Ok, bear with me. I'm sure you're all sick of these types of questions.

I'm looking into getting an A4 as a daily driver (1998'ish...). I need something fairly reliable, comfortable, AWD, with some pep to it.

All of my cars are twin turbo and about as unreliable as it gets. I have no desire to modify this car, as I have a few beasts sitting in the garage right now, maybe an intake and exhaust down the road, with a tint and rims, but that's where I'm drawing the line

The 2.8 seems like a peppy little car with decent get-up and go. It's rated at more HP than the 1.8t, but how do they compare?

Also, what issues should I keep an eye out for? Common problems, etc?

Again, sorry for the newb-ness

-Emilie

 

You just said the magic words. Get yourself a 2.8 and you'll be happy as hell. There are just about zero engine mods, but it'll run forever as long as you take care of it. Very smooth, and it can haul when you want to get on thegas. And yes, a bit more HP than a 1.8T stock for stock....but a chipped 1.8T will obviously blow your doors off.

A good place to start is right here: http://ctny.audiworld.com/mark/a4/diff/diff.html

I'd recommend an 00 or an 01. Real leather interior and Xenons, ftw!

Make sure the previous owner has been running full synthetic oil and changing it regularly. In terms of maintainence, just make sure your timing belt,tensioner, water pump, etc.has been changed if the car has more than 70K miles on it. If it's a '01, you can push it to 90K (they had upgraded tensioners).

You'll also want to check over the control arms, they're a bit problematic with our cars. Tire rod ends/CV boots too.

Slap some new shoes and an exhaust on that sucker, and badda boom, you're in busines.

If you use the search function, you can find many other postson this topic to help you out also. Welcome to the forums.

 

all your answers are just 1 click away [Search]

https://www.audiforums.com/m_389345/tm.htm
https://www.audiforums.com/m_216129/tm.htm

there's a couple to start you off..

 

Thank you very much.

the 00+ are a bit out of my price range. I'm looking to spend closer to $7k.

I'm really leaning towards the 2.8, however, I can't seem to find any with reasonable mileage (sub 100k) in the black/black combo in automatic I've found a few more 1.8t's than the 2.8's.

How do the automatic transmissions hold up with every day driving? I know in the 3000GT and DSM's the automatic tranny's are crap.

 

[Deleted by Admins]

 

The auto will be fine, try to get a tiptronic if you can....at least gives you the ability to control your shifts.

Audi says the tranny fluid is good for "the life of the vehicle" which is a load of crap. If it's got over 100K miles on it, it'd probably be a good idea to flush it.