44s to the bone yard........

[Cody Forbes]

Roy Wendell wrote:
....
> problem for many old Audis. How many of you are willing to remove the
> entire rear suspension and do major fuel tank surgery for a car that's
> only worth 2 to 4k in excellent condition and only then to the right
> people. The type44 strikes me as more and more a labor of love or
> hobby car that will never have much curb appeal. On every one I've
<snip>
> That said, I'm planning on resurrecting one this summer just because
> I've got most of the parts laying around and I just can't bear the
> thought of it going off the crusher. I have no delusions that I will
> recover even a fraction of the cost when I sell it nor will I ever
> drive it enough miles to compensate.


See I don't look at resale values because I don't intend to sell any of my 
cars. I get too attached to them... to me selling one of my cars would be 
akin to selling the family pet. I've only ever gotten away from 3 5000's 
that I've owned - one (my first) had a major design flaw in the EFI setup 
that I made and burned to the ground, and two others were parts cars and got 
crushed when I was done with them (both were wrecked beyond repair when I 
bought them).

I don't know if I'm lucky, if I do something different then others, or what, 
but I've never had this absurd unreliability problem that everybody speaks 
of. The one I've owned the longest is my black '87 which I've had for 5 
years now (bought it with the insurance money from the one I torched). When 
I bought it it had an issue in the CIS, so I tossed that in the garbage and 
installed EFI (yes, I changed the design flaw that cost me my other one). 
It's only ever had 1 door handle replaced and thats only because I locked 
myself out and broke in by pulling the door handle off. It's still got the 
OE window regulators AFAIK, and one of them moves sorta slow but doesn't 
ever "not work". When I bought the car I pulled the door panels off and 
lubed everything inside - all regulators, all lock rods, all door handles - 
and never looked back. A few years ago I got new door panels as I changed 
the interior color, and while there lubed everything again. I replaced the 
fuel pump as a precaution when I started doing power mods. A few years ago I 
used some inheritance money and replaced every possible wear item in the 
suspension - it took one weekend of work, but now the car is rock solid. As 
far as I can remember the only problems I've ever really had are all related 
to the absurd stress I put on the driveline doing 12 seccond 1/4 mile runs - 
left front CV joints two or three times, a head gasket or two, a clutch 
(which had over 230,000 miles on it including 15,000 miles of abuse), and 
some other engine related mishaps. The only neglected problem is that the 
hydraulic lines are perpetually damp, but they don't drip.

My red non-turbo non-quattro '86 model I've had for 2 years now. It's 100% 
stock, no EFI yet as the CIS still works good. Lets kick this off by saying 
I pair $250 for this car and after installing a battery I drove it home. 
After a good days worth of cleaning and polishing it looks great except that 
it's missing some chrome bits on the doors. It needed a clutch when I bought 
it, and in the 2 years I've had it I've had to replace the drivers door 
handle once, the drives window regulator once, rear brakes, parking brake 
cables, and the left front wheel bearing. I put an oxygen sensor in it just 
for the hell of it when I first bught it, it was something like $25 and half 
an hour of work if that. It needs a tire rod end and could use new 
struts/shocks, but beyond that it's well sorted. It starts every day, runs 
great, and gets 30mpg if you don't flog it (which is pointless anyways). Oh, 
I almost forgot - the speedo bounces ~3mph because the plastic bit that 
holds it to the cluster is broken and a new speedo cable is NLA. Some epoxy 
would solve this, but it's not annoying enough to make me jump into action. 
It's used primarily as a beater when I need to transport stuff thats dirty 
and as my backup car for when my black one is down for upgrades or repairs.

Then theres the relatively new-to-me white '86 TQ. The price I paid for it 
was an absurd deal - I bought it from my boss who was upgrading his son to 
an E46 BMW. I paid $700, and recieved maybe $3,500 worth of reciepts - all 
suspension is new, all rubber hoses under hood are new, all brakes are new. 
Since August of this year I've driven this car from my house in central NC 
to Annapolis, MD, Miami, FL, Springfield, MO, and 30 or so shorter weekend 
trips. It sometimes cranks just a tad longer then I'd like before it starts, 
I think it has a leaky fuel injector or 5. While it still belonged to the 
previous owner I replaced the drivers door handle and lubed the rest. All 
windows work, all other door handles work, and comming home from Missouri 
last week it averaged 28.3mpg - including crossing the Ozark and Great 
Smokey Mountains with the boost set to 2.1bar (absolute). This car is the 
"family" car that my wife primarily drives and my son uses to store half 
eaten french fries and goldfish.

I've got no reason to ever sell any of those 3, and don't intend to. I'm 
sure one day in the future they will need some wear items replaced, and 
possibly will just get worn out, but how far down the road it will be is a 
mystery to me since they all perform great currently. If my black one ever 
has such major issues that I can;t stand it I'll gut it, put pins on the 
front doors, weld the rears shut, add a cage, and have a very fun (not 
competetive) NASA GTS4 or Performance Touring car. My son is currently just 
approaching 2 years old and I don't see any reason why one of these cars 
won't be his first car - after all my first car was a hand-me-down that my 
mother bought new in 1974 and ran great until I found some rust that needed 
attention and decided a full restoration is in order - it's currently on a 
rotisserie stripped to a bare chassis. Maybe if my income changes 
drastically I'd be tempted to purchase something newer, but I'm not sure 
that I would. My wife loves her 5ktq, and the only newer cars she has voiced 
a good word on are the A3 and the Allroad - the cheapest of which sell for 
half of my yearly income or more so they are just out of the question.

-Cody Forbes
http://www.5000tq.com
'87 5ktq - Fast.
'87 5ktq QLCC'd plus some
'86 5ktqCD (collecting dust)
'86 5k (parts)
'86 5k