Re: What to look out for when buying 88 80Q...?

[Andrei Kogan <abk@phy.duke.edu>]

At 10:12 PM 8/26/98 -0700, you wrote:
>I am going to look at a 1988 80 Quattro for
>my sister this weekend.  My question is...is
>there anything special about this year or this
>model to be on the lookout for.  Sounds like
>it might need brakes soon.  Apparently it is
>Lago Blue or something like that, has 81K miles,
>Quattro, cloth seats, ski bag, and radio.
>An Audi dealer told me that the 80Q got the
>5 cylinder engines rather than the 4 cylinder
>ones...and I understand that this is good
>news.  The person is asking $5700, and states
>the kelley blue book in the low $6K range.
>Sound decent, if everything is ok?  Pls
>advise. TIA
>
>Steve Sherwood
>97 A4 2.8Q

I just bought a 1988 90q a month ago. 160,000 miles. I paid $3,500 and
would probably have to spend about $1,000 to bring the car into shape. The
only major item the car needs are shocks. Apparently, no major mechanical
work was done on the car before I bought. The next week I had it, the
clutch master cylinder died. Otherewise, OK so far...

I would check:
expensive items:

clutch ( because of the quattro system, replacement is more expensive than
on regular fwd cars ($800 --- 1000 for a q)

steering rack / brakes hydraulics --- if you see traces  of hydraulic fluid
leaks, repairs can be costly. This is usually a problem on 5000/100/200
while  80/90 hydraulics is supposed to be much better

regular stuff:
1. Drivetrain:

When test driving, pay attention to the back of the car, make sure the rear
differential is not noisy.

Check if the rear differential locks and unlocks properly, a faulty switch
has been reported to cause random locking


Does this car have ABS brakes? If so, make sure it works ( at speed, slam
on the brakes hard and hear the ABS chatter. make sure the owner isn't
around to see you testing it :-)

Struts: Does the car "duck" under hard braking, or does it roll to a side
when going through a turn? If so, shocks may need to be replaced (although
I wouldn't expect that at 80,000 miles). You can also test it by pushing
firmly down on all 4 corners of the car and observing how it bounces back.
The car should just rise back up without much overshooting if the shocks
are good.

CV boots on all 4 driveshafts --- if torn, drive shafts could be damaged.
If not, cv boot replacement job is $100-150 a piece, if you have a shop do
that

2. Engine:

Ask if they did the timing belt, and get the records of that (otherwise
$200 and you want that done as soon as possible because the 5cyl, unlike
the 4cyl 1.8 may destroy the valves if the TB breakes when running)

open the coolant expansion bottle and make sure there is no engine oil
floating in there, otherwise the head gasket is bad ($400)

check how stable the idle is on the car (cold, warm, hot, right after an
extended  hard driving)

3. Interior:

Make sure all windows roll up and down *reproducibly* as well as the sunroof

run A/C for half an hour. Watch for water leaks into the passenger
compartment ( a typical problem). If there aren't any, look under the car
from the outside and make sure that the A/C condensation finds its way out
, there should be dripping right next to the firewall in the middle of the
car.

4. prices: check kelly blue book online

http://www.kbb.com/ 
(whether those mean anything, is a big ?). In my case, they were $3,100
trade-in in good condition and $6,300 for a fully reconditioned car sold by
a dealer. Your price appears to be a bit high, however, if the car is in an
ideal shape it could be worth it. People tell me that you can expect it to
last over 300,000 miles with proper care.

Hope that helps.

Andrei