got a 2004 a4 quattro 3.0 with 65000 miles. recently started to have trouble getting power when i accelorated, car would start shaking, and cant really get about 35. took it to get diagonstics done and said that #5 cylinder was firing and its compression was real low. the guy said it was a major engine problem and gave me a 2000+ estimate. How serious is my problem, i know its fairly serious cause my car is running like **** but is it as costly as the mechanic is saying it is?? throw me a bone

 

Depending on how low the compression is, he is probably in the ballpark. There are 2 choices for really low compression, tear the engine down and do a complete rebuild, or get another engine. Either way not a cheap fix. There are way to do it cheaper but if you want something that is going to last more than another 6k miles you should look at one of the options above.

 

the compression is at 70, i believe it is supposed to around 120? so that is pretty low then i guess. thanks for the input