Hello everyone! Great forum.
I just bought a 2000 A6 4.2 with 110k miles on the clock. Here is what was in the For Sale thread, and I was given receipts documenting most of this stuff:
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Aftermarket custom exhaust with magnaflow mufflers
New PS pump and fluid
New spark plugs
New valley pan gasket
New front cam seals as well as exhaust cam bore plugs
New upgraded billet aluminum oil cooler pipe along with new oil cooler seals.
New cam chain tensioner gaskets and half moon seals, and new valve cover gaskets.
New N80 valve
Numerous coolant seals were replaced, that include the crossover pipe seals on the back side of the engine, which required an engine pull.
New rear main seal
New 10mm intake spacers and gaskets from JHMotorsports
New serpentine belt
Cabin air filter is new as well as engine air filter
New Koni Yellow struts all the way around as well as H&R Lowering springs.
The car also has the upgraded, beefy H&R sway bars front and rear (previous owner)
Control arms and bushings up front are all brand new with New Tie rods, with alignment.

Brakes-$700 all pads and rotors were replaced at around 93k and are in perfect working condition now, with plenty of life left on the pads, car will stop on a dime!!

TB was done at 77k, so you are good to go until 150k.
Transmission was replaced with an upgraded, remanufactured transmission at 80k ish IIRC.
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So as you can see, a lot of work has been done to the car. Given the mileage, is there anything I should keep my eye on? Anything that commonly fails on these cars?

What do the intake manifold spacers do? Lower intake temps? Any real performance from this mod? I was going to make a cold-air intake for this car, I have made many before, is there any reason NOT to do this? I mostly want a little more noise out of the engine when accelerating, its that old ricer boy in me from back in the day . I probably won't put it down into the fender well, but make a box + duct for it, similar to the stock style.

I live near ECS tuning which is an APR dealer. APR claims 350hp with their 93 octane ECU chip for the 4.2. Are these chip tunes worth it on NA cars? I have previously owned turbo cars, so obviously its been an easy road to power for me. Given that I have the intake spacers, intake (soon), and exhaust... it seems I could get the most out of a tune. Do places dyno tune or road tune these cars to get the max out of the mods?

Sorry for all the questions, thank you in advance for any advice you can give this new 4.2 owner.

 

I don't own a 4.2, but it looks like this has had a ton of repairs (= $$$). The question is it a lemon or did the previous owner just get tired of putting money into a 110k mile car? Why is it being sold? And I suggest an independent inspection by a shop that works on Audis and know what to look for. If it checks out, it sounds like a good set up.

 

I gather the previous owner was mechanically inclined and pulled the motor for some reason, so just did all the other stuff while it was out. I think the motor was pulled to more-easily install the intake spacers (seems like a lot of work for spacers), so the gaskets were replaced as a precautionary step. The N80 valve was replaced in hopes to get rid of a CEL for emissions (but that did not work). The car seems to run great thus far. Pulls strong. But yea, I certainly wondered about it.

He sold it because he wanted the money out of it, at least that is what I gathered. If there was another reason, it has not shown itself yet....

 

what the price? i also want to buy it, but i need 2006

 

huh?

Anyway... bump for some other thoughts.
Maybe if I post a bunch of pictures with me and my gurl I can get some more attention :P

 

Hey there..I also just bought a 2000 a6 4.2 with 93k on the odo... It had a tranny problem..(was stuck in limp mode, computer said "gear ratio error") Took it to my mechanic and had it rebuilt for $1800 (sweet) now it's perfect. Just want to do TB, cause I have no idea on previose history, so I know it's about right milage for that. I really want to upgrade my exhaust, and I see that you have magnaflow mufflers on yours. What is the sound like??? That is really my concern. I don't want to spend $1600 on REMUS (if I had the $$ that would definately be the way I would go) but with so many reasonable priced mufflers out there I'm not sure wich way to go, but I definately don't want mine to sound like one of those rice rockets. So...what does magnaflow sounds like??? thanx!

 

crazyrussian, you can check youtube for those, I personally like the sound of the Milltek on the 4.2, the magnaflow sounds very aggressive.

CasopoliS, as for any issues, my old C5 A6 (2.7T, not the 4.2) wasn't too bad, the skid plate broke (It broke on my C6 A6 too, stupid speed bump), the LED display panel on the instrument cluster was going dark in the upper left (mostly visible in the summer), and the aux coolant pump went, which I was told was somewhat common, not sure if the same pump is used on the 4.2 though. There were other electrical anomalies, like sometimes the headlight selector lights would blink.

One thing I would be weary of is the last drivers driving, as they had performance parts installed, there's a good likeliness they may have been aggressively driving it, but at the same time, hopefully they would have also maintained it.

When I first purchased my 03 A6, I took it to the Audi stealership and had them do an inspection / scheduled maintenance, you could also sub the stealership with a reputable mechanic that works on Audi's.

Congrats.