DManske

Hi,
My Volvo XC just got totaled by a little old lady in an SUV. I want to just buy a good looking car for cash for now. So, found a 2005 a6 4.2 S-Line quattro (friend of a friend dealer took in trade from a customer/friend). Clean Auto-Check report and about 93K miles. Pretty, pretty car. Brand new tires too.

There is a bit of a rumble in slow moderately tight turns with light acceleration. No clickity clack of CV joints. Just feel the vibes in the back half of the car. Stops when straight again. Diff fluid? Bad Diff? Driveshaft? What is typical of these cars.

A/C arbitrarily will start blowing hot air from left and right vents. I understand the Heater Control Valve at the firewall (engine side) goes bad, but can it cause a half and half heat/cold issue? Is this a scary problem?

The drivers side head lamp unit seems disconnected from something in its mount. You can rick it so it points hi/low by hand. Like it is on a hinge. On;y moves about an inch and a half or so. Still, not a good thing.

I'm pretty adept at repairs if I can find instruction. I can remove the front bumper and work on the headlight but would like to know if I am going to be faced with a $700 bill for a new housing. Any ideas?

Is this generally a pretty dependable platform or am I going to be plagued with regular breakdown and issues?

Thanks for any help!

KevinGary

New headlight assembly is $1200. The Quattro rumble when steering is the center differential. If you replace the fluid you should be ok. The biggest cost concern on the 4.2 is the timing chain guides. If they go, the dealer cost is almost $10,000

Nightlifephantom

I had a V70 XC at one point...

As for not wanting to spend money... I would say your going to spend a decent amount over the next few thousand of miles.

As for the headlight rocking, it may just be 1 of 2 bolts on the headlight housing that bolts the housing to the car. One of those bolts might be loose or one might be broken. As for that, I wouldn't worry about that too much... you can always remove the bumper and tighten the bolts or if the bracket is broken you can fabricate your own without getting new headlights.

The absolute main thing to look for is service history. Check out the maintenance of the car, see what has been done... oil changes, gaskets, spark plugs, coil packs etc... the less that was done the more you will spend. as KevinGary stated, the timing chain is on the rear of the motor. That will be the most expensive repair that you will most likely have on the whole car but the good news is that the timing chain doesn't usually go bad until really high mileage. Audi states that it is a lifetime timing chain... that is false. So if you start up the car and you don't hear a rattling type of noise in the first few seconds, chances are the chains are good.

One thing I recommend that you get done is make sure you check for oil leaks if you do purchase the car. At that mileage, gaskets and seals are usually worn out and start leaking one after another.