DOKO

Im very interested in these cars but from what i have heard read everyone is having problems with them, so are they all bad or am I just hearing from the bad experiences?

DOKO

Anyone, ? No one has anything to say about it? do all a4 hav the sludge problem?

lyleswk

Not sure what to say other than if you get a well maintained one and don't abuse it, they will last a long time. Yes they have their problem spots and are expensive to fix, but all cars have problem spots including Toyotas and Hondas. I have 197K on my 02 and it is still running strong.

x19

Lemon? Whatever it's the peoples who don't take care of car I guess. If you use the device that they called the "Paperless Engine Oil Cleaning Device" that remove the "DEBRIS" in oil and preventing building sludge up. You can clean this device and reuse it again and again. you can image or we all know how these are making turbo and vvt system problem, no matter how many time you change the filter and oil every 3ooo miles or less, You have to repair or "turbo"replacement require( Not cheep if you can't do by yourself. Remember,
No body talk about the " DEBRIS" and car will break sooner or later any way and enjoy with your favor car. Beside, I don't change oil almost 4 year on my car(1990 5cyl. 10v. 236.360 mil now) with this device on and keep driving with topping oil off. One more thing, Are 3ooo mile oil change necessary ? on http://amazon.com and http://3000milemyth.org . Good luck

600whpA4

The B6 sludge issue is a user problem not a car or oil problem. I have plenty of friends that have owned B6 A4 1.8t's for 5+ years and not one of them have had a sludge issue and thats because they run really good synthetic oil in their motors and use OEM oil filters.

sharkydog

^Second. Comes about as a result of improper maintenance. You only hear from the few bad cases, not from the majority of us who are fine.

As long as you ensure:
1) Correct synth oil used in all oil changes.
2) Correct oil change interval.
3) Prefer large format oil filter (recommended by Audi).

For extra insurance I have Auto-RX'ed and Seafoamed my '02 1.8T engine once after I bought the car when it was 3 yrs old. Engine runs very solid and strong to this day with no problems.

ggcrash

Had mine for close to 10 years, 187k, can't say its been trouble free but I can tell you that I'm on top of the maintenance. Hey, nothing will last forever, especially if you don't take care of the "little" issues in a timely manner, so they don't turn into "big" issues...


Case and point, If you change your oil every 2 years and don't use synthetic...your screwed!

Another one, If your axle boots are torn, and you don't fix them, don't blame AUDI, or call it a lemon, because your axle breaks!

Last one, if you stop and hear "grinding" your brakes are toast, and you should have changed them instead of ignoring that "idiot" light on your dash. See where I'm going with this?

Chekm8

heads up btw. if you use the forums to search to see if cars are bad, most likely you'll get 75-90% complaints. no one ever gets on a forum and posts, "my car works fine today". most of it will be questions about issues--same if you poll a tech or a shop.

2003 A4 1.8T, bought it 11 months after prodution;
-chipped at 10k, exhaust at 15k, and minor mods in between. k04/fmic/waterpump/timing belt at 50k and drive the hell out of it.

problems i've had;
-steering rack--replaced by dealer (within warranty), maybe around 30k
-they replaced clutch at 40k, said it was low but was under warranty. 2003 clutch compound was softer than what i currently have cuz i have no issues ever since.
-fan issues where it'd stay on even when car was not hot--shop replaced sensor but wasn't the issue--just needed to flush fluids since they said there was a lot of debree in radiator
-coilpacks--about 2-3 of them went out randomly but not at the same time. i replaced them and upgraded them as well

car is now 101000 miles on it. at 100k, checkup showed, i need to replace;
-upper control arms
-front/rear brake pads (rotors were still great)
-waterpump was leaking so needed replacement and figured i'd do timing belt again and thermostat since they had the face off.
-leaking engine mount had to be replaced--replaced with non fluid now.

1st 10-30k, i drove my car hard and it went for long trips and seriously no issues. replace oil every 5k-synthetic...i know overkill but peace of mind is there.

hope this helps.

ray corona

An Audi A4 will turn you in to a mechanic... love the car but most of the problems i can fix myself. I don't have patience for the the timing belt.. no bueno

woofster

I don't think anyone can buy a used car these days and NOT have any issues with it, no matter how well-maintained the car was. It's a simple matter of wear-and-tear and parts simply wear down and electrical connections go awry. I know Toyota and Honda owners who have a constant flow of repair items too but I think the main difference is that the majority of them are not car enthusiasts who post all about it on online message boards like we do here.