I'm looking at buying an '03 Audi A4 1.8t. I have a couple of concerns with the engine. There is a little bit of sludge build up when you take off the oil cover and also air blowing out. I stick a piece of paper on the cover opening (mechanic that was checking it out was doing this) and it spits out a ring of oil that mimics the shape of the oil cap. Mechanic says that this is not a very good sign showing that much air blow out, saying one of the bypass valves is letting too much air through?

Am I worrying too much or would this be a bad buy?

edit: the seller says he has done oil change religiously every 5,000 miles with synthetic oil at the dealer, and maintenance has all been done. Car has 108,000 miles on it and he has replaced the timing belt twice (including water pump, etc) and has done a few of the window electrical jobs. He's also putting a new catalytic converter on before he sells it.

 

Timing belt twice at that mileage seems odd, but if he is one of those OCD kind to take everything to the dealer including for oil changes it makes sense. Get the paperwork on his maintenance work from the dealer to be sure.

I wouldn't worry too much about the blow back, but the experts on the forum will probably give you better insight on that. Best check for sludge without going too deep is to pull the valve cover and see what the corners look like on the top.

I bought mine used and found out the last oil change before I bought it was non-synthetic from a jiffy lube type place. I put 2000 miles on it before I could change it with synthetic. Did my valve cover gasket shortly after that and it was fine, no sludge.

What kind of $$ is he looking for?

Manual or Automatic?

 

This is the car:

Car Classifieds for Utah, Idaho, and Wyoming | ksl.com

the guy is pretty nice. he's a porsche dealer and says he maintained it VERY well, it was his daughters car. Car is a manual. He will possibly give it to me for $7,000.

 

That's a decent price, a little high for the mileage but not horrible. If you work with any shops in the area I would take it to an independant mechanic that knows Audis and have it inspected. All the main maintenance stuff like timing belt, coolant flange, coil recall, clutch, moonroof, etc.

Try to get maintenance paperwork history. If he can't provide it then you have room to bargain with him on the price.

Being a dealer he has access to a shop that wouldn't necesarily report accidents, fender benders or even maintenance when they work on it 'under the table/after hours' and if it was daughters car he clearly has access to a vehicle that could have got into some incidents... (Sorry, making a wide sweeping generalization as I don't know her age... Just assuming younger driver. In that case be sure to check the clutch.)

I'm saying don't simply go on the carfax report as there are ways that incidents don't always get filed and nice as the guy may be he's a car dealer, he's born to tell you the right thing to sell you a car.


Good luck!

 

thx for your input mike. I will definitely test the clutch. I'm going to have it brought to a mechanic that specializes in audi and bmw. Its going to cost $100 but thats definitely worth it and better than finding out I bought a $7,000 lemon.