[V8] C4 or C5?

[Roger M. Woodbury]

As I recall, you life above the rust belt line.  With that amount of
mileage, you want to look to see if the emergency brake is working.  If it
is, then the car is likely to have been well kept.  The emergency brake
system is a failure item anywhere that there is salt and anti-ice compounds
on the road, and any Audi over three years of age will likely not have a
working e-brake unless it has either been serviced or replaced.

 

In the service records you will also want to look for rear suspension and
front suspension bushing replacement.  Also check to see if the backup
lights work and the right outside rear view mirror operates (turns down)
when the car is placed in reverse.  The switch that controls this stuff is
conveniently located on top of the transmission underneath the car.  In this
clever position, it is easy for the switch to become contaminated by salt
water, sand, dust and Al Qaeda terrorists who hide in the winter slush.  The
replacement cost of the switch is almost $400, and it takes a couple of
hours to install if you are lucky.  (OK, OK!  I made up the part about Al
Qaeda terrorists.).

 

I wouldn't be a bit surprised if the service records.IF they are indeed
complete.will show replacement of one or two O2 sensors and possibly,
replacement of one or both catalytic converters.  If the O2 sensors were
sort of ignored for too long, which is not at all unlikely in a car with
that many miles and that age, it is possible that unburned fuel managed to
get into the converters and ultimately cause or at least encourage them to
fail.  

 

Also look through the service records for fuel injection and other hoses and
rubber gizzies that go under the hood. At 130,000 miles, most of not all of
the underhood rubber hoses are rotten at some place in their length.  This
is merely a normal wear item, but if you dig around under the plastic
shrouding, you will find all sorts of rubber lines that are either on their
last legs, or soon will be failing.  Together all these rubber gizzies cost
real money, and ultimately will cause the engine to run oddly.eventually
losing fuel mileage.  My guess is that most of this stuff is original in
either car that you are going to look at.

 

For what it  is worth:  give up the idea of putting a five speed into one of
these.  These cars were imported intending on having an automatic and the
automatic works well and is trouble free..at least ours has been.  My first
drive in one of these cars was in a 1997 A6 Avant at the dealer. That car
was a black/black car that the dealer had ordered and was a thing of beauty:
any Audi accessory that they could order was on that car and the sticker
price was enormous.  Remember that was the year before Audi dropped the
price on the A6, so the "Black Mariah" as I called the car, sat on the
dealer's lot for a year and a half with no takers.  The car was wonderful,
quiet, smooth, and NEW.  It was also doggie:  2.8 litres in the heavy C4
doesn't yield neck snapping performance.  I had a 5000CS Turbo Avant that
was a rocket ship by comparison.

 

I passed on the "Black Mariah" because it was a stone, but when I shopped
for my wife's daily driver, I knew exactly what I wanted, and ended up with
the 100CS because it was a stone.  My wife is singularly unimpressed by
performance, and although she loves my V8, her 100CS is the perfect car for
her day in and out.

Now, with 150,000 miles on our car, I can cheerfully announce that the car
has pretty good performance.  I am continually surprised at how the car
freely revs to redline, and although I agree that the car would be MUCH more
responsive and pleasurable to drive with two more cylinders and perhaps
sixty more horsepower, the car moves out just fine, gets exactly the same
fuel mileage that it got at forty thousand miles and consumes the same
amount of oil that it consumed at that time:  about a quart every 900 miles.
My two cents is that if you feel the need to row gears and race small block
Chevys at traffic lights, buy an S6 and restore it, but that 2.8 litre V6 in
the C4/5 is NEVER going to reward anyone trying to use a clutch and row the
cogs simply because of the way the engine is designed, where the torque band
is, and the sheer weight of the car.  

 

Roger

 

-----Original Message-----
From: NIck Miller [mailto:chance9121 at gmail.com] 
Sent: Sunday, October 24, 2010 10:26 PM
To: Roger M. Woodbury
Cc: V8 at audifans.com
Subject: Re: C4 or C5?

 

What sort of Common items are there, by the way?  I am not too familiar with
them but it'll be good to know what to look for when I am there reviewing
records.

He said he just had the intake manifold valley gasket done, which I know is
common, but I'm sure there is a few more.  I know the 12vs aren't the
greatest, but pretty rock solid otherwise.

I would 100% be in an S6 right now, if I could find one that people didn't
want 9000 for a mediocre example, and there were more than 3 available...
ha.

Thanks, roger.  Mine will probably get a 5spd too.  The 3rd row seat is
nice, too.

On Sun, Oct 24, 2010 at 9:37 AM, Roger M. Woodbury
<rmwoodbury at roadrunner.com> wrote:

Without question, buy the C4.

 

I may have the oldest C4 on this list.  Or I may just be the oldest C4 owner
on this list.

 

Whatever the case, our C4 is a 1994 that now has passed 157,000 miles.  We
bought it in 2001 with 39,000 miles from the original selling dealer, and in
the past nine years have spent the money necessary to keep it in as near new
condition mechanically as possible.  What does this mean?  Well, including
tires, around $2000 per year in general maintenance, and the car is now
mechanically good to go for the next year or two with very little mechanical
items about which I am concerned.

 

The newer car with its more expensive and sophisticated 30 valve
engine/electronics/transmission will likely prove to be more expensive to
maintain.  

 

I don't think there is much other difference in the two models.  

 

In the end, if the maintenance records for the past nine years are complete
and show that the car has had the things that it needs and the newer car
does NOT, then there is no question.  

 

To my experience, on these cars regular maintenance is everything,
especially in areas where there are harsh driving conditions to consider.

 

Our car gets new tires next week, and once they are on, I will write about
them.  You all will be amazed after I posed the question to the list a while
back.  Once our C4 is properly shod with decent tires, we'll be good to go,
and for another 30,000 miles most likely.

 

Roger

 

P.S.  I recommend the Depo e-code headlight replacement on this car, too.  I
changed the headlights in the C4 not long after we got the car, and the
Depo, sometimes maligned H4 headlamps have been a perfect upgrade for the
standard DOT headlamps on this car (which weren't all that terrible,
either).

 

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