Ok22

I have a 2003 A8L with 160K miles that I bought as an engine donor for another car. I'd like to re-use as much as possible and get a little money back from my purchase. Over the next week I plan to strip the car, then haul off the chassis as scrap. I am looking for advice on what is good to salvage and what is best to scrap. Do not ask for parts. I will list them in the classified section in a week or two. There is no market for A8 parts locally.


I am keeping the engine along with peripherals and much or the wiring. As I understand, I should keep the speedometer for the immobilizer. Is that correct? Anything else that should stay with the engine (besides the ECU)?


The Transmission is good with no issues. Is there anything I should document or check while I can still run and drive the car?


The interior is in good shape all electronics function, seats, doors, controls, trim, Bose... Is there any market for this stuff?


Any chassis parts worth pulling? It has 160K miles, but still rides very smooth. I don't have any maintenance history to know what has been replaced, so it may all be original (15 years of wear).


Thanks for any replies.

tanya_charbury

I have three D2 A8s but they're all the pre-facelift variation so ... I'd like to help though my input will have limited value. I can at best say what I'd value but perhaps that's better than nothing.

I'm not clear on the last year that the D2 was made. I thought the 2003 model is a D3, yet you're in the D2 forum. Anyway, assuming you're in the right forum, i.e., your car is a D2 ... (first generation, as made from the mid-nineties):

As to the transmission -- a known-to-be-good one (the ZF5HP24A) with no issues is rare and valuable (including to me, but we'll get to that once you formally offer it).

As to "Is there anything I should document or check while I can still run and drive the car?" I can see much value in offering a transmission for sale in a running car. Ideally, the transmission buyer drives the car and gets a warm feeling about the transmission but plan B would be to have someone be able to prove that it's basically good. One way would be to make a video recording of the VIN, then get into the car and record the instrument cluster as you drive off from a dead stop. Then, get the car onto a lift / hoist such as at your local friendly muffler shop. Again record the VIN, then lift the car up and record the serial number on the little green ZF plate on the transmission by the driver side, in front of the front drive shafts. Later, when you have that sitting outside the car for sale, you have watertight proof it's good and the price would reflect that. And yes, by general standards this is overkill but that's what would make it a mathematically rock solid deal. You might spend an hour doing, and have a hard time getting to the serial number, this but the sale price might be increased by several hundred dollars, by my standards anyway. So it might be a lucrative hour.

As I understand the issues, the clutch A drum fails on these transmissions due to the pressure regulator having worn out to where it fails to contain a pressure spike. So if that hasn't happened yet, a buyer could replace the front lower housing in the valve body with a renewed one, and have a transmission whose most likely cause of failure has been resolved, so now it might work for several more years until the next thing breaks (F clutch, sprag, torque converter ...?) That's why a known-to-be-good one is so valuable.

It would be nice to get the torque converter and transmission control module as matched with the transmission you're selling, too.

And as to seats, yes as to the front seats. Front driver door, yes since that's where the parts mostly wear out. Trim ... if the wood trim is not cracked, and you can gently remove it, a complete set might get sell for a good amount, if I understand such things correctly.

Also, the headlights, turn signals (front and rear) and the lower side grilles in the front bumper tend to be popular. Also, the front bumper itself. People remove and replace it when working on the engine and they sometimes trash it.

I hope this helps. Assuming your car is a D2, I see a pickup truck trip to OKC in my near future, perhaps. :-)

Ok22

Thanks for the reply. I'm pretty sure that my car is a D2. One of the last D2s having a manufacture date of 07/02. The data plate on the transmission is Serial #0081429, Model (1058)020033, 5HP-24, FUN.
I already did a basic 'Parting out' post in the classified section. I don't plan to list the transmission until I have it removed and have looked at pricing. I did make a simple video yesterday and did another today showing the VIN and data plate. I'll plan to pm tanya_charbury for an offer before I list it.
Thanks.

jfrahm

I got a shipment of parts from Jon/OK22 and they were in great shape, as described, very good price and packed very well. Also shipped fast despite me not being in any hurry.

I am now racking my brain to think of more stuff I might decide I need or want as spares (I love spares).

Thanks Jon!
-Joel.