Home Mods Yakima Roof Rack Clear Corners Fog Light Mod APR Mount 19mm Sway Bar Images First Day Roof Rack Clear Corner Mod Fog Light Mod In the Grass Scenic Overlook Snow Moving Under Snow Boost Gauge Snub Install Scuff Construction 1st Day of Spring Sway Bar Install Interior Shots Under the L Rack Fairing Sport Seats Cracked Windshield Clean Car Water on the Car Fresh Suspension Misc Images Events 2001 LRqC Spring Drive 2001 LRqC Picnic at Continental Tire Rack Auto-x 2001 quattro Challenge - CMS 2001 quattro Challenge - from Steve Logs 7/28/00 8/3/00 8/10/00 8/24/00 8/31/00 11/13/00 11/26/00 12/3/00 12/7/00 Fuel Log		When APR had its Christmas sale and put the Snub Engine Mount on sale, I decided that at $50, I couldn't pass it up, so I ordered it. It came as promised, a little blue doughnut, which my friends made fun of me for paying $50 for a doughnut. heehee. When the weather finally got sort of warm enough, I decided to brave it and install the thing. So on January 20, 2001, at the temp of something way too cold, I pulled into my parents' garage as it was the best sheltered place I could find. I got the car up on some Rhino Ramps, got the creeper out, the halogen work lamp, and the space heater. Let the fun begin! You can see the entire gallery in the Image Gallery. First I removed the pan under the engine, it is held on by 10 bolts, 2 in front, 2 in back, and 2 in each wheel well, all flat head screws. Then I removed the weather stripping on the fron of the engine. There is 1 screw in each wheel well that needs to removed to get the bumper off. Unscrew it, it being the one on the bottom, front side of the wheel and is a Torx 25. (see pic). Pull out the little grills next to the fog lights by pulling them from the center. If you look closely, you will see there are 3 tabs per grill. If they are hard to get out, you can use a flat head screw driver to pull the tabs down and get them out. Under the grills, you will see there are 6mm bolts you have to remove. I initially used a 6mm allen key, as these pics show. I have since purchased a 6mm allen socket and this has saved me a huge amount of time. Buy one. The screws are long, so be careful not to scratch the car. Once those are all unbolted, you have to pull the bumper off. This is the part I had the biggest issue with the first time I did it. Now it takes me like 20 seconds... but... what you have to do is grip the bumper in the wheel wells and pull out and up. The bumper is sitting in a track, and you have to pull it out of the track. You can sorta see the track behind my hand in the pic below. I would say try the passenger side first. Once you get the the one side off, reach under and unhook the fog lights. You can do this through the grill openings next the lights if you want, but it is tighter. Then pull off the other side. The headlight spray hose is there on the driver side. Unhook that and be prepared to catch all your wiper washer solvent as it comes flowing out. Depending on whether you have a sedan or avant, there will be lots. (the avant resevior is larger than the sedan). Now you have the bumper off, and you get A4 front end in all of its naked glory. Yeah! You will need to remove the side bolts (see pic above, one per side, torx 30), loosen the bumper bolts (see pic below, 4 per bumper shock, torx 45, and remove the bolts above the headlight units (not the ones that hold the lights on, but the ones that run along the fender, 2 per side, torx 30). Here is the fun part... you need to pull the radiator out far enough to pry the stock mount off the spindle. This wasn't TOO bad, I ended up using a screw driver to get it out. You can remove the bumper shock screws to get more room, but make sure someone/something is supporting it, as it is heavy and that removes all its support. Once you get the stock mount out you will see the HUGE difference between the 2 mounts. Look at the 2 mounts, you can see that each one has a lip inside it that is more towards one side of the mount. You want the APR one to go the same way as the stock one, so put them side by side and figure out which way is what. I then crawled back under the car, and wedged the new mount on the spindle. Getting the spindle past that lip is a huge PITA. I ended up lining it up, and screwing the bumper shocks in to force it. It worked fine. I used lots of silicone lubricant to get it on. Once it was on, I loosened the spindle houseing and let the car idle for a bit to center it. I tightened the housing by hand, turned the car off, and tightened it fully, put it all back together and went for a drive. Felt great, save it VIBRATED LOTS at idle. Others had mentioned the vibration, but it was late, and I wasn't sure what to do about it, so I left it and drove back to my apartment. I noticed that I broke the headlight sprayer hose. Gotta get a new part, and I covered the hose with a latex glove and some zip ties. I also forgot to reaim my headlights, and got flashed lots! heehee After reading some Audiworld posts and noticing that my bumper was not straight (because my radiator wasn't straight), not to mention the VIBRATION was driving me up the wall, I took the bumper off again on the weekend of 2/17 to try to fix it. I fiddled around, made sure everything was straight and good, and it was. The vibration was still present, albeit a bit different, still really annoying. Great. After I put the bumper back on, I must not have installed the fog lights properly, as one fell out and made a little hole in the light backing. Great. Needless to say I was getting annoyed with the whole thing. I LOVED the feel of the mount, but it was really frustrating. After reading about people grinding the shroud and/or the mount and losing all vibration, I decided this was going to be my next move. On the weekend of 2/24, I went out, bought a Dremel tool, and put the car up on the ramps AGAIN. By this time, I can get the bumper off in about 6 minutes. I pulled the shroud out of the car, and pulled the mount off the spindle. It was really easy to see on both the shroud and the mount where they were making contact, due to the dirt and silicone lubricant. Out came the Dremel tool. I ground the mount and the shroud a bit, until there was enough room for the mount to move in the spindle a little bit. I only ground the mount on 2 sides, where they were rubbing, and only a little, same with the shroud. I ground and them sanded them all smooth, checking the fit periodically. Went well. Once it was ground enough, I put the mount into the shroud, and loosely bolted the shroud in. This made it a LOT easier to get the mount in, as I didn't have to clear the lip of the shroud. Bolted the bumper shocks in, and the spindle popped into the mount. Nice. I straightened the radiator and tightened it down. Then I let the car idle for a bit to center the mount in the shroud. There was still a tiny vibration, but it was MUCH improved. While it idled, I slowly fingered tightened the shroud. Turned the car off, fully tightened the shroud, and put the car back together. The result? Smooth as the day I drove it off the lot AND with great shift feel! Ahhh, the best of both worlds. I love it! I would totally do it again, and now I know! If I were to do it all over from start, I would remove the shroud right off the bat, grind everything to make it fit, and then reinstall it. Would have been SO much easier! A great value for such improved daily feel.