Re: 96 A4 Bugs?!

[Eliot Lim <eliot@u.washington.edu>]

[minor bugs deleted]

heh heh.  that's nothing compared to a a4 that i saw with a blown engine.
4000 miles; timing belt idler siezed, leading to pistons banging valves.

also saw a 90Q a while back with a siezed oil pump leading to similar
results as the a4.

the word among the mechanics is that the v6 is buggy.  lots of them
come in for leaky oil seals and such.  the 5 banger OTOH is simply
bullet proof, turbo or not.

i also heard that production of the new 30 valve v6 was temporarily
halted because of problems.  this info comes from a dealer in finland.
i don't know if this is considered ordinary or not.  brand new engines
take their time coming across the atlantic anyway, so this info may
be quite irrelevant.

i am not reporting any of this info with glee.  i was looking forward
to getting a hot a4 but it looks like i've have to hang on to the
v8 for a couple more years until they sort out the bugs.  i'm
surprised to hear that a 4 year old engine (for the US) is still
not fully debugged.  the v8, together with the I5 still gets
the thumbs up from the mechanics.


eliot