1 Year 30,000 Mile Review and Cost of my B7 Audi A4 2.0T

[endolf]

Hello I want to make a thread regarding my review and my cost of owning my b7 a4 2.0t
And i would also like to hear your experience with your b7 in the comments :)

I bought this car late March of 2017 in Florida with 90k miles on the car.
I moved back up to Minnesota and used my a4 as my daily driver for the last year and put a a little over 30,000 miles on it, alot of highway driving back and forth from MN to FL since i live in Mn and my family is in Tampa Florida (1650 Mile 1 way trip) and i make this trip a few times a year.

I originally bought my b7 for $6500 and below is what has gone wrong and around what is costed to repair. Not including Oil changes that I have done every 5,000 miles with Mobil 1 0W40 full synthetic oil. Also car is bone stock besides new wheels, RS4 mesh grill and tinted windows.

All Labor was done by a friend that worked in a VW Dealership repairing VW and Audi Cars for 20 years and is now retired and just works on cars as a hobby. So i may have paid less than if I would have taken my car to a shop.

Coolant flange
Part: $50
Labor: $70

Coil packs
I have spent well over $300 with this problem because I kept replacing with shitty autozone/ Oreilys coils but I ordered a pack of OEM Coilpacks from audi for $170 and haven't had a coil blow since, so lesson learned ONLY BUY OEM PARTS.

PCV Valve
Part: $45
Installed myself since very easy to install

Timing Belt, and water pump
Parts: $280
Labor $400

Front Lower and Upper Control Arms
Parts: $380
Labor: $400

Fuel Filter
Part: $40
Installed myself

Oil Cooler Seal/ Gasket & Oil Filter Housing Seal/ Gasket
Parts: $35
Labor: $180


Total cost in repair on my after putting 30k miles and owning my a4 for a year not counting money wasted on garbage coils
$2,020

My A4 now has 122,000 miles on it and i love everything about my car and plan on keeping it untill it dies and then ill probally get a newer A4 or a v8 b6 or b7 S4

[thenofjboy]

Ive been keeping a spread sheet Since I bought the car and it helps with keeping up maintenance

you've been changing the CAM follower right?

OEM parts FTW

[endolf]

Ive been keeping a spread sheet Since I bought the car and it helps with keeping up maintenance

you've been changing the CAM follower right?

OEM parts FTW

No I have not changed that yet should I ?

[oVeRdOsE]

No I have not changed that yet should I ?

yes, like right now if you don't know what it looks like !

dman, labor/part price make me realize that doing it all myself save me tons of money. For me it's a hobby, instead of playing video games, I go in my garage, put some music, jack the car, and open a beer.

[Theiceman]

Holy crap you haven't done your cam follower ??? that's like the number one issue !!!
Also you are in the sweet spot for the chain tensioner . If you have been reading the threads around here , the time is around 150K or when you hear noise under your rear timing cover.

No stat yet ? that will be popping up on your list soon. You really should have done it with the rear flange is you had the system open and its a cheap part and pretty easy to change, you could have done it with the oil cooler seals too as its right there and made of the same cheap plastic the rear flange is made of.
70 bucks to change a rear coolant flange ? at that price guys from this forum would line up all day long. its a PITA item.

[endolf]

yes, like right now if you don't know what it looks like !

dman, labor/part price make me realize that doing it all myself save me tons of money. For me it's a hobby, instead of playing video games, I go in my garage, put some music, jack the car, and open a beer.

Just ordered it and will be putting it in hopefully this weekend... I love working on my car but I don’t have a garage to work in and I don’t really wanna lay under a car when it’s -10 and snowing haha otherwise if it was summer I’d replace everything myself

[Brad460]

What year is this car?

Dont let everyone get you too excited about the cam follower. The guys on here got me all worried about mine so I pulled the cam follower out at 114k and it looked brand new (was the original). Lots of great info in here, but be cautious there are also a lot of alarmists..

[dalmation53]

Holy crap you haven't done your cam follower ??? that's like the number one issue !!!
Also you are in the sweet spot for the chain tensioner . If you have been reading the threads around here , the time is around 150K or when you hear noise under your rear timing cover.

No stat yet ? that will be popping up on your list soon. You really should have done it with the rear flange is you had the system open and its a cheap part and pretty easy to change, you could have done it with the oil cooler seals too as its right there and made of the same cheap plastic the rear flange is made of.
70 bucks to change a rear coolant flange ? at that price guys from this forum would line up all day long. its a PITA item.

170k here original timing chain and tensioner zero noises.

Sent from my G3313 using Audizine mobile app

[Theiceman]

What year is this car?

Dont let everyone get you too excited about the cam follower. The guys on here got me all worried about mine so I pulled the cam follower out at 114k and it looked brand new (was the original). Lots of great info in here, but be cautious there are also a lot of alarmists..

its certainly not alarmist to check it..

its good practice

[Brad460]

its certainly not alarmist to check it..

its good practice

Agreed...but this cam follower issue seems to be on older A4 (2.0 VWs and such). Older as in 2006. Mine is a 2008 and like I said it was nearly new looking after 114k.

My guess..this cam follower issue is/was due to a cam lobe surface finish issue, not cam lobe hardness. From the damage I have seen it’s an adhesive type of wear...

[dalmation53]

No I have not changed that yet should I ?

Lol that's the first thing it should of been done before learning how to walk

[endolf]

Agreed...but this cam follower issue seems to be on older A4 (2.0 VWs and such). Older as in 2006. Mine is a 2008 and like I said it was nearly new looking after 114k.

My guess..this cam follower issue is/was due to a cam lobe surface finish issue, not cam lobe hardness. From the damage I have seen it’s an adhesive type of wear...

Mines a 2005.5

[Theiceman]

Mines a 2005.5

Mine is too and was punched at 150K

[tloft4]

Even if it's perfectly fine at 60/80/120k for the $100-150 a shop might charge to change it out, why not do it? Could be only 5% of cars that have that problem by then, but if you are in that group it'll cost you way more than making sure it's not an issue..

I bought my 07 with 70,800 miles in May '16, put about 16k on it since, I've had tb/wp/cf changed, 6 tires, oil, and some sensor I can't remember the day I brought it back to get diagnostics. The only unexpected problem so far is a bolt falling off a control arm. So everything included maybe about 2.5k and I'm hoping no issues for a while, drives perfectly fine even the rare times I get on it

[ahotboy15]

why do you use 0W40? because of the cold weather?

Hello I want to make a thread regarding my review and my cost of owning my b7 a4 2.0t
And i would also like to hear your experience with your b7 in the comments :)

I bought this car late March of 2017 in Florida with 90k miles on the car.
I moved back up to Minnesota and used my a4 as my daily driver for the last year and put a a little over 30,000 miles on it, alot of highway driving back and forth from MN to FL since i live in Mn and my family is in Tampa Florida (1650 Mile 1 way trip) and i make this trip a few times a year.

I originally bought my b7 for $6500 and below is what has gone wrong and around what is costed to repair. Not including Oil changes that I have done every 5,000 miles with Mobil 1 0W40 full synthetic oil. Also car is bone stock besides new wheels, RS4 mesh grill and tinted windows.

All Labor was done by a friend that worked in a VW Dealership repairing VW and Audi Cars for 20 years and is now retired and just works on cars as a hobby. So i may have paid less than if I would have taken my car to a shop.

Coolant flange
Part: $50
Labor: $70

Coil packs
I have spent well over $300 with this problem because I kept replacing with shitty autozone/ Oreilys coils but I ordered a pack of OEM Coilpacks from audi for $170 and haven't had a coil blow since, so lesson learned ONLY BUY OEM PARTS.

PCV Valve
Part: $45
Installed myself since very easy to install

Timing Belt, and water pump
Parts: $280
Labor $400

Front Lower and Upper Control Arms
Parts: $380
Labor: $400

Fuel Filter
Part: $40
Installed myself

Oil Cooler Seal/ Gasket & Oil Filter Housing Seal/ Gasket
Parts: $35
Labor: $180


Total cost in repair on my after putting 30k miles and owning my a4 for a year not counting money wasted on garbage coils
$2,020

My A4 now has 122,000 miles on it and i love everything about my car and plan on keeping it untill it dies and then ill probally get a newer A4 or a v8 b6 or b7 S4

[ahotboy15]

OEM coils really cost $170? were they the red tops. i replaced mine but i dont remember it costing that much for a set of 4?

Hello I want to make a thread regarding my review and my cost of owning my b7 a4 2.0t
And i would also like to hear your experience with your b7 in the comments :)

I bought this car late March of 2017 in Florida with 90k miles on the car.
I moved back up to Minnesota and used my a4 as my daily driver for the last year and put a a little over 30,000 miles on it, alot of highway driving back and forth from MN to FL since i live in Mn and my family is in Tampa Florida (1650 Mile 1 way trip) and i make this trip a few times a year.

I originally bought my b7 for $6500 and below is what has gone wrong and around what is costed to repair. Not including Oil changes that I have done every 5,000 miles with Mobil 1 0W40 full synthetic oil. Also car is bone stock besides new wheels, RS4 mesh grill and tinted windows.

All Labor was done by a friend that worked in a VW Dealership repairing VW and Audi Cars for 20 years and is now retired and just works on cars as a hobby. So i may have paid less than if I would have taken my car to a shop.

Coolant flange
Part: $50
Labor: $70

Coil packs
I have spent well over $300 with this problem because I kept replacing with shitty autozone/ Oreilys coils but I ordered a pack of OEM Coilpacks from audi for $170 and haven't had a coil blow since, so lesson learned ONLY BUY OEM PARTS.

PCV Valve
Part: $45
Installed myself since very easy to install

Timing Belt, and water pump
Parts: $280
Labor $400

Front Lower and Upper Control Arms
Parts: $380
Labor: $400

Fuel Filter
Part: $40
Installed myself

Oil Cooler Seal/ Gasket & Oil Filter Housing Seal/ Gasket
Parts: $35
Labor: $180


Total cost in repair on my after putting 30k miles and owning my a4 for a year not counting money wasted on garbage coils
$2,020

My A4 now has 122,000 miles on it and i love everything about my car and plan on keeping it untill it dies and then ill probally get a newer A4 or a v8 b6 or b7 S4

[ahotboy15]

jack the car and then jack ur ...

yes, like right now if you don't know what it looks like !

dman, labor/part price make me realize that doing it all myself save me tons of money. For me it's a hobby, instead of playing video games, I go in my garage, put some music, jack the car, and open a beer.

[ahotboy15]

you and the damn chain tensioner! btw are the rings your talking about, what they hell are those?!?

Holy crap you haven't done your cam follower ??? that's like the number one issue !!!
Also you are in the sweet spot for the chain tensioner . If you have been reading the threads around here , the time is around 150K or when you hear noise under your rear timing cover.

No stat yet ? that will be popping up on your list soon. You really should have done it with the rear flange is you had the system open and its a cheap part and pretty easy to change, you could have done it with the oil cooler seals too as its right there and made of the same cheap plastic the rear flange is made of.
70 bucks to change a rear coolant flange ? at that price guys from this forum would line up all day long. its a PITA item.

[ahotboy15]

punched in the face!

Mine is too and was punched at 150K

[ahotboy15]

6 tires in 16k miles. wow you must love keeping the rubber companies in business!

Even if it's perfectly fine at 60/80/120k for the $100-150 a shop might charge to change it out, why not do it? Could be only 5% of cars that have that problem by then, but if you are in that group it'll cost you way more than making sure it's not an issue..

I bought my 07 with 70,800 miles in May '16, put about 16k on it since, I've had tb/wp/cf changed, 6 tires, oil, and some sensor I can't remember the day I brought it back to get diagnostics. The only unexpected problem so far is a bolt falling off a control arm. So everything included maybe about 2.5k and I'm hoping no issues for a while, drives perfectly fine even the rare times I get on it

[StatusQuo]

why do you use 0W40? because of the cold weather?

I've been doing some research and the Mobil 1 0W-40 seems to be one of the best, if not the best oil that is 502.00 spec per the 540ratblog.

I use it in my car personally.

Sent from my ONEPLUS A5000 using Audizine mobile app

[Rulty]

I've been doing some research and the Mobil 1 0W-40 seems to be one of the best, if not the best oil that is 502.00 spec per the 540ratblog.

I use it in my car personally.

Sent from my ONEPLUS A5000 using Audizine mobile app

Blind squirrel found a nut! I have been using this oil since my first oil change, mostly because it was on sale and I decided to stick with the same oil since then

[StatusQuo]

Blind squirrel found a nut! I have been using this oil since my first oil change, mostly because it was on sale and I decided to stick with the same oil since then

Nice. Yeah you can grab the oil at Walmart for 27 bucks. Cheap and good stuff.


I hate Walmart so I just get a price match at o'reilly's lol.



For oil filters, believe it or not the Fram Ultra Synthetic is actually very good. I used it on my last oil change and was very impressed on the build quality of the filter. Did some research on it and the filter properties is around the top 1/3 of the oil filter lineup on the bobistheoilguy forums. The build quality is actually better then the Mann oil filters.

Right now I'm using a NAPA gold filter which is a rebranded wix.

Sent from my ONEPLUS A5000 using Audizine mobile app

[K1196A]

dman, labor/part price make me realize that doing it all myself save me tons of money. For me it's a hobby, instead of playing video games, I go in my garage, put some music, jack the car, and open a beer.

I was just thinking the same thing... I did those all myself (with help from youtube and DIYs here) - glad I suffered through!

[Theiceman]

you and the damn chain tensioner! btw are the rings your talking about, what they hell are those?!?

punched in the face!

6 tires in 16k miles. wow you must love keeping the rubber companies in business!

just curios .. have you ever posted anything that actually helped anyone ???

[tloft4]

6 tires in 16k miles. wow you must love keeping the rubber companies in business!

Had a nail in one around 4k into it's life, changed both fronts

[endolf]

The audi dealership closest to me told me to only use 0w40

[80sGuy]

Ive been keeping a spread sheet Since I bought the car and it helps with keeping up maintenance

you've been changing the CAM follower right?

OEM parts FTW

I do the same for all my cars. Spreadsheet/Excel file with auto-sum (-/+) for all works performed from and by. I also see that you're one of the old veterans here at Audizine based on your joined date, just a day before me!

[nij_tp]

I'm terrified to have a spreadsheet telling me where all monies gone, especially if the wife gets to see it, lol

Sent from my SM-N950U using Audizine mobile app

[jhoward]

I'm terrified to have a spreadsheet telling me where all monies gone, especially if the wife gets to see it, lol

Sent from my SM-N950U using Audizine mobile app

Yeah, I really don't want to know


OP: if you get that V8, expect your costs to go WAY up. But they're fun as hell to drive and totally worth it. MT6 or bust


Sent from my iPhone using Audizine

[thenofjboy]

I do the same for all my cars. Spreadsheet/Excel file with auto-sum (-/+) for all works performed from and by. I also see that you're one of the old veterans here at Audizine based on your joined date, just a day before me!

one day before you..haha nice! AZ taught me sooo much about my B5 and B7! It's great to pass along knowledge that I have learned from here.

I'm terrified to have a spreadsheet telling me where all monies gone, especially if the wife gets to see it, lol

Sent from my SM-N950U using Audizine mobile app

hahaha I agree and too funny! I mainly use it to track miles between oil changes, filters, brakes etc. Just keep another spreadsheet with the 'fun' purchases and hide that from the wife!! lol