IStop4NoMan

Then B5 it is. He had his timing belt replaced not too long ago. i felt sorry for the mechanics as the whole front half of the car was gone for that job. I think it ended up being over 1K with labor and new water pump.

Im sure if you can work on cars yourself, it wouldnt be too much of a pain. but he always takes it to a local shop anytime things go wrong.

lucky7

that wrx is SICK! omfg.

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kim_jong_il

I had a C5 S6 in Dubai. Basically the 4.2L S-car based on the A6 platform, similar drivetrain.

Pain in the ass fucking car. Don't get me wrong, its a nice car, a lot of fun to drive, especially the torque murdering V8 I had in mine. But when something goes wrong, sucks big time because deutschland parts are expensive.

A lot of it is in the front end. All the front control arms will likely need to be replaced because their rubber bushings go to shit and are hard to source on their own. A set of Febi replacements is around 600 bucks for the S4. Front axles tend to go, so you'll be buying CV joints. I had to do the timing belt on mine, major job, S4 doesn't have much better clearance in the engine bay.

The LED display in the dash on all cars from this gen has dead lines. It is from the heat expansion contraction in the board pulling the solder joints. You can find places online to do the repair, but that means pulling apart your cluster and sending it away for a week or two. Windshield washers and headlight washers tend to die due to the pumps being a cheap plastic body and cracking.

Ever see a Z32 TT engine bay and think its cramped? These are worse.

They are fun cars, and when you take care of them they run great, but its just when shit it breaks you get pissed because you know that part, even aftermarket or used, is going to be costly. Even for DIY they take time to work on because of specialized tools and just overengineering (Nissans and yellow cars in general are more simply laid out).

kim_jong_il

I just read your response to the engine pull to change the turbos. Don't get an S4 if you haven't seen the engine bay, they aren't joking.

You have to remove the front end of the car and basically pull the engine to get to the turbos. Everything is a big pain in the ass on Audi (VWs). Get an S6 before you get an S4, the V8 is more reliable and relatively easier to work on (you won't need to pull the headers for anything). Though in the US they only have wagon S6's, in Dubai I had the sedan version (way better).

Bubbles

I think this is all that needs to be said.

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JVD

Hahahhaa.

I'm not buying one.

Looking into Subaru now. I like wagons, but I wish they had the lines like sedans. Looks way beefier.

I'm gonna look for a nice low KM sedan.

ronmcdon

Yeah, I like the sedans better as well.
Much more beefy and obnoxious looking.
Don't forget to throw on an oversized wing, fart-can exhaust, rally flaps, & gold wheels.
(im not being sarcastic, I really like that look)

bluewrx30

what is the name of these rims

bluewrx30

what is the name of the rims on the blue wrx if any one knows it will be great as i wanna put these on my evo

articdragon192

Rota P45Rs, replicas of TE37s

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Trevor87

wrong those are grids...p45r are lmgt4 knockoffs

GSXRJJordan

I've always liked the B5 S4's, and have seen some truly incredible cars built on that platform... and the narrow-angle V6's sound so good!

Problem is, everyone I know that's owned one as a street car (3 or 4 people at least) have said they were more trouble than their worth - not so much mechanical stuff (although the turbos do seem to go out sooner than most other cars, ~50k mi), but the electronics! Granted, the owners I'm talking about are 'typical Audi' owners, who take it to the dealer at the first sign of trouble, but there's not a whole lot else you can do when the instrument cluster tells you "SERVICE NOW"/etc and the car won't start.

That being said, I'm looking at W215 Benz's for my next DD lol. Talk about electrical problems...

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DreamN

Bookmark this site if you seriously plan on getting one.

AudiDIY.com Audi B5 S4 DIY Articles

Great cars with a lot of potential. I've considered one as a daily for quite some time now. Like most German cars they have their ups and downs, mostly electrical, but many feel the car is worth the upkeep.

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ZX88

engines are pretty good. stupid electrical shit and weak transmission are the problem with these cars.

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JVD

Ya, I ended up with a WRX Wagon.

I really wanted this one black S4 locally, but the kid refused to get what he said was a minor problem fixed. There was a ticking noise coming from the engine after it ran for a while. Seemed to be tensioner or something, but it's too hard to tell without taking the whole front of the car off basically. He didn't want to spend the extra little bit of money to get it fixed and make a sale so w/e.

Ended up with the 2002 wagon with 70k miles. I like it a lot. Not as fast as the S4, but I can live with it. I didn't want to deal with the constant "maintenance" of a German car.

ZX88

good choice i will hopefully picking up a wrx soon too. fuck german cars....

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xsublimefrekx

my buddy just got the v8 s4 and i love the car to death. I have been wanting to get one as my dd and his car pretty much set it for me.

ronmcdon

WRX is the more sensible choice.
it should be just as, if not quicker than a B5.
maybe something to look into, if it doesn't seem to be making good power.

beb

To be very honest, I wouldnt recommend you purchase any euro that is used if you want reliablity. Ive been through my share of new and used euros and can tell you that you wont be happy. I had a B5 A4 Quattro with the tiptronic, leased new in 2001 and it spent about 25% of its time with me at the dealership. Thankfully back then, they offered free everything... We've encountered similar probs with BMW, VW and MBZ. A handful of friends own B5 A4's... they DO have problems, not all, but a good chunk of them. They are awesome, amazing, fun cars but Id only say get them if you are down to work on them and have a great connection to parts. =T

Ceepo

I have never owned an audi, but my mom had a 2002 vw beetle 2.0 N/A 5 speed, it was a fun car to drive, but the headlight was like a 2 hour job to replace the bulb, also the a/c controls went out and that was about 400 bucks for the part and another 400 for labor(gotta tear the whole dash apart) also there is a shit ton of interior peices that would break, mirror knobs, glove box, door handles, ect... it was a very fun car but i would not own a vw/audi after 1990's to expensive to fix, and not worth it, everyone is giving you the right idea on getting a subaru... oh yeah i also live in the middle of no where, the nearest vw dealership is about 500 miles away so parts were a bitch to track down or pay to ship...

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SC_S13

You could always...get an Evo i love those cars...

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articdragon192

You're right. I was totally thinking about that after I posted, but was too lazy to correct it at that moment.

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WanganRunner

^^
This



I'd like an old Coupe Quattro though, that's totally DIY-friendly, at least relative to the newer cars.

Get a B6 RS4.

bluewrx30

what are the rims called on the blue wrx anyone please

ixfxi

audis are fuckin up-scale volkswagens. as if vw didnt suck enough cock, they made a pinnacle brand to celebrate the dick suckingness that the car offers.

take for example, honda. the pinnacle brand is acura. you have confidence with honda, you'll have even more confidence with acura. same applies for nissan with infiniti, or toyota with lexus.

when it comes to vw, i think they are german clunkers. if they cant please me with the basics, they sure as hell wont please me with the luxurious brand they're offering which share many of the same fucking parts.

so whats the benefit? a nice surgically-sterile interior and unique styling? tell me how much either of those differences make when your lemon is stranded on the side of the road due to german insta-fail engineering.

if they were quality, they would be known and respected for building quality cars. notice how there is a list of a bunch of other brands that are known for reliability, and vw/audi isnt on that list.

im speaking from experience as i've wrenched on enough of my friends cars unwillingly, and because my friend is a tech at vw/audi. i make fun of him and ask him during the 10 years hes worked there, how many fucking window regulators has he changed?


fuck vw/audi.

ixfxi

these men speak truth, this is the kind of shit i am talking about. its like a fwd Z32 twin turbo. actually, its like a fucking mitsubishi 3000GT VR4.. all that bullshit engineering crammed into a car, ALL THE WRONG WAY.

when you open the hood to a GTR, you see the nicely laid out straight 6, exhaust on one side, intake on the other... everything looks natural. when you look at a VR4 3000GT, its a fucking rats-nest of wiring and a motor that was accidentally placed sideways due to underpaid engineers. you can immediately tell that all the qualified engineers got jobs at real car companies.

the way i see it, i specifically make it a point not to offer products and work on cars that suck. i'de rather work on a NISSAN cube

driftsilvias13

Yea VWs suck ass. I have a lot of friends that are die hard VW fans but all own either japanese cars or mini's now. Theyve had so many damn problems with the car but were still loyal after fixing them. They all wont ever be buying VW or AUDIs ever again.

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ronmcdon

Speaking from experience, one of the benefits of owning an Audi over a VW is that you get an actual warranty.
Audi mechanics will actually work on your car & 'usually' fix the issues.
Owning an Audi under warranty isn't so bad.
Owning a VW under warranty & not under warranty is equally frustrating.

ixfxi

Funny, one of my friends had a older GTI and then moved on up to a Corrado G60 (supercharged).

The GTI wasnt too bad of a car, it didnt have any power options and was very basic.. shit, this was an MKII model... nicely tuned too. Here is a pic:




Car was actually featured in a few magazines back in the day (though my friend didnt build it). He ended up selling it, and I saw it a couple times around the LA area. Havent seen it in maybe 5-6 years, I wonder whatever happened to that bad boy..

Anyway, the Corrado was a fun car.. again, when it worked. It had headlights that dont light, wipers that didnt wipe, and a supercharge that stopped being super. I think the VR4 had better reliability being a 6, but thats still not very comforting.

Chad4061

i have a buddy that just sold his 2000 s4 tiptronic and it ran well but if something breaks its gonna be expensive. I had a 01 1.8t jetta and it ran good but was problematic sometimes. I say if you take good care of it you shouldnt run into alot of problems! good luck with your search