A4 purchase counseling

[rocketscienceracing at comcast.net]

> From: "Pedro Faria" <quattrocs at hotmail.com>
> 
> Me and my wife are in the market for 2 new "used" cars, audi's or other VAG 
> prducts of course so we kind of decide to get 2 A4's identical cars,
> most likely 5 speed 1.8t quattros 1996-2000
> 
> My question is, should i concentrate more one one particular year versus 
> another. are there any issues i should worry/concentrate on while
> purchasing these vehicles. or anything else you guys can thing off

Pedro,

Here's a repost of a reply I gave not to long ago to a similar question. This assumes you are looking at a vehicle with more than 50K miles. If it's less than 50K then you probably won't see any of this until then...

1. Control arms (really the just the joints, which are available separately, but not from the factory).

2. Wheel bearings. If they aren’t howling already, just start a “planned replacement program” as soon as you get the car.

3. It will probably be leaking oil everywhere: front seals, rear seals, oil pan. Make sure to drop the undertray and take a look. The undertray really only exists to keep oil off your driveway :-)

4. The timing belt must be replaced by 60K miles LATEST.

5. Check all the hose related connections, i.e. power steering leaks, even windshield washer fluid leaks. The OEM crimp style hose clamps don’t account for hose compression over time and get loose.

6. Random electrical problems, especially the dreaded “air bag light”. Most of these are caused by rising resistance levels in the affected circuits due to oxidation of the contacts in the connectors. Don’t ask me what kind of plating they used on the contacts, but it gets worse with time.

7. The cruise control stalk switch really suffers badly from item 5 above, worthy of it’s own separate item on this list.

8. Oxidation and delamination of the side-view mirrors. An easy fix. Also, check that the heated mirrors still work, if so equipped, they burn out quickly.

9. If the car has the fancy trip computer display, these are prone to failing (dim, then gone).

10. If the car has a sunroof, check for proper operation. Electrical problems with the control switch and mechanical problems with the track are common.

My car is a 98 with only 70K miles and it’s already seen items 2, 3, 5, 6, 7 and 8 above. Normally I would think “lemon”, but given the amount of traffic on the A4 list about this stuff it seems par for the course.

Audi engineers have done a remarkable, indeed admirable job in terms of trading acquisition cost vs. component life. It’s clearly not a car designed for the secondary market, i.e. past 50K miles and the original factory warranty. Of course, the Audi demographic is a new car every 50K, so they are all set. For those of us who love the good things about Audis: style, luxury, power and AWD, but can’t afford a new one, then we better like working on our cars! And boy do we ever-from Team Door Handle to “team air bag”! IMHO, it’s not worth torturing yourself if you aren’t at least buying a Quattro.

Good luck,

Scott
98.5A41.8Tqm