[V8] The Faster Rats have landed

[Roger M. Woodbury]

Well, intellectually, I have known this day was likely to come. But I am 
disappointed that I may be at the end of the V8 era, that the car simply 
is becoming too difficult and expensive to maintain as a reliable daily 
driver.  I really LIKE the car:  it 'fits' me, does 99% of what we 
really need a car to do for us day in and out, is paid for long ago and 
is very reliable....but for this latest issue with the transmission.

Yesterday afternoon I found out the status of the 4HP24A transmission in 
the world wide market. It isn't good.  The ZF 4HP 24A transmission was 
very widely used right through the end of the 20th century, BUT only 
Audi Quattro (including early A8 Quattro) used the "A" transmission. The 
"A" is the indicator that the transmission was 4 wheel drive variant.  
Now very few rebuilders or remanufacturers will touch the ZF 4HP24A 
tranmssion. To my surprise, not even Jasper (the largest rebuilder in 
the US, I'm told) will reman or rebuild it.

Now on the west coast there are a couple of companies that do 
rebuild/reman the transmission.  One, in Portland, Oregon will 
remanufacture MY transmission for around $2800 INcluding shipping both 
ways.  That's about the best I've found.  So, once the transmission is 
out, remaned, returned and installed, I'll blow past four grand with no 
difficulty at least.  I can easily see $6 grand invested in the car 
RIGHT NOW, and that $6 grand is for a car that I paid $6500 for in 2008 
and have put 40,000 miles on or so.  But the larger issue is that sooner 
rather than later a lot of "little" bits and pieces necessary for the 
car to run properly will become more and more difficult to find, and 
thus more and more expensive to locate and install. This is not a hobby 
of mine and I will not be doing the work in my garage for the fun of it.

Unhappily the V8 Quattro may no longer be viable.  For Six grand plus a 
bit more, the door is wide open for aquisition of a whole lot of other, 
much newer and less "iconic" (how I HATE that overused word!) automobiles.

So, in the interim, I'm doing nothing but more thinking and searching. 
This is the WORST possible time for me to do a real search for a car.  
We're knee deep in new house planning and I am having some minor hernia 
surgery soon....early March at latest.  So for the interim, I will 
re-register the 100CS Avant and that will become the "driver". The V8 
I'll continue to drive until the transmission either grenades or I lose 
first gear entirely, whereupon the car will be removed from service and 
I'll make a REAL decision about how to dispose or otherwise deal with it.

And while that is going on I'll start an easy search for a one car 
replacement for both.  I just missed a '96 A6 Avant Quattro in 
Florida....that could have been the perfect replacement because it was a 
one owner car with 30,000 miles from new.  But it was ALL the money 
plus, but still a perfect car for our needs.

The other candidates:  No more than two owners, but full documentation 
is necessary:  less than 100,000 miles.
Audi A6 Avant; Audi S6 Avant (pipe dream, I think); Audi allroad (yeah, 
yeah, I know what I've said, but my mechanic says to have no fear for 
the 'right' car); Mercedes E 320 4-matic (2000-2003:  a lot of these 
cars are out there that fit the requirment and they are really cheap.); 
Mercedes E 350 4-Matic( 2003-2007)  same, same as the 320; Mercedes 
E-500 4-Matic (up to 2005) ( I LOVE the idea of an E500 because of the 
eight German cylinders, but they are more complex and expensive than the 
6-cylinder cars). Finally, I have a certain fascination with the 
2006-2008 Mercedes R-class. There are a LOT of these cars not well loved 
in the market and I think arguably are the best bang for the buck. Price 
is right and my wife actually likes the idea of one of these huge things.

Other than that list, I have no other ideas.  This is the correct price 
range for me to be wandering around in as I know the "value" is there 
somewhere and I have no need and less interest in anything newer because 
all they were is more "electronically" connected, and I know full well 
that means more and more expensive "electronic" failures as the car 
accumulates time and miles.  Even the Audi S6 is  suspect as is the 
allroad for all the usual reasons....chain guides, chains, turbo 
chargers and controlers mounted in impossible locations, etc, etc, etc.

 From my observation here in rural Maine, all other cars need not apply 
as they all are totally rusted in some way by the time they are four 
years old.  It is shocking to see 2010 Chevrolet Yukons that have rear 
bumpers and lower fenders already rusty with 75,000 miles.  I can only 
imagine what the frames look like.  Nope, and don't even start me on 
Toyotas that rust as they are driven off the truck that brings them to 
the dealer when they are new.

Anyway, we'll see, and so long as the 100 CS thunders along, I can be 
very patient.

I interest in your car with the reman transmission, but I think once I 
buy it, haul it, pull the tranny and have it reinstalled, I'm out the 
envelope of sanity.  If I was twenty year younger it'd be different.

Roger


On 2/2/2017 1:46 AM, cobram at juno.com wrote:
> I've got a V8Q with a rebuilt tranny which has less than 3k miles on the
> tranny after rebuild.  Parked it a few years ago because engine was
> smoking, was running fine.  UFO's too.
> Dropped close to 2 g's on parts for the tranny rebuild at the time.
>
> Got two others too, one with 90k engine and dead tranny.
>
> Sold another spare V8Q that followed me home to a guy who only wanted the
> diffs for some desert racer thing he was building.
>
> If you want to go the swap route, lemme know.
>
> Going to give Semple a call soon, I need the garage space.
>
> BCNU,
> Experience is the name everyone gives to their mistakes.
>
> On Wed, 1 Feb 2017 13:05:09 -0500 "Roger M. Woodbury"
> <rmwoodbury at fairpoint.net> writes:
>
> snip
>
>> The stutter is a failing first gear clutch pack.  Worse still the
>> transmission oil and the engine oil cooler lines are corroding badly
>> and
>> will need to be replaced sooner rather than later.  The wrench is
>> concerned that the transmission may without much announcement,
>> simply
>> grenade.  In addition it is close to new rotor time on all four
>> which
>> will blow a hole in a grand if I am lucky.
>>
>
>