Somewhat less of a quandary now...88 5ksq Thread

[Grant Lenahan]

A bit late, but I too had an 84 4ksq.  Aside from being slow, what a 
solid car.
Reliable, durable and not all that many expensive parts.

Shame about the trunk, though :-)

Having never owned a type 44, i cant make a first hand comparison, but 
everything tells me that the two are very different w/r/t maintenance.  
I have several friends who fix cars professionally.  4000s are among 
their favourites (as in easy to fix and not that often, which, on 
reflection should not be their favourites ...). Type 44s, and 
especially V8s (the old ones) among their least favourite.

As the owner of a C5 and a C4 currently, I can attest that the C5 is a 
*better* car, but the C4 is a simpler car to repair, and rarely needs 
anything anyway.  Many of my expenses have been related to age and 
neglect (like not cleaning the AC drains in 11 years....).

So what did my old 84 4ksq eat? Well, over a couple hundred thousand 
mile:

- clutch master
- set of shocks
- 2 full sets of brakes (rotors, pads)
- lots of front strut bearings (duh)
- both front wheel bearings
- both front CVs (outer, also duh)
- muffler
- complete set of control arm bushings, done in one fell swoop.  Good 
idea.
- the usual parade of tires, batteries, spark plugs and oil

When sold it -- about 200k - was mechanically very solid, and drove 
tight and nice.
I sort of regretted it afterward.

Grant

On Aug 5, 2006, at 3:51 PM, George Butler wrote:

> Hello all,
>
>
>
> Up until the "Re: '88 5000S Auto FS; Any Buyer Beware?" thread I was 
> in the
> process of making a tough decision.  I've been driving a very reliable
> (blatant attempt to incite the Audi gods ;-) 84 4KSQ for about 10 
> years now
> and the odometer just passed 200K miles.  I've put a reasonable amount 
> of
> money, sweat, and vulgarities into it. and I love it to death.
>
>
>
> I inherited my son's 88 5KSQ when he moved on to another vehicle.  In 
> the
> few years he owned it the engine blew, and a few door handles went as 
> did a
> number of other things. I'll admit though that we got what we paid for.
> After recently deciding to make a project out of the 88 5KSQ I sat 
> down and
> totaled the cost of parts required to "do it right" and gagged when the
> parts passed the 3K$ mark.  Like a lot of other listers I started 
> thinking
> that I might address the restoration in phases, or sell the 84 4KSQ to
> finance a piece of the effort as well as entertaining a number of other
> fantasies relative to justifying the cost of the 88 5KSQ project.  I 
> then
> had to assess what I'd end-up with at the end of the journey. I'd have 
> an
> (apparently unsafe relative to crash test results) 18 year-old luxury 
> car
> that gets 24MPG.with a lot of new parts.  It's time to let go..
>
>
>
> I will concur with Huw relative to the type 44's being expensive cars 
> that
> occasionally require expensive repairs.  In this case though I think 
> I'll
> keep my focus on my 84 4KSQ. I don't have the time or the resources to 
> part
> out the' 88, so I think I'll just put it up for sale as is.  I'll be 
> sad to
> see it go,  but I think that I can get several hundred dollars for 
> it.maybe
> it's time for that rear sway bar for the '84 (unsafe or not)!
>
>
>
> Have a nice weekend.
>
>
>
>
>
> Regards,
>
>
>
>
>
> George B.
>
>
>
> 84 4KSQ
>
> 88 5KSQ..for a while
>
> Massachusetts
>
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