So I'm new to the Audi community, been a fan for a couple years, but could never afford one. I'm looking at (what I think is) a pretty clean 2000 A4 1.8tq with the 5 speed in it. It has 107000 miles on it and has had timing belt, tensioner, tie-rod ends, and brakes all done in the past month or so. It has also been aligned and has new tires (could this be to cover up a suspension issue?). The only problems I've seen are a little bit of blue smoke on start up (less than 1/2 second of it, and had been sitting for quite a long time), and two minor interior issues. The guy is asking 7500 for it, and has been VERY up front with me about everything about it, as well as having almost all records for it. I've checked the carfax report on it, and it looks like it was well taken care of, serviced at a dealership at pretty good intervals, and the rest is clean.

Any opinions? Does it sound fishy to anyone, anything I should check? I'm planning on trying to get an Audi tech to look it over for me, but is there anything I should tell him to pay particular attention to? Thanks for any help.

 

sounds pretty legit to me, except I might try to talk him down a little on the price... though i suppose all the recent work that's been done to the car its pretty fair.

 

Sounds good. Does he have receipts to show for the work? The only reason I ask is because if the timing belt and tensioner **** the bed then your looking at $3000 top-end rebuild.

 

Yeah, he has the paperwork to back up all of his claims for work done. What about the blue smoke. Should that worry me much, or blame that on sitting for a while. I've heard that it could be valve stem seals going.

 

valve stem seals arent one of the normal problems on these motors, though its a possibility. i would take out the spark plugs and take a look at them and in the cylinders. if they have oil on them or are black and wet, you may be looking at a problem.

if theres a little oil in there from sitting for a while it would be burned off on the first startup. are you sure its not just steam? its actually blue smoke? if its just a little puff for a second i wouldnt worry too much about it.

also try to take off the rubber hose going into the throttle body, does it have more then a little oil inside it? a little coating of oil is normal, but if you see any caked on oil or if its dripping out, there could be a problem.

make sure he used fully synthetic oil every 3-4k miles and used the proper oil filter. if you decide to buy the car, search for "seafoam" and do a treatment, that will get rid of any oil that may have leaked out from sitting and just generally clean out the gunk in there.

also that price is just slightly high, probably from all the work that was done, if you can work him down $500-1000 then its a good deal.

 

Ghost: You mentioned a "treatment" for the oil. What does that mean exactly? Like a flush of the oil passages or something? Or those seal conditioner oil additives that you can get at a normal auto parts store? And what type of oil is best? I've heard that Amsoil is the best to use, but I want to be sure. It's my new baby, so I want to treat it as such. I've decided to buy it, by the way. The tech that I took it to said it seemd to be in really good condition, and he thought it was a good buy. I took it to Grossman Tuning in Louisville, KY if anyone knows of it. I should be picking it up tomorrow, assuming my boss will be kind enough to let me off work for a night. Here's to hoping!

 

congrats!
do you have plans for it yet??
or are you just gonna leave it stock?

 

A lot of people like to do a seafoam treatment.. you could try that to combat the blue smoke -

here's some information on how to do it:
http://www.seafoamsales.com/motorTuneUpTechGas.htm
http://www.audiworld.com/tech/eng89.shtml
http://www.audizine.com/forum/showth...threadid=62927

 

yea i dont use any of those other garbage additives from autozone with the exception of seafoam. i dont want to sound like a seafoam salesman but ive had very good results from using it on my car and its the only thing i will put in my baby. it basicly breaks down the carbon deposits and gunk that builds up in there.

you put it in your gas tank and it cleans your fuel injectors, put it in the oil and it breaks up the gunk that 1.8t's are known for. and you suck it into the intake with the car running thru a vacuum line and it cleans your cylinders.

if theres any oil build up in there thats causing the blue smoke seafoam will break it up and burn it off.

 

I GOT IT!!! WHOOOOOOOOO!! I'm going to go drive more now. =D