Hi all.

I'm looking at a 2003 1.8t A6 at the moment. Times are hard so I can't afford the cream of the crop so this one has 270,000km (about 165,000miles) on it. I know that:

- The cambelt was changed with waterproof last year
- It has been serviced yearly as per book (full service history)
- It's been well looked after by its owner for the last 5 years, he's a mechanic and is only selling because he bought a 2011 a6
- It seems to drive well, no obvious problems.

He said that it uses up to 1 litre of oil between each service... So i guess that's yearly... And from what I can tell he does 25000km a year (16000miles I guess?)

For a car that's 13/14 years old and is relatively highish mileage, I'd expect a little oil usage, but is 1 litre too much? He's always used castrol edge, so he says.

What do you experts think? Alarm bells or does it sound common?

Thanks in advance!

 

1.8t in an A6 is not very common in the states - at least I haven't seen a single one yet. However they did have a bunch of a4's with the 1.8t and I've seen some of them eat a quart of oil between services easily. The turbo does have that issue (at least from what I've experienced with Audi, not sure if other manufacturers have less problems in that area).
I'd say it sounds like an OK deal if you don't have a problem with an older high mileage car.

Things I would check / worry about:
* Turbo. Those things don't last forever and on a high mileage car this will be the first thing to worry about. Obvious signs of turbo going bye bye: dentist drill sound, no power and very high oil consumption.
* Struts. The suspension on the A6 is great when new but quickly goes down hill because of the excessive weight of these cars. See how it behaves when you drive over bumps, dips and curves
* Control arms. Very common and known issue with the c5 A6. They eat them for breakfast. Again the weight is what gets them. Check the bushings and if needed replace them ASAP
* Axels. Check the boot by the wheel hubs. They leak badly when they reached the end of their lives.

nothing else comes to mind - maybe someone else has some more ideas.

 

Hi

Thanks for the reply. Well, I went ahead an bought it. It drives lovely and for its age, it's almost showroom condition on the outside, the inside is.. Tolerable.

Immediately we had a problem with the coolant, it drained before the first drive home. We took it back to the guy and he's fixing it now, he found the fault to be a gasket from the water intake to the engine, nothing serious.

Have also found the front doors to have the lock microswitch problem, so it locks itself even with the doors open. That I guess we will have to fix.

Now I have a question on the instrument cluster... It's faulty and needs replacing which im happy to do, but I need to ask a complex question. Ours is an A6 without mpg gauge, it's just distance to empty lcd. I read in the manual that came with the car you can view mpg if you have a button on the right stalk, the wiper stalk, and I suppose maybe the instrument cluster will need upgrading too. If I'm doing that with the cluster, and get the correct stalk, will it all figure itself out? I guess it's a bit of a complex question but I'm hoping someone on here will be able to tell me... Perhaps The cluster would incorporate the mpg gauge if the stalk is just connected, if I got exactly the same cluster as a replacement...

Thoughts or ideas would be very much appreciated!