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

[Fred Munro]

The pinion bearing problem was apparently caused by the assembly robot at
the Getrag factory applying the wrong torque to the bearing preload. The
Porsche 968 uses the same transaxle as the UrS4 (minus the tailstock of
course) and now that they are failing the owners are whining louder than the
failed pinion bearings. Apparently the Porsche name is supposed to ward off
mechanical failures or something - but perhaps I misread the posts on the
Porsche 968 list!

Based on previous posts on this subject, if your pinion bearing fails I
wouldn't bother getting it fixed - replace the tranny with a later model.
Not many of the '94s had tranny problems, it was mostly '92 and some early
'93 cars that had the issue.

HTH

Fred Munro
'94 S4


-----Original Message-----
From: s-car-list-admin at audifans.com
[mailto:s-car-list-admin at audifans.com]On Behalf Of Sean Douglas
Sent: October 2, 2003 12:09 PM
To: 'Kevin Day'
Cc: s-car-list at audifans.com
Subject: RE: [s-cars] Seeking advice on '94 S4 purchase


Good question on the transmission, maybe another lister can shed some
light on the pinion bearing problems.

There are a couple of listers in the Boston area that could probably
point you to a good mechanic. Ray T, are you there?

Sean




> -----Original Message-----
> From: Kevin Day [mailto:kday at ultrameta.org]
> Sent: Thursday, October 02, 2003 8:50 AM
> To: Sean Douglas
> Cc: s-car-list at audifans.com
> Subject: Re: [s-cars] Seeking advice on '94 S4 purchase
>
>
> 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
> > >
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > S-CAR-List mailing list
> > > S-CAR-List at audifans.com
> > > http://www.audifans.com/mailman/listinfo/s-> car-list
> > >
>

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