Hi All,

I'm new to the Audi world, currently drive E36 and E46 BMW m3s. I came across this 2001 Audi TT which I really liked. It has 149k miles, It looked pretty clean, I test drove it, drove fine. It has some noise in the rear which I belive are either bad struts or shocks.

When I started the car, it was cold and I heard a slight chirp noise, didn't hear that noise while driving or starting it again once it was warm. It did have a check engine light pop up the next day I test drove it again. I had the dealer scan and we saw P0012. He says that's it's just the sensor which needs to be replaced. I don't have the service history to the car so I don't know if or when the timing belt was done. So I was trying to read more about this error code and would a sensor just do it or I would need to replace the timing belt and the tensioner?

I know the car is priced accordingly to its mileage, I'm not trying to be too picky but just trying to make a good decision if with this error codes, it's worth buying this car and would not turn into a money pit.
Lynn's Auto Sales

 

All cars eventually become money pits - After owning my 2nd 00 TT 1.8 I noticed two big issues with these cars which can be easily fixed, the other, no so much. With age like anything else parts fail, unless it is always garaged and only driven on sunny days.

Look under the chassis, and observe for rust spots, especially around bolts that hold larger items to the chassis. Anything that is a free moving part can seize up and break, so inspect those items as well.

Audi are well engineered - as long as they are taken care of. So next best bet it inspect ALL the rubber vacuum lines in the engine bay - if they are brittle or cracked then they need replacing asap.

Another truly annoying problem on the older audi tts is the gasket located between the turbo and exhaust manifold - I decided to just take the head off with the damn thing attached and rebuild it like that including new water pump and timing belt.

Timing belt inspection is fairly easy, just pop off the pastic cover to expose the belt - use a BRIGHT light and try to look where the teeth are, if you see splits and cracks - change it out...after stripping this car down, i can happily say what appears to be a pain is still a pain but I know the routine and thus saves me time from guessing :-)...

oh and another import factor that Stealerships rarely tell there customers and I dont know if its included in the factory service guide - but apparently every 25k miles your rear Haldex fluid and filter should be changed, if the filter is metal, or metal cover than thats your factory filter and at 149k miles, i would greatly question if the AWD is properly functioning.