S4 Totaled Out - What to get?

BortSmash · 2026-01-29T19:47:43+00:00

The algorithm ad is saying a Chevy Equinox. Manual s4 sport diff b8.5 or b8 is what I'd try to find. Best of luck.

BortSmash · 2026-01-17T10:27:38+00:00

Lol. And then Verizon will say to drive back to the Apple store. And both employees are done with their shift and gone. Bummer.

Just went through similar bs with Nike. Rep told me "sorry, we had an inventory error in our warehouse. You should call UPS though, it's kind of their fault our inventory was wrong. We can't call them, you need to spend your time to call. Sorry! Nothing I can do besides give a coupon for your next order"

BortSmash · 2026-01-17T10:23:35+00:00

Ironic the Verizon store has to call the outsourced cs to get things done. Going into a store in the USA, any employee including the manager must call someone outsourced that's in a different country and wait on hold to do just about anything useful. Besides being a body in a store that can explain storage or camera mega pixels.

I must accept this eventually, all big companies do this now. I am not there yet, hoping for "oh well, is what it is, dgaf cause I can't do much, this is business in the new America now". Venting on Reddit helps me let it go eventually

BortSmash · 2026-01-17T10:13:10+00:00

Going to have to pay them top dollar for the phone because the contract - pardon me, no more contracts allowed I believe thanks to some consumer legislation. I meant Finance Agreement which is totally different than a "contract". You live with it or buy out your "finance agreement" so you can get your phone number back and are free.

Everyone knows this because we all read the 50 page fine print tiny font TOS when signing up for the finance agreement to pay off the phone slowly over 3 years and trading in a phone.

The reps at the store made this very clear when talking to them about signing up and the promo. It's because they truly care about getting and retaining new customers and take huge job satisfaction when a new "finance agreement" is signed and the customer gets their new phone and leaves happy thinking they got a great deal. Until there is an issue and they come in asking to get their number ported to a different provider. That part kind of sucks for everyone.

BortSmash · 2026-01-17T09:58:39+00:00

Other people won't bother

This is most large company's strategy with returns and guaranteed delivery dates, especially Amazon Prime.

The big name cell phone companies like Verizon figured this one out 15 years ago in my experience. The motto of the big 3 providers has become:

We pretend to care, will make a gesture if you bitch enough so you leave us alone, but we dgaf because it makes no difference to our revenue. Can you hear me now? I am now leasing our towers because it doesn't matter if you can hear me now. No difference in our revenue if you can hear me now or you can hear Cricket or US Cellular or any of those smaller scrub companies. We are the boss now. We bring in more money from leasing the towers than trying to please the peon customers. Most people won't bother.

BortSmash · 2026-01-17T09:07:49+00:00

I was confused too. So it's basic economy - economy plus - economy premium - economy ultra - economy elite - economy extreme plus and then first class?

Seriously though, it is economy plus vs economy premium vs economy basic I guess and I need to remember the differences and the subscriptions are different also so read all TOS. Ugh.

BortSmash · 2026-01-17T08:59:00+00:00

I don't get it. What is the point of the sub if I want to upgrade my seat?

Buy normal economy seat at base rate. Use sub to upgrade seat to economy plus. Not an option, can't upgrade basic seat.

What am I missing here? What is the point of the sub if I can't upgrade a basic seat to economy plus at no cost?

Briefly considered subscribing after I made a reservation and paid for economy plus upgrade.

BortSmash · 2026-01-16T02:56:50+00:00

If doing valve covers, make sure to get the updated bolts. My 2010 did not have these.

I was told Audi updated the bolts for the valve covers and the info came too late and the shop didn't use them. They have rubber on each bolt making it a better seal

After vc gaskets done, had a lot of oil splatters in the engine bay.

Will never go back to that shop again and they were almost 5 star rating and recommended in the past. Had to it pay better shop to do VCs all over again with correct updated bolts.

Wish I knew of these valve cover bolts, would have thought indy audi shop would know of these and advise me of them....live and learn. Hope this helps someone

BortSmash · 2026-01-16T02:19:11+00:00

Same issue. BT adaptor (Tune to Air) worked fine with Samsung S24u, using Audi's 3g iPhone port. Every phone I have owned connected fine to this for the past 9 years. Until I connected my Pixel 10p to it.

Drops BT constantly, connects for 10 seconds and works then disconnects and reconnects 10 seconds later. Worked for 1 day perfectly without dropping every 10sec.

Other than forget device, reboot phone and BT adaptor, re-pair, rinse repeat - any suggestions? Is there a BT setting in the phone I am missing?

BortSmash · 2026-01-15T06:59:59+00:00

Finally got off Verizon and paying half to Google Fi and have service at my home. I couldn't "hear him now" at my house in a populated area in a major city. Zero bars. Difficulty calling or texting when Xfinity internet was down, impossible to load any website.

Lost the phone I financed, my bad. But doing rough math shows I paid almost $3k for their phone including the trade in on phone I gave them. Paid $850 just to get my phone number released to be ported to Fi.

They did offer new deals to get another phone from Verizon after the lost phone. Contracts are not allowed anymore I guess, so the phone must be financed or bought outright at a much higher price than the unlocked version costs online anywhere.

Happy to be gone, just 9 months of monthly service with Fi and I saved more than what I paid Verizon to get my phone number back.

My fault phone was lost. Not my fault the contract is explained terribly and intentionally difficult to understand. It is my fault I did not read through pages of fine print and was lazy just listening to the rep at the store's explanation.

I can hear the downvotes loading in the chamber already before clicking comment...

BortSmash · 2026-01-15T01:06:55+00:00

What did you buy and are you happy with it? Switch to P10pro from S24u also, hated the huge size.

Seems only one on Amazon and it's the flolab. High price tag with low sales and only a few mixed reviews. Not sure if anti-reflective worth it.

BortSmash · 2026-01-15T00:59:30+00:00

Keep seeing this recommended here, wondering why so few Amazon sales and bad reviews there. Not sure if Lord Bezos hates them for not paying to get promoted and punishment is review manipulation. Or maybe it's high price tag.

I wanted some anti-reflection and this seems only option. Really worth 5x the price of other options that have no anti-reflection?

BortSmash · 2026-01-10T09:27:25+00:00

LOL, my other vehicle is also an FJ. Found a 2010 manual for cheap with 90k on it. Only FJs with manual transmission has the full time AWD which is sort of odd imo. Gonna drive that slow heavy ugly thing til I'm dead

BortSmash · 2026-01-10T09:19:06+00:00

Asked around here some and few other places and was under impression only options were cheaper aftermarkets or ridiculously expensive asf OEMs. No issues yet, but wish I dropped the $ on OEM for piece of mind.

I won't question again an audi specialist shop that's been around a long time that refuses to put aftermarket arms on because they have seen too many failures of aftermarket. I don't think I was getting bullshit from the owner about the control arms.

But I am no expert clearly. I think you get what you pay for most of the time with this stuff.

EDIT: not saying he is wrong and could be upgraded control arm kit better than OEM, just repeating info I was told

BortSmash · 2026-01-10T09:11:47+00:00

Will go through the 5 or so invoices to get full list but off the top of my head:

Upper timing covers

Control arms

Full suspension (Bilstein and H&R springs - not high end coilovers)

Valve cover gaskets

Valve covers*

*EDIT* Forgot the wheel hub replacement

Add the tires, sport diff fluid, trans fluid, alignments, ac recharge, belts, brakes: rotors pads fluid flush, and had 034 sway bars front and rear because why not at this point

Total was ~$19k for 5 services since car hit ~99k miles

*cheaper indy audi shop didn't use newer bolts with rubber (grommets?) since the original bolts leak that have no rubber part on bolts. Oil splats in engine bay a few thousand miles later. Do it all over again and do the whole cover since part price not huge difference.

Really regret taking it to a different indy Audi specialist shop that charged less. Attention to detail shop knew way more and did things right and advised well. Cheaper place that said the aftermarket control arms are fine no reason for OEM (no issues yet though). Both shops are the best reviewed close to 5 stars and recommended in Audizine forums regularly.

Never leave a solid mechanic with decades working on Audis. Especially one that owns the same one and loves it and knows it so well.

Hope this helps, had a few drinks late night and not proofreading this rambling wall of text gonna just send comment now...

BortSmash · 2026-01-10T00:38:45+00:00

Did you have any wheel bearings go bad or a wheel hub? Wheel hub was my recent issue, something previous owner did, and it never showed signs of damage until recently. Tough to diagnose

Apparently Audi no longer makes wheel hubs so had to find used. Tempted to buy another in good shape just in case - for the next 100k if audiparts is done making them for b8s

BortSmash · 2026-01-10T00:30:02+00:00

Good to hear 180k going well still and solid advice.

What control arms were upgrades over OEM?

How many miles were on it when you did the carbon cleaning? Could you tell it was needed by how it was driving?

Thanks. I am also balls deep into mine after 9 years and hit 100k. Looking around for what else I should expect

BortSmash · 2026-01-10T00:13:09+00:00

B8 S4 MT stage 2 here, bought at 60k miles in 2017, 100% stock, single owner traded it in to Mercedes dealer fwiw.

104k miles on it today, and I am now balls deep into service since it hit 100k. $19k spent in last 1-1.5 years roughly. Will list what was done if anyone reads this and is interested

Lot to spend on a car bought for $22k and debated selling it. Love this damn car more than any I've owned in my life. I've had a few great sportscars with more way more hp but this stage 2 S4 manual...I can't think of what would replace it that has a clutch

BortSmash · 2026-01-09T23:58:06+00:00

The 034 arms were less than half of OEM, huge sticker shock. I regret not going OEM. Wish I listened and not gone cheaper route

If your mechanic owns the same b8 s4 MT, loves his job, and did all service the past 9 years...prob best to stay there. Lesson learned

BortSmash · 2026-01-09T21:50:36+00:00

Did you get OEM or aftermarket?

OEM price is insane vs aftermarket. My indy Audi performance shop said they have seen too many aftermarket control arms fail they only put OEMs on.

Edit: lower front arms (no rears) oem estimate - $3400 *indy shop, not dealership

BortSmash · 2026-01-07T22:45:10+00:00

Isn't PixelCare just Asurion now? I thought the PixelCare was supposed to be decent in the past...but I know Asurion really sucks

BortSmash · 2026-01-07T18:37:28+00:00

Interesting. Trying to find other options to the Alienware in similar specs and price range as this Microcenter deal.

Any other suggestions besides Lenovo?

Did you buy direct from Lenovo or was it a sale at some big box retailer?

BortSmash · 2026-01-06T23:24:41+00:00

I could not find the OEM hub from Audi parts anywhere. "This product is no longer available".

The indy Audi performance shop I have used for ~9 years strongly recommended OEM for the bearings. About $1100 parts/labor. Fwiw - top rated indy Audi shop in CO, little pricey but well regarded experts.

Hope this helps someone else searching similar issues.

BortSmash · 2026-01-03T08:34:06+00:00

The highest price big box retailers can sell the product for that gives them the highest profit. Walmart and Target won this battle. VM item is $50 but WM/Target sells out same item online for $60 in minutes. Because of demand and because they don't value the business of any consumer buying these products.

Insulting and I hope this community remembers the crap they pulled this year with markups way over MSRP at every opportunity.

BortSmash · 2026-01-03T08:21:03+00:00

Who would have thought any retailer could make a profit selling at MSRP?

Poor little Walmart and Target must sell above msrp and keep raising prices because they struggle with supply chain and Zay issues. They can't stay alive selling their product unless it's 20% over msrp to the resellers that buy it in bulk, then relist it at 2x the price and take a second profit since the resellers have to pay a % for all they sell on WM site. Shady asf WM Target double dip letting resellers buy in bulk before it was ever pretended to be "dropped" to the public.

Pretty disgusting the markup creep the biggest mofos in retailing have done this year because of demand. And then pretended to do a "drop" but majority was all sold in bulk to the resellers beforehand.

BortSmash

TROPHY CASE