[s-cars] Seeking advice on '94 S4 purchase

[chad clark]

Kevin, IMO and IME, do not have the pinion bearing replacement done. When my
'92 tranny started whining at exactly 75k mi, I opted to have the tranny R&R
with a new pinion bearing installed by a very reputable shop here in CO.
Noise was gone for almost 6 months only to return some 5k miles later. Lots
of debate on what exactly causes the bearings to fail.  Now very pissed off,
I just decided to buy a used, 50k mi 1995.5 S6 tranny with(hopefully) the
hardened and wide 1st gear. Anyway, 30k mi later, no noise, very quiet
operation from the tranny. As Jim pointed out, I drove the car for almost a
year with the bad pinion bearing and the noise and operation of the tranny
never got any worse. I'm fairly confident that one could potentially drive
for 2+ years with a bad pinion bearing while looking for a 6spd or later S6
5spd for replacement. It's more of an annoyance in terms of sound than
anything else but, as usual, YMMV! I now carry the bad bearing and bearing
race in my trunk to show others what causes all the noise, small pits in the
bearing/race. Maybe someone else has had success with the whole pinion
bearing replacement?

Just my experience. HTH,

Chad Clark


on 10/2/03 8:50 AM, Kevin Day at kday at ultrameta.org wrote:

> Thanks for the heads-up on the transmission.  Is this a manufacturing
> defect, or are the replacement pinion bearings the same as original?
> I.e. if it was fixed once, is it likely to need repair again?
>
> Can anyone recommend a good Audi mechanic in the Boston area?  I might
> want to have someone with a practiced eye check this car out.
>
> -Kevin
>
> On Wed, Oct 01, 2003 at 09:12:18PM -0700, Sean Douglas wrote:
>> Turbo failure is not that common (maybe some long time listers can add
>> to this), but I haven't heard or read this failure. A new turbo is ~$1k,
>> not a lot compared to other parts. The big ticket is the transmission
>> which can be know to fail, here is a write up from s-cars.org:
>>
>> 6. The drive line: A survey of the S-Car Registry has revealed that a
>> fair number of early S cars (1992-1994) exhibited transmission failure
>> brought on by worn pinion bearings. The number one symptom of this is a
>> car that makes a whining noise while rolling. The noise will be there at
>> any rpm and will change pitch with your speed. It will occur whether the
>> clutch is in or out. In my opinion, this is the one weak link in an
>> otherwise bulletproof car. If the car you're looking at does have noise
>> coming from the drive line, be aware that replacement runs between
>> $3,000 to $8,000 dollars depending upon who does the work! If the car
>> makes the noise it better be priced accordingly.  Don't be afraid to
>> walk away if you don't have a good independent mechanic who can handle
>> the transmission swap. With the transmission warnings aside, most cars
>> at this point have had the issue addressed.  I don't hear of many
>> tranmission failures any more aside from those that get 'well used' in
>> highly tuned cars.  ;-) If the driveline itself has a lot of slop or
>> play in it (forward/backward slack when on or off throttle) you may be
>> looking at worn engine or tranny mounts or bad CV joints on the drive
>> shaft. The center bearing on the drive shaft can also wear out over
>> time.
>>
>> As you mention, t-belt is crucial and ditto the water pump. You don't
>> want this to break on 20v motor and the repair can be very expensive.
>>
>> Good luck.
>>
>> Sean
>>
>> Sean Douglas
>> 1997 Audi S6 - MTM Stage 1+
>> 1990 Audi 90Q20V
>>
>>
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: s-car-list-admin at audifans.com
>>> [mailto:s-car-list-admin at audifans.com] On Behalf Of Kevin Day
>>> Sent: Wednesday, October 01, 2003 8:21 AM
>>> To: s-car-list at audifans.com
>>> Subject: [s-cars] Seeking advice on '94 S4 purchase
>>>
>>>
>>> Hello all,
>>>
>>> This list seems like a great resource.  Hope you don't mind a
>>> few questions from a prospective owner.
>>>
>>> I'm going to look at a '94 S4 this weekend.  I don't know
>>> much about the condition at this point, but it's got rather
>>> high mileage (~170K). Other than the usual (records, t-belt,
>>> etc.) is there anything specific that I should watch out for?
>>>
>>> I understand that the turbo has an auxillary cooler that runs
>>> after the car shuts down, which should be good for turbo
>>> life, but this might be my first turbo and I'm a little wary.
>>> If one had to be replaced, how traumatic would the price tag
>>> be?  (I see that Porsche has some applications for the same
>>> unit.  That's... not really all that encouraging :)  Any
>>> (other?) high-ticket repairs that I should look out for?
>>>
>>> Anyway, any advice, pointers, etc. would be appreciated.  Thanks.
>>>
>>> -Kevin
>>>
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