I paid $4850 for my Audi about a year ago. Here I am now with a bit over $1000 of miscellaneous maintenance into it and the headgasket is going out. Even in perfect condition, this car books for $3750 in my area. I have a $2500 quote from a local shop for the repair. Rather than fixing it I have purchased a more reliable car. I am open for ideas on what to do with the Audi. I am mainly interested in seeing what parts are worth. The car is in fantastic condition and has many good parts. It is going to be nearly impossible to sell it as is and I will lose my a** dumping it onto a dealer. Any ideas? How much could I get out of it for parts? It still runs and drives perfectly.

 

I've dumped far more cash into my car than it's worth (monitarily), but for me it's worth it - simply because I love my car and I'll drive it to my grave.

Having said that: If you hate yours that much, you can most likely make a slow killing by parting it out, piece by piece, on ebay and CL.

If you do it right, I'd bet you could make a profit, as opposed to losing money. But you'll have to be able to sit on it for a while.

 

I agree completely. That was my thought. If I try to get rid of it any other way I will lose an incredible amount of money.

Do you know how well parts for this car will sell? I don't need the car for anything, so I can sit on it for a while, but I am moving in September. I need the car gone before then.

 

Another option, since you have another "more reliable" car, is to slowly gather tools and knowledge on how to replace the head gasket yourself.

That said, how was the issue diagnosed as a head gasket? That's not a common failure on these cars.

 

I noticed the coolant level was dropping for a couple of months, but it never leaked fast enough for me to worry. Around Christmas I let the car sit for a week and when I started it, it took many cranks, it was barely idling, and steam was billowing out of the exhaust. After later inspection, I noticed oil was seeping out around the heads. I drained the coolant and started it the next day. No steam, ran fine. I ran the coolant through it one more time to make a 11 mile drive to where I could store it, and in that short drive the coolant had turned brown. I am positive it's the head gasket.

 

If I repair it, how much more life can I expect to get from the engine?

 

I replaced my head gaskets over a year ago. I was slowly losing coolant but had no visible leak. It got to the point that I would have a misfire when I first started it and then it would smooth out. I did all of the labor myself except for rebuilding the heads. It ended up costing me about $550.

 

What's your "more reliable" car?

 

So if you got a year out of it, assuming you are near the 15,000 miles per year average, then the life of the engine shouldn't be affected too badly. Other than the specialized tools required, how bad is this job? The shop quoted me close to $700 for parts, so that left $1800 for labor. Is this that difficult of a job or is it just time consuming?

 

I bought a low mileage Buick.