Nogaro Blue

W

WCM3

New member
Hey guys,



I'm in the process of selling my Jet Black BMW and I've decided never again to buy a jet black car. Detailing it and making it swirl free was a major PITA. Well, the next car I'm looking at is a B5 S4 in Nogaro Blue. Is this paint an ******* as well? It's not a metallic which bothers me but I love the way it looks. What products have worked on them? Only machine I have is a UDM, and some Poorboys SSR and Meguiars M105/M205s.



Thanks,

Mike
 
The LAST thing you need to worry about in a B5 S4 is the paint. The paint is nice and hard if its OEM. I sure as hell hope you have done your research on the car before you buy it.
 
yakky said:
The LAST thing you need to worry about in a B5 S4 is the paint. The paint is nice and hard if its OEM. I sure as hell hope you have done your research on the car before you buy it.
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haha. You mean the reliability portion of it?
 
yakky said:
The LAST thing you need to worry about in a B5 S4 is the paint. The paint is nice and hard if its OEM. I sure as hell hope you have done your research on the car before you buy it.
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Not true, Nogaro Blue paint is very micro marr sensitive. It is true that the coat is hard, but you have to be very careful finishing it if you want perfection.



I have the most pristine Nogaro Blue B5 around :-)
 
SteveWhitmore said:
swap out the K03s for K04s and the S4 is rock solid.
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Please explain! I'm not sure how changing the turbos makes the car more reliable? I have one with some K04's (w/stage 4mtm tune) so I'm interested in what went wrong.
 
WCM3 said:
haha. You mean the reliability portion of it?
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Yep, if you go look on Audizine/Audiworld, most people are spending $2-5k year keeping their cars running (using a mechanic). If you work on it yourself its a fun car, but not a great daily driver if you value your sanity. I have an A4 for DD duty.
 
yakky said:
Yep, if you go look on Audizine/Audiworld, most people are spending $2-5k year keeping their cars running (using a mechanic). If you work on it yourself its a fun car, but not a great daily driver if you value your sanity. I have an A4 for DD duty.
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Yeah, the car I'm looking at actually has the k04 upgrades with about 5k miles on them. I can do the work myself so I would only need to pay for the parts. It needs to be reliable though, you think I'm better off with an A4? I was looking at a car that will do double duty in summer/winter..
 
Scottwax said:
The paint is hard so if it is really swirled you are looking at possibly a two day rotary correction.
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I don't own a rotary. Would I still be able to correct it with my PC/UDM? I'm debating whether to get a Nogaro S4, Alpine White E46 M3, or Laguna Seca E46 M3. I want to make sure the next car I get doesn't drive me crazy like the jet black car did.
 
WCM3 said:
Yeah, the car I'm looking at actually has the k04 upgrades with about 5k miles on them. I can do the work myself so I would only need to pay for the parts. It needs to be reliable though, you think I'm better off with an A4? I was looking at a car that will do double duty in summer/winter..
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Anything making big power has reliability issues, adding Audi/VW to the mix certainly doesn't improve the situation. Getting stranded isn't a regular occurrence but major annoyances are, and some stuff is really hard to get to on the car, ie EGTs, 02s, coolant pump, various sensor are buried, etc. Its not unmanageable but, its a 10 year old car that never had a history of reliability. Your coming from BMW, Audi is a step down in reliability. An A4 would be better, but not as fun.



The other thing to think about, someone just dropped lots of money for the K04's (and hopefully the various upgrades like RS4 intercoolers/plumbing, clutch, injectors and associated ECU tune), why sell so soon?
 
WCM3 said:
I don't own a rotary. Would I still be able to correct it with my PC/UDM? I'm debating whether to get a Nogaro S4, Alpine White E46 M3, or Laguna Seca E46 M3. I want to make sure the next car I get doesn't drive me crazy like the jet black car did.
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I've tried the KB method using #105 with 5.5" orange cutting pads and always end up switching to the rotary. Significantly quicker and Audi paint is hard enough that #105 with a polishing pad is pretty close to hologram free after polishing.
 
IME even if you know how to do the work, working on a b5 s4 is not a simple task.

a twin turbo v6 crammed into the same spot that's already a relatively tight fit with a 1.8 = very little room to get around.

a lot of times you need to drop the motor to do what you'd think should be a simple job.

unless you have access to a lift, in which case go for it.

but if you're limited to a home garage/driveway work i'd reconsider
 
uberyk said:
IME even if you know how to do the work, working on a b5 s4 is not a simple task.

a twin turbo v6 crammed into the same spot that's already a relatively tight fit with a 1.8 = very little room to get around.

a lot of times you need to drop the motor to do what you'd think should be a simple job.

unless you have access to a lift, in which case go for it.

but if you're limited to a home garage/driveway work i'd reconsider
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No access to a lift but I do have an engine hoist. One of my previous cars was a 300zxTT, talk about tight spaces. Didn't bother me though, just needed to make sure I had extra time to do the simple tasks.
 
:bigups

go for it.

i love my k04 a4 but the smooth torque and power of a twin k04 s4 is just on another level.
 
If you still really want one, REALLY do your homework on the car you are about to buy. Saving $1-2k isn't going to be worth it, find the nicest one out there.
 
yakky said:
The LAST thing you need to worry about in a B5 S4 is the paint. The paint is nice and hard if its OEM. I sure as hell hope you have done your research on the car before you buy it.
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Scotwax said:
The paint is hard so if it is really swirled you are looking at possibly a two day rotary correction...
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Maybe, maybe not ;)



There are some Nogaro Blue S4s with incredibly *SOFT* paint. Yeah, I know...but that's what I hear. Mike Phillips worked on one that was so soft he was marring it up with most everything he tried and it gave him fits (IIRC he ended up using M66 on it).



Must've been a weird production run or something, but I'd sure want to determine that before buying the car. I love (normal) Audi clear and wouldn't own a stupid-soft one if you gave it to me.



And yeah, I'm kinda paranoid about this sort of car, but I too suspect it's for sale for a reason that you won't know until you've had it for a while. This just whispers "unpleasant surprise" to me.
 
WCM3 said:
No access to a lift but I do have an engine hoist. One of my previous cars was a 300zxTT, talk about tight spaces. Didn't bother me though, just needed to make sure I had extra time to do the simple tasks.
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the worst part of the B5 S4 is the K03's. it is common for them to go bad and the only way to swap them out is to remove the engine. you can do a search yourself about this, there is no way around it.



But the fact that the seller swapped in K04's 5k miles ago is great. ive driven a few S4's with K04's and man, they are torque monsters :eek:
 
yakky said:
Please explain! I'm not sure how changing the turbos makes the car more reliable? I have one with some K04's (w/stage 4mtm tune) so I'm interested in what went wrong.
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i supposed I should ask what went wrong with you. Many people buy used S4s that were sold as opposed to performing routine maintenance. These vehicles are sold at discount because of this.



Things to watch on lower mileage cars are:



coolant afterrun pump

DVs

wastegate splitter Tee

vacuum and boost hoses.



Higher mileage vehicles will require (60k+) at some point



timing belt/water pump

O2s

EGTs

N75

spider hose



These are all S4 specific. Other items include engine mounts, control arms, wheel bearings which are routine maintenance on all vehicles.



If you bought cheap, there was a reason. No offense, I have been in B5s for almost 10 years now so I am just stating what I have seen.
 
WCM3 said:
No access to a lift but I do have an engine hoist. One of my previous cars was a 300zxTT, talk about tight spaces. Didn't bother me though, just needed to make sure I had extra time to do the simple tasks.
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working on a VG30DETT makes the S4 engine bay a walk in the park.
 
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