first time 200 buyer has questions...

[Mike Miller]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Mike Fitton" <rfitton at vt.edu>

I'll give my opinion on a few of these inline below

mike miller


> Been lurking on here for a few days now.  I've been around VWs and Audis
> for a long time, so I speak most of the language, but I have some random
> 200-specific questions.  The car I'm looking at has 63k on it, and
> recently had the 60k service done.

Welcome to the list. This sounds like a very low mileage car.

> What tends to go wrong on these cars?  I'm used to the usual electrical
> bugs, but I don't know which ones are serious and which ones are just
> switch-cleaners.  I know about the rear speaker thing...the one I'm
> looking at has aftermarket speakers already.

The original radiator seems to have a life of 10-12 yrs for a lot of people.
PS pump and rack. The usual Audi things. Cooling system hoses on a car of
this age - they are expensive. I seem to recall over $100 for the upper
radiator hose. Turbo cooling pump housing end gets brittle and can break
off.

> Can I expect the UFO brakes?  Are they not as bad as everyone says they
> are?  Are they absolutely horrible?  If I wanted to change them, what
> are my options?

I've owned 2 of these now - the first one I put over 125k miles on with
UFOs. I didn't have any problems with them. Got over 80k on a set of pads
and over 100k on a set of rotors. The current car has G60's on it. The lack
of braking power is noticeable - even my wife, who doesn't notice anything
automotive, has mentioned it. They may occasionally warp - it's not that
hard to straighten them. If it has UFOs you can downgrade (right Bernie? :-)
to the G60's. BIRA also has some upgrade options, like Big Reds, etc...

>Any opinions on the TAP chip/wastegate spring setup?  What's stock
boost, and what does this raise it to?

Stock boost as indicated by the in-dash gauge should be 1.8. A lot only make
1.7 indicated. I don't recall specfically what the TAP setup does - not too
many people run those that I know. If the car only makes 1.3-1.4 boost,
there are several fairly easy casues/fixes.

> What's the stock tire size?  I've seen both 205/60-15 and 215/60-15
quoted.

215/60-15 is stock.  225/60-15 will usually fit - I ran thru two sets of
that size.


> Are any swaybar upgrades available?

I believe the V8 swaybar will fit the front. As I recall, it's maybe 2-3mm
thicker.

> My urQ didn't seem to have any problems with locked diffs over 15mph, so
> why did Audi introduce that disengaging function on later cars?  Is
> there a way to defeat it?  Is it advisable (not thinking of dry road
> situations, but more like dirt/snow over 15mph situations for a little
> more sideways predictability)?

If you unplug the speedometer, the diff will stay locked. The diff switch
locks the rears, not the center.

> How much can the stock clutch take if I avoid drop starts?  Any upgrade
> kits out there?

I had over 200k on an original clutch. The throwout bearing was replaced
just for the heck of it when some tranny work was done at about 130k. It was
still working fine when the car was totaled.

> How sturdy are the engine mounts?

I sheared one when I hit the wall at 50+ - other than that, I didn't have ny
problems with them.

> I'm a little concerned about a single coil firing five cyls at 7000rpm.
>   By my math, that means just over 3.4ms between firings, and I'm
> concerned about such short coil dwell times approaching redline.  Do I
> have reason to be concerned, or am I being paranoid?

I've never had a problem with near redline operations :-)

> Okay, that's all I can think of right now.  Thanks for all feedback, and
> I'm sure I'll have more in the future.
>
> -Cheers!
> Mike