Anyone know anything about Audi's?

TOPNOTCH

TOPNOTCH

Forum Member
Gettin ready to buy a new (used) car for myself. I ran across a pretty cheap 1999 Audi A4 1.8L Turbo from a guy. it's a 5 speed, NOT QUATTRO it's FWD, 160K, he's the 3rd owner. he bought it from his sister who bought it from some guy who was an "Audi freak" as he put it, so it was probably well taken care of. The guy that owns it now says he's a mechanic and has taken very good care of it. He said he replaced all the ball joints up front, apparently there are 8?!?!?!?!
He says the ABS does not work, he thinks its the ABS pump. Also he is unsure of when the clutch was changed last if ever. I'm sure it has had to of been, right?

Anyways, anyone ever have any experience with these? He's asking $3K, but he said he's flexible on the price because of the ABS not working. It's got black leather interior and it's in really nice shape, from the pics I saw. He says the interior looks great.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanx!
 
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I have a 1999.5 audi a4 2.8L Q M

3 is fairly good price if it runs and drives fairly good. (I sell cars for a living)

Find out, preferably with receipts, when the timing belt was done. Orig turbo? Front ball joints are solid with the control arms. Run synthetic, who cares about abs, I wish mine didn't work. Org clutch is possible... Sport suspension or normal?

I say try and get some records from them, make sure its a clean title. Go test drive it but make sure the car is cold when you get there, not warmed up (a good sign that they are trying to hide something)

I have to warn you though these are very expensive cars to fix. My rack and pinion is going and I believe the part is $1200!

Haggle the hell out of him with cash in hand and your good to go.
 
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i never bought a euro car (audi, bmw, vw, etc.) because their reliability just isn't there, i know lots of people personally who have had bad experiences, and it's always a major problem.

i'd stay away from anything european and used if you're hunting for reliabbility.

~Alex
 
he should be on his second timing belt by now.. most people i've seen have done this right at 80k miles.. manual says 100k maint. i think the avg price of this is around $1200, and replaces the belt, water pump, tensioners... As said before, if the belt goes plan on at least replacing the head..
 
Stangdriver627 said:
i never bought a euro car (audi, bmw, vw, etc.) because their reliability just isn't there, i know lots of people personally who have had bad experiences, and it's always a major problem.

i'd stay away from anything european and used if you're hunting for reliabbility.

~Alex
Click to expand...

normally, if these types of cars are taken care of can run for several hundred thousand miles. Although they are expensive to repair.

I am looking for something reliable... keep looking at Hondas and Toyotas, just want something a little more stylish than a normal civic, accord or camry. I want to spend about 3500 or so, thought this would be a good alternative... any ideas would be appreciated
 
Where is the car located? This sounds vaguely familiar to me...

We have a 1999.5 A4 Avant 1.8T. Great car, timing belt is easy on the longitudinal, a little less easy on the FWD as it's transverse.

You're going to get a lot of push-back on here as a majority of the guys here have domestic cars. It's a good car overall, gets good MPG, and it rides nicely. Regardless if the timing belt was changed or not, just change it. The parts are less than $200 and it'll give you piece of mind. This is my second 1.8T powered car, and I love it.
 
TOPNOTCH said:
Are they hard to change? I take it that this engine is an interference engine and the valves will kiss the pistons if the timing belt goes?
Click to expand...

Yes, it is an interference engine. I think Subaru has the only one that isn't. Changing it isn't terrible.
 
TOPNOTCH said:
Gettin ready to buy a new (used) car for myself. I ran across a pretty cheap 1999 Audi A4 1.8L Turbo from a guy. it's a 5 speed, NOT QUATTRO it's FWD, 160K, he's the 3rd owner. he bought it from his sister who bought it from some guy who was an "Audi freak" as he put it, so it was probably well taken care of. The guy that owns it now says he's a mechanic and has taken very good care of it. He said he replaced all the ball joints up front, apparently there are 8?!?!?!?!
He says the ABS does not work, he thinks its the ABS pump. Also he is unsure of when the clutch was changed last if ever. I'm sure it has had to of been, right?

Anyways, anyone ever have any experience with these? He's asking $3K, but he said he's flexible on the price because of the ABS not working. It's got black leather interior and it's in really nice shape, from the pics I saw. He says the interior looks great.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanx!
Click to expand...

Okay, the clutch may still be the original, hard to say for certain.

The ABS pump is fine, it's the electronics. The downside to them being dead is that it throws the brake bias to mostly the rear brakes (the car acts as though it's loaded to max capacity). Modulemaster repairs the unit for $200.
 
TOPNOTCH said:
normally, if these types of cars are taken care of can run for several hundred thousand miles. Although they are expensive to repair.

I am looking for something reliable... keep looking at Hondas and Toyotas, just want something a little more stylish than a normal civic, accord or camry. I want to spend about 3500 or so, thought this would be a good alternative... any ideas would be appreciated
Click to expand...

my friend's dad had an audi B5 A4, 52k miles the timing belt blew and destroyed the top end, 2k out of warranty, luckily he got the shop to cover labor but he was still out 3k for parts, and his dad is oddly meticulous about his cars.

one of my close friends has a TT, takes care of it, 63k timing belt randomly blew, 5k and a top end later it was on the road again.

they may be stylish, but if something breaks, it's going to hurt.


~Alex
 
The timing belts aren't bad, about 8 hours for the first timer and you need a few special tools that you can get online to hold the pulleys. The belt set itself is only like $300 so I don't see the big deal. Those belts last 100k on the newer audi/vw revisions. If you didn't know VW and Audi use a lot of the same parts.
 
1.8t FTW. Especially if it's paired with a 5 or 6 speed.

I don't get the whole walk away if timing belt not serviced deal.
Like that's the only car that needs a timing belt past 100k miles.
Change it ... it's not that big of a deal. 1.8T is a lot better engine that the 2.0t ever will be.
 
GeosRide said:
Where is the car located? This sounds vaguely familiar to me...

We have a 1999.5 A4 Avant 1.8T. Great car, timing belt is easy on the longitudinal, a little less easy on the FWD as it's transverse.

You're going to get a lot of push-back on here as a majority of the guys here have domestic cars. It's a good car overall, gets good MPG, and it rides nicely. Regardless if the timing belt was changed or not, just change it. The parts are less than $200 and it'll give you piece of mind. This is my second 1.8T powered car, and I love it.
Click to expand...

Car is located in Farmington Hills. Some guy that says he's a mechanic and works on these cars all the time. I like the looks of the car a lot. I've only done a timing belt on a 3.0L V6 Nissan Pathfinder once in my lifetime, never on anything else. Do you own a shop? How much is it for someone else to do it? Probably pretty expensive I'm guessin.
 
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