Hey i don’t know shit about Audis. I found a 1997 Audi A4. Can some ppl tell me some more information on this car. Any problems associated with it ect. Thanks
don’t buy it
x2…ask tegSimple about Audi ownership :doh:
as jeff said, don’t buy it.
relaying what the audi mechanic told me: “early audi’s were notorious for having electrical problems” -my CEL was on all the time. i replaced parts and the light would still come on for the same problem. my car also started shutting off randomly when i would take it out of gear…another electrical problem.
from personal experience and trying to fix things on the car, it’s a huge PITA as nothing is layed out in an easy to reach area. if you plan on working on the car yourself, prepare to have a lot of free time to learn everything. i’ve ordered parts for acura’s before, but most of the parts that i ordered for the audi were 2 or 3 times as expensive as the acura. it’s not a cheap car to own and maintain.
when i was looking at the audi, i asked the exact same question on here that you did. i ended up not listening to people and went ahead and bought the car anyways. it’s was a huge mistake.
on the other hand, the audi/vw community was great. you’ll find that most people that drive audi/vw are hard core. another comment the mechanic said to me was that these people don’t care how many problems the car have, they will continue to fix them and drive them just because they love driving them. the car was great to drive…steering feel was good and it had a good ride. had i had a chance to put the quattro system to use i’m sure that would have been amazing as well.
if you’re going to ignore our comments, look into the specific year a4 you are going to buy and look for the problems. i forget what year a4 it was, but one of the earlier years they used a fuel system that wasn’t sufficient for the car. the fuel systems ended up crapping out and needing replaced.
check out Audi World and Audizine for lot’s of information on the cars.
man… that’s so true.
i’ll tell you what, my old audi has been nothing but a fucking nightmere… it’ll be all worth it when complete though…
it’s true that workspace is cramped… parts are few and far between and expensive… maintenance and upkeep is key.
but then again, a 97 a4 is hardly an ‘old’ audi… it’s a newer style but probably a 6cy? so it’ll be even more expensive to keep up… i’m sure it’ll be a nice car, b ut be ready for audi ownership… check for oil sludge issues… well known in the older new style models… what motor is in it?
My dad had a 97 A4. It ran great, and was extremely reliable. However the control arms broke (didn’t affect driveability at all, just alignment) and he had a ton of emissions related electrical crap that kept the CEL on all the time. It eventually burned out.
One problem is that the EGR passage clogs up with carbon, throwing a CEL. It also threw downstream O2 codes, some kind of a maf sensor code, and I think a coolant temp sensor code. It was an emissions inspection nightmare.
On the upside, it started, ran, drove, and had no rattles or squeaks, even at 170k when he sold it. He bought it with 80k, and never replaced the clutch. I’m not sure if the previous owner did or not, but I have a feeling he did not.
In the words of a Honda mechanic…
“I’m not changing control arms on that fuckin thing! It’s a pain in the AAAsS!”
both of my car’s now are honda’s so they are much easier to work on so my opinion may also be biased.
The 97 was a nice year for these, but you should really look into a slightly newer ones because they came with nicer headlights (HID capable), they will have less mileage and wear. Otherwise they are pretty much the same as any other B5 including BeRad’s Passat. There were 2 models, the 1.8T and the 2.8 V6. The V6 is pretty damn reliable, but since it’s audi and the top of the line model for that year the parts are a little spensive. If it’s a 1.8T then the parts are slightly cheaper, but you should look out for oil sludge issues. It’s a common problem with them. If a dealer hasn’t dealt with this car and a private owner maintained it, then it’s a toss up. The issue is severe enough that you have to remove the head, oil pan, pick up etc etc to clean it all out. The procedure through the dealer is time consuming and costly. Unless, you know what you are doing or have proof that this car was maintained really well, I wouldn’t jump into this kind of situation.
GL
thanks alot guys. It’s a 1.8t and I have no idea how many miles it has. If it has really low miles i’ll consider looking at it but thanks for the warning on everything now i know what to look for.
Peeps around here like to hate on Audi/VW. Having owned four Audi’s and two VW’s over the last 20 years I must be the luckiest guy in the world because I’ve never had too much of a problem. Three (2001 S4, 2002 A4, 2005.5 A4) out of the four Audi’s have been pretty good. The bad car was a 84 Audi 5000. It was a POS.
That said, search this forum for all the info you could ever want on the '97 A4.
http://forums.audiworld.com/a4/
Buddy is an Audi mechanic…He told me the 2.8 engine is a builtproof engine.
The 1.8T engine if not properly cared for oil changes can sludge up. Rich people don’t usually do proper maintanence & he does alot of sludge jobs which include tearing apart the engine & cleaning it or replacing things.
Matt
I believe there’s also a mentionable reliability difference between the pre-97’s and the latter version of the 2.8, like they went from a 12v to 24v head? Someone else knows definitive info on this, I just remember running into the discrepancy when I was looking at a 97 A6 wagon with a 2.8
DO NOT BUY IT. Parts are way to much and they are junk.
i agree with the parts being very expensive, but what’s your proof for them being junk?
They are hardly junk, but parts are pretty crazy for them. I took my chance at a 98 A4 saturday, so we will see whats in store. Will keep my eye on this thread though…
I hope your Audi works out for you. I’d like someone on here to share a good experience aside from fah_quad.
I bought a two year warranty with the car… so in two years if I still have it expect a lot of things to break all of the sudden. :bigthumb:
my saab came with a three yr warranty, but they only cover so much of the repairs (they only pay i think like 12/hour for labor, and for a headgasket job on my saab, they only gave me $500, when the total was 1200… next time I’m doing it myself…)
i wouldnt say that mechanically they are junk. electrics can be improved. on an a4, problem you will have is the front suspension–control arms. 4 link setup that the ball joints go. this is common on a4/a6/a8’s. coil packs are shitty on the 4’s, not so much on the v6’s.
engine wise, the 1.8t is so-so. hence audi is sticking behind these engines for 10 year/100k for warranty. the v6 and the v8 are bad ass. engine bays are tight, but look at how much shit is stuffed under that hood. i give them credit for getting it all under there. not hard to work on if you know what you are doing.
other than that, normal wear and tear stuff for a 10 year old car. maintence is key though. stay up on it. parts are not considerabbly more when compared to jap stuff, however you are paying for a “beefier” or often times over engineered part. part ptices also are little more due to the fact you dont have a million companies making them. for a audi, you may have 3 companies making a replacement water pump, whereas a honda may have 10.
i have 2 audis in my stable right now, both are small body quattros- a 85 4000 (5cylinder im swappng to vw 4cyl) and a 93 90q (v6). neither have rust on them and look better than their age.