umm yeah so ive posted and thought i was going to definitely buy this 1997 audi a4 1.8t quattro. it has 128k. i was under the impression that it was using synthetic oil, b/c thats basiclaly what the owner told me. he said he changed it from 3k-7.5k miles. now that would be okay if he was actually using synthetic, but i just talked to him, and he says he just goes to jiffy lube and gets the standard oil change. now i drove the car twice, and it ran beautifully....but now im starting to think that there just might be a problem, or if there isnt, there willb e one soon. im going to take it to the audi dealer and get it checked..b/c the mechanic i brought it to was *****...ne way, what do you all think? once again, they are selling it for $2000...but it hasnt had timing belt/water pump replaced. just what kinds of problems could there be under the hood?

 

For 2K you can't go to far wrong. Have a mechanic check it out and have him check the oil pressure. You are looking at about 750 dollars inc labor for the timing belt, etc.

Other usual problems are front suspension.

 

$2k? If you don't buy it, give me that guys number.

Yes you could run into problems. For now plan on $1k for your timing belt/ water pump job even though you can hopefully get it for less as long as you don't take it to the dealer.

As for the oil, first of all try checking for oil sludge. Easy way to check is to open the oil cap on the engine where you would fill the oil. Look under the cap and down into the engine and see if there is any sludgyness.

Even if you don't see sludge under the cap, one of your biggest concerns will be buildup in your oil pickup or in the lines that run to your turbo. If there is buildup in these, parts of the engine or turbo get starved for oil. A starved turbo leads to a blown turbo.

If I were you, I would buy it (assuming the rest of the car checks out). Go get the timing belt changed at a private shop. Then I would try to clean out the inside of the engine as much as I could. There are several ways to do this and you should do some searching on the forum about it to find all of your options. Here are a few:


Seafoam. I hear different things about this. It will probably help some, but isn't going to clean it all up.

I saw a post about an oil flush system. You take your car to a place that has one and it basically works like a blood transfusion device. It will pull the oil out and push new oil in, cleaning it as it runs. This may help get some of that gunk out. Don't really know how well it works, but I would probably look into it and try it before the Seafoam. I think cost was under $100.

After you clean up the inside of the engine as much as you can, start running Mobil 1 or equivalent synthetic oil.


If you are paraniod, you could also change out some of the oil lines to your turbo just to be safe.




If you buy it for $2k, I bet you will put out about $3.5k - 4k total to get the car right. Still a good deal.

 

Yes, for 2k, its probably worth it even if they PO didn't take great care of it.

Do what he said ^^^^^^^^^^^^and you've got yourself a good deal. Especially if you drove it and it runs beautifully as you said.