New to the forum here and am thinking of buying a 1996 A4 2.8L V6 quattro automatic with 147K miles on her.
Going by the pics the seller sent me the car looks in great shape, supposedly runs and drives good, no electrical problems,
but the CEL and ABS lights are on. He said he has been driving the car like this for 2 years and nothing seems to be affected by it.
I could get the car for under $3K. What do you guys think?

How reliable are these engines, and what mileage do people get out of them? How often should timing belt changes be made?
Can a timing belt be changed by me (I work on my corvette myself so I am comfortable with doing pretty much everything other than, a full engine or tranny rebuild).

Thanks in advance.

 

For less than 3k, its worth it.
If you can , have the codes scanned first so there are no surprises.
If it was well taken care of, its probably got another 80-100k in left in it anyway.
Although he's been driving it for 2 years with the engine light on. Not a very good idea, or a good sign that it was taken care of.

 

Yeah that's what I'm kind of worried about.
My DD just died and I'm pressed to buy something quickly so I don't have to drive my poor vette and rack up the mileage. Of course all this when funds aren't there to buy something new and shiney..

I've seen a few nice audi's for under $5K with around 100K miles in the area, but most of them are manual 1.8turbo's which I heard are not exactly the best reliability wise.

 

Dont let that scare you.
I have a 1.8, its very reliable (a 97quattro manual). It all comes down to whether or not the vehicle is well maintained.
If you can find a 1.8 with a fairly complete service history, go for it.
The reason most say this, is because its in theory true for any 2 cars when comparing a turbo to an NA. The fact is there are a few more things that can go wrong on a turbo car vs a natural aspirated engine, becuasethe NA doesnot have a turbo and the associated plumbing and hardware and programming.
But these audi's are great cars if you follow the scheduled service. But that kind of goes for both flavors.
Just make sure at 100k that the t-belt had been done at some point. Most do it earlier than that, so thats really a plus for you.
Good luck!

 

Thank you for the info.

I'll be going to look at the higher mileage '96 2.8L this week, as at the price it might be worth to get and spend some extra money on some littler things if the car is nice.
I'll see if they have the service records, etc.

ps. Anyone selling a nicer 96+ A4 or A6 under $5k in CT? [8D]

 

Very, if they have been taken care of.. I have a 96 2.8 and currently have 193,xxx miles and climbing on it. It runs just fine and minus the CEL that I have on right now, nothing major is wrong with it. (getting it checked out this week because I don't know anybody with a Vag-Com)

As for the timing belt I think it's about every 70,000 miles they are supposed to be replaced.

Good luck with whatever direction you go, but I would get an Audi

 

If it doesn't have maintenance records, run away...

 

+1 A high mileage 96 is more likely to be mainenance nightmare. Make sure the guy has service records and the car has been in good care. There are a few A4s and A6s on craigslist in that 5k range in the tristate area.

 

Yeah, I have seen them, but most cars I have called about did not have any real service history.
Most people service their own cars nowadays I guess.

Heck I looked at one in NJ today (drove 90 miles to do so) and it was a total toilet. Dammit people are lying bastards
when it comes to selling cars.. [:@]