Checklist for Reliability of Older Audis

[Marc Boucher]

Huw I respect your tremendous knowledge, and all the assistance that you 
give to everyone on this list.  But isn't there a list of generally known 
weak-points to the I5 / NF engine that are worth changing out?

Your argument, "A 20 year old transistor died.  It happens.", seems to offer 
full support to those that say, get a new car so you have something 
reliable.  My belief had always been that a well maintained 20 year old car 
can be as reliable as a new car, its just a question of adequate maintenance 
being done.  Major airlines still fly DC-10's or even older, alongside 
777's, and they achieve comparable reliability by doing more maintenance on 
the older members of the fleet.

For example, I'd often wondered if I should have replaced the ignition coil 
at the same time as I did the distributor cap, rotor, plugs, and wires.  And 
if I'd replaced the coil,  perhaps the transistor on the side of the coil 
might have been sold along with the coil.

If I recall correctly, you design a line of speakers.  One of my old set of 
Kef speakers is notorious for the capacitors drying out over time, and 
requiring replacement.  People often simply purchase the aftermarket 
crossover units which are designed with newer technology and 'supposedly' 
yield better frequency separation between the midrange and tweeter.  So, 
while it would be impractical to replace every electronic component in a 20 
yr old car, I was just thinking that there might be a hit-list of those that 
fail most frequently.


--------------------------------------------------
From: "Huw Powell" <audi at humanspeakers.com>
Sent: Monday, August 15, 2011 11:33 PM
To: "Marc Boucher" <mboucher70 at hotmail.com>
Cc: <quattro at audifans.com>
Subject: Re: Checklist for Reliability of Older Audis

>
>
> On 8/15/2011 9:09 PM, Marc Boucher wrote:
>> As we'd discussed, my Audi 100 just died with no warning last Friday.  I 
>> feared the worst in terms of repair bill but today I got a call that the 
>> part (ignition booster) is $61 and very little labor.  Let's assume that 
>> they got the diagnosis correct and this chapter will shortly be closed.
>>
>>
>>
>> I'd like to open a different subject: what could have been done to 
>> prevent this?
>
> Nothing.  A 20 year old transistor died.  It happens.
>