A couple questions about buying a 1999 A4 1.8T Quattro 5 speed:

Look at the picture - the corner of the hood and the front bumper/cap are poorly aligned - it looks like crap. Where do I look to see if the car may have been repaired from hitting something? ASSUMING the car hasn't been hit, can I expect to be able to realign these parts? It looks like the bumper has a clip or two missing or not attached.... If I can't get it to look a lot better than that I don't want to buy the car!!

This car has a new motor with less than 30k miles - I've seen the receipts. The transmission and accessories have 170k miles on them. Anything to look out for with the rest of the car with that many miles?

Here's what needs fixing for sure:

BOTH FRONT CV AXLES - (They're both clicking pretty good) This doesn't seem particularly hard to replace, or is it?

A REAR WHEEL BEARING. It looks like I will need special tools to press out and replace the bearing itself, (which I could just have a shop do) but will I need special tools just to get the bearing holder off the car at all?

The AIRBAG light is on. If I get a code reader, I could figure out if the sensor or the bag is bad and get a used replacement part - are they too hard to put in?

The A/C COMPRESSOR is apparently going bad. If I bolt in another one, is it a whole lot to get it charged up?

How hard is it to remove dark tinting plastic off the rear window without damaging the original copper on the back glass?

AND, what should I pay a private owner for a car like this? What would you pay? They are asking $3500 "firm".

Any pointers on any of this would be helpful - THANKS!!

 

To replace that film is not easy , wait for a worm day and try , the glue behind is going to be hard to remove , for the rear bearings is not hard to do I just dead mine , it ;s true I have a 12 tone shop press in my garage , if you live close to 07666 you welcome t use it .

 

Have you run a Carfax on the car? Do that before doing anything else to make sure it has not been in an accident (which may have caused the misaligned front corner) because there could be frame damage which you will not be able to fix.

Airbags are EXPENSIVE. Make sure there is actually an airbag in the car! I have a feeling this car was in a wreck, the airbag went off, they replaced it and the code still remains.

Changing axles is not a big job - you can buy new axles for $100 each.

You can pull the hub of the wheel and take it to a shop where they can remove the old bearing and press in a new one. I had that done last year.

You can get a used A/C compressor for a $100 bucks, cheaper if your lucky. A recharge is like $125 or so if I recall.

If it were me, I'd skip it. You can find a better deal than this. By the time you invest in repairs you will have paid another $1000.

 

I'd buy it over mine! By the time I was finished with repairs, I paid nearly $9000 for my A4... its a long story. Then again, it does sound like it was involved in a pretty decent accident. Like Brrman said, read a CarFax first.

 

I paid 3300 for a 98 with the sport package, 178k miles, new engine with roughly 15k miles, and no accident history but maybe your area is devoid of cheap a4's...

 

So here's what I'm thinking - I will make an appointment with an Audi/VW specialist and let them look at the computer codes and what airbag stuff I need, and also look at the hood and bumper and frame to see if the problem is simple misalignment or if the car/frame was damaged at some point. - And if the seller won't agree to doing this, then I'll just walk away.

My $30 CARFAX report turned up no damage history. I had figured I'd be spending $1000 in parts already.

So where else can I find a decent A4, (even one needing a little work but for a good price) other than Craigslist, online sites, and newspaper classifieds? I'm supposed to go get this car later today!! Any other suggestions??

Thanks!

 

How about this site?

 

I had to get my CV joints replaced about 3 months ago and it's an expensive job if you don't do it yourself. It cost me around 550 for both sides to be replaced.

 

the dealer you got it from is sketch city man... didn't it seem that way when you were there?

 

$3500 firm? i would pass. A4's are pretty readily available now and you can find one with less problems for the same price if you look hard enough. if you could get them down to 3k or less it might be worth it. thats quite a list or repairs and a lot of mileage.

btw you can not get airbags used, at least not from a junk yard. its against DOT regulations for them to sell used (but undeployed) airbags. that airbag light could be a looser connecter under your set, or it could be very expensive.