I bought this 98 manual A4 with a 2.8 for my son and have been doing alot of work on it(timing belt, clutch, bearings and now front suspension). I drove it yesterday and noticed at highway speeds the rpms seem high. At 70 mph in 5th gear the rpms run at 3000. Is that the normal range? I am just wondering if one of the previous owners swapped out rear ends for a lower ratio for more torque. Or, I know on these older cars withoug 6 gears the highway speeds do run at high rpms. Since this is my first Audi I was hoping someone could tell me if this is the normal range.

 

It's normal. The car is short-geared.

 

Thanks! One less problem I have to worry about.