u/Pale-Bet2829

Does anyone else feel extremely satisfied for such small DIY fixes like I do - recently my B9.5 S5 started making this creaking/clunking noise when I switch off the car sometimes. Not all the time, just sometimes. Unpredictable. But for the life of me I couldn’t figure out what was making the noise and I thought something was broken.

I knew it came from the front of the car and it sounded like windshield wipers when they streak across the windshield and make terrible noise. But the sound was so short lived that I couldn’t put my finger down on it. I only had a clue.

Then I began googling “do the windshield wipers move on a B9.5 S5 when turning off the car”

To my astonishment, they do. And I had NO idea. I had no idea the car intelligently moved the blade to rest on either side with occasional shut offs in order to extend the life of the blades and they don’t get stuck on the windshield on one side.

Then the recommendations were to replace the blades, as apparently we are supposed to every 6 months to a year.

I looked at other reasons why the wiper blades would make noise…. Dirt/dust/debris. Ok, let’s go put the wiper blades in service mode and check them out. Sure enough when I did that and the blades moved up, I heard that creak on the way up briefly. Cleaned the blades, cleaned the windshield, restored the plastic trim at the bottom of the windshield (it was gray now it’s back to being matte black). Returned the blades to resting position and tested them. Noise is gone.

It’s literally the dumbest things like this that make me happy. I was about to go spend $70 on new blades but the decision to try and clean them instead saved me money. LOL.

So if any of you hear a strange screech upon vehicle shut down, it’s your windshield wiper blades and your car is perfectly ok and not broken 😂😂

Hey everyone. My S5 was last paint corrected at the end of September of 2024 and a Nextgen ceramic coating was applied, a 3 year coating.

I’m really meticulous about checking my car daily for bird poo, it sits outside quite a lot these days and it’s black. Extremely hard to keep clean and even moreso in this SoCal sun it’s brutal.

This happened a few months back, but, when I went outside to check the car one day I noticed a pretty decent sized bird turd on my passenger rear quarter panel and immediately removed it. I have no idea how long it was on for but it’s absolutely less than 24 hours, more likely half that time - perhaps 8 hours.

The day wasn’t particularly scorching but that does not matter with back cars. The plant always gets blistering hot when in standard 80F degree weather (27C for my euro friends). It left its mark even in that short amount of time. The etching has been on the car for a while, you have to angle yourself just right for it to stand out otherwise you can’t see it too well.

So what do you guys think? Do you guys think this is too far etched into the paint or do you think it’ll come off with some aggressive compound and polish? Took these photos as best I can.

I searched this subreddit before posting and there are an enormous amount of threads lol - a lot of them look way worse than what I’m dealing with. I am hoping this burned into the next gen coating and didn’t slip too car into the clearcoat.

The next gen coating however isn’t surviving very well on panels that are more flat like my roof and rear hatch where the spoiler is - the coating has more or less failed in these areas. Despite annual ceramic coat maintenance.

Hey Reddit fam. I have a 2021 Audi S5 with an OEM carbon fiber spoiler and I made an absolutely horrible mistake of not getting it PPF’d when I did a full front PPF on my car. The spoiler has seen some sun over the past year and a half and it’s beginning to crack along a specific line where I suspect it’s weaker than everywhere else. I still want to get this thing PPF’d but I believe if I do that then these damaged spots will be always noticeable. Someone told me PPF would hide it and another shop told me it won’t.

With that being said, how would you guys go about repairing this, Is it even repairable? This OEM carbon spoiler is $1,300 I really am not trying to drop that on a brand new one if at all possible.

Please share your knowledge with me, I hardly know anything about how carbon works. I just know it’s not like paint.

Hey Reddit fam. I have a 2021 Audi S5 with an OEM carbon fiber spoiler and I made an absolutely horrible mistake of not getting it PPF’d when I did a full front PPF on my car. The spoiler has seen some sun over the past year and a half and it’s beginning to crack along a specific line where I suspect it’s weaker than everywhere else. I still want to get this thing PPF’d but I believe if I do that then these damaged spots will be always noticeable. Someone told me PPF would hide it and another shop told me it won’t.

With that being said, how would you guys go about repairing this, and how much do you think it would cost? Is it even repairable? This OEM carbon spoiler is $1,300 I really am not trying to drop that on a brand new one if at all possible.

Please share your knowledge with me, I hardly know anything about how carbon works. I just know it’s not like paint.

Hi everyone. I’ll keep this as brief as possible:

Situation: I’m trying to remove 5 year old STEK PPF on my 2021 Audi S5 in hopes to do a full paint correction + apply new ceramic coat.

Dilemma: I’m being fear mongered into believing that removing my PPF can very likely damage my paint/clearcoat. I’ve spoken to several shops all of whom said the same thing AND some of them aren’t even calling me back which tells me they don’t want to bother with me. The shop that originally did the install for me closed a year ago, the owner moved on from auto detailing (I’m a friend of his so we keep in touch). A former employee of his whom I also keep in touch with tells me HALF THE CARS he removes PPF from, results in some sort of paint damage. Even newer vehicles.

A few details: I bought my S5 brand new, immediately took it in for full front PPF with 6 miles on the odo. The car spent the first 4 years of its life in a garage away from the sun. This past year it’s seen a lot of sun. Car only has 14k miles on it. The owner admitted to me six months ago that since the car was brand new, the front of the car wasn’t paint corrected before the PPF went down. I am removing the PPF for two reasons: #1 because I know the longer it stays on the harder and worse it becomes to remove and potentially will definitely damage paint and #2 it’s lost most of its clarity. I think it’s definitely yellowed pretty bad. There is only one visible tear in the PPF on my hood where a rock hit it (protected exactly as designed) and no major impacts on my front bumper or fenders - the PPF is relatively clean.

I am adding 5 photos for reference - 3 showing how dull my PPF has become and 2 how it was when it was fresh.

This subreddit doesn’t allow me to post location but I am in SoCal, if knows someone who can help me, Please DM me! The amount of fear/petrification I got in the last three days is mind blowing. It’s like: risk damaging your paint by removing it, 50% chance it’ll damage, or leave it on and DEFINITELY get wrecked later on and have it be extremely difficult to remove.

Thank you all VERY much 🙏🏼