Newbie post, so forgive any stupid questions...

Just bought an '04 coupe last month - had always wanted a vette since I was a kid, had planned to wait a few more years, but saw one at a dealer and with the wife's assistance and support no more Camry! A lot harder to fit the 4 kids in the Vette, but I manage...

So the car came with an automatic. I drive every day in a fair amount of traffic, so I thought an automatic wouldn't be that bad - I wasn't letting that deter me from the deal I got, even though part of me wanted the manual. I was discussing some of the minor annoyances about the automatic with a friend who is much more knowledgable about cars than me, and wanted some other opinions/confirmations before I follow the advice blindly.

I mentioned that the car feels underpowered driving around town, more so than I expected for a Vette. It's always in 4th gear, and if I try to gun it for fun or to get around someone it makes that usual hard shift down and goes. And if you start to speed up, then decide to punch it, the double shift feeling can be pretty rough. Not as bad as other automatics, but then I didn't usually drive my Camry like this... Also at about 1500 rpms there is a droning type sound in the cabin. I'm usually cranking the music, so no biggie, but if it's quiet the drone is annoying. Speeding up or easing up on the accelerator helps.

So my friend said 2 things. One, when driving around town, typically 35 - 55 mph, drive in 3 instead of D. This elevates the rpm's to about 2000 or so, which eliminates the drone, plus keeps the car in 3rd instead of 4th. I'm sure if I had a manual I wouldn't be driving around town in 4th gear. This gives me a bit more accessible power without stomping on the gas to enable the downshift. I know it may slightly decrease gas mileage, but I don't really care about that. Second, he mentioned if I really wanted to take off (from a start or while driving) to not be afraid to manually shift down to 2 or 1. Especially off the line, he said to start in 1, and even if I forgot to shift the car would auto shift to 3rd gear.

Does this make sense? I never really played with an automatic like this before - my other cars always stayed in drive or overdrive, why change? I don't want to hurt the transmission, but I also don't want to miss out on any "techniques" I can use to get a little more performance out of the car. I tried driving in 3 today and it was more enjoyable, definitely a bit more accessible power. Maybe I miss the manual more than I thought (my last stick was a '95 Camaro which I had for 5 years), but I don't really miss it when I stuck in traffic for 20 minutes a day. And I can always buy a manual next time.

I searched around for information on this type of thing and couldn't really find anything. Some mention of Corsa exhausts eliminating some drone (same noise?), and I may do that eventually, but in the meantime... And maybe I'm such a non-car person that these are simple things, who knows. Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks!
Scott


P.S. Since I'm writing a novel, what would be some of the first mods you would do performance wise with say $500 or so? I may spend more later, just looking to get started now. Anything that can be done that is worthwhile? Best bang for the buck? I've read a lot of conflicting advice on air filter, air sleeves, intake systems, MSD chips, exhaust options, etc. I think this is going to be worse than my bike...

 

Scott, like you I had to take an A4 if I wanted a convertible. Glad I went the way I did because open air motoring has been a blast. Even so, the A4 can be nearly as much fun as an MN6 and you sure save leg ache in traffic.

Not sure if theres any right or wrong way to do this.

I find that 3 around town does just what you say. It makes things more responsive although the gas mileage does drop by quite a bit.

The other thing to try is to drop to 2 and then play with the throttle. Its a totally different beast. The throttle is more responsive, no lag and the performance returns. It'll never be the same blast to drive as an MN6 and never as flexible but still fun.

Your friend is wrong on the advice on selecting 1 or 2 though. If you select those gears it will stay in whichever you select. 1 and it stays in 1; 2 and it will not go to 3. It will not auto shift upwards. If you hit the rev limiter you'll know. The car hesitates badly. You'll also get a shift light in the HUD. If you have a higher drive selected it will go up automatically but with WOT it flashes the shift light just before it shifts at redline.

Not sure what the implication of driving like this is on long term reliability. Maybe someone else has facts on that. That said, I don't do it that often so I guess I'll just live with it.

BTW, the best way to get rid of drone is to change tires. The OEMs are terrible for road noise. A decent set of tires will change that instantly and improve handling.

 

Scott

Welcome to Corvette Forum.


Tom

 

Performance automatics mods:
(in no particular order)

~3500 stall torque converter:
.. launch like a manual, drive like an auto
Trans cooler:
.. longevity ..if fluid gets too hot it becomes molasses.
Reprogram aka 'tune':
.. take out 'torque management' and beef shifts up, 'smooth' shifts eat auto's up. Tradeoff is hard shifts are rough on U-joints/couplers.
Ideally a manual shift setup ..but you'd need a decent shifter (like B&M's ratchet types or some such .. race car bits

As for general drivin ..owners manual states not to use overdrive under 45 mph .. -evil grin-

Party on

-Frank

 

You might already have, an aftermarket exhaust system, in your car.
.

 

With the drone you probably do not have a stock exhaust. Corsa does not drone.

 

3.42 gears + a tune and you'll be very happy with the shifts...

 

Did this to my A4. Best mod I did to date

 

I've heard the A4's without 3.15s stock are a bit slower feeling. I got 3.15s so I wouldn't know.

As for $500 I guess you can do either an intake or a mail order tune. Maybe both if you plan it right. I don't know how much labor would cost if needed but you can upgrade to a LS6 intake manifold, I think it's good for about 10hp. But if you don't have 3.15s save for some gears. Maybe some used out of a Z06 (3.42s) would be cheaper but do some research on that first.

Congrats on getting the Vette. I'm fairly new to it too and just starting to do the fun stuff to it.

 

Hi Scott -

DeeGee is spot on (As usual! ) regarding the shifting scheme of the A4.

I removed the stock Goodyear Runflats from my wifes 99 A4 coupe as soon as I got it home, so I never got a chance to hear the drone from the stock tires.

The stock exhaust does not (in my experience) drone in the cabin. AS mentioned, you may have an aftermarket "catback" (the mufflers and over the axle pipe section(s) of the exhaust sytem).

Best bang for the buck mods?

My short list -

Free cold air intake mod - search for zip tie mod - then imagine the airbox upside down with a hole cut in the radiator shroud to open the filter to the air under the car. This cai is essentially free, and it uses the stock filter element, or ou can buy a K&N element. Here is a link showing a car with zip tye mod
http://www.z06vette.com/forums/showt...threadid=29243

Computer dyno tune - This'll set you back $3-400 dollars with dyno run(s) included. You can have the shift point adjusted I am told, but no experience with that.

Catback - I like the C5 Z06 Ti system - reportedly flows 40% better than a stock C5 catback, and it weighs significantly less. IT also has nice round chrome tips that are nice looking. You can usually find these for $400 around the C5 parts forum.

You can look at the inside of the glovebox door and determine what rear end ratio you have by looking up the rpo codes on the sticker in there. More directly, there is a tag on the differential that states what the drive ratio is for the diff. There were two ratios - 2.73 and the 3.15 performance ratio. The lower ratio is slightly better accelerating, but slightly less fuel efficient.

It is moving out of your current price range to talk about a change of gearing, or headers etc. for that matter.

If you have to have an aftermarket CAI - twin-ram, Halltech, Vara-Ram, Blackwing, Vortex Rammer etc. are all well thought of by their factions on this forum.

Congrats on the car - good luck controlling mod fever, and please post pics as soon as you can!

best regards -

mqqn

 

Yes by all means please do not do what your friend has implied as an auto upshift, you will learn this when you wind out first gear to 4 grand with 3:73's in the back.

I was told by some tranny experts and through forum members that an A4 can safely rev to around 4k before it becomes damaging.

You must manually shift to the next gear, he must of been thinking of the manual skip shift feature on Manual trans.

And that weird feeling you get when you stomp on it is probably the traction control taking over so the tires do not spin, I prefer to leave the traction control off on dry pavement as long as you have a heavy duty rearend with upgraded gears,etc.

 

welcome

 

Is the higher the gears the better? I have the 2.73 A4, which seems to accelerate fine w/my vararam. I tried 3rd gear for a while and didn't like how it felt below 25 MPH. I'll keep in drive, it's smoother.

My friend that owns a Corvette also, said the opposite that the lower the number the better the acelleration off the line in the 0-60 column, but the higher gears win in the quarter. Is he right?

 

3500 Tq. convertor and gears. DONE!!!!

 

Get Gears and have Chuck CoW tune your car. Period

 

This is a great thread. I was just thinking of posting something like this earlier today.

I've got an A4 too with Vararam, Magnaflow w/ xpipe, and tune (before VR). Car definitely feels good but it still seems like it could be smoother and feel more powerful in the low-end.

My dad has an 03 AE A4 and he likes to shift it himself. I was wondering how many other people do that? Do you start in 1 or 2?

I've got the 3.15 gears ... would it be worth it to upgrade to 3.42? Or go higher, 3.73 or 3.90? Small mileage loss isn't too big of a deal to me. Would you do this before headers? I was thinking of doing headers next.

How does the 3500 stall torque converter help?

 

3.42s and a tune! Trust me, thats the ticket for a much more enjoyable Vette. Dave

 

Scottjen26, congrats on your new wheels and welcome to the club!

Lower rear end gears and after market intakes will add power and zing to your ride but before you spend a lot of money on mods, seek out a known tuner/shop in your area.

A tuner can adjust the rpm that the transmission up-shifts and will transform the fun factor of your car. At stock settings these cars up-shift waaay too soon, I`ve got mine set at 3,000rpms up-shift points at part throttle and it`s a different car around town!

You could also manually shift which won`t hurt the car, it`s up to you!

Good luck!

 

 

Number one thing you can do: get a tune by Chuck COW. Your A4 will be transformed. It's that good. No more lazy shifts, no more torque management...and an incredible improvement in overall throttle response.

I might get flamed for this, but I think a well tuned A4 will run with or outrun any M6, all other things being equal. The factory tune on an A4 is very, very conservative.

Next I'd put in at least a 3.15 rear if you don't already have one.

After that, a Vararam CAI, x-pipe and catbacks...if nothing else, do the catbacks for their appearance. I personally like the B&B ovals, but there's a lot of nice looking pipes out there.

This advice is just for the guy that wants a more satisfying street experience without breaking the bank. If you are going to track the car (something I don't do), then there are other ways to spend your cash...

Good luck!