Kevin's V8 Quattro 5-speed ABZ hybrid
Posted: Mon Oct 05, 2015 11:19 pm
Okay, so full disclosure: not mine.
It all starts with an entirely unrelated story. I'm sure everyone is antsy to hear the juicy the details about a dealership that forgot how to Audi, but going into detail would take far too long.
The gist of it goes like this: My dad dailies a B5 S4. Once you've finished laughing, help yourself to another dose of schadenfreude, because it's a Stage 3 S4 - and he likes to make sure the car doesn't forget it.
As you can imagine, he often deals with completely anticipated, yet entirely unpredictable failures. Unfortunately, between my schoolwork and extracurriculars, I am not always able to find the time to replace the [insert OEM "non-wear" item]. As a result, my dad would frequently have the car serviced at the local stealership. It was great! They'd give him a shiny new Audi to thrash about in while they covered the car with fly paper and threw parts at it. After several botched jobs, though, I noticed that it often came back with more problems than when it left. It'd be missing parts, too, which the dealership would conveniently find in the shop after I called them. Eventually, the game of "bring it back, and we'll take care of it" grew old, and we stopped taking it to them, despite unresolved issues.
My dad needed a change, so we laid out his options: Find another shop, let me do the repairs, or buy a different car to daily. Without the luxury of Audi's loaner car, though, each option would require buying another car.
About a week after this conversation, I stumbled upon a great deal on Motorgeek for a '92 Audi V8. Amazingly, it was green-lighted within a day by both my parents! Next thing I know, my brother, dad and I were on the overnight bus to Washington D.C. to meet the new family member. The previous owner was extremely accommodating and offered to pick us up at the station. He took us back to his home and we arrived to find this waiting for us:
I cannot stress enough how amazing the PO was. He was very informative on the phone before the trip and seemed unperturbed by our delirious, unshowered state when we arrived. He took us through just about everything he was aware of that was wrong. He owned another (factory 5-speed) V8, and was just looking to get rid of this one, as it had been sitting around for a while.
We fired up the 4.2L behemoth and were greeted with a smooth, but commanding idle. As we set off, something was immediately apparent. Although he had informed me of the excessive play in the brake pedal, engaging the brakes was not confidence inspiring. They were accompanied by a horrible grinding noise, and it took quite a lot of effort to bring the car to a stop.
Upon inspection, we found that the front passenger rotor was shot. In addition, the rears didn't seem to engage at all and the parking brake didn't work. I really can't fault the owner, though, as he'd hardly driven it. He was extremely apologetic and said he wouldn't have had us come up if he'd realized it was that bad; he even offered a price drop to cover the cost of new brakes.
We called around to see if we could swap the rotors/pads for the trip home, but none of the shops had the parts available within a day. In the end, the owner jacked up the car and guided me through a dry run of the brake job - a task I've amazingly managed to avoid until this point. Knowing we could do the job with the tools I'd brought (if needed), we set off with extreme caution - but not before the previous owner offered us several spare parts he had lying around. What a guy!
We spent the night with friends from Knoxville and toured the National Mall while we were there, before setting course for Knoxville the next day.
Thankfully, the cool weather made for a very pleasant and uneventful drive home. Of course, I trailed other cars with a very generous following distance, and used the transmission to slow the car in order to avoid relying on the sketchy brakes. Back home:
So here's the deal: This is the interim Audi. My dad will be paying the parts, and I will be her caretaker. It is to be used when any of the other daily cars are down for lengthier repairs, so there are a number of issues/maintenance items that need to be addressed.
Immediate Issues
- BRAKES!!!!
- Seized brake proportioning valve (I suspect this is also why I can't get the rear brakes to bleed enough that they engage)
- Odometer is stopped @ 205k
- Rusted brake lines
- Gas gauge pegged at full
- Seized e-brake cables (calipers seem fine)
- Dying blower motor
- 3/4 Window regulators (surprise, surprise)
- Rear diff leak
- Minor unidentified oil leak
- Torn CV boot
Maintenance (unknown service history)
- Spark plugs
- Oil change/filter
- Transmission fluid
- Timing belt/ water pump
- Serpentine belt
- Fuel filter
- Air filter
- O2 sensor
Minor Issues
- Cruise control not working
- Headliner falling
- Sunroof inop
- Needs wash/polish/wax
- Interior bulbs mostly burnt out
- Some cluster bulbs very dim
- No A/C
Future Mods
Haha, get out of here. Maybe a 5-speed swap in the distant future.
It all starts with an entirely unrelated story. I'm sure everyone is antsy to hear the juicy the details about a dealership that forgot how to Audi, but going into detail would take far too long.
The gist of it goes like this: My dad dailies a B5 S4. Once you've finished laughing, help yourself to another dose of schadenfreude, because it's a Stage 3 S4 - and he likes to make sure the car doesn't forget it.
As you can imagine, he often deals with completely anticipated, yet entirely unpredictable failures. Unfortunately, between my schoolwork and extracurriculars, I am not always able to find the time to replace the [insert OEM "non-wear" item]. As a result, my dad would frequently have the car serviced at the local stealership. It was great! They'd give him a shiny new Audi to thrash about in while they covered the car with fly paper and threw parts at it. After several botched jobs, though, I noticed that it often came back with more problems than when it left. It'd be missing parts, too, which the dealership would conveniently find in the shop after I called them. Eventually, the game of "bring it back, and we'll take care of it" grew old, and we stopped taking it to them, despite unresolved issues.
My dad needed a change, so we laid out his options: Find another shop, let me do the repairs, or buy a different car to daily. Without the luxury of Audi's loaner car, though, each option would require buying another car.
About a week after this conversation, I stumbled upon a great deal on Motorgeek for a '92 Audi V8. Amazingly, it was green-lighted within a day by both my parents! Next thing I know, my brother, dad and I were on the overnight bus to Washington D.C. to meet the new family member. The previous owner was extremely accommodating and offered to pick us up at the station. He took us back to his home and we arrived to find this waiting for us:
I cannot stress enough how amazing the PO was. He was very informative on the phone before the trip and seemed unperturbed by our delirious, unshowered state when we arrived. He took us through just about everything he was aware of that was wrong. He owned another (factory 5-speed) V8, and was just looking to get rid of this one, as it had been sitting around for a while.
We fired up the 4.2L behemoth and were greeted with a smooth, but commanding idle. As we set off, something was immediately apparent. Although he had informed me of the excessive play in the brake pedal, engaging the brakes was not confidence inspiring. They were accompanied by a horrible grinding noise, and it took quite a lot of effort to bring the car to a stop.
Upon inspection, we found that the front passenger rotor was shot. In addition, the rears didn't seem to engage at all and the parking brake didn't work. I really can't fault the owner, though, as he'd hardly driven it. He was extremely apologetic and said he wouldn't have had us come up if he'd realized it was that bad; he even offered a price drop to cover the cost of new brakes.
We called around to see if we could swap the rotors/pads for the trip home, but none of the shops had the parts available within a day. In the end, the owner jacked up the car and guided me through a dry run of the brake job - a task I've amazingly managed to avoid until this point. Knowing we could do the job with the tools I'd brought (if needed), we set off with extreme caution - but not before the previous owner offered us several spare parts he had lying around. What a guy!
We spent the night with friends from Knoxville and toured the National Mall while we were there, before setting course for Knoxville the next day.
Thankfully, the cool weather made for a very pleasant and uneventful drive home. Of course, I trailed other cars with a very generous following distance, and used the transmission to slow the car in order to avoid relying on the sketchy brakes. Back home:
So here's the deal: This is the interim Audi. My dad will be paying the parts, and I will be her caretaker. It is to be used when any of the other daily cars are down for lengthier repairs, so there are a number of issues/maintenance items that need to be addressed.
Immediate Issues
- BRAKES!!!!
- Seized brake proportioning valve (I suspect this is also why I can't get the rear brakes to bleed enough that they engage)
- Odometer is stopped @ 205k
- Rusted brake lines
- Gas gauge pegged at full
- Seized e-brake cables (calipers seem fine)
- Dying blower motor
- 3/4 Window regulators (surprise, surprise)
- Rear diff leak
- Minor unidentified oil leak
- Torn CV boot
Maintenance (unknown service history)
- Spark plugs
- Oil change/filter
- Transmission fluid
- Timing belt/ water pump
- Serpentine belt
- Fuel filter
- Air filter
- O2 sensor
Minor Issues
- Cruise control not working
- Headliner falling
- Sunroof inop
- Needs wash/polish/wax
- Interior bulbs mostly burnt out
- Some cluster bulbs very dim
- No A/C
Future Mods
Haha, get out of here. Maybe a 5-speed swap in the distant future.
