I recently bought a '98 A4 1.8TQ with 103k miles on it, black on black, sport package, 5 spd. one owner car. With the help of Audi Forums, I knew what to watch for in buying the car, what the weak points would be and what to negotiate for. Got a great deal for $6500, it had service records and it was taken care of, just not quite the way the enthusiasts here know how to do it.

After many searches here and reading many, many posts I was able to fix the following: new control arms, tie rods and various suspension parts on the front end, new wheel bearings, new DV valve, new vacuum lines, new PCV valve and check valves, threw away K&N air filter and re-connected turbo inlet air hose (!!!), cleaned MAF sensor, changed oil and filter, changed tranny fluid and rear diff fluid, went +1 on wheels and tires to 225/45/17s, upgraded chip (from bro-in-law, complete ECU), installed boost gauge, fixed airbag light, fixed CEL (have VAG-com) and a few other things I may be forgetting now.

All these things would've been highly improbable for me to do, had I not come here for answers and the many posts I found really helped. Thanks to all that put time and effort into the Stickies, such good reading there and it really helped bringing my new-to-me A4 up to speed. It's quite a different beast now, especially in the 60-90 mph range, pulls like a freight train. I haven't had to post until now, with all the info available already, but I had to say thanks to those of you who did the hard work before me and documented it for the rest of us.

 

well i must say that u with 15 posts and did all that work, i want to thank you for using the search as much as u did.

 

Sweet! Congrats on the buy.

 

Thats quite alot of work. Good job, and i hope you make that audi into a nice road eating machine.

 

Thanks guys, i knew i forgot something: motor mounts! replaced both engine mounts and the soft snub mount. I believe the NERF football comment applies aptly. Went with the APR blue snub mount from ECS, which was a lot more shaky at first, till it settled in and it's great now. Next things will be brake lines, trans mounts and more reading here! I need to post pics as well, will do that as soon as I figure this forum out. Each one is different, i'm on the tdiclub.com site a lot. And thanks for the warm welcome.

 

damn. u did quite a bit of searching. good to know there are still intelligent noobs out there. and congrats on the new purchase

 

Congrats, post some pics.

 

this is a thing of beauty. i think this is worthy of posting in the new member section so they can see how searching can really profit them. congrats on the car and kudos for the hard work. and, adding my thanks, everytime but twice anything went wrong on my car, i was expecting it from reading here re:what i was doing, how it changes the cars dynamics, and what's most likely to go from the change.

 

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congrats on da new ride man!

 

congrats on da new ride man!