Double or nothing, project car style.
Here we have two Audi 90 sedans for sale–both from the same year, 1990.
Both cars still retain their 5-cylinder engines and transmissions, thought the listing notes “both vehicles final drives are out.”
Find these Audi 90 sedans …
These are the saddest two Audis on the entire internet.
In reply to David S. Wallens :
If you combine the two, does it make one slightly-less sad Audi? Or an even sadder Audi?
I have family in Crossville and a nonzero desire for another 90...
If those are quattros, those are 20 valve cars.
Slightly better than a 5000, but still horrid.
Both appear to be 2wd. It simply amazes me how many people really don't know/understand Aufi during this era. These cars were probably among the best builr ever. My dad sold his 88 at 250k with original, well , everything except waer items like brake pads, filters and do on. Original clutch, alternator, even exhaust. And it was an upstate NY car he bought new, from the dealership in Ithaca. My old 87 5k tqa. Sold a couple years ago in Wisconsin with 450k on the original clutch, and I had that thing at about 250 bhp max boost with the stock MC1. Original engine, trans, everything. I bet, with proper maintenance, those 2 cars could see a million miles. Not kidding.
In reply to Docwemple :
I used to own this car's slightly older, derpier cousin. At 400k miles the bores (JT 2.2l five) had no measurable wear, and the clutch still had a ton of life left in it. The body was severely rusted, which led to the car's removal from service. (The taillights, for example, didn't work because VWAG didn't see fit to weatherproof them from the inside, which doesn't help when the lack of inner fenders causes salt spray to hit the circuit boards from inside the car)
Amusingly, the clutch PEDAL was severely worn at the pushrod pin. You could barely disengage the clutch because you lost about a quarter inch of master cylinder travel due to the worn pedal, and there was no adjustment at the master.
In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :
I bought a 4kQ in 85, 84 model. One of the best cars I ever owned. My BiL totalled it. Still pissed at him for that. Bought a 87 4kQ a few years after. Prices on these cars is on the noticeable uptick. Great cars!
In reply to Docwemple :
I had a Quantum Syncro, which was like a wide body 4000 but with a Super Beetle-ish rear suspension. (Trailing arms and coilover springs) It was a front drive B2 shell with the spare tire well removed and covered over, no strut towers for a station wagon.\
Body parts like glass seals were impossible to find for it because VW couldn't sell parts that might fit Audis (???) but given that the car was a couple inches wider than a 4000, no Audi parts would actually FIT the car.
No body or glass parts. When the two piece speedo cable died, I replaced it with a still-available Coupe GT cable.
In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :
I loved those, but even early on, parts were unobtainium. Really wish Audi would be better at supporting their vehicles. I know this is VW, but the Q-ships were always more Audi than VW. Really well built.
Both of these cars are 5cyl 10V NA engines, FWD, automatic. The auto transmission and the ring & pinion are both contained int the same FWD transaxle, but a seal keeps the ATF in the trans and the 80W90 in the diff section. That seal is a very common failure. When the ATF waters down the hypoid gear oil, the ring& pinion fail. Though these are extremely rust resistant bodies, these 2 cars are not manual, turbo, 20V, AWD. None of the fun stuff that comes to mind in various Audi cars of the '80s-90s era.
5 cylinder AWD audis were some of the most reliable, fun to drive vehicles I have owned. But by now the wiring harnesses are probably toast and not available. And the FWD autos are just useless. Off to the scrapyard for these 2.
Damn I was hoping they were 20v quattros
Pete. (l33t FS) said:In reply to Docwemple :
I had a Quantum Syncro, which was like a wide body 4000 but with a Super Beetle-ish rear suspension. (Trailing arms and coilover springs) It was a front drive B2 shell with the spare tire well removed and covered over, no strut towers for a station wagon.\
Body parts like glass seals were impossible to find for it because VW couldn't sell parts that might fit Audis (???) but given that the car was a couple inches wider than a 4000, no Audi parts would actually FIT the car.
No body or glass parts. When the two piece speedo cable died, I replaced it with a still-available Coupe GT cable.
I guess the Quantum not being popular enough would make it hard to justify importing body and glass parts from China or Brazil given how long the B2 lasted over there.
I think the front wheel drive Quantum was a front 4k with a rear MK2 Jetta/Golf?
I still miss my automatic B2 wagon I had.
In reply to aw614 :
They only made the syncro for three, maybe four years, with low four digits production. As far as I know, there are no all wheel drive Chinese B2s.
It was a front wheel drive shell and the rear suspension used a lot of Super Beetle dimensions, but AFAIK it was only ever used in that and the B3 Passat Syncro. And the A2 Golf Syncro.
Find these unicorn parts and you can convert any front drive B2/B3 Audi to all wheel drive.
I owned a 1990 90 20 valve. I used in place of a company car. It was 10 years old and may have been a good car when new, but I was constantly fixing things on it. Even with free labor it really ate up my mileage reimbursement. I sold it to a friend who knew of the repairs but didn't care because could write off the cost. He called me a couple weeks after buying it, asking if I could find him a trans. I said that was the one thing on the car that worked well. It turned out he drained the trans fluid thinking it was the oil drain plug. How the thing didn't smoke when he overfilled the oil is beyond me. Some people shouldn't own tools.
Pete. (l33t FS) said:In reply to aw614 :
They only made the syncro for three, maybe four years, with low four digits production. As far as I know, there are no all wheel drive Chinese B2s.
It was a front wheel drive shell and the rear suspension used a lot of Super Beetle dimensions, but AFAIK it was only ever used in that and the B3 Passat Syncro. And the A2 Golf Syncro.
Find these unicorn parts and you can convert any front drive B2/B3 Audi to all wheel drive.
What I meant was, I know that that Chinese and Brazilian models only had the 4 cylinder, but I would assume between the syncro and fwd models, fenders, hatches, windshield glass would still swap over.
The five cylinder engine is indestructible. The rest of the car, well...it suffers from VW/Audi-ness. Try putting a heater core in one. The 2.2 in the 4000 was only ever rated at 115hp and I don't suspect the 90 was much more, if any. Coupled to an auto trans...blech.
My Coupe GT was an awesome car and I owned it for 12 years, but I saw the writing on the wall with regard to parts (window regulators, seals and other non-engine stuff). Replaced it with a BMW E30 and wondered why I didn't do it years earlier.
In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :
I don't think the FWD B2/B3 had a driveshaft hump either. And AWD without the 5 cylinder would be real slow. The car was so heavy it needed the 20 valve or turbo motor to move.
In reply to porschenut :
My QSW's top speed was about 75 as long as you weren't going uphill. It was amusing because it was in 4th gear by 60, shifting for all you were worth to get the most out of it.
I suspect that thirty or forty of those 115 horses were absent.
As far as the center tunnel goes... I did always kinda wonder about that, because all cars have one to a degree or another, and VWAG saw fit to be as expedient as possible when making the car. The spare tire well had a circular plate glued over the hole because the fuel tank needed to go there, and the rear wheels were decidedly offset in the wheelwells because that's just how the suspension bolted up. All signs pointed to doing the absolute minimum required 
Did Coupe GTs have a smaller tunnel? Those are the only B2s I can think of that definitely came with a front drive 5cyl/016 combo. (Or was the front drive 016 5000-only?)
Yes, all the B2 cars have a center tunnel. In addition to housing the optional RWD driveshaft, it's a convenient place to run exhaust, while providing significant structure stiffening.
The 016 & 5 cylinder was available in USA in early (81-83?) 4000 sedans, replaced by the CGT in 84-88. Also was a base offering in some years of typ44. And was available in FWD Quantum. Not a very common transaxle anymore, but for a while it was a go-to solution in mid engine kitcars.
Edit: I worked at the Porch/Audi/VW dealer in 89-90 and DD-ed a 1986 4KQ for years.
Edit pt2: one important difference between 4KQ & Quantum syncro is 3.91 final vs 4.11 in synchro. So transmissions and diffs cannot be swapped between them.
In reply to FJ40Jim :
All small chassis five cylinder AWD cars (including the 90/Coupe Quattro) except one had 4.11 gears. The ur-q had the 3.89s, just like the 5000 quattros. At least, the ur-qs sold in the US did, I don't know about the later 20V models we didn't get.
The "nice" thing is that the ur-S4 and S6 also had 4.11 gears so it was relatively painless to swap its 01E into a 4000/90 or Coupe Quattro. Relatively meaning you only had to mess around with weird axles, possibly hub swaps, and shift linkage/trans mounts, you didn't have to swap gears in the rear diff.
I'd also like to say that the 200 20V also had 4.11 gears, if you wanted a Torsen diff 016.
Source: trying to collect parts for QSWs since 2009 when I got my first one. I acquired a second one in 2013ish and its still sitting there waiting for me to spend money at it Buying a car in 2017 that already has a 20v five cylinder with a big turbo has lessened the urge to continue it.
I think the only thing weird about the QSW drivetrain is that the rear diff is also the third mounting point for the rear suspension beam, and I don't know if other small chassis rear diffs have the bosses for that.
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