[V8] Report from the front...

[Roger Woodbury]

Yes, probably. The inspection will determine a lot of things, and the
condition of the belt is upper most in my mind.  I also am concerned that
the timing belt might have been changed and the rest of the stuff
ignored...could've happened, although my initial impression is that the car
was pretty well taken care of throughout its ownership.  We'll see.

The car does have UFO's and they are straight and true.  I am actually
pleased with that because I learned with The Black Mariah that UFO's provide
a LOT of stopping power, and are much more powerful than were the puny discs
on my '93.  Now, if we can only find that the ABS is a simple sensor
alignment issue....figure the odds.  The "Antiloc" button is illuminated all
the time, which makes me wonder if this is an electrical problem.  The
seller told me that the ABS fuse was blown, and when he replaced it, nothing
happened.  

The seat heaters are not working.  All of them.  

The rear window defroster is inop...one of the benefits of exploring the car
for the first time in 40 degree, rainy weather here yesterday.  

And of course, the cruise control is inop, and I wonder if that might be
electrical only, also.  

Elsewhere, all the lights work inside and out, as well as the a/c.

The Bose speakers were rebuilt by the seller, but I note a faint high whine
somewhere in the right side of the instrument cluster...or at least on the
right side of the car, which I suspect is an amplifier.  I won't break my
heart to rip out the Bose system and replace it with a single cd player if I
can find one that doesn't look like a juke box in a cheap New Orleans whore
house.

The tires are fairly recent Michelin Pilots with about 50% or more tread
left...I haven't measured.  

Between late 2001 and today, the car has traveled a splendid 2500 miles.
Makes me wonder if there might have been a death in the family somewhere.  

The story is that this car and one other from the same household was traded
at a Toyota store...I think it was.  I probably won't be able to track back
to that, and to the previous owner, although it would be interesting to do
so.  For now, I'll content myself to calling the dealer who serviced the car
in 2001.  

Now, where did I see those Euro headlamps advertised.....

Roger

-----Original Message-----
From: Kent McLean [mailto:kentmclean at comcast.net] 
Sent: Saturday, May 03, 2008 9:30 PM
To: 'V8 Audi Fans'
Cc: rmwoodbury at roadrunner.com
Subject: Re: [V8] Report from the front...

Roger Woodbury wrote:
> So the question is, did the authorized dealer do the timing belt at 60,000
> miles?  That was in 2001 (!).  Monday, they get a call:  who knows: they
> might have records.

Even if they did a t-belt in 2001, I believe the schedule is not just
mileage based but also time based -- 5 years IIRC.  2008-2001 = it's
time for a new timing belt.

Good find. I hope it gives you years of enjoyment.

-- 
Kent McLean
'99 A4 Avant, w/ quattro, V6, Tiptronic, :)
'91 200 TQA #1, backup car
gone but not forgotten:
'94 100 S Avant, "Moody", now with new owner
'91 200 TQA #2, up in smoke 2
'89 200 TQ, "Bad Puppy", up in smoke
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