Need help before I purchase

[gmartin0814]

Hey guys- I'm new to this forum and new to Audi. I have a couple questions before I make my purchase.

I am looking at buying a 2004 Audi A4 1.8t. It has roughly 150,000. I went and test drove it today. While test driving, it all seemed to be shifting fine. The clutch was very light. The turbo spooled and no lag or hesitation. The temp stayed at 195.

The brakes need replaced, they sounded horrible. On the dash, there was a light on, looked like a triangle with a "!" In the middle and a circle around it. There was also a light that appeared to be a gas light (maybe) it would turn on and off but the gas was above 1/4. It was displayed in the center of the cluster where the outline of the vehicle is. Bottom right corner.

(I'm sorry if this is hard to follow)

When I stopped, I noticed a very slight burning smell. I thought it was the brakes at first because of how bad they stopped and sounded. I popped the hood and notice a little smoke coming from the left side of the engine (I will try and upload a pic of where it was coming from)

Can anybody guess as to what it was coming from, what it could be, and if the vehicle is worth buying? He's asking $2500. It would be driven to school and work and eventually would do some minor upgrades. Thank you all for your help!

[jacobsen]

Replacing brakes on this model is not that bad. It's fairly easy to do... However if you upgrade the rear caliper brackets aren't fun. It sounds like there is smoke coming from the turbo because that is where the turbo sits on the motor. Smoke from a turbo it's not a good thing. Check for smoke out the tailpipe. The gas light indicator will come on at 55 miles remaining in the tank. The triangle you describe is the brake wear indicator telling you you need new brakes. How many miles are on the turbo?

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[gmartin0814]

Thank you for your reply! Yeah the brakes desperately need done, when you step on the brakes it felt like it hopped. I would imagine the turbo was factory. It all seemed to drive okay and the turbo didn't act funny and felt like it maintained boost but I only drove it about 6 miles.

[jacobsen]

Hey guys- I'm new to this forum and new to Audi. I have a couple questions before I make my purchase.

I am looking at buying a 2004 Audi A4 1.8t. It has roughly 150,000. I went and test drove it today. While test driving, it all seemed to be shifting fine. The clutch was very light. The turbo spooled and no lag or hesitation. The temp stayed at 195.

The brakes need replaced, they sounded horrible. On the dash, there was a light on, looked like a triangle with a "!" In the middle and a circle around it. There was also a light that appeared to be a gas light (maybe) it would turn on and off but the gas was above 1/4. It was displayed in the center of the cluster where the outline of the vehicle is. Bottom right corner.

(I'm sorry if this is hard to follow)

When I stopped, I noticed a very slight burning smell. I thought it was the brakes at first because of how bad they stopped and sounded. I popped the hood and notice a little smoke coming from the left side of the engine (I will try and upload a pic of where it was coming from)

Can anybody guess as to what it was coming from, what it could be, and if the vehicle is worth buying? He's asking $2500. It would be driven to school and work and eventually would do some minor upgrades. Thank you all for your help!

brakes on this model is not that bad. It's fairly easy to do... However if you upgrade the rear caliper brackets aren't fun. It sounds like there is smoke coming from the turbo because that is where the turbo sits on the motor. Smoke from a turbo it's not a good thing. Check for smoke out the tailpipe. The gas light indicator will come on at 55 miles remaining in the tank. The triangle you describe is the brake wear indicator telling you you need new brakes. How many miles are on the turbo? If the turbo is old you should prepare to replace it soon. The no-nonsense replacement would be the k04. It will cost you anywhere from 650 to $1,200 depending where you get it. Things to look at will be the coolant expansion tank come on check it for cracks. Check the valve cover, oil filter housing, Turbo, oil cooler, power steering pump, power steering cooler, coolant flange at the back of the head, power steering rack, transmission flange seals, differential seals, exhaust, intake and exhaust cam seals, front and rear crankshaft seals, turbo gaskets. Check them all for leaks. Get the motor good and hot and walk around it while looking for leaks. It sounds like a lot but all of these things can be inspected pretty quickly and easily with just the eye. You don't want to buy an Audi in a hurry. At that mileage the turbo is likely about to die, and from what you described it sounds like it. Audis are excellent cars and you will be happy with it as long as you can keep it working right. Typically with our cars at our mileage and year now they're either being junked because there's a lot of money too get them in good working order are there some nutcase like us out there finally moving on who took good care of it. Or they blew up their motor. I support your decision to buy the car if you come to a positive conclusion on a full inspection of the car.


As I was replying to this a silver B6 S4 drove by. It looked good.



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[jacobsen]

Thank you for your reply! Yeah the brakes desperately need done, when you step on the brakes it felt like it hopped. I would imagine the turbo was factory. It all seemed to drive okay and the turbo didn't act funny and felt like it maintained boost but I only drove it about 6 miles.

You want to take this car for a very good drive and inspect it. You want to make sure that you're testing the car out and pushing it a little bit to its limit to get a good idea that it's holding together. Remember it's your money and don't be afraid to walk or forget about it because there's a million other B6 is out there

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[BARRY]

leaky valve cover, or cam chain tensioner gasket. both very common. b6's are the most reliable used european cars on the road sans this last century. all issues have been heavily covered on this forum and many people have an amazing amount of knowledge.

as long as you do preventive maintenance and repair, you'll easily do another 100k without breaking a sweat.

[gmartin0814]

Is that an easy or expensive fix? I plan on doing the ko4 uphrade and I'm not afraid to pull some of the engine apart to repair what needs done. I have another vehicle I can drive in the meantime.

[BARRY]

honestly...i originally got into the B6 1.8t because it was easy to work on...after owning 4 over the years, the car is fairly easy to work on. can't beat the 4 cylinder engine. anything larger could be a bit tougher to work on due to size constraints.

some things take a bit of time, but generally aren't to bad to finish. you'll need a few special tools, but they'll be well worth it in the long run. my first timing belt and water pump job took me 3 days. now that job takes me 45 minutes if i could get the bumper off quickly. the bumper removal takes the most time of the whole process.

[jacobsen]

Is that an easy or expensive fix? I plan on doing the ko4 uphrade and I'm not afraid to pull some of the engine apart to repair what needs done. I have another vehicle I can drive in the meantime.

A cam chain tensioner replacement is an involved process. You must remove the valve cover, remove the chain on the tensioner and the tensioner itself. If you just want to replace the gasket and seal, that's not too big of a deal. A new tensioner is going to cost a couple hundred bucks and in no way should you ever install a non OEM tensioner. It will fail shortly after you replace it and you will have to do it all over again. But the cam chain tensioner is one thing I forgot to mention, they tend to fail if the oiling has not been maintained consistently throughout the life of the motor. And if they just get old as well. Take the oil cap off and inspect inside, look for any Coke or black marks. That's a sign of sludge, which was a big deal with this motor and led to class-action lawsuits. The original specification was for non-synthetic oil at 10000 mile oil change intervals with standard small capacity filters. The best oil change these days has moved on to the OC 105 filter with a high-grade synthetic like motul 5w40.

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[gmartin0814]

You all have been so helpful! I really do appreciate it. So let me throw this out there...if I end up buying the car, I would prob just purchase the ko4 turbo just to avoid this turbo going out. Is there anything else I need to purchase to do that?

[jacobsen]

You all have been so helpful! I really do appreciate it. So let me throw this out there...if I end up buying the car, I would prob just purchase the ko4 turbo just to avoid this turbo going out. Is there anything else I need to purchase to do that?

To be honest if you're going to buy a ko4 I would actually recommend taking a different path. A slightly upward path would be the new frankenturbo. It requires reprogramming the ECU, piping, bigger intercooler, bigger injectors, exhaust upgrade with downpipe, and typically a better clutch to hold more power. The whole thing is going to cost a couple thousand dollars what turns the car into a much more fun Driving Experience. With all that said you might just want to get an S4. Haha 2500 bucks isn't bad for a car in good working condition.

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[jacobsen]

The point of the frankenturbo is it cost about the same as a full price k04. It is capable of more power and is a newer design which so far has had mostly very positive reviews. With one exception that we haven't cleared up quite yet.

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[gmartin0814]

How can i rule out that it's not a headgasket?

[jacobsen]

How can i rule out that it's not a headgasket?

In order to determine or have suspicions of a bad head gasket you must run the motor through its Paces. You must check the coolant and the oil for fluid mixing. If you find oil in the coolant or coolant in the oil then you kind of have your answer there. Other times a head gasket leak is more slight and won't be completely obvious on the surface. You must monitor the coolant level with a properly sealed cooling system with no leaks. If you have a cooling system without leaks and you're losing coolant, odds are you may have a bad head gasket. Which would typically be accompanied by Misty or visible exhaust and would smell like burnt coolant. If the car has never been tuned I wouldn't jump to that conclusion. It's possible to have a broken oil cooler, Oil and coolant could possibly mix there but that's a rare circumstance. Symptoms of a bad head gasket or water in the oil which would be made obvious by buttery thick oil. And the same if oil is getting in the coolant. Bad head gaskets can cause misfires. Overheating. Loss of coolant. Low compression. No start.

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[gmartin0814]

Thank you so much! You've been a huge help- I think I'm going to go drive it one more time tomorrow and go over all the things you have talked about before purchasing.

[jacobsen]

Thank you so much! You've been a huge help- I think I'm going to go drive it one more time tomorrow and go over all the things you have talked about before purchasing.

The most outright example of bad head gaskets would be misty or visible exhaust with a readily apparent loss of coolant. Wet spark plugs or water in the cylinders which exacerbates the problem. I would say the most common reason for Smoky exhaust in the 1.8 is bad turbo seals. These turbos only last so long and right around that age of the car you're in bonus miles in my opinion with anything over a hundred thousand miles. What happens is oil goes into the turbo to lubricate and cool the journal bearing that the impeller and expeller fans ride on. This chra, Center housing rotating assembly is where the lubrication takes place. Inside the center part of the turbo are seals that prevent the oil from getting sucked into the exhaust path. Over time these seals wear out and begin to give up some oil. 99% of the time there is a clear indication that the turbo is failing before it does. It usually starts out with a diesel kind of smell, then it moves on to visible exhaust and possibly the impeller or expel her fans contacting the housing which sounds like a dental drill. Which is the point at which you should replace the turbo. Take a look at the Franken turbo kit and what all that is going to take and what it's going to cost you. Overall it's a very easy upgrade and the 1.8 T has plenty of room to work on, there's no better car forum to be a part of any issues you may have has been covered before and theres plenty of help on this form. I'd say in retrospect I didn't know it, but, that was the best part about getting an Audi. Tons and tons of free help, tutorials and DIYs on audizine. Be cautious of body rust, you can have a great running car but rust can really takeover fast.

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[KHARDa4]

Go with a k04.

[chad99]

It really would be best if you could run vagcom and check the entire car out. It will tell you what is causing the dashboard lights to turn on and will tell you if engine codes were recently cleared (readiness will be incomplete).

At the very least I would connect a regular obd reader and check for stored codes in ECU but the owner could have just cleared them.

Check the coolant color with a flashlight, pink is good, black is bad and green could be good or bad depending if it was done correctly. Also look for tiny gold or silver particles in the coolant, this is a sign the PO put in radiator repair from a bottle. If car is cold open cap and sniff the overflow tank for combustion / blow by smells. If you smell them in coolant tank, head gasket is bad or warped head.

If good oil has been used and changed frequently enough most 1.8T turbos should last well over 100k, please don't just buy a new turbo before knowing if it's actually bad, you will be needing the $$ for normal repairs first.

If you can connect a vacuum gauge to the intake manifold at idle with AC off, for a manual car, look for around 20-21inhg with a warm engine, anything lower than 20 means vac leak somewhere or maybe serious issues.