skianddestroy

hi all,

My wife recently bought me a 2005 AR, 2.7t 6sp manual. The previous owner was a gentleman that i use to work with that bought it from Audi in 2005. ( i remember when he bought it that year, i was driving my 96 A4 ). So 10 years later he buys a new Audi and puts this AR for sale and i have to have it ( always been a fan of the beautiful AR ). i come home from work and the car is sitting in my garage, she moved my 2013 VW GTI out of the way for this beast.

anyway here are the stats:

146,000 miles on the odometer.
He purchased the 100k warranty so all the work until then has been done by AUDI, timing belt water pump....all on time according to the service manual. After that, according to his mechanic he has spared no money to fix any issue that has come up. Replaced the F & R airbags at 105,993,
Rotors, brakes, A/C compressor, front axles and various other electric issues. and oil changes 5w 40 at the right time.

I love this car, and i know the previous owner did not drive it hard, so i want to know what are some things i can do to keep this baby for the long haul.

- i have the air system on level 1 all the time so it does not wear out the system going up and down all the time. is this wise?
- i wait for it to warm up before any hard accelerations
what are some other small things i can do to keep it in good shape?

i have owned 2 VWs and 2 Audis before so i know they are expensive to maintain but as long as the car is worth it i dont mind spending the money. it is going in the shop Tuesday to get new CV BOOTS on the front.

thanks in advance. sorry for the long post

PaperToast

"- i have the air system on level 1 all the time so it does not wear out the system going up and down all the time. is this wise?"
that should be fine as long as you lift it to lvl 4 to clean the bags, sand-like debris is what wears the holes and makes them leak

"- i wait for it to warm up before any hard accelerations" always a good decision, your turbos will thank you in the long run

207k on mine with original turbos, with little oil leakage, so it can be done

amiram

Driving on level 1 more suited to driving in the Highways in high speed The dumping force of the rear shock absorbers is weak. It is not suitable for driving on a road more distorted (In city)where you want the dumping force harder (level 2) About the turbos, after driving in a high effort do not turn off the engine immediately let the turbo cool or continue driving relaxed for a few minutes before you turn the engine off. Check if the brake fluid replaced in time

skianddestroy

[QUOTE=amiram;24740748]Driving on level 1 more suited to driving in the Highways in high speed The dumping force of the rear shock absorbers is weak. It is not suitable for driving on a road more distorted (In city)where you want the dumping force harder (level 2)

Thanks for this, I did notice that it felt odd when driving in town, making tight corners ect.

PaperToast

[QUOTE=skianddestroy;24740924]i think he meant shock dampening
but yea, lvl one for cruising the hwy or taking the twisties
lvl 2 for around town, lvl 3 & 4 for 4x4 roads

skianddestroy

Does the Lvl 4 light display orange instead of green like the other levels do?

PaperToast

nope, green like the rest
orange light is manual mode, but your shouldn't have that it was an 01 thingy i believe

skianddestroy

Hmmm, when It's parked and I manually lift it to 4 it shows orange instead of green.

allroaddave

I don't know where the "don't drive it hard when cold to save the turbos" thing came from, but it's nonsense. The turbos are spinning anytime you're off idle and putting a load on the car. I do agree that not driving it HARD when it's cold is better for the engine and drive train in general, but it does nothing to save the turbos.


Next, the cool down thing - more old wives tales. With synthetic oil you don't have to be worrying about coking up the bearings (you ARE using synthetic, right? That's a must) About the only exceptions to this would be after running on track (without a cool down lap) or at the top of a many mile long pull to the top of a mountain or something or towing a heavy trailer up the same mountain, both unlikely scenarios and about as necessary as changing your oil every 3K today. In normal driving you do not get the turbos hot enough to warrant this, even after a long highway run. The reason this isn't a problem is that these are water cooled turbos, the bearings never get that hot to start with.......and the coolant keeps them from coking too.


So, just drive your car and do not worry about it, it was designed for this use.......


Oh and the suspension was designed to run in 2, not 1. That's where you should set it and forget it. The other levels are there for unusual circumstances - when we had a 14" dump of snow one winter, raising it to 4 allowed us to get out of our neighborhood by not high centering. On a long trip to Colorado recently - with the speed limits now 75mph and everybody driving 80+ I found that after a while the car dropped to 1 on it's own, just as it's supposed to. So, just let it do it's thing....


Have fun with your new ride and congrats!

Romario

All advice absolutely correct.
Some additional note.
About engine oil - need to use oil according specification ONLY (how I remember, admission of producer not less VW 502.00 and 5W30). In case of heavy and repeatable load - oil filter need to be renew more frequently, once per 2.5-3.5K.
About turbochargers - air filter is a key responsible for cleanliness and technical condition. Air filter could renew once per 7-10K miles.
About air suspension.
It much better to use in automatic mode and time to time rising in a 4th level. It is necessary to prevent rubber from caking in the one position. Like gymnastic.
I was cleaned of air sprigs once per 1-2 months and to rubed talc or graphite powder.
Have fun with your AR! ;-)