L_U_D_I_AAudi

Hello everyone...

I am in the process of trying to get my hands on a 02 A4 1.8T auto... Long story short the seller does have some maintenance history on the car and currently the B6 has about 110K, timing belt and water pump done at 90K... Anyhow the seller tells me that the car would not accelerate and based on his mechanics opinion it needs a new cat due to the one in the car being clogged??? Now I am not entirely familiar with the 1.8T engine to be burning oil... Will it be possible that the car really needs a cat after only 100K??? Has anyone had this problem before? Is there something else I should be looking at for the "no acceleration" problem?

Thanks in advance...

lyleswk

Maybe. Or it could be 73 other things. If it were me, I would simply steer clear or get the current owner to let you take the car to an VAG specialist, download codes and see what his / her opinion is. Wouldn't trust word from the seller.

As far as cat going out at 100K, the answer is it depends. I have 106K on my current one, and had 208K on a previous on. I also have 230K on a mercedes. All of these were original cats. The driver for a cat going bad is how the engine is running (burning oil, running rich / lean, etc.

vali_podaru

I agree with what lyle said. But if you wanna buy that car you should pray not to be the cats..I think it will cost you minimum of 1500$ to fix them. Also make sure that he doens;t sell the car just to get rid of the fixes like its happened to me..I own my car for 6 months and already put around 1500 in it..but I still love it

woofster

I'd walk away from this one. If there really was an issue with a clogged catalytic converter, the check engine light will throw out a code, probably something along the lines of the catalytic converter efficiency. If there is no code then it could be an infinite number of things. If there is a code, why didn't the mechanic scan it? It just doesn't sound like a clean deal.

tofast2belast

isn't the cat warrantied by an AUDI dealer if its under a certain amount of miles? I thought it was one of those parts that if it becomes defective before its set lifespan, it would be replaced under some Warranty act.

lyleswk

My understanding is it is 10 years and 100,000 miles and also assumes the owner has proof that the car has been properly maintained, both of which probably don't apply in this case.

MikekiM@PureMS

We haven't seen too many cats failing at only 100k, but it's not out of the question if the car was running very poorly.

There are a bunch of reasons a car might be sluggish. Best to have the car inspected. Check for codes, check fuel trims, check for boost leaks. Usually we'll remove the O2 sensor and scope the cat to check out how the cells look.

audia4turbov8

check the turbo waste gate valve

mwspera

As others have stated, the problem described could be caused by a multitude of things. If it is a bad cat, that can also be caused by a lot of different things, some very expensive. The turbocharged engines can burn more oil than other cars (Audi calls this "normal" for their cars). But I do not believe there is a history of clogged converters because of this.

I walk away from cars that have a known defect that is uncured. If you think about it, most rational people would try to get a car in good operating condition in order to negotiate top dollar for its sale. Someone who sells a car "as-is" with a problem generally falls into 2 camps. One is a person who does not have the resources to properly maintain a car in the first place and likely has let lots of other problems slip. The other is a person who has already had the problem diagnosed and either cannot resolve it, or has received the bad news from the mechanic and cannot afford the fix. Both situations are potentially costly to you if you take on the challenge.

Some suggest you might offer a lowball price that anticipates the worst possible scenario. Trouble is, if the seller accepts you may actually wind up IN the worst possible scenario.

Good Luck,
Mike

L_U_D_I_AAudi

That is pretty much what happened... I contacted the a couple of times and he was not able to answer the questions I asked... SO i just pasted the deal... I mean it looked nice and clean for a car with 105K on it and at about $3K seemed like a good deal