I found a great looking Audi A4 at a very reasonable price. Looks to be in mint condition and has just under 50k miles. Has only had 1 owner.

I'm going tomorrow to the dealership to check it out, and may have it looked at by an Audi dealership near by, but I was curious what tips people here might have for me.

What sort of things should I look for or ask about? Are there certain problems that are typical with this year and model? I've read that some people say its a money pit, others say with minimal maintenance its a great car and will last forever...

Any and all help is much appreciated folks!

 

See the B6 sticky and all the other threads that ask the same question.

If you maintain your car- it will be reliable.

If you push off maintenance-you'll probably end up throwing money after it.

Common issues with this age: See if timing belt/water pump service has been done, valve cover gasket, and cam seals/plugs. The coolant temp sensor and coolant flange are common things to go too. After a drive, sniff around under the hood to see if you smell coolant.

Also in the long run, the 3.0 typically costs more to maintain than the 1.8s.

 

Thanks for the tips!

When everyone says that maintenance will be required - do they mean just changing the oil and filters every 5k? is there other maintenance that is considered standard with Audi's?

Sorry for the noob questions :-p

 

Thy are money pits! They are great looking, great driving cars!

End result if you can buy something new for the same price as a used Audi I'd go that fought if i did it again.

But then again my previous owner didn't take much care and I've been working hard to restore that

 

Exactly what rdltmc3 said. If the car is taken care of, it will be good to you. If it's been neglected, **** is going to break.

N2F- Basic maintenance like full synthetic oil changes every 5k is a given. Good spark plugs are a MUST (if you go cheap, they don't last long). The timing belt/water pump service should be done every ~80k (or earlier, depending on age and condition of the belt) and doesn't come cheap. Valve cover gaskets/cam plugs will need to be done at least once in the life of the car. Those are the big maintenance items.

Other than that it's mostly some wear and tear items that rack up some bigger bills (front end or suspension components). There's no getting around that if you don't do the work yourself, these cars aren't the cheapest things to keep up.

I've had my 03 for 4 years now and love the car. I've done the timing belt/water pump, valve cover gasket, coolant flange, had the coil packs replaced under the recall, rear transmission seal and rear diff seals replaced due to leakage.

The car had low miles so it did a lot of sitting, and the seals did dry up. That's just the way it goes sometimes.

 

Bought my 2005 A4 3L Quattro 10 months ago off a used car lot. Car looked to be well taken care of but I had no way of really knowing. It had 67k when I got it and I have since put 12k on it, which is a lot for me up here in AK.

So far I've managed to rip off the plastic skid plate (pos), which I replaced with an aluminum one, and changed the oil. Getting ready to do the timing belt and associated stuff.

Love the car and would highly recommend getting one.

Sean