Normally on the B7 forum due to owning a 2007 2.0T quattro tip. My interest in C5s came when my brother bought an 02 llroad 6MT a few years ago. Fast forward to the last 2 weeks. Saw two allroads I was interested in -- a 4.2 in Delaware (which I just missed), and one up in NJ that had been around for a few months. A 2003 Allroad 2.7T 6MT base model with just under 148k on the odo, and priced well. Too well. This particular car had been advertised for a couple months, and looks like it had been sitting a little bit longer. So armed with our knowledge of our cars, we decided to drive up--that's what 4-day weekends are for, right!?
Did the cursory exterior walkaround, and mostly found benign items -- a few rock chips, fogged headlight, oxidized fender flare, and broken rear wiper. The tires were the most concerning of those, as not a single one matched! One even looked dry-rotted too.
Unlocked the door manually and immediately noticed no lights--the battery in both the fob and car were COMPLETELY dead. I mean, not an ounce of power. However, I did the cloth seats in the base model, along with the slight differences, such as door cards, from my brother's 02. Normal worn away buttons and switches. Passenger side visor was detached in the trunk. Edges of the dash seem to pop up a bit. And that god awful purple tint.
Pop the hood. Oh crap. Rain tray was full of water, up to about 2/3s the way up the battery. All the drains were clogged with crap.
Engine covers and rain tray cover were completely missing, and the fan has one broken blade. Dried oil covered most of the sides of the engine in various places. Was told the valve cover gasket was replaced, but I'm skeptical of that. Surprisingly, connected the jump box and she started right up. And ran pretty quietly too! Finally can check out the goodies. Instrument cluster was very difficult to read, and virtually disappeared due to the heat (>80 F); it's visible when it is cooler. Speaking of cool, the air conditioning works fantastically! Additionally, the air suspension is in top shape as well--no leaking bags and immediately responsive to level changes.
Test drive: About to pull onto the street and it died. After jumping it again and going down the road, the dash lights lit up like Christmas. Ah crap, I thought. And a shake in the car at ~40 mph. After returning and shutting off, I noticed a small puddle of oil underneath (appeared to be coming from the oil pan gasket, but not 100% sure). The dealer replaced the battery with a new one, and we test drove the car again. Some negotiating time later, I wound up with ~35% off the asking price.
On the 2 hour drive home, had to pull off due to the oil level light coming on. All the other dash lights were coming on like the test drive as well. Oil level checked out. Read all the codes with VCDS (a LOT--all electrically related), cleared them, and resumed driving home. Warning lights GONE (except washer fluid and brake pad sensor). Car started driving great, and getting stronger the whole drive home!
Here are a few of the pics captured:
Driving home:
Interior shots:
Outside:
Engine:
And of course, some beer to celebrate!
So, my next steps (not in order) are to do the following:
1. Degrease/wash the engine to both clean it and figure out where that oil leak is coming from.
2. Fix said oil leak.
3. Clean out the rain tray completely.
4. Clean up all the corroded bolts, etc, in the rain tray area.
5. Change brake pads/discs.
6. Replace fluids (brakes+slave cylinder, engine oil, gear oil, rear diff, blinker fluid).
7. Obtain engine and rain tray covers.
8. Replace instrument cluster (or just the display).
9. Replace worn switches.
10. Replace all tires (or get wheel/tire combo I like).
11. Remove cheap purple tint and get real tint.
12. Keep her stock while I think about mods and fix whatever else comes up.
Look forward to getting along with everyone!
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Originally Posted by 4rings2turbos
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