Tornado //S6

Hi everyone,

Figured I'd post here and get people's feedback and opinions. I might be in the market for a B6 S4 fairly soon. First, where I come from:

I currently drive a 95.5 S6. This is my 4th Audi and just turned 212,000 miles. It still has the original clutch, the original turbo and has been the most reliable car I've ever owned. The damn thing is indestructible and I love it. However, it's starting to show its age a bit and I'm starting to want something newer. Having owned two 5000's and a 93 100s, I'm loyal to the Audi brand and would like to stay there. I've been looking at used B6 S4's for a couple of weeks now and have poked around the forums as well. So far, I've made a couple of conclusions:

1) MY2005 is more reliable than MY2004 - apparently the early ones had issues, which were largely fixed by 2005.
2) 2004s are largely under $30k; however, i've seen 2005s for under 30k as well.

Now come the questions:

I've seen a brief buyer's guide detailing some of the major differences between 04s and 05s. Can anyone list any mechanical differences? Engine/transmission/suspension?

How easy are these cars to work on? I've done all my own maintenance and upkeep on all my previous cars - is this possible with a newer s4? My S6 has never been to the shop. Any maintenance gotchas with the v8? I know there's no timing belt, which is always good...

I'll definitely be getting a 6sp. How long do the clutches last? Once again, I'm coming from a 212k original clutch but I'm not expecting that..regardless, what's reasonable?

Any other advice? I'm looking to spend under 30k, when all is said and done. Sedan or Avant would work equally well - colors I'm looking at are silver, dolphin grey and black...no imola or nogaro.

So that's the gist of it. Any advice or tips, shoot them my way. Thanks!!


EDIT: I forgot to add that I'm looking at B6s vs B5s due to the fact that I don't want the turbo lady to visit me in a B5 and I know she eventually will. Then it's engine-drop time. Doesn't sound fun.


Rokas

Kenny

You're a very rare owner to have that many miles on an original clutch and turbo...

The B6 and B7 S4 are not easy cars to work on.. The body was not designed to hold an engine that big so everything under the hood is extremely tight for space.. Cooling may be an issue in hot weather.. A large dependency is how the previous owner maintained and treated the car to determine future reliability..

As for the life of the clutch, it all depends how the previous owner drove it... Regardless, with newer technology such as dual mass flywheels and more powerful engines etc. even if you bought new, I would not expect to get anywhere near 200k miles out of a clutch..

AndreNY

a 1993 S4 with 279K original miles(full RS2 exhaust suspension.....), and now a '04 S4 with 35K miles, and they are a completly different animal. Im sure you love the torque on the S6 if so you will def. love it on the S4, the good thing aboout the S4 is that there is no timing belt, so that cuts the cost of maintenance, the B6 also has much better brakes and suspension, and the exhaust tone that only a few cars can produce. You will however miss the space inside the car, as the B6 is quite smaller then the URs6, and make sure to open up your pocket when it comes time to visit the gas station, because the S4 is a bit of a gas guzzler

Tornado //S6

was the lowest C4 s-car i'd ever seen...haha

NJRickD

just to clarify, only the early build 04's had issues, anything built after January 04 would be fine

Corrado79

As with most cars, early builds are more problematic than later builds in the same model run.

TXurS6

The color of the shocks changed sometime in the 04.5 timeframe but there doesn't appear to be a noticeable change in ride or handling. The 2004.5+ also went to a returnless fuel system and then there's the muffler flap. Other than those, I don't think there are any significant engine/transmission/suspension changes.

There are early cars that did not exhibit any infant mortality problems but may be a risk long term. Those would be the engine valve problem and the reverse detent problem. If the reverse detent was fixed then you are good to go on that. The engine valve problem would be worrisome to me long-term if it was within the problematic VIN range, but we don't know what that range is. Of course if Audi has already replaced the engine then it should be OK. The safe bet is to stay away from pre 11/03 builds unless they have both of those problems fixed.

There is another problem with the early 04's transmissions. I've heard of multiple reports of the transmission dropping into neutral from 2nd gear during hard engine braking. Mine did that and AoA replaced the transmission. My tech said it was a bad syncro but I'm not sure because they didn't crack open the tranny, they just replaced it.

The only other thing to look for on the earlier models is to make sure that all of the TSBs were performed.<ul><li><a href="https://forums.audiworld.com/s4b6/msgs/296887.phtml">You may have seen this post already</a></li></ul>

sayemthree

my late production 2004 was flawless for three years. dont rule out a late MY 2004.

Corrado79

Wow, very helpful response. Good work. Somoene should bookmark that.

TwentyValveB5+S4

for closer to $20k... with infinitely better performance than a B6, and much better fuel economy. Once the car's got K04s, you won't need to replace the turbos again.

That said, the B6 is far nicer inside and is certainly leaps and bounds better than the B5 stock-for-stock.

On colors, also consider Moro blue. It's eclipsed Dolphin for my favorite

If you look at MY04 VINs, 200k+ should be a safe bet.