I am in negotiations to sell my car and will be taking out a loan for a 2003 A6 4.2. I will have to fly out of town and drive the car home. Supposedly the car has new timing belt, water pump, brakes and tires. Meticulous maintenance with remainder of warranty to 100,000 miles. Car currently has 95,000 and owner claims it needs nothing. I am assuming in addition to the Vagcom (which I am not that familiar with) I can also hook in my OBDII to check the car out when I test drive it?

What should I be looking for besides receipts and oil leaks?

 

The obdII will only show something if there is a CEL. As far as looking for stuff, just do the normals of leak checking, MAKE SURE the trans feels smooth in all gears, I think audi may have fixed the problem that the early c5 4.2 trans had by 2003. Other than that I would imagine she is probably due for new control arms and bushings (usually 100k-ish). Good luck man!!

 

Listen for clunks in the front end and/or vibration of any sort which will indicate its time for control arms. Look for coolant leaks at the back of the engine. Look for oil leaks and PS leaks.

Are you taking out a loan to pay for maintenance?

Bob

 

So you think it will be that bad? The car has a bumber to bumper warranty to 100k or fall of this year. I would think it would be maintained well. I do alot of my own work plus a friend owns a shop that specializes foreign cars.

 

What is the typical control arm replacement cost? (parts/labor)

 

parts are roughly 3-500 depending on where and what.. purems.com and jhm are pretty reasonable most of the time.