So I picked up a 1997 Audi 1.8T (FWD) for 900$, the owner told me it skips 3rd gear and occasionally the coolant light comes on.

AC is ice cold, car is in great condition body wise and interior is immaculate. Well I decided to do tune up/maintenance and hit a few road blocks:

1) The previous owner completely rounded off the drain plug head. Looks like they did not use a washer so it was leaking and someone impacted it on and spun head round. I went to 3 shops and no one could get it off.

2) While driving around to get plug removed I developed a nasty coolant leak, looks to be coming from water pump as its just coming down from the front of engine and no hoses seem to be wet.




My question is should I put any money into the car?

I priced out a few local German shops and they all seem to be around 1500$ for Timing Belt/Water Pump/Tensioner/Pulley/Seals/Oil Pan with new drain plug and gaskets. (parts and labor).

I priced parts out on my own and it is way lower <500$ but I have never done a timing belt before. (dont almost everything else to a car). So it seems a little intimidating. Especially having to remove entire front of car.

Even if I fix the above I still have to find out why the transmission is skipping a gear.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

- Mike

 

any input would be appreciated.

 

It really depends on your comfort level working with cars and tools. You are not venturing into uncharted territory, all of this work has been done before and there is a multitude of resources available to assist in completing the work.

Do a few searches for 1.8T timing belt jobs, watch some youtube videos of the work, and go from there.

As far as the drain plug, you could try to grind some flats onto it and throw a big crescent wrench on it.

 

I sware by these things:
If you're feeling up to it you could use a drill and drill into the drain plug and use one of those extractors. I used that set on a transmission fill plug (Granted it was a allen head bolt) and it worked wonders. I applied at least 100 foot pounds of force and it didn't break. Got the job done nicely.

As far as doing the work on your own: It's the way to go in my opinion. You'll save a ton of money over the life of the car it's not even funny. Our cars require a TON of labor so if you can do it yourself, you can have a nice ride for cheap.

I'd seriously consider doing the timing belt, water pump, etc on your own and then use those savings and have someone give you a diagnosis and quote on the transmission and then go from there.

 

Well I ended up finding out a friend knew of a great local Audi mechanic. He took the car for day to look it all over for me.

Apparently my water pump isnt leaking, just a rear sensor. Also got my drain plug removed for me. I am having him do the timing belt/WP anyways as its likely due (147K Miles).

He is only charging me 800$ for;

1) Coolant leak fixed with new sensor/o-ring
2) Replaced spun drain plug and changed oil
3) Compression test (everything good) - put new plugs in for me
4) Water Pump, Timing Belt, Pulley and Belts
5) Coolant Flush and fill with proper coolant (Previous owner was using green)
6) New Airfilter


He also looked at Transmission and found it was about 1Qt low, but says its still jerking/skipping 3rd.


I figure for the price of $800 dollars and all the work its worth it since car will be used for quite some time. And dealer wanted 2600$ just for WP/TB

- Mike

 

+1 for the Irwin Extractor set. I used it for that exact same issue. An idiot grease monkey did the same thing to my drain plug. So now I replaced it with one that you never have to remove and you can just push in and turn to drain. So nice and quick!

 

SHIIIIT itd cost me 800 just to get the tranny fluid put in haha

 

$800 is an AMAZING price for all of that. You really made out on that deal. (Assuming his work is good)