hello there,

i'm from Kitchener ONT, Canada and am looking at buying an audi like mentioned in the title.

the one i'm currently looking at (i've test drove 3 so far) is an 04 with 97,000 Km's, it had the timing belt and water pump replaced and the guy said (private deal, not dealer) that it had all the service including all oil changes at the dealer and that he's got all the receipts of the work that particular dealer performed on this car.

b4 i enbark myself into being an audi a4 owner, what are the things to look for, or stuff that usually goes wrong with these cars in particular??

i know audi parts can be pretty expensive and if these cars are NOT that reliable i'd like to know b4 i buy one and end up spending a LOT of money to keep it running.

thanks again and any help would be appreciated.

 

Check all the gadgets to function properly in the interior, if not ask him what's up. Your control arms sometimes develop cracks, this is part of maintenance and is not quite a big deal but is around 500 dollars to replace the set, you might want to check there as well. Check for uneven tire wear, this would be a sign of misalignment and again, potential control arm failure. On the Engine bay, check for all the small plastick hoses to be fully flexible and not cracked/dry rotted, this will give you miss fires and rough idles, completely making you hate life. Behind the block towards the fire wall, check for oil stains, also coolant stains, this would mean that the head gasket or cover gasket will be failing, a common problem with 1.8Ts. If there's coolant stains, then the coolant crossover pipe might be failing. Like I mentioned before, our cars rely on electricity for most of its functions, so check the gadgets, all of them, the trunk actuator is a gadget make sure you check on that.

 

check ur coilspacks also. IF its not the brembi r. then u might have to replace those in the near future. There is actually a coil recall on our cars. LIke dan said check ur hoses throughly. This is probably the biggest problem with the 1.8's is hoses or check valves turning brittle and cuasing slow air leaks which will lead to a studdering.