Looking to buy an A4 B6 1.8T...

[timschot]

Hi folks, new here, and looking at picking up an A4 1.8T... I've been reading through the threads a bit, just curious if anyone has any last minute tips before I buy.

I've narrowed it down to a few cars, and one in particular stands out... an '03, 44k miles, auto. I test drove and looked it over to the best of my ability and couldn't find anything wrong with it, aside from some minor curb rash on one of the wheels. No ticks/odd noises.. shifts smoothly in drive, sport, and tiptronic modes.. drives great, oil's good, coolant's good, no signs of mixed fluids, underside looks clean...

So, as far as I can tell, this one is a great car, but I'm wondering if there's anything A4-specific that I should look for before I make an offer? A professional mechanic friend said the A4s tend to have a leaky timing chain tensioner gasket, and the timing chains (or are they belts?) tend to go every 40-50k miles, but otherwise they're great cars. True?

Thanks for any help you can give!

[jbrown7815]

If you plan on modding down road, avoid automatic...

timing belts to go.

Try and get them to do it before you buy...

[timschot]

If you plan on modding down road, avoid automatic...

timing belts to go.

Try and get them to do it before you buy...

Well, I have a tendency to mod things... but this isn't going to be the primary fun car. I have a 2005 GTO, used to be procharged, but I'm selling that to get a C6 vette over the winter, which will eventually be FI. This car is more to be the fun daily/winter car to keep me from putting miles on the mod car.

I'd heard the autos are pretty tough though, are they not? One of the others I've narrowed it down to is a 5 speed, enjoyed driving that.. but heard if you replace the clutch, the flywheel has to be replaced to, and is another $600-800?

I'll see if they'll replace the timing belt before I make an offer... good call.

[widgget]

is it a 5 speed or 6 speed auto? make sure it's not the 6 speed which it the multitronic (CVT) transmission. the 5 speed is the tiptronic transmission which is much more reliable then the CVT. I have a tiptronic and it's a great car but i do miss the manual tranny in my M3. If you want to upgrade to a bigger turbo it can be done with the tiptronic (i wouldn't even thing about it with the CVT) but you will want to have the valve body and torque converter upgraded, maybe even the plates too. your looking at $1500-$3000 for this work, where you would be able to upgrade the clutch in a manual allot cheaper and be able to handle the same or more power.

Timing belt won't need to be replaced until 60k-70k and the one you are looking at only has 44k so that shouldn't be a concern right now.

the 03 had a fuel pump recall, you should get that done if it hasn't been.

[timschot]

is it a 5 speed or 6 speed auto? make sure it's not the 6 speed which it the multitronic (CVT) transmission. the 5 speed is the tiptronic transmission which is much more reliable then the CVT. I have a tiptronic and it's a great car but i do miss the manual tranny in my M3. If you want to upgrade to a bigger turbo it can be done with the tiptronic (i wouldn't even thing about it with the CVT) but you will want to have the valve body and torque converter upgraded, maybe even the plates too. your looking at $1500-$3000 for this work, where you would be able to upgrade the clutch in a manual allot cheaper and be able to handle the same or more power.

Timing belt won't need to be replaced until 60k-70k and the one you are looking at only has 44k so that shouldn't be a concern right now.

the 03 had a fuel pump recall, you should get that done if it hasn't been.

Awesome info, thank ya!

The car that's my first choice so far is a 5 speed auto, so that's good to hear.

I'll ask about the fuel pump recall as well.

[bigbro]

avoid cvt and fwd IMO

[Frey7190]

GET THE AUDI CARE WARRANTY FROM AUDI!!! -- I cant tell you how much I wish I had extended that option.. Otherwise you'll spend all that GTO money into this one for parts and labor lol... But dont get me wrong, I love my Audi A4 sedan soo much, im buying next week a Audi A4 (B6) 1.8t Convertible! lol now ill have a silver one and gray one! HAHA

[timschot]

avoid cvt and fwd IMO

I'm only looking at AWDs, that's the first thing that attracted me to them. CVT is out of the question.. I haven't even seen one yet anyway.

I went to look at some other cars, but ultimately came back to the '03 auto w/ 44k on it, and got them started looking into financing, with the purchase pending 3 things
- They need to figure out if the fuel pump recall is taken care of
- They're going to research the timing belt and if it's time to replace it, they will
- I'm going to have my mechanic inspect it

But so far, the car looks great. And if there's anything wrong with it, there are a few more just like it.. either way, I should be replacing my DD Focus with something a lot more fun by this weekend.. thanks guys.

[timschot]

GET THE AUDI CARE WARRANTY FROM AUDI!!! -- I cant tell you how much I wish I had extended that option.. Otherwise you'll spend all that GTO money into this one for parts and labor lol... But dont get me wrong, I love my Audi A4 sedan soo much, im buying next week a Audi A4 (B6) 1.8t Convertible! lol now ill have a silver one and gray one! HAHA

Haven't even looked into that.. guess I will, but I do a lot of my own work and have mechanic friends who can help with the tougher things and get me good deals on parts usually. I'd assume you can purchase that later on, though? I likely will not be buying the car from an Audi dealership.. most of them around here are at other dealerships as trade-ins, or at used car lots.

[passatkid]

The fly wheel only has to be replaced if there bad, and there not always bad unless the clutch has been driven really hard. There more like 400 if you look around from what I have seen. See your from MN>

[jon102034050]

be sure to register on MNAudi.com. We have a pretty big following, and theyre a great bunch of people there.

[03CrysBlueB6]

yeah i got a zurich aftermarket warranty.. they added it to my lown its a 3300 warranty but gave it to me for 1k it adds only like 15 bucks a monh on my loan maybe liek 30... bu no deductible.. bumper to bumper coverage.. rental car and emergency road side assistance.. audi said that zurich is their best third part warranty by far.. very easy to deal with.. i bought my car used froma cadillac dealership but asked them if i could take it to the audi dealership and have them run codes on it and do a quick check.. its worth the 100 bucks.

[04QuattroTurbo]

Look for and buy one with the Ultrasport package, or as we amicably refer to it herein as, "USP". Since, the suspension and the cosmetic upgrades would have you half-way there or at least will have you at a good start.

[timschot]

This site needs a multi-quote feature...

@ passatkid
Pretty sure I want an automatic anyway, considering it will be my daily/winter car. But thanks for elaborating on that.

@ jon102034050
I registered yesterday morning, but they haven't approved me yet? Not sure. I've met a couple local audi a4 modders at cars & coffee and Thursday drive-in meets. If you attend either of those much, we may have met? I have a grayish blue GTO that would've been procharged at the time (but is now demodded to make selling it to get a C6 easier). Got a nice big ticket pulling out of the drive-in about two months ago or so.. a lot of people have recognized me from that... lol

@ 03CrysBlueB6
Thanks.. I'll look into that one. $1,000 for peace of mind ain't bad.

@ 04QuattroTurbo
I've only been able to find two of these for sale within about 200 miles of me, and they're about 5-6k more expensive than I'm willing to spend.

[04QuattroTurbo]

I had the same problem authorizing my account, I just kept emailing the admin until he manually activated me.

5-6K, wow....you maybe able to buy the upgrades for 1/2 of that...so get a "regular one" and save the 5-6K for upgrades!

[audikid66]

I had the same problem authorizing my account, I just kept emailing the admin until he manually activated me.

5-6K, wow....you maybe able to buy the upgrades for 1/2 of that...so get a "regular one" and save the 5-6K for upgrades!

its his winter car and daily driver... i don't think he wants to mod it as he stated a few times lol.. he is just looking for a nice car to drive around in the snow and daily drive...
boosted c6 vette is gonna be pretty insane

[timschot]

its his winter car and daily driver... i don't think he wants to mod it as he stated a few times lol.. he is just looking for a nice car to drive around in the snow and daily drive...
boosted c6 vette is gonna be pretty insane

Yeah, I'm fine with the base model for now. But I never said I don't want to mod it ever ;) I will likely get it up around the 200-250 whp mark, maybe more over the summer when I'm driving the other car more. Haven't researched enough yet, but it looks like the GT2X eliminator kit and supporting mods would work well enough.

[timschot]

I had the same problem authorizing my account, I just kept emailing the admin until he manually activated me.

5-6K, wow....you maybe able to buy the upgrades for 1/2 of that...so get a "regular one" and save the 5-6K for upgrades!

Could you PM me the admin's email? Or maybe PM the admin over there to approve me? I have no way of contacting 'em..

[Papachristou]

i dont think anyone here even runs the gt2x because there isnt any software for it.....

you will regret getting an auto.. lower gas mileage and wont like the 250awhp as thats ticking into the 300+ chp range.. there are a few TIPs running BTs but i would get the stick for fuel economy and the fact it can take the upgrade much easier (with clutch of course) just keep looking, you will find the one you want..... ultrasport with 6speed FTW!

[timschot]

i dont think anyone here even runs the gt2x because there isnt any software for it.....

you will regret getting an auto.. lower gas mileage and wont like the 250awhp as thats ticking into the 300+ chp range.. there are a few TIPs running BTs but i would get the stick for fuel economy and the fact it can take the upgrade much easier (with clutch of course) just keep looking, you will find the one you want..... ultrasport with 6speed FTW!

Ah, good to know. Like I said, I haven't done enough research on the turbos yet, just a little reading on this forum and various other sites. But a bigger turbo, maybe a FMIC setup, etc, that would add a good bit of power, but not so much where I'd need forged rods or better pistons, is all I'd be looking for.

I know everyone says I'll regret the auto, but I have my reasons ;) #1 being I hate driving a manual in rush hour traffic, especially in the winter. I commute in a very busy part of the cities in MN, 25 mile drive to work in sometimes bumper to bumper traffic the whole way.. clutch in/clutch out constantly = not fun. If it were my fun summer car, it'd be another story, but I'm really leaning towards the auto in this case.

[timschot]

Thanks for the info guys! I picked up a red '03 A4 1.8T quattro tiptronic with 44k miles last night. I'll have some pictures up soon, but it's completely stock, just debadged on the rear.