10 year old Audi?

I'm due for a newer car.  I'd love to find something interesting and fun, but I unfortunately need to be responsible.  Whatever I end up buying will need to be competent in bad weather and reliable enough for 80 commuting miles everyday.  Fun is kind of secondary, but my current car is reliable enough that I can wait until something I like comes along.

Now that the boring intro is out of the way... There is a 2010 Audi A4 for sale near me.  2.0T with manual transmission.  About 100k miles.  Should I run the other way, or are these reasonably reliable?  Seems like VAG cars have eras of strong reliability and eras of miserable reliability.  I don't know where those begin and end.

On any older German car, you're buying the owner, not the car.  In other words, you want to buy one from a guy like me.  Copious maintenance and the records to back it up.  Do NOT buy one without it and without a good PPI from a shop that KNOWS these cars.

Otherwise expect massive cash infusions as you clean up the neglect from previous owners.

I see a lot of them on CL for chump change, always a bad sign to me. 

There is a lot of issues with the 2.0T's that take a strong amount of preventative awareness to not cause huge issues (timing chain related).  Buyer beware.  

They are sharp looking cars.  A pretty solid write-up of the common engine problems can be found here.  The most catastrophic being PCV and timing related:  https://www.shopdap.com/blog/post/audi-2-0t-tsi-common-problems.html

There was also a class action lawsuit for oil consumption, and a number of them I recall having piston ring problems.  

The only Audi engine that doesn't have a "they all do that mister" failure mode is the 3.0T used in A6s, A8s, and S4s.

You guys are quick.  I just browsed that shopdap blog post.  I don't feel attracted to these enough to roll the dice.  Too many issues on that list that hurt real bad if they come up.

I bounce around the idea that I could drive a cheap, ugly, reliable, boring daily driver (already own this car), and ride a motorcycle when the weather is nice.  My current motorcycles aren't really fit for my commute, but that's easy enough to change.

Granted it was much older, ie 2001 A6 2.7TT, but that car was fantastic from brand new to 100k miles.  After that, it was one thing after another.  I'd buy another new one, but an older one with over 100k on it?  No.

In reply to chaparral :

So going back to this post, Is the supercharged 3.0L the one to look at? There are a lot of 15-16 S5's that are catching my eye from a just off lease/nice value range. 

My 2.0T Audi has certainly been maintenance intensive...

Great car though. Worth the headache so far. We've done the plugs, all 4 coils, three oil changes, air filter, and gas cap so far. Fighting with a hard cold start now.

xflowgolf said:

There is a lot of issues with the 2.0T's that take a strong amount of preventative awareness to not cause huge issues (timing chain related).  Buyer beware.  

They are sharp looking cars.  A pretty solid write-up of the common engine problems can be found here.  The most catastrophic being PCV and timing related:  https://www.shopdap.com/blog/post/audi-2-0t-tsi-common-problems.html

There was also a class action lawsuit for oil consumption, and a number of them I recall having piston ring problems.  

 

I've seen enough wrong info on that site that it makes me question everything else, even though I can corroborate a lot of it.

In reply to Javelin :

I wouldn't consider any of what you did more than common time/mileage related maintenance.  Intensive maintenance is stuff that normally doesn't wear out, or when you get hit with stuff that does wear out, but all of it all at once.

If you think what you've done is "intensive" than you should sell the car immediately because you're in for a shock...

In reply to docwyte :

I'd say the COP's fit your description. I've never replaced a COP on any other car except the P71, and only then because it spit the plugs through the heads and broke them. I've seen 200K LS COP's make 1,000HP on a dyno. We had 1 fail, 350 miles from home on a road trip. Then the replacement started wigging out (cheapo VatoZone one) so we stuck an OE Bosch unit in there. Then #3 started misfiring, so we replaced 2, 3, and 4 with OE Bosch units as well.

The coils on the higher-mileage Boxster? All original. The COP's in the 5? All original. The coil in the 200K mile Bronco? Original. 

Not exactly a wear item these days...

Javelin said:

In reply to docwyte :

I'd say the COP's fit your description. I've never replaced a COP on any other car except the P71, and only then because it spit the plugs through the heads and broke them. I've seen 200K LS COP's make 1,000HP on a dyno. We had 1 fail, 350 miles from home on a road trip. Then the replacement started wigging out (cheapo VatoZone one) so we stuck an OE Bosch unit in there. Then #3 started misfiring, so we replaced 2, 3, and 4 with OE Bosch units as well.

The coils on the higher-mileage Boxster? All original. The COP's in the 5? All original. The coil in the 200K mile Bronco? Original. 

Not exactly a wear item these days...

You know why LS CNP coils are so popular for swaps?  They DON'T fail a lot.

Everybody's COPs fail.  VWAG units failed maybe more so than average on the 1.8t engines, but they also were the first to really start hammering the ignition system with high boost and high compression.  Ford's COPs fail CONSTANTLY.  It was standing procedure to recommend all eight or ten when the first one failed.  If the vehicle owner balked, the new coil would go in the most inaccessible spot (generally 7 or 8 on a V8) to make it easier to replace the ones that were about to fail.

In reply to bigeyedfish :

I’d rather buy a 10 year old Yaris or Fit and put the money saved into the suspension and/or power adders than risk a 10 year old Audi (and that’s coming from a huge (documented here) Audi fan.

Is350

Carbon said:

Is350

When the IS300 first came out, I really liked them.  I like the IS350 too, but I haven't seen any decent examples with a manual trans for a decent price.

IS350s never had a manual, only 250s. 

Last one of those 2.0t A4s i looked at (granted, i was looking at it because i was a mechanic, not because i wanted it) had timing chain issues and i told the guy (a dealer i had bought another car from) to cut his losses because the car wasn't worth fixing in the sense that he wouldn't be able to make money on it afterwards. Maybe if someone already had one and they loved it it would be worth it to them to fix it, but it's a risky bet to place. 

My old Prius is having timing chain issues... at ~285k. I think the timing set is $59 on rockauto. 

In reply to Vigo :

Shows what I know.  250 would be good too.  Might have to start looking for them.

Knurled. said:

Javelin said:

In reply to docwyte :

I'd say the COP's fit your description. I've never replaced a COP on any other car except the P71, and only then because it spit the plugs through the heads and broke them. I've seen 200K LS COP's make 1,000HP on a dyno. We had 1 fail, 350 miles from home on a road trip. Then the replacement started wigging out (cheapo VatoZone one) so we stuck an OE Bosch unit in there. Then #3 started misfiring, so we replaced 2, 3, and 4 with OE Bosch units as well.

The coils on the higher-mileage Boxster? All original. The COP's in the 5? All original. The coil in the 200K mile Bronco? Original. 

Not exactly a wear item these days...

You know why LS CNP coils are so popular for swaps?  They DON'T fail a lot.

 

 Ford's COPs fail CONSTANTLY. 

 

This is interesting. I've had the opposite experience with them - having owned half a dozen Ford vehicles 99 and newer. Also within the Mustang community its not a common theme of COPs regularly failing. Did you work in a Ford shop or an independent?

I too am on the hunt for an AWD, manual, turbo A4. 

Turning a wrench doesnt scare me and everything in the DAP list of items is basic repairs save for replacing valves, piston rings, or pistons.

DONT DO IT!!!!!!

In the interest of keeping you out of Audi maintenance hardship I will direct you to a motorcycle that would very easily and happily tackle your commute. https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/cars-sale/il-2007-triumph-tiger-1050/138763/page1/

It's been very reliable and returns mpgs in the 40s.

GarageGorilla said:

I too am on the hunt for an AWD, manual, turbo A4. 

Turning a wrench doesnt scare me and everything in the DAP list of items is basic repairs save for replacing valves, piston rings, or pistons.

I could be talked out of mine. I mean my neighbor bought my other one, and it's fine.

Javelin said:

GarageGorilla said:

I too am on the hunt for an AWD, manual, turbo A4. 

Turning a wrench doesnt scare me and everything in the DAP list of items is basic repairs save for replacing valves, piston rings, or pistons.

I could be talked out of mine. I mean my neighbor bought my other one, and it's fine.

Well, if you werent in Washington state (Im in Kansas City) and if your car werent white, I'd be a lot more interested. However, I'll keep in mind that you might be looking to move your A4.

Whats the deal on the Cobra, I noticed it in the background of your Audi video?

GarageGorilla said:

Javelin said:

GarageGorilla said:

I too am on the hunt for an AWD, manual, turbo A4. 

Turning a wrench doesnt scare me and everything in the DAP list of items is basic repairs save for replacing valves, piston rings, or pistons.

I could be talked out of mine. I mean my neighbor bought my other one, and it's fine.

Well, if you werent in Washington state (Im in Kansas City) and if your car werent white, I'd be a lot more interested. However, I'll keep in mind that you might be looking to move your A4.

Whats the deal on the Cobra, I noticed it in the background of your Audi video?

Well my neighbor bought my Black A4, and he can be talked out of it. 

The white one is a 2006 A4 2.0T (red-T, which is the pre-curser to the S-Line and makes more HP) Quattro. 6-speed manual, front and rear heated seats, auto-turning/leveling HID's, moonroof, the works. It has 160K IIRC and it was a highway cruiser (and still is). Great shape, needs nothing. The GF could be convinced to give it up for around $4500.

The Cobra is a 1996 SVT with nary a stock part left. All tubular QA1 suspension, Eibach coilovers, Steeda bumpsteer, Gripp C/C plates, Eibach sways, BBK longtubes, 3" X-pipe (catless), 3" Flowmasters with dumps, BBK CAI, BBK underdrive pulleys, SCT tuner, PA gear-reduction starter, MGW shifter, complete 04 Mach 1 rear axle, rear cover girdle, 01 Cobra seats, 04 Mach 1 interior, different paint, 99 Cobra rear spoiler, etc, etc, etc  It has it's own video series on my channel. Does 13.3@104 in the 1/4 in track day setup, won CAM-C regionally last year against Dennis Healy of all people, and has trapped 135 on the back stretch or PIR. I'd let it go for about $9000.