First step in the TDI avant conversion.

[lagomorph]

1. Acquire car.
Picked this up from craigslist, showed up tonight. Spent a few hours doing a quickie detail on it, and a coat of meg's spray wax to at least help protect the paint until I can clean/clay/polish/wax in the spring.

'01 1.8t 5speed b5 avant, with cold/convenience/sport packages. And cloth interior.
But, it was the color/options combo I was after, and the price was right on the money. New engine @ Audi 60k ago, and pretty large stack of service history, printed out from the dealership that the owner had it serviced at.

showed up pretty filthy. I made sure that I noted I was not able to inspect the car due to it being dirty.


But, a few hours of cleaning and a temporary wax job, and it's good to go until some of the other shop inhabitants move on to other garages.



Still gotta wait on other toys like suspension and stuff until my jetta coupe or my e28 M5 is sold.
Then we'll be ordering some goodies. I've got a set of 17" abt's in the classfieds right now, I may be putting them on and moving these wheels to the vanagon.

[lookaught]

I dig the cloth interior. Leather sucks.

Is it pearl or casa? Looks nice! 1.9tdi swap? How will that work with the quattro?

[lagomorph]

it's casa white.
The tdi will work with the quattro because I am going to buy a euro tdi trans to install into the audi. That's really all it takes.

[catamount90]

Funny, I bought the same car (almost) two months ago. 99 1.8q 5speed with 108k off of Craigslist for $2,000! Will be looking forward to seeing your upcoming mods.

[Greyhound Guy]

I was considering looking for a second A4 Avant instead of my A6. The A6 has a third row, bigger interior but is a bit of a gas hog.

Looking forward to the tdi conversion.

[B528QM]

Love the Casablanca... Would like to hear the details on a TDi swap!

[DzeticVR]

how much did you pay, if you dont mind me asking?

[lagomorph]

paid 7k for it, seemed like a fair price for a car with a new motor at 60k.
But, the owner lied to me about a few things, and his lot attendants damaged the rear plate holder pretty badly. Of course, since I bought it "as-is" and had it shipped from MN, I don't have much recourse.
The nagging problem I've having right now is the alarm going off randomly. VAG-COM'd it and it's not the hood switch. Tried setting the interior monitor sensitivity to 50, hit the button on the b-pillar, and it still goes off, door handle sensor codes, glass breakage sensor codes, etc..but no hood sensor codes. Kinda annoying, basically, I can't use the factory alarm at all. Otherwise, it just goes berzerk w/o warning.
I'll give the guy another few days to man up and un-douche his reputation, but I'll warn you guys from the midwest not to trust him if he ignores my email for a few more days.
Kinda sucks, since he's a salesman at an audi dealership. Seemed trustworthy, and did give me lots of service records, but left out a detail or two. And not ones that you'd miss. Like the alarm going off at 2, 3, and 5:30 in the morning. And at work, at the store, and a friends house.

[SilverSurferS4]

I think you paid too much for the car :(
but thats just me..

[a88fl1]

...The nagging problem I've having right now is the alarm going off randomly. VAG-COM'd it and it's not the hood switch. Tried setting the interior monitor sensitivity to 50, hit the button on the b-pillar, and it still goes off, door handle sensor codes, glass breakage sensor codes, etc..but no hood sensor codes. Kinda annoying, basically, I can't use the factory alarm at all. Otherwise, it just goes berzerk w/o warning.....

Mine does this as well and it bugs the hell out of me, if you figure it out can you post an update?

[Capt. Obvious]

Jeff! I didn't know you picked this up. Can't wait for you to work your magic on this car. You should post up pics of some of the other toys in the garage.

[lagomorph]

After talking with some of the local techs, I think I've got it narrowed down to a fried central convenience module. It's throwing codes for items the car is not equipped with, i.e. glass breakage sensor, etc... and that's a good sign that 'the milk's gone bad'. Just gonna let it ride for now, I'm only driving one day a week, and on weekends, so once I sell one of the extra cars, I'll get cracking on some mods and stuff.
I'm gonna pull the CCM tonight and check it out internally.

And maybe I'll be nice and post pics of the other toys. But nobody on an audi forum wants to see those...

And perhaps it may appear that I paid too much now, knowing that I'm going to have to eat a CCM.
But for the color, history, engine, and trans combo I was looking for, a near book price seemed fair.
Unfortunately, the seller is leaning heavily towards douchebag, and not returning my e-mails. what a surprise.

[lookaught]

What do you expect from the previous owner? I agree he's a douche but what can you expect from someone 1,000 miles away?

[lagomorph]

I sent the previous owner an e-mail ( salesman's wife) as I had it from an e-mail she previously sent me about the car, and she's going to relay the info to her hubby.
We'll see what happens, but it's nice to know they didn't blow me off completely.

[dougyfresh]

Where are you getting the engine from? A US VW model?

I am curious. Would love to do this and my friend is selling his B5 Avant. I could do it to that car.

[UnkleGatsby]

I am very interested in the TDi conversion! It is a hot topic! Keep us informed

Oh, and great taste. Its kinda funny because, I am hunting that exact color combination. Though, could you swap a TDI into a A6 avant?

[GFRRS3]

Car cleaned up nicely...love the color:)

[justinperkins]

Though, could you swap a TDI into a A6 avant?

You wouldn't want to put a 1.9 TDI in there. The 2.0 TDI would probably be a underpowered as well.

The V6 TDI would be money in an A6.

Wonder what the outcome of this TDI swap was?

[lagomorph]

lol.
No progress yet. Money dried up for me for a while, gotta get some bills paid off. Also, had to get the subaru engine put into the vanagon so I have a driver when it comes swap time. Still planning on the swap, just my timeline got pushed forward a bit longer than I'd like. V6 TDI would be sweet, but maybe not realistic as far as maintenance goes. 1.9s can make good power with chip/injectors/intercoolers. It'll still happen.