Acadianlion

I have just taken the car off the road while I contemplate its future. We bought the car in 2001 with 39,000 original miles. Now it has 213,000 miles and runs fine. It has the usual issues...a/c compressor is inop; hvac controller works when it wants to and that is usually not when I need it to work; and it needs interior front carpets and rear gate panel. It also needs to be refinished especially. All of which is dooable. The car runs great, but leaks oil and will need a rear main seal. My mechanic says "it is time". I'm not so sure.

The only thing that the car has ever really needed is about 70 more horsepower. I am contemplating a complete overhaul/restoration to include swapping the V6 for a 3.6 litre V8 from an earlier V8, or possibly a 4.2 litre V8. The other car in the house is a near perfect 1990 V8 Quattro which is the third V8 Quattro I've owned. I know the cars well, and ANY V8 in the C4 Avant will transform it. It's dooable.

I have decided to start making lists and checking pricing and feasibility. The goal will be to take this car, which is RUST FREE, and extend its useful life without the large expense of buying something newer and paying higher insurance and excise tax fees. The car we have has Euro headlamps and here in rural Maine where we drive, that alone is worth nine on a scale of ten, considering how poor all other headlights are by comparison.

I'll let you know when we make a decision. Surgery won't start until 2019, most likely, and the Avant may well just rest for two years while the planning progresses.

blogue

I bought myself a 93 Quattro 100CS July/June 2016 for 750 off my friends dad. It had 140,000 Kilometers on it. Love the car so much, its has been abused its whole life though. Never undercoated, sat for a year before I got it. And the paint looks like someone put gravel on the top of the car, then put a tarp also full of gravel on top and moved it around. Quiet sad. But have plans to re-seal everything, fix the rust ext. Other then that the car is mint. I love it. Just wish it had been taken better care of. Recently found my girlfriend a 95 Quattro 90 Sport with 250k, no rust, mint interior for 1900CND.

audiyadosir

Hello fellow Audi 100/C4/A6 owners! I’m the proud owner of a 1997 Audi A6 Quattro Avant 2.8L A VIN model and I love her. I lover her so much my fingers are cracking and the corners of the nail beds all red and sore from working on her myself because of all the issues. I couldn’t possibly afford the Stealership or a regular import shop so I’ve resorted to YouTube, AllDataDIY.com and these forums to help me repair her. She’s got 157,000 miles on her, I just replaced the ignition switch (twice), the camshaft positioning sensor, fuel pump, fuel relay, fuel filter, cleaned the fuel lines from front to back, checked the fuel pressure regulator, EVAP valve and I’m about to mess around with the EVAP canister if I can ever find it (not where Bentley/AllDataDIY says it is; in the spare tire well under a cover).

In the last few months I’ve done an engine coolant flush and bleed, full fluids change, replaced all four O2 sensors, all spark plugs, the MAF filter and now I’m going for the EGR valve, MAF sensor and intakes and the entire air induction system. If that’s not all good then it’s back to the engine for an ignition coil check, fuel injector test and cleaning.

Why, you may ask?

Well, the fuel pump failed and I had to replace...with four different fuel pumps. The original blew apart, literally, sending little square green pieces of impeller into my fuel system. How far it went, I don’t know, but if the pieces stayed intact they were too big to make it past the fuel filter and the holes in the injectors. Anyway, finally got the newly wired Bosch fuel pump in and started her up only to get *stutter, stutter, stutter, no power, no power, won’t shift at the right time, running rich, shifts manually for better gas mileage, but always ends up the same...with a moving or stalled restart to reset the ECM so I can go that much further <sigh>. I ran my OBDII scanner on it and it keeps telling me its the O2 sensors, which are all new and installed correctly. After the new O2 sensors, she’s been running better and the power is noticeably improved, but on a trip back and forth to Palo Alto she felt like she was starving for air, wouldn’t shift into 4th or 5th without major prompting from me and felt like a 2 ton weight rather than the glide I was used to at 80 mph <sigh>
The other day someone told me my cats were bad. The same day, someone else said she just needs a good tune up, most of which I’ve already done as mentioned above.
I’ve read and heard I can get another 100k miles out of her original engine, easy! THIS is driving me crazy and having to work a professional job with cracked and ripped up fingers sucks. Any thoughts, any ideas, any (non)professional tips/tricks? She really feels like she can’t breathe. If it’s the cats...she may be ready for the scrap yard Boooooo!

blh1959

If she ran rich then it MIGHT be the cats. See if you can gut them by unbolting the exhaust at the cat. You may find pieces of the cat dislodged causing a blockage. This happened to me on a car I owned once I cleared the cat it was fine.
For your hands pick up some Nivea for men Maximum Hydration Lotion. It works great!

Best of luck.

audiyadosir

Thanks! I've been wearing gloves to bed with Lubriderm Intense Hydrating for Extra Dry Skin and that seems to be helping.
I figured out the EGR Valve had a leak somewhere along the line or in the EGR Valve itself. I've checked the solenoid and the lines and I believe the diaphragm might be stuck or cracked. She's definitely got a leak in the air system, which is what I felt while driving to Mountainview this past week. If the cats were bad I'd never have made it that far and back (37 miles each way). I'm pulling the EGR Valve out this weekend and cleaning it, stuffing a piece of weed whacker line into it to make sure the parts inside move and I'll check the rest of the vacuum system. Any other ideas would be most appreciated!!! I can't see me putting new cats on her at $400/ea. Chris Semple at Force 5 in New Hampshire has been great. If anyone needs parts/pieces to their old A6 he's the man. I just installed a sunroof motor and switch panel he sent me. Now, I just have to WD-40 the hell out of the rails so it wont burn out this motor too. If the new EGR Valve on its way doesnt do it...I'm coming back to call an all hands input. I want another 100,000 miles out of her. She's looking good on the outside, except for that damned paint peeling problem this model seems to have, and I don't care about the interior because the back seat belongs to the dogs and the front to my work. I always say, I don't mind owning and driving a hooptie, just as long as she doesn't look or sound like one....hahahaha! Cheers!

blh1959

It certainly sounds like you are on the right track. It may take some time to figure out all the little leaks and what ever else is going on.

Who quoted you $400 per cat?
I would think you could get them at a muffler shop for a lot less but I could be wrong.

I have had cats come apart on me and block the exhaust, one big restriction and the car was way down on power. Once I was able to crack open the exhaust at the cat and clean the matrix out things were a lot better.
This ll happened after I had injector issues of the injector pumping fuel into the cylinder then all the unburned gas being passed into the cat and being burned there and eventually destroyed the cat. I had one cat self destruct locally and it was just limping the car to my destination and once I got there I had to have it towed to a shop. They discovered the bad cat and a fuel pump was on its way out. Fast forward a few months and another cat went out on a road trip. I dint have the top end that I normally would have had. When I get to where I could I opened up the exhaust at the suspected cat and pieces fell out. I gutted that cat out and things went fine after that.

Could be worth checking checking the cats out.
But it also sounds like you have said there are other issues.
Keeping digging I d hate for you to have to take this car off the road, they are cool cars.

Best of luck

blh1959

Also try a can of BG 44K for the injectors. It is a very good injector cleaner.

Gngsxr

I posted in the new member area as well. Sorry for the double post.

First time Audi owner.
I picked up a 1990 Audi 100 Quattro from the original owner. He took exceptionally good care of it and sold it only due to some unfortunate health issues he was having.
166,000 miles. 2.3L, 10V, I-5.

The car is for sale. Well sort of. It is up for sale but I don't need to sell it and would be perfectly happy daily driving it for another decade if it will allow me too.

I also have a 2000 Ford Ranger, 1987 Buick Grand National, and a handful of motorcycles.

I absolutely love this car. It is ALMOST in perfect condition. There are a few minor issues I am working on fixing. A weird but hilarious issue with my aftermarket Alpine radio, a tiny bit of a stumble in the idle, and a strange intermittent deceleration cut off issue even though I am almost positive this motor does not have fuel decel cut off.
I do have hard copies of the 3 volume official factory repair manual.

I've never had an AWD car before so I had no idea how awesome these drive trains were in the snow. It also has a differential lock which is hilarious and useful.

Gngsxr

Haha I am now realizing I posted in the C4 section with my C3.

Arisd

I have a Quattro cs100 that I would like to part out.