Just bought my first Audi yesterday, and so far I love it! It has 79k miles on it and the carfax and inspection seem to show that previous owners took good care of it. Just a basic question, is there any maintenance you would recommend me looking into? I have the Audi maintenance schedule, but is there anything specific you would recommend me looking into? Thanks everyone!

 

Go to the stickies on top. But the ignition coils, diverter valve, PCV valve, and cam follower are all things that need to be checked or replaced. They are all prone to failure. Unfortunately your not in warranty for the diverter valve, so that'll be $260 to replace by the dealer. The PCV valve was part of a service action, and might be replaced for free, if it wasn't already. The ignition coils were all replaced under a service action, so you might want to check to see if that was done. You might want to go to the cam follwer threads to see what that's all about. If that fails, you have warranty to 120,000 miles. It can be quite catastrophic if it goes, but Audi usually won't touch it until the lights go off.

That said, I love my 06 quattro with manual tranny. I have dedicated snow tires for mine, and it literally becomes an unstoppable tank in the snow. The car is quite heavy for it's size, and paired with the size all seasons it comes with, it doesn't stop great in slick weather, hence the snows. They pull the car down to a stop really fast, and keep the back end from breaking out in a corner. The quattro is so effective wet or dry, that the car is almost boring in a way to drive. Hit the gas and it just goes. No drama or trama through the the steering, or spinning screaching tires, it hangs on to a corner/curve like it's glued to the pavement. It's fun to drive, you just don't get all that driveline drama that you can get on a two wheel driver.

 

Awesome. I will make sure to get all of that checked out this week. And I'll check out the stickies right now. The day I bought it, it began to snow pretty heavily. I went somewhat slow to start, but as it proved to handle so well in the snow I found myself passing trucks and SUVs with ease. It was a nice feeling to know It can handle that well in that type of weather, and it built up my confidence to drive without much worry of spinning out. So far it seems like an amazing car. If I find anything abnormal when I get this stuff checked out I will post on this thread to see if I can get some more answers. Thanks for the response!

 

$260 for the DV?! That's robbery. It's an $80-90 part and takes 3 bolts to put it in. Access to it is tricky, but with a lift, it's like a 10-15 minute job.

Not just the PCV, but several parts including the low pressure fuel sensor and the intake manifold runner motor (which is a labor-intensive job) is covered under that customer service action. Make sure they do it all--it's 3 or 4 parts.

You're probably due for a timing belt as well. The dealer charges about $300-400 more than an independent shop. I wouldn't pay them to do it, but find someone you trust and knows Audis and get it done soon.

 

So as i was on my way to an independent audi shop and the check engine light came on. The mechanic said the thermostat needs to be replaced and the power steering fluid hose is crcracked and needs to be replaced. $880 for parts and labor. Other than that the car checked out. They said nothing about the timing belt. Do you guys think this is a fair price to have them fixed? Is this a sign that more problems are to come? Or are they common for the year and miles? The guy I bought it from is going to buy the parts I need, but do you think I should shop around to see if I can find cheaper labor costs? Is this something that can done on my own? The are 2 other Audi shops around here. Thanks for the help and info.

Best regards

 

Thermostat is a common failure on a lot of cars. It's a bit labor-intensive to get to on the Audi. I paid around $400 for that (parts+labor), but the dealership quoted me around $700.

I don't know about the power steering hose--is it a hard line? I know a plastic fuel line for this car costs $160, so it wouldn't surprise me if the PS line is that or more just for the part. Sounds like you're in about the right ballpark--maybe a tad high, but I'm not totally up on what that PS line fix requires.

Knowing exactly what's wrong, you could call the other shops in town and ask for an estimate. They should be able to quote those two things over the phone.

 

$650 for the thermostat part and labor, $230 for the power steering fluid hose part and labor. I looked online at ECS tuning to find the hose I need, but was unsuccessful. I am going to ask the mechanic for the exact part info because the dealer I bought the car from is going to pay for the parts to get these fixed. I am glad to hear that the thermostat is a common problem. It just sucks because I litterally bought the car 6 days ago from today and the inspection checked out fine before I bought it. I guess its just bad luck. Although I am sort of lucky in that the dealer is going to pay for the parts to get this fixed. When I pick up the car today I am going to ask the mechanic if there is anything else they saw that I might need to consider doing now or in the near future (ex.timing belt). Do any of you believe that this is an indicator that there are more problems to come with this car? At 72k miles it looks like it had a lot done to it. So I am surprised that at 79k miles there are already parts going out. Let me know what you think.

Thanks for the response.

 

I highly recommend you check the cam follower if it hasnt been replaced already

 

Agreed! I have a thread I started a couple days ago with my experience with this. For the price you might as well just order one and swap it out, then you can track the mileage on it better. If you're going to check it, might as well change it.

As for the diverter valve as mentioned above, just do that yourself as well. It's a rather inexpensive part and easy to swap out. It took me a little longer than 15 minutes but that was because I took a lot of safety precautions putting the car on stands and did it crawling on my back on the floor. I would NEVER pay someone that price to do it though.

 

In my experience with this model year, they need a few more parts/repairs than seem to be the industry average. I just think it's German overengineering, though. I've definitely had this car repaired (mostly small, but surprisingly expensive things) more than any of the others I've owned, but I knew to expect that going into it. You don't buy an Audi for its reliability.

One thing that's really helped is that I found an independent, local German specialist shop that I trust. Their prices are generally half to 2/3 of what the dealership quotes me for the same work.