Re: Ur-Q weakpoints?

[steveb@falcon.kla-tencor.com (Steven Buchholz)]

> >   I know I wasn't going to be buying another Audi for a while now, but this
> >one struck my interest.  I am going to look at an '83 Ur-Quattro possibly
> this
> >weekend.  I just sold a 5000CSTQ which I owned for over 3 years so I know a
> >good bit about what to look for on these cars, but I was wondering if any of
> >you Ur-Quattro owners can shed some light on any problems or weakpoints that
> >I should definately look for or are applicable to the Ur-Q's alone.  Any
> help
> >is appreciated.
> >
> >    Phil Payne's idea of getting a compression test done before buying any
> car
> >of this age sounds like a pretty good idea as well.  Thanks for the tip.
> 
> 
> Let's see you got rid of the 5K because it's too expensive to maintain?.....
>  The UrQ is MUCH more expensive.
> 
... that is CERTAINLY not my experience ... and I've owned my urQ for ~10 
years.  I've still got the original steering rack, heater blower and just 
about everything.  Dan, I want to give you more detailed information when 
I get a chance, but IME the urQ is much more robust than the late model 
5k/200s because of the lack of bells and whistles.  There are two things 
that I would take into account.  Since I do my own work it doesn't cost 
much to maintain; if you don't plan on doing your own work Eric is right 
in a way, I wouldn't expect an older urQ to be that much cheaper to keep 
when you're paying someone else.  The second point is that I have owned 
and maintained my car fairly well since it was fairly new ... a car that 
has not been well cared for may be a problem.  The car was my daily driver 
for a few years after I bought it ... until I started commuting on a motor-
cycle.

Well, since I'm here let me give you a short list on things to look for:

 - listen for exhaust leaks when cold ... or other signs of a warped exh man
 - check for blue smoke on start up or other signs of turbo wear/abuse
 - test to make sure the "bomb" is working
 - check the outer CV boots
 - check as much of the elctricals as you can ... look at the fuse box to 
    see if it looks like it got hot.
 - try to get as much service history as you can ... look for the above

One other idea would be to check with Dave Lawson or Thompson Smith when 
you get the VIN for the car ... they might be able to provide more history 
info.

If you do decide to buy the car drop me a line ... I'll give you some more 
pointers ...

Steve Buchholz
San Jose, CA (USA)