Im really happy. After owning an american car and 2 japanese cars (A 95 chevy caprice 5.7L and 2 96/98 Honda Civic) I am finally glad to own my first german car, and I love it.

A friend of mine recently traded my 98 civic for his 96 Audi A4 (2.8L) and left me with a few issues to tackle.

Issue #1: The Tachometer and Speedometer dont always work, he recommends me to put in a new Cluster, any advice?

Issue#2: The Control Arms need to be changed and the car is making a lot of noise from the suspension.

Issue#3: There is oil leaking and the first mechanic I went to today told me it wasnt from the oil pan but from the timing belt seal, hes trying to charge me $300 for labor. Im not sure if I should trust him at all because Im not sure that everyone knows how to work on these cars, because from personal DIY experiances, my A4 looks much more complex and harder to work with than any of my past cars, so Id like to find someone that knows what they are doing and charges reasonable prices.

Issue#4: Im not sure what else I should look into, my friend claims he changed the timing belt and did a regular tune up but Im thinking that theres more that I should look into.

Issue#5: The car doesnt idle smooth but the engine appears to run smooth. The tachometer bounces up and down a bit and i feel some shaking coming from the motor.

Any advice or links to useful resources is appreciated, I looked over the faq and didnt find much other than the control arms that related to my issues..

 

And you call this guy a friend? Why did you trade your Civic for his car? Did you get this inspection done before you agreed to the trade?

 

well i think i can help with issue #2. i just had to replace my control arms. now normally i wouldnt suggest getting too many things from ebay but since conrtol arms are pretty simple id say just do a search for them on there. i got a 6 piece kit that had all 4 upper control arms and 2 tie rod ends for around $135.. not too bad considering the dealers cost. then just find an import place near you that can do it or if you have the right tools you can do it yourself but you should have a front end alignment done when you finish putting the control arms in

 

I hopethat honda was falling apart too....

Anyways, I'd love to tell you to run away from that car, but it sounds like it's too late. I hate to be the bearer of bad news.... everything Audi is overly expensive and for no reason other than it has the Audi name on it. The car is way over engineered and mechanically far more complex than a car of this stature ever needed to be. Audi did some really stupid things just to make the car harder to work on then a normal every day car would be. Mechanics know this and bump their prices up to compensate and they figure if you have an Audi you must be rich and can afford to over pay. It doesn't matter that your car is over ten years old.

Instrument cluster could be just a connection problem or it could be something major. Replacing the cluster might take care of the problem either way.

Control arms are not really that big of a deal unless your bolts are really rusty (like mine were). I spent several hours (over a few days) just getting all of them apart... and I was just doing the wheel bearings. Control arms come next spring for me.

As for the oil leak, start buying gaskest and once you have the complete set start at the top and replace them one by one until the oil stops leaking. Valve/Cam cover gasket shouldn't really be that hard to do, start to finish maybe a couple hours. Again, labor and parts are overly expensive and this mechanic probably just didn't want to work on the car. He'd rather scare you away than say he couldn't do something... mechanics don't (won't) admit they can't do something.

Get reciepts of the timing belt change. This is not an issue to take lightly. I'm not as familiar with the 2.8L, but I think it still may be an interference motor. That means if it breaks you're going to have to have the top end of the motor rebuilt. Start saving money now to have it done again.

My car gets tempermental sometimes and idles funny. Usually a "bouncing" idle is caused by a vacume leak. Spraying some starter fluid around the vacume lines can sometimes help find a leak. The idle will jump up when you find a leak. You may want to find someone in your area with a VAG-COM and check for codes. I'm told that there may be codes stored with out there being a CEL on.

Good luck, hope you have patients.

 

Seriously, your A4 isn't hard to work on. I've had some insanely hard cars... with a little extra effort your A4 is cake.

Issue 1) - buy a cluster from me
Issue 2) - Control arms? Well you might as well put new suspension on too while you're are it. Expect $1200+ for parts alone!
Issue 3) Take a look behind the timing belt cover and see if he's right! You should be able to tell instantly if you have a leak there. If the leak isn't bad I wouldn't mess with it.
Issue 4) Do you have receipts for the work? If not I wouldn't believe him! Receipts tell the whole story!
Issue 5) Clean the Idle control valve and you should be good. It's black and connected near the throttle body - just to the left.