Me and my 1998 A4

[Zack01GC]

Well, it's been a long an painful journey so far, to say the least.

It all started in March 2008. I wrecked my 2001 Jeep Grand Cherokee due to black ice. This thing was my baby.




And that led me to the next page in this book, the next car. I had always loved Audi's and VW's (don't hate - I like a myriad of different cars), so that's the direction I decided to head in with the insurance money. I had been looking around, and finally ran across one that was just what I was looking for and in my price range. Unfortunately, I did not do my research on the dealer, but did come home with a car.

The day I brought it home:


(Yes, that is a rear mat in the front. The car did not have a driver's side mat, and no one was going in the backseat, so it made sense.)


It was pretty, but the problems came soon enough. Eight days after I bought it, the timing belt broke, and well... to keep the story short, the dealer refused to fix it (even though I had purchased a warranty!), so I went around and around with them until they finally gave in and fixed it. The car was gone for 11 weeks total, between arguing with the dealership, their hired mechanic fixing it (could have been back sooner, but the dealership wouldn't even cough up enough money to pay the guy for 2 weeks). I finally got it back in early June (keep in mind, the car went into the shop the first week of April).

When I got it back, I decided it was time to get some use out of my Porter Cable, since it had been sitting all winter and spring unused. Gave the car a nice welcome home detail:






Shortly after, near the end of summer (late August), the car began to run like crap. Wasn't sure what it was, but still had some fun with it anyway:



(My first award for the car... Biggest Wheel Gap!)

I decided to finally address the problem of it being a dog. Flooring it, it can barely make it up a hill over 30 MPH. I know these cars aren't supposed to run like a 1986 Cavalier full of cinder blocks, so something is up. My friend who is an Audi Tech at a local dealership drives it and decides that it is the N75 Valve. I take to him to be fixed, and discovered something much worse. The turbo is seized! Great!

The car has been recieving full synthetic 5w-20 since I bought it, but the turbo still decided it was time to go. And that's where I'm at today.

[Cecchini]

BT time... If not check classifieds there are always people selling used k03's.

[jpcallmotor]

Nice B5, mine is the same year with manual shift. Your thread kind of worries me... I recently totaled my old car and went out and brought an Audi with no maintenance history, but the car is in flawless shape. I hope my luck isn't as shitty as yours, that sucks man. How many miles are on your car? Mine has a 140K, hope my tbelt and turbo hold up unlike yours.

Nonetheless, congrats on getting the dealer to fix the timing belt.