EastCoastWarrior

First off Im 17 years old, so the reason why Im concerned with reliability is because I dont have a large amount of money to spend on my car for repair. Ive been looking around at c5 and b5 A6 2.7T's and S4 2.7T's, Im a little more leniant towards the S4 becuase it suits my style plus theres so many more options for custimization. I've read for the most part on sites like Kelley Blue book, and edmonds that the S4 is a very reliable car, I understand that the turbos, timing belt, and tie rods are common issues, but those will always go no matter what car. Im mainly concerned about engine parts like the trans, valves, cyclinders, cams, ect, also Ive heard that once you start modding and tuning the S4 everything starts to go to hell. If any of you guys could provide any input or personal experience it would be great.

Chris's S4

well as for the S4, it's reliable as any car is, so long as you maintain it. Now you say you don't have a larger amount of money... I once read a post here on AW, that said if you want an S4, it's best to have at least a $1000 in the bank for any sudden need for repairs. I take this to heart being I just dropped over 500 bucks doing a tb and wp job, along with all seals, all worth while and for safe side purposes. So... fun car, hell yes. reliable... damn straight. Does it break, damn skippy if you beat it and expect it to last without maintenance. Turbo's, TB, WP, and a few others are primarily the concerns with this vehicle. Other engine components are subject to mileage as anything usually is, so consider that while looking for an S4. As for trans.. same thing. Except for driving from you, again, if you beat it... it'll break sooner. If you good to it, it'll treat you as good. Or just maintain the damn thing... it's not hard.

The main reason for "things" going to **** after flashing or modding, is because the parts on the car have either been used for X amount of miles and now your throwing 4-7 more psi at them and expect them to hold up for another 150k miles.. uh uh.. doesn't work. Same goes for any part that has nothing to do with boost, spark plugs, coils, ICM's, hoses... it all takes place with the fact that it's not new hardware. Take that into consideration too.

...to be honest thought.... IT'S SOOOOO WORTH IT.

But your 17...that seriously concerns me. No offense... but your 17. I just recently met a guy outside my work, caught him eye ballin my S4... He said to me,"you drive that"?... I said yup, that's my baby right there. He said he has one too, an 02 S4. I'm thinking ah great, a local S4 guy right... well he's alright, seems cool. Turns out, he crashed his first one at age 17, right by my house matter of fact. And.. he was street racing, ended up sideways, rolling side over side into reservoir, completely obliterated the car. He told me after that, he bought the same car again because it saved his life, even in that such stupid move. So.. in a way two things, the car is as amazing as most of us all think, being it saved his (dumbass)life, the other is that young dumb kids driving thinking they know how to correct a car when it's spinning out of control, truly they don't know ****. Again no offense. At 17,18,19, even then it's still long way before you really know and have the experience of driving to really understand it and perform. Now that's if your not a constant racer, like growing up with racing gokarts or autoxcrosses with pops over the yrs.
Then it's a different story, you got that experience of what the cars is possibly going to do in that given situation...

Bottom line, it's a great car, plenty to do with it. Stock wise, it's plenty to kill your self... after that, well... that's pretty self explanatory.

Oh ya, I forgot, all the while this guy was racing his S4, mind you.. it was in pristine show car status. And he wrecked it. How's that for self control at 17.... Makes you wonder right.

A lot of it comes down to self control, if you can't control your self from that douche bag to the side of you, taunting you with his suped up car, loud exhaust and what not... then you have no business owning an S4. Unless you plan of losing your lic and and car due to the stupidity of street racing, then by all means. Just make sure ya don't hit me, my family, or my friends of the road, or else I'll pay ya a visit in the hospital hahhahaa.


Seems mean, seems odd, seems uncool, but hey it's the truth and an innocent life shouldn't be ended due to ppl racing around on city streets. Hense the purpose of Autoxcross, and track days.

Perfectly safe to do it out there and not hurt any one but yourself if it happens.

Sorry for it being so long, but just felt it was worth this small lesson, even if it doesn't get through to some.

Chris

Again, I truly hope this does not offend anyone. I really don't mean to do that, simply only to open the eyes of some of our younger generations to fully grasp the serious potential and dangerousness of "OVER DOING IT". I'd prefer to see happy young faces enjoying the great German ingenuity, and most of all... staying alive in doing so.

I'm a professional driver for a living.. Hence my points above, I see idiot drivers all day long.

donromani

I gotta agree with Chris - this is not a good car for young drivers, for many reasons.

Look, I would have killed for an S4 at 17, but I probably also would have really killed myself and the unfortunates riding with me too...I had some close scrapes in my 105hp Civic, who knows what kind of carnage I would have caused in a 250hp S4...and that's without a chip tune. Anyway, I don't expect that warning to do any more good than similar warnings did me...

The truth is, this is not a good car for people with small budgets, and it's not a good car to learn on either. It's got too much complicated crap stuffed into too tight a space, most of it protected by bolts that require special sockets or tools.

If you want a good looking, sporty ride that's mechanically reliable and easy to practice being a grease monkey on then look elsewhere. Personally, I like the Tiburons - 2.7Liter naturally aspirated V6, fun to drive, cheap, and less than 200 hp. Great car for a young male driver, IMO, and the women like it too.

jamesdmanley

if you have to ask, buy a civic

EastCoastWarrior

Thanks for the great advice guys. Im not offended in the least bit, those same idiots you talked about I go to school with. Just last week some kid in my school wrapped his 2010 V6 mustang around a tree becuase he decided to race a v8 supercharged camaro, and went to fast into a turn. Its unfortune but at least nobody got hurt, its good too cuz I get exposed to it and see the dangers and consequences. As for car power, I currently drive 270 somthing hp (havent had it dynoed)Land Rover Discovery 2 V8, its got some great low end torgue, Ive also driven my niehbors 320 hp 2.7t A6, as for handling of power, I'm pretty good Im always within 10 mph of the speed limit, and dont do burnouts or drifting or any of that stupid crap. Ive been enrolled in my schools Auto Shop class for 3 years now,Im no expert mechanic, but can do a damn good job on maintnance. I know you werent judging me, but were instead judging through your experience and I understand that, even I myself question my driving skills every once in while when I do somthing stupid, but trust me the only way my S4 is going to end up wrecked is by someone elses mistake, I'm a very defensive driver, and probably the best driver in my school,(not to brag). Thank you very much for the information, I respect both of your opinions on my age and I agree with you. However I trust myself that I will not make stupid desicions with the S4, and hopefully within the summer you will be able to see my S4 and how good Im gonna treat it.

Chris's S4

James, I always love your response to these questions. It's the exact same every time. LOVE IT! lol

Now as for you!.... hmm. I dunno... in a way it's scary but also kinda good, you sound like me. Where I look and observe at the stupidity of others to take my experiences and not repeat. It seems like you've got you mind dead set on this S4. Hopefully you can walk the walk, since you talk the talk. She'll be wanting serious maintenance. Hope ya can afford it is all.

Careful with defensive driving, that tends to get us in trouble just the same. Last night (quick story) I'm driving home from my sisters house. Just cruising along and this car to my left while on the frwy starts to merge over into me... the car was slightly ahead of me and I was already slowly passing this person. Thankfully I was in chip mode which helped zip the S4 right out of that situation. By the time I got passed, the person's car was over a quarter of the lane in mine. It sucked cuz I had no where to go cept forward... Food for thought.

Peace, my nephew is here... gotta go play!!!!
Chris

EuroXS4

I must say you got good taste in cars.These cars are alot of fun to drive.They handle great ,ride great as long as you take care of them.I'm not here to tell you that you shouldnt get one.Yes they are a fine *** automobile,but no car is perfect and these cars have their common problems which most of the time tend to be a quite expensive fix especially if you dont know how to fix them or dont plan on fixing them yourself.With that being said,most german cars there is alot of upkeep with them almost something here and there all the little bs no matter what.So to be honest at this time i'd say the s4 might not be the best choice for you.Just my honest opinion in the end your gonna do whatever you want to do your life your choice.But you've been warned if you dont plan on doing any repairs on these cars yourself be prepared to pay a significant amount of money.Heres a short list:

Timing belt
Gas temp sensors
Oxygen sensors
Valve Cover +Tensioner Gaskets
Auxilary Coolant Pump
Camshaft Chain Tensioners
Coolant temp switch
Fuel pump
ECU
Wiper assembly
Abs Control Unit
Turbos
Motor Mounts
Trans Mount
Wheel Bearings
Control Arms
Rear Diff(normally replaced because of whine noises)
Tie Rods
Xenon bulbs+Ballasts
ICMs or Coils
Combi Valve+Vacuum Hoses
1st and 2nd gear sychros(there is updated parts for the 1st and 2nd gear synchros.Truth be told they only fail because of jackasses that keep missing gears)I have a 00 s4 and I dont have that problem yet everyone claims its a defect in parts..Bull****!!! Defect in the damn drivers i tell ya!!!)

Thats about it from what I can think of at this time.Please be aware most of the stuff in the list most of those things are big ticket items especially when It comes to labor and cost of parts and the cost to do the job.Not to mention almost everything for this car is expensive as hell cheapest part on the car is the bose radio which can be bought for $40 form ecs tuning.everything else???Arm and a Led Possibly your first born,which you dont have as you are 17.You've been warned.The Choice is yours....Don't take the red pill!!!

EastCoastWarrior

I plan on fixing everything myself so its not so much the cost of taking it to Audi that Im concerned with it, Im mainly concerned over having multiple parts failing constantly where as the money for parts adds up.

EuroXS4

Well If your willing to do the work yourself and are confident that you will be able to tackle some of those big jobs.be aware parts arent cheap.and money does tend to add up for parts no matter what.hell a new front bumper that I need for my car $580 alone un painted.Still gotta buy the side grilles a fog light and get it paid buy the time its said and done probably around a grand just to replace a front bumper.

Also I hope your planning on buying a stick s4 and not a automatic.Trust me you dont want a automatic lol

Chris's S4

Automatics do blow.... no offense to you automatic guys... but they do suck, especially when they fail. too heavy, to many parts to go bad, its just too much already hahahaha.

And damn.... $580 for a bumper.. yikes, but it'll look very nice after it's all done. hahaha What happend to your other bumper?

As doing the work all yourself, boy that's a huge task. I just did a tb wp and cam seals cam tensioner seals all on my own, that was fairly huge and time consuming. But not at all daunting, more like inspirational and educating plus the added experience of doing it on a motor I knew nothing about as far as getting that deep into it and coming out alive. hahahahaha

this motor will really make you think twice about doing the job while in the middle of it and test your knowledge and true experience on mechanics in general, the Germans really built an amazing piece of equipment, wow.


Chris