Just bought a 03 A4 3.0 6speed, couple questions. New to audis
 

Whats up guys, I love cars and work on them whenever I can i've had an rx-7 and a jeep and checked out some lexuses and other luxury cars and came across some audi's and heard bad things about them..... I never even considered buying an audi

Well, I ended up buying one.

2003 a4 3.0 v6 quattro, 6 speed.....with 171k miles. High. very high I know but after driving it i fell in love. 1 owner car all highway miles. Clean title no accidents. Paid 4200 for it

Only problems I can see so far are
1. The windshield has a crack in it and i'll have to get it replaced
2. The middle screen on the dashboard it acting funny and the top of it was flickering which got me nervous. Can i just swap this out or resolder it or how does it work on these cars?
3. What sounds to me like a lifter tick on the passenger side of the engine. After a little research though i found out these engines dont have lifters, so what could it be? Something called a hydraulic tappet?

Are these cars as bad as everyone says? Me and my friends all work on cars and have rebuilt engines before so thats why i decided to buy it and fix it myself. Bad idea? What should be changed on a car at this mileage? I was thinking while i was rebuilding the head i did the timing belt and whatnot.

I drove it around 2-3 miles trying to get a CEL to popup or something and couldn't get anything

Heres some pics

http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m4...jxtno1_500.png

http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m4...jxtno1_500.png

http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m4...jxtno1_500.png

http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m4...jxtno1_500.png

http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m4...jxtno1_500.png

http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m4...jxtno1_500.png

After reading a bunch of threads I feel like I've made one of the worst deductions in my life. Can someone please chime in and help out?

Common problems with the 3.0:
Catalytic converters fail at a high rate
The cam lObes fail. A ticking sound is emitted that gets louder and faster as the revs go up.
The control arms wear out

The 6 speed: if this is the same 6 speed used in the a6 common problems is 1st and 2nd collars.

Syncros. Usually the 6 speed is bullet proof and problems are quite rare but do happen.

At your miles I'd change the fluids all of them. Coolant, brke fluid, power steering, tranny oil.

Do the timing belt and change the water pump, thermostat, rollers, all timing belt assessories.

Also the point of a forums is to notify problems. You read bad stuff because that's when owners come for help. No one posts here to say "hey just wanted to let you know my car is peachy" I've seen a guy with the 3.0 in the a6 with 300k on original engine. Don't worry and enjoy the car.