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Still waiting on some mods to arrive, but my upgraded intercooler finally arrived last week. The factory intercooler on the B9 SQ5 is small, cheaply made (average quality core with plastic end tanks) and well known for being inadequate for cooling the inlet charge on the EA839 3.0T V6 engine. Audi cost cut here by using the same intercooler on the B9 platform for the base model 2.0T all the way up to the S models with the 3.0L V6T. I was originally hoping to use my stock B8 SQ5 intercooler which is a much better quality all-alloy unit, but unfortunately it would not fit without modification to the inlet/outlet pipes and the factory charge pipes on the car. So that idea was scrapped.
After looking at the intercooler options for this car (Wagner, IE, AWE, APR + several Chinese clones) I decided to get the IE based on several factors.....i wanted a silver intercooler so you could actually see it behind the grill (which ruled out Wagner and the Chinese clones), the IE performs very well in tests, and also IE was on sale at the time. Looking back now, I would have probably purchased the AWE for several factors, even though it is slightly more expensive.
Good: Perfect fitment on the car. Definitely a nice quality intercooler. Performs very well with logs showing intake temps either matching ambient temp or only being 1-2c over. With the stock intercooler, my intake temps were about 15-20c over ambient on a pull.
Bad: its not raw silver finish as per all of the IE website pics. Its actually powdercoated a light grey colour. Also not a massive fan of how the intercooler mounts to the radiator as I feel this could potentially cause damage to the radiator if hitting a big bump.
As mentioned, the AWE is a raw aluminium finish and mounts to the crash bar rather than to the radiator so in hindsight, the AWE would have been a better choice in this respect.
Just came back from a weekend up at Coffs Harbour and the car performed flawlessly over nearly 1,000km's. Just about to tick over 80,000km now. The car has heaps of power and torque on the freeway and returns a quite decent 8.5-9.0L per 100km when sitting on 115kph on cruise control. This was the first big trip we have taken the B9 on since buying it and it performed really well. Around town the fuel consumption is between 13-15L per 100km depending on how heavy your right foot is.
After looking at the intercooler options for this car (Wagner, IE, AWE, APR + several Chinese clones) I decided to get the IE based on several factors.....i wanted a silver intercooler so you could actually see it behind the grill (which ruled out Wagner and the Chinese clones), the IE performs very well in tests, and also IE was on sale at the time. Looking back now, I would have probably purchased the AWE for several factors, even though it is slightly more expensive.
Good: Perfect fitment on the car. Definitely a nice quality intercooler. Performs very well with logs showing intake temps either matching ambient temp or only being 1-2c over. With the stock intercooler, my intake temps were about 15-20c over ambient on a pull.
Bad: its not raw silver finish as per all of the IE website pics. Its actually powdercoated a light grey colour. Also not a massive fan of how the intercooler mounts to the radiator as I feel this could potentially cause damage to the radiator if hitting a big bump.
As mentioned, the AWE is a raw aluminium finish and mounts to the crash bar rather than to the radiator so in hindsight, the AWE would have been a better choice in this respect.
Just came back from a weekend up at Coffs Harbour and the car performed flawlessly over nearly 1,000km's. Just about to tick over 80,000km now. The car has heaps of power and torque on the freeway and returns a quite decent 8.5-9.0L per 100km when sitting on 115kph on cruise control. This was the first big trip we have taken the B9 on since buying it and it performed really well. Around town the fuel consumption is between 13-15L per 100km depending on how heavy your right foot is.
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