superbreadninja

Hey everyone.


I realize this is kind of long, but please bear with me. This post has been over 2 years in the making since I first started looking at Audi's and bought my first one. I ended up making the switch from a BMW E36 M3 to a B6 S4 and absolutely love it. She's reserved when she needs to be, but never feels like she is strained on the highway. I've put up some of my favorite pictures of her for everyone's enjoyment.













A little about the car:
2005 B6 S4 Avant with just under 140,000 miles on it (I know it looks like a lot)
Tiptronic Transmission
Entirely stock
3rd party power train warranty till about 215,000 miles or late 2016.













Brief overview of the problem:
I go to school in San Diego and was driving back up to Sacramento (home) for Thanksgiving. About 12 miles out the car abruptly started slowing down. I gave it some throttle to maintain speed but nothing happened. The car continued to slow down and downshift itself, with the gas pedal having seemingly no effect. I pulled over to the side of the road and popped the hood. The engine was running extremely rough and it sounded like it had a tapping sound. The first though was a failed lifter or a tapping piston. It was very late at night so I got the car towed home and went to sleep.

The next day I trailer-ed the car to my local Audi Dealership for diagnoses and repair. Initially a tech over the phone thought it was a failed fuel pump but retracted his thought once he found out it was a B6 S4 instead of a A4 with the 2.0T. Unfortunately this was the Wednesday before Thanksgiving so the car wasn't actually looked at until today (Monday 12/1).







I got word back from the dealership today and apparently the first tech was right. No fuel was getting to the engine, and the fuel pump needed to be replaced. The dealership had contacted my warranty company and was told the repair was not covered under my power-train warranty. I was quoted for a little over $1,000 total for the repairs ($600 in parts). The car then needs to be inspected again once the engine is running again for additional problems. The oil had a slight green tint to it when we examined it (before the dealership) which makes me worried that I will have to turn around and repair the head gasket. Unluckily for me, I'm a poor college student (yes I realize the dangers of buying a German sports car, please hear me out) and honestly every dollar counts. It is especially unfortunate because I've been preparing to sell the car, but now a decent chunk of money must go into it first.

On the E36 I had, I did the overwhelming majority of work myself. So far, the Audi has been problem free, so I haven't gotten to work on it myself yet.

I have the tools and believe I could easily do the work myself, but wouldn't be able to do the work for 3 weeks (End of the semester, I'm back at school while the car is back home). I've found a guide <a href="
http://www.a4mods.com/index.php?page=webcontent/pages/fuelpump.html">here</a>.




I did some research into the replacement parts.
The OEM part numbers given to me by the dealer are 8E0906087R for the fuel pump and 150919133B for the gasket. I also plan on changing the fuel filter. The fuel pump has never been replaced, the filter was last replaced at 134,000.

Prices I found:

Seeing the range of prices you can understand how I might want some advice weeding out the bad ones.

Some notes:Looking at a previous <a href="http://www.audizine.com/forum/showthread.php/417476-B6-S4-Fuel-Pump">thread</a> I saw a number of recommendations on products but the first option is no longer available and links to an updated product for an A4. The Genuine Audi Parts product has jumped in price to $364.56. A lot of the above products have varying ranges of fuel flow. Since my engine is completely stock, would something above the OEM rate have negative effects on my engine? Would a non-exact OEM part potentially cause issues with the warranty in the future?




My current plan of action is: I'm absolutely certain I missed somethings so if you have any questions please let me know!