Re: More V8 Info

[Brett Dikeman <brett@pdikeman.ne.mediaone.net>]

>I just remembered two items o description I should have included
>about the V8 for sale in Fort Collins, CO:
>
>1)  The ODO reads 52K miles; the seller does not know if this is
>correct or not.  Judging from the overall wear on paint and evidence
>of handling, the car has more miles than this.  I expect the
>instrument cluster was replaced and the seller did not notify the
>dealer of the discrepancy.

>2)  As evidence of the above, the grey leather on the steering wheel
>(which has a cheapo cover over it) is fairly worn; it shows a good
>deal of handling and much of the grey dye is worn off.
Yikes.  Sounds like the car got a lot of usage; perhaps maybe the previous
driver used either makeup or a hair conditioner/dye(just for men? :) or
something that caused damage to the leather on the wheel...or maybe they
just had really sweaty palms(hell, mine were after the Bear Notch run!)

>My guess is that the V8 in question has 80K+ miles on it, at the
>very least.
Well, there is one very easy way to tell.  If anyone's interested, they
should get the service records from the dealer; Audi has records of any
maintenance performed on the car that Audi HAD TO PAY FOR.  Warantee
repairs/servicing and recalls fall under that category; the alternator
dying at 80k is not going to show up.

$20 says the car has had its 60k servicing.

I would be willing to bet further that the car has at least 150k on it.

I've always wondered why the first thing to get implemented into an ECU
wasn't an hourmeter of some sort.  Every airplane on the face of the earth
has one, and they simplify maintenance; at every X number of hours, you do
maintenance item Y.  Think about it; if you average 30mph during your daily
commute/driving, as opposed to 60mph for someone who does mostly highway
travelling(like the previous owner of my car), then the hours on the
highway car's engine are _half_ that of the commuter if they drove the same
5k miles(let's say the owners are changing oil every 5k.)  Commuter driver
should be changing his oil every 2.5k, or the highway driver every 10k, go
figure...

Even better yet, a "turn" meter that counts the number of times(prolly in
thousands or some high multiple) the engine has turned over; that would
probably be the best way to track+manage engine maintenance.

Maybe this is an actual use <gasp> for that excess baggage we call a trip
computer?  My passengers love the 30-minute updates on how many gallons of
gas we've consumed, or how many miles the car _thinks_ we can go(which is
sometimes _very_ amusing)   :)

Brett

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Brett Dikeman
brett@pdikeman.ne.mediaone.net
~)-|
Hostes alienigeni me abduxerunt.  Qui annus est?
Te audire non possum.  Musa sapientum fixa est in aure.
Ita, scio hunc 'sig file' veterem fieri.
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