Audi

AUDI

If you advertise yourself as a European auto specialist and live in a mountainous area that gets a bigger share of snow (normally) than the lower counties, you’ve got to be ready for a good percentage of customers driving their beloved Audi Quattros about.  With our curvy roads, taught German sports suspensions and engines that come in varying degrees of grunt, they are a perfect match for our environment.  They do though have their quirks and common problems:

1.8 Turbos – Available in most VW/Audi models except the bigger sedans and SUVs,.  When they’re running well they can give the ideal combination of impressive performance (from the turbo), with small car 4-cylinder economy…when they’re running well.   Good and regular basic maintenance is what they must have.  Without it, they can evolve into one of the many units that have been a thorn in the manufacturer’s side since they started to have  their now notorious ‘sludge problems’.  Basically the oil pick-up tube with its screen that sit in the pan, would become clogged and so starve the turbocharger of lubricant.  With their super-high operating temperatures, that could quickly mean the end of the turbo.  Additionally, the journals that channel  oil around the engine block before it reaches their point of lubrication (cylinders), are acknowledged to be  overly small and so can cause problems if anything but the smoothest, cleanest and correct viscosity synthetic  oil is passing through them.  Cars that have not

been regularly serviced with synthetic oil are much more vulnerable than others.  Rebuilt turbos and oil pan servicing are usual fixes. Both expensive.

Front  suspension: A couple of squeaks can be bothersome, but they may be letting you know that the tie rods and control arms are in need of replacing.  Ignoring these tell-tale signs can be a dangerous gamble.  Most suppliers now sell the entire front-end suspension as a single part #.  Boone cars are subject to a higher-than-average exposure to salt, so it stands to reason that seized-up or failing suspension components is a common problem here.

Drive Axles: A cracked rubber boot can let the all-important grease escape and so inevitably lead to that horrible crunching sound.  Sport-4 purchases the complete replacement units for a fraction of the Audi dealer list ($800+ each!), so can have it installed for less than the parts and labor on just a rubber boot!

Wheel bearings: Sport-4 has replaced approximately a dozen P/S rear wheel bearings on Audi A4s in the past couple of years.  Not a big deal to look at, especially when you recall the loud electric motor type whirring sound you have lived with for a while.  Factory list price is about $130.  Labor is 1.8hrs.

Valve Cover Gaskets – x2 on the V6 motor of course, this is a fairly common problem.   The parts are approximately $40 for the single 4-cyl and $68 for the 6-cyl.  There’s some other seals that are required to be installed at the same time to really ensure the oil leak stops,  so allow another +$25 for parts and 2hrs for labor.