I consider myself a pretty savvy mechanic. I have built many American and Japanese Turbo cars, but I have never seen a car assembled as complex as an Audi! The Bentley manuals, USELESS! The engine is full of oil leaks and getting componets out of the car requires disassembling the whole damn thing!! There are hydraulic lines run through the battery tray, captured and hidden screws everywhere and the radiator is the most hideous thing I have ever tried to remove! WOW! If you are considering buying an Audi, you best be very mechanically minded! Is there a GOOD manual out there for the Audi 90 Series??

 

I feel your pain

Sounds like you might have 90 with a 2.3 5-cyl? The car does suck when it comes time to work on one but you quickly forget once you get behind the wheel. The Bentley manual sucks but believe it or not it is the best that you can get on this side of the pond.

 

No actually I have a 2.8 V6...Nothing is easy on these cars. I was hoping there was something better for manuals. The Bentley CD manual is not at all useful. For instance, there is not a single page on removing the radiator.

 

hmm, I felt it was okey when I worked on my car.

well ye, rad is hard, how many times do you replace in the life of the car, evry year???
the heater core works well for 10 years, hmm, wow it whent for 10 years. why do you drive it??? its old.

yea car leaks, how old is she???

NOW mine:
I have a V6 audi 90 1995 Auto. WITH 189204 miles on it thats over 300 000 KM
It leaks, ye, mostly on the power stering rack, I add cheapo oil (syntetic blend tranny oil by castrol) about 1 bottle in 3 month if I drive it often evry day.
engine is strong, but does leak, slightly. 1 quart per 3000 miles.
heater core I changed, 1 waek or less, so what it will still hold for 10 years next, and maybe I move somewhere warm, and will disconect heater core compleatly.
ye if I wasn't that lazy, I would disasemble a little more and probably could get the rad out easier. BUT NO i'm lazy.

a small tip on that, there is a where going onto headen compartment under shild, there is a plus or a minus for the fans, with bolt holding it, take it out, then you could pull the fan out and put in on top of the engine without disconecting the whole wireing, which is a PITA. then pull up the rad slightly, push it in and pull and the rad is out without taking the head lamps and bumper out. I found out it as I was doing it, from the second try for the rad.
also becouse rad is out, probably good idea to do the timing belt, will create less cut heands.

SO what if it slightly hard in maintainance, but it hell beats out of HONDA with no style, oh wait they do have style but poor one, coping from each other HONDA MAZDA HUNDAI MITSHUBISHI HUNDAY AND BACK TO TOYOTA.

by by the way if you look on how it is build and how you get to some particular parts, you will see it is build with brains, not just puting crap together. All is where it should be. check out where you change oil, filter is all the way where youy could grab it by your heands, drain plug is right there with enough elbow to open it.
did you see where the filter on MAZDA I4 engines, or MITSHUBISHY, or TOYOTA. some times mechs cant find it or reach it.
what else oh the head lights, try to change one on honda, you have to take the whole freaking tire shild out just to get there.

Sure ASIAN cars are cheap and have lots of parts, but CRAP is also cheap, I do it even for free.

SHALL i go on why the stupid complaint on: " ohh audi parts are so expensive" or "ohh, why did they make it so hard to work with" are stupid.
PARTS::: you change each one evry day, ones in a while, so what if they somewhat extra, thats why they extra, nobody whants them, failure due to the wear is almost imposible on this cars, but happens. You cant by pass wear. Tell me which parts broke.
WORK::: Have you ever asked why they put it there, not why its so hard ???

I can go on the whole night, but my fingers will probably fall off, or you die from reading my bad spelling and or grammar.
any way, chech out my web sites and infos......

 

I know how you feel.. i had to remove the rad out of my audi.. it only has a 5 cyl though.. i image the v6 is harder. yeap stuff is expensive (even here in germany, its WORSE, and the stuff is made here). But shop around.. and these cars are awesome. Fell in love with it instantly after I got it working Yeah I have the bentley manual as well.. i had to look at the diagram and ask a lot of questions.. good luck with the audi

 

Belive it or not the cost of the parts does not really burn me. I just like doing my own work. This is no doubt the hardest car I have ever encountered. I need to replace the upper oil pan gasket. Looks like the entire subframe needs to come out. I guess they never thought it would need to get done! I'm slowly getting the car apart. I hate oil leaks and I am determined to fix them all.