smile: … or at least dream about the Pirelli’s I think they are pretty spendy and I was quite satisfied with the Continential Extreme Contact DWS.

#7

once I get off work tomorrow afternoon I’ll gather some pictures of cars I like. You can get a lighter 19" wheel (like sub 20lb) but they are normally very pricey. OZ has a few good 19" and 20" offerings that are still light, but they are 1 piece so no dish. I think HRE may be one of the few options to get the big lip, 19" and still light but they are big money.

#8

I would love to see if there was balast weight that would be a good thing to ditch.

I suggest.

L/W rotors. The JHM option is the cheapest and I think next to rims this is just as good as a mod if not better becuase you need to replace your rotors sooner then later and your probably going to need to replace your rotors before your going to need to replace your rims.

L/W batt. This is another great weight saver. There is a link in the S4 section that covers this.

Getting rid of the spare tire is a good idea. Especially if you consider the tools and jack (that is a death trap anyway)

#9

I was checking on ECS’s cite and I saw they have l/w pulleys for our cars.
If JHM doesn’t have any plans of making these or already has a set we can use I would like to get those, but if not I think that would be a nice weight saving. Since it is direct inline with the motor and rotational weight.

Let me know what you guys think. They might be on my list

#10

as promised, pics with the 17"x8.5" SSR Comps

http://img16.imageshack.us/img16/4628/dsc0534rn.jpg

http://img829.imageshack.us/img829/8/a61u.jpg

http://img809.imageshack.us/img809/1005/img3051i.jpg

http://img850.imageshack.us/img850/5905/dsc0533t.jpg

#11

That is a Beautiful car beemercer and I love the way its setup. I looked at all the LW rims mentioned and none are in the direction of the look wanting for my car. I did however see this red Stasis at the Audi dealer in Sacramento that had some pretty sick rims and I was wondering how much their rims weigh ? You would think they would be lighter considering what the car is.

Zingo- As far as those pulleys go on ECS’s site I don’t think they are the pulleys that we would want. I think the LW pulley your looking for is the Crank pulley. I think the pulleys ECS offers are the ones in which affect accessories and AC and thinks like that, but I’m not sure tho because I don’t know much about that stuff. Also I THINK the LW crank pulley will be designed when the SC is made but again I don’t know about this so hopefully someone else can chime and explain how the LW pulleys work and which ones do what.

#12

Those aren’t bad looking wheels at all. For me, I would love to have set for the track.

As far as the pulleys go. They offer 2 different pulleys. The crank, and power steering. My theory behind is all the pulleys are being turned by the same belt, ultimately they are all connected as one and act like a train. So if you make one section of the train lighter, the train will be able to pull harder and accellerate quicker. You take to cars on the train and make them lighter, then you have even less weight to turn and move. I’m not too sure about the subject either lol that’s why I figured it would be best to ask the experts.

Does anyone know the stock weight of our crank and power steering pulleys?

ECS crank - 683 grams
ECS p/s - ???

#13

Thanks. As far as the Stasis wheels they were using Champion wheels for awhile which are rather light, not sure if they still are. On that note check into champion wheels and see if there is something there you like, they are rather light iirc.

#14

As far as the pulleys, lightening any of them will help. The crank pulley is a good choice becuase its typical very heavy with all the dampening material whereas the other pulleys are just metal and arent as bulky. They could be a good option, personally I’d wait and see if JHM does a thicker belt setup for the S/C like they did with the S4. If thats the case then convince them to sell you the blower kit pullies/idlers etc and beef up the accessory system while putting a deposit down for the blower.

#15

Hyden:

Ya ur right about the rotors and a lightweight battery is also a viable option. Wonder if it would even be possible to transplant it to where the spare tire used to be- to improve weight distribution frontn to rear AND center of gravity.

#16

Great Idea. I really have been a big fan of the idea of the L/W rotors. The L/W batt is another great idea. Putting the batt in the rear is a good idea.

My thoughts on putting the batt in the back. I like the concept but Im not sure its a great Idea. Here is why.

If you get a L/W batt your really not going to have as much as a front bias issue. If you move the batt to the rear. What is the actual weight off set/loss. By the time you get the hardware and the thick wire needed to move the batt to the back you might be back at a weight gain. Im not sure this is true but I would love to hear thoughts

#17

Moving the battery to the rear would be too much hassle and time for not enough gain. If you were thinking of turning it into a dedicated track car then yeah could be worth while.

#18

I know of two people who crashed their cars after installing two stage airbag B7 type airbag/steering wheels in cars that were B6 type single stage airbag wheels originally.

BOTH didn’t have their airbag go off even though the rest of the airbags DID go off (both cars hit something pretty hard in the front.

So I’d say it’s a non-starter. Anyway, flat bottom steering wheels are over-rated. They’re designed for race cars to allow drivers more leg room, and they’re on some supercars to allow getting in and out more easily. Neither of these things are an issue in a 4 door sedan. I think it’s just overkill.

The TTRS and Euro RS4 wheels are nice and fat however so lots of people get them for that but the flat bottom thing is lame and unnecessary. It works on a race car that has maybe 180 degrees of wheel travel to go lock to lock, is about 12" across thus always has two hands on it…and therefore there’s never any risk or need to remove your hands from the wheel. On a road car that is 3.5 turns lock to lock, it’s absurd to be missing a big chunk of wheel. I drove an RS4 with the Euro wheel for a weekend and I hated it. I kept having trouble when shuffling the wheel on turns. It felt rice to have this flashy race car wheel and all it was doing was hurting like a big superfluous wing on a 130 hp Civic lol.

#19

Hornet & Lout:

Hmm… good insight. True the added cables/hardware to a L/W batt may add back up to a stadard batt, but at least the weight would be transfered. Also, I agree that it may not be practical/worth the hassle for street use, but I was just curious- know anybody whos done it?

#20

Ok I’m not saying don’t relocate the battery but understand fully what you have to do.

The battery where it is in the Audi is a little different than where it was in my rally car (front of the car)but the theory is the same. You will need to run some heavy gauge wire from the battery to where it used to sit.

You’ll need to connect that back into you main positive harness AND isolate the metal bits as your chassis is negative. Electrical tape is not good enough for this job. We used a plastic box.

You hVe to bolt the old negative cable to the body and run a negative from the battery to the body.

Why did we move the battery? Because it was easier than running that thick cable from the battery through the fire wall to the isolation switch back through the firewall to connect back to the main harness especially seeing as the battery was located at the front of the car.

Given your battery is located behind the front wheels already if you’ve gone the LW battery any gains you’ll see will be negligible at best.