Hi all, I joined the board yesterday and am currently looking at a 99 A4 2.8 Quattro. I just returned from a test drive and several issues have cropped up that I'd like to run by you. This is a little lengthy, but I'm trying to make sure I don't buy a bad car. In no particular order, I noticed the following problems:

Shimmy under moderate braking

AC does not blow cold (owner said there was an oily residue in the water that leaks out the bottom of the car, which I can't verify, and that there is a smell through the vents, which I didn't notice)

Possible bad LF strut

Tick in the engine, with some sludge caked on the bottom of the oil cap

Airbag light on dash triggered when I moved the seat back far enough to get in the car (a ways back, as I'm 6'4)

My take on these is as follows: if the rotors are warped from excess usage, or are being artifically warped due to incorrect lug torque, no big deal. I can replace them without a problem. As for the strut, is there anything I need to know before tackling a DIY repair on the front suspension on these cars? I haven't owned an AWD vehicle before so I'm not sure if there's any little tricks or tidbits of knowledge that I should know about in advance. I've done several strut/shock replacements on other cars, so the procedure is nothing new, but if there are any Audi quirks to it, I'd love to find out before the car is in the air. The owner of the car says that the airbag warning light has to do with the resistive connector that runs to the airbag, and is typically not a big deal to work with or correct. Do I believe him? For the oil sludge, I take that as the car hasn't had oil changes as regularly as it should have, although this particular car does have receipts for having the front and rear cam seals changed twice due to leakage, and I suppose there's a slight chance that it could have something to do with the buildup.

As for the big one, the AC system not blowing cold, seems to me to be a problem with the evaporator core, and I have a feeling that parts and labor on replacing that is going to be expensive (calling Audi dealer momentarily to confirm this). I haven't done such a repair on my own before, and although I'm sure I could do so, I don't know if I want to buy a car and spend two days ripping half the interior out of it to fix this. At the same time, I don't know if I want to part with the money it'd take to fix it either. I looked through the TSBs for the 99 A4 and didn't see anything related to the air conditioning system, but that doesn't necessarily mean that there isn't some stupid small part failure that is known in the A4 community to cause this. Is there such a thing?

Basically as the car sits, the guy is asking $8000. The car has 127k miles on it, and service receipts showing that servicing is up to date, with the major mile-increment services done on time. With these issues, is that asking too much? The condition of the exterior I would rate at a 9 out of 10 (a few small scuffs on the rear bumper, with two paint chips about half the size of a dime) and the interior at between a 9 and 10 out of 10 (excellent condition of leather, zero rips/cracks/tears, clean, no stains on headliner or carpet, and only a small section of gasket poking out just above the center dash vents). Does that sound reasonable for such a car in this condition, with the problems itemized above? I'm in upstate NY, and the car has no rust, and drives straight, smooth, and true.

I apologize for the length of the post here, but I'd really appreciate any input you guys can give, either in the form of direct answers or links to other areas of the site (or other sites) where I can find the info myself. I'm a noob, yes, but I don't expect you guys to blow my nose and wipe my a** everytime there's a question. Still, any assistance or links you can provide would be great. Thanks very much in advance.

 

http://www.autoextra.com/vehicledeta...ce-6595/tp-DLR

I think you can get a much better deal than that. Look on autoextra or cars.com or something in your area. The car i showed you is less expensive and has less miles. I can't say if it has any kinks like what you mentioned above, but its worth taking a look. For 8000 you could get a car with even less miles than the one above and hopefully less problems.

Aaron

 

Yeah, from what I started seeing on AutoTrader, I found almost 30 cars within 100 miles of where I am, and those in the same price bracket had at least 20,000 fewer miles on them. I've been banging this around in my mind all day and I am going to pass on this car - I don't want to go and buy it and then spend either a week's worth of evenings working on it myself or taking it to Audi and paying a kidney to have the work done. If the heater core was OK and the car had just the other faults, I'd be happy to buy it and fix them, but I really don't want to get the car and immediately have to tear that deeply into it.

I appreciate the response and the search as well - thanks!