Maintenance, spares, and owners

[Bill Shaw]

I used Porsche as my example,  but there are V6 Chebby owner groups, 
Ford owner groups,  lots of others with a significant diy faction.  Yes 
I tore it down,  it's scattered all over the garage right now as I 
consider what to do.  I know the PO,  not the 'beat it' kind of family.  
Might have stretched the maintenance intervals though.

Bill

Grant Lenahan wrote:
> Are porsches more emotional cars, owned by enthusiasts, compared to 
> run of the mill, 6-cylinder Audi sedans?
>
> Uh, yea.  Is this a surprise?
>
> I'm very surprised your motor itself is worn out. I've had several go 
> 200-300k and STILL be fine (everything else gave up around them).  How 
> do you know, have you torn it down?
>
> Maybe they just beat it - no oil changes, run hard when cold. That'll 
> do in thebest of motors.
>
> Grant
> On Feb 3, 2008, at 11:01 AM, Bill Shaw wrote:
>
>> I've had ample time in the past month or so to ponder the current state
>> of contemporary Audi parts availability, maintenance requirements,  and
>> owner demographics,  and I've come up with a few observations.  I'd be
>> interested in hearing what others have to say on the subject who have
>> more than my limited exposure to the marque.  I'm specifically talking
>> about the the one I have,  the A6QA 30V,  and it's close relatives.  I
>> can't help but draw comparisons to the Porsche world,  even though my
>> experience there is mostly with the older models. Please don't take any
>> of this as a slur against Audi or Audi owners,  I'm just looking for
>> some insight and trying to provoke some discussion on the subject.
>>
>> First,  parts:
>> I would expect with the vast numbers of these cars produced that there
>> would be a huge pool of used parts to pick & choose from when needed,
>> but that is not at all what I've found.  The pickings have been slim and
>> the offerings of poor quality.  If I asked on Rennlist for pistons for
>> my 928 I'd come up with 1/2 dozen offerings.  When I needed pistons for
>> an early 4.5L Euro engine I even found a brand new set at a very
>> reasonable price.  Not so here in the Audi world.  I did have one very
>> generous offer (thank you Craig) but not the outflowing of support I've
>> experienced on the p-car list. That leads me into owners & maintenance.
>>
>> I think (again just mho) there is not the same level of DIY here as in
>> the p-car world.  At least not with the newer cars, there seems to be a
>> lot more diy in the older Audis.  Note that even though this A6QA is
>> almost 10 years old I'm still calling it 'newer'.   Is this due to the
>> type of people that buy Audis vs p-cars?  Is it due to the overly
>> complex maintenance retirements?  Maybe it's partly due to a
>> self-feeding thing where fewer people are doing the heavy mechanical
>> work so there's less technical support when needed, so fewer people dare
>> to take on the maintenance?  It seems that a much higher percentage of
>> the Audi population takes their cars to a mechanic to change a
>> thermostat than actually does the work themselves,  which again feeds
>> into the general lack of availability of used parts (talking trends
>> here,  not just t-stats).  The spares & service seems for the most part
>> to be staying in the dealer/professional network and little is trickling
>> down to the diy world.  Or am I completely wrong here?
>>
>> One other observation & theory I'd like to present is the current state
>> of my a6qa engine.  At 130k miles it is pretty much used up,  pistons
>> beat, cylinders scored,  bearings shot.  I'm told that these engines are
>> pretty much bullet proof,  which I would expect after seeing the stout
>> manner that the main bearings are fixed in the block.  But there's
>> mine,  dead at 130k.  My theory is that this car spent the vast majority
>> of its life idling,  never really getting revved,   and that has lead to
>> its coking & carboning,  which directly contributed to it's early
>> demise.  It was owned by a family of 4,  the mama driving the babies
>> around never pushed it,  the dad commuting 50 miles on the highway each
>> way to work doing 65 mph not revving past 2k for an hour each way every
>> day.  This is another one that until I got it was dealer maintained with
>> synthetic oil.   Could this long term gentle use have killed the engine
>> well before it's time?  Any other theories?
>>
>> I'm looking forward to your comments,
>>
>> Bill
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