Well, I took my brother to look at a 98 A6 yesterday. Overall, the car seemed to be in great condition. It has I believe 97k on it, or 99k?? Gray, with a tan leather interior, all the bells and whistles. It drove VERY smoothly, it stopped nicely, no vibrations, etc. I heard no clunking while driving, I ripped on the car a bit, and the transmission seemed very strong, and the motor was relatively peppy (I'm assuming that's what it should feel like). It had nice get-up and go, nothing that really made me go "wow", but it was nice.

Everything worked properly as far as I could tell, I popped the hood, and everything sounded nice and smooth under there. No tapping, or any squealing of any sorts. The ONLY thing that bothered me, was there was a bit of smoke coming from the driver side of the engine bay. I smelled it, and it was definitely oil burning. I was told it was the valve cover gasket? How hard is that to change in these cars? And is it an indication of anything? Or just something that happens? How long of a job does it take, and how expensive is the gasket itself?

The car was from a used car dealership, and the guy was very nice, a fellow sports car enthuiast (we chatted for over an hour about sports cars, and driving, etc. my brother wanted to strangle me by the time we got out of there). I'm planning to go back in a few days with my brother to look at it again, after we take a look at one other one locally.

He's asking $6995 for the car. The body was in great condition, fully optioned as far as I could tell, minus a CD player (unless there's one in the trunk??). Do you think that's a good price?

The other a6 is a 97 I believe, with 70k on it, also gray. I don't know the full condition of that one yet, but those are the two choices right now. That car is also $7000.

Any tips would be great

Thanks,
Emilie

 

hey bolts work lose that's normal just nip them back up to hand tight 10nm/8lbft

 

Most likly its a camshaft adjuster gasket and not a valvecover gasket. Has the timing belt been done? Its good to do the belt with the adjuster gasket due to repeat labor. Best tip i can give is to get it inspected by a dealer before you buy it. It should only cost 50 bucks and they will tell you everything that is wrong with the car and how much it would cost to fix. Thats a pretty good bargining chip.