A4 help!!!
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1st Gear
Joined: Oct 2007
Posts: 7
A4 help!!!
Hey guys,
I'm planning on buying a 1998 A4. Any tips on what I should watch and look for? Any common problems I should be aware of? I checked one out already, and I might have heard a clunking coming from the front suspension, ball joint possibly?
Any advice would be great guys, thanks alot!
I'm planning on buying a 1998 A4. Any tips on what I should watch and look for? Any common problems I should be aware of? I checked one out already, and I might have heard a clunking coming from the front suspension, ball joint possibly?
Any advice would be great guys, thanks alot!
4th Gear
Joined: Nov 2005
Posts: 3,393
From: Columbus Ohio
RE: A4 help!!!
From the stickies at the top: https://www.audiforums.com/m_393146/tm.htm
Common Problems
Common problems on A4's are timing belt, control arms, tie rod ends, oil sludge, and sunroof.. The timing belt tenioners in 97-99 models were a bad design. If you have a pre-2000, its better to do it sooner (60-70k miles) if it's never been done because of the crappy tensioner. Post-2000- If the timing belt snaps you are pretty much f*cked. It will most likely push the pistons up and bend the valves and other nasty stuff due to being an interference engine type, unless you are lucky and didn't get internal damage. The former will require an engine rebuild. While having your timing belt changed, you also might as well change the water pump and a other belts. The best way is to buy a kit from renn-art, pure motorsports, or ecs tuning (our sponsors found in the Audi links.) If you do it yourself it will run you roughly $300, or, you can get a local tuner to do it. A good price is around $600- $700, and if you take it to the stealership, it typcialy runs between $1,000 and $1,500!! Oil sludge is more of a problem for the 1.8T than the 2.8. Just make sure to use fully synthetic oil, and use the larger OEM updated oil filter (for the 1.8t.) Change it every 3-5k miles and you won't ever have to worry about this. For B5 models, the bushings and overall design are just no durable enough to go longer than 80k miles (sometimes less.) For the tie rods- it's just a bad design by Audi that tends to fail within 80k miles (for B5's) The sunroof can be troublesome in most A4's. It is usually one of two things. You either need to clean the contacts (DIY-http://www.audiworld.com/tech/elec.html) or you need a new relay switch.
Common Problems
Common problems on A4's are timing belt, control arms, tie rod ends, oil sludge, and sunroof.. The timing belt tenioners in 97-99 models were a bad design. If you have a pre-2000, its better to do it sooner (60-70k miles) if it's never been done because of the crappy tensioner. Post-2000- If the timing belt snaps you are pretty much f*cked. It will most likely push the pistons up and bend the valves and other nasty stuff due to being an interference engine type, unless you are lucky and didn't get internal damage. The former will require an engine rebuild. While having your timing belt changed, you also might as well change the water pump and a other belts. The best way is to buy a kit from renn-art, pure motorsports, or ecs tuning (our sponsors found in the Audi links.) If you do it yourself it will run you roughly $300, or, you can get a local tuner to do it. A good price is around $600- $700, and if you take it to the stealership, it typcialy runs between $1,000 and $1,500!! Oil sludge is more of a problem for the 1.8T than the 2.8. Just make sure to use fully synthetic oil, and use the larger OEM updated oil filter (for the 1.8t.) Change it every 3-5k miles and you won't ever have to worry about this. For B5 models, the bushings and overall design are just no durable enough to go longer than 80k miles (sometimes less.) For the tie rods- it's just a bad design by Audi that tends to fail within 80k miles (for B5's) The sunroof can be troublesome in most A4's. It is usually one of two things. You either need to clean the contacts (DIY-http://www.audiworld.com/tech/elec.html) or you need a new relay switch.