Tassieaudi

Someone has offered me an ‘02 A4 Avant for $2500. It was a Florida car relocated to Vermont, it has never seen a winter as it was only used as a summer car by a little old lady who used it to drive to the LIquor store twice a week. It has always been garaged has 55K original miles. The exterior is in near mint condition. It has a had regular servicing. The interior is also in fantastic shape

The bad news is it has a CEL on as well as a traction control light. It also has a slight oil leak from the back of the engine.

I am going to drive it tomorrow, scan the obd2, put up on ramps and try to figure out the leak

what do you think?

Tassieaudi

Sorry! A6 avant- not A4

Tassieaudi

Someone has offered me an ‘02 A6 Avant with a 3.0 auto for $2500. It was a Florida car relocated to Vermont, it has never seen a winter as it was only used as a summer car by a little old lady who used it to drive to the LIquor store twice a week. It has always been garaged has 55K original miles. The exterior is in near mint condition. It has a had regular servicing. The interior is also in fantastic shape

The bad news is it has a CEL on as well as a traction control light. It also has a slight oil leak from the back of the engine.

I am going to drive it tomorrow, scan the obd2, put up on ramps and try to figure out the leak

what do you think?

KevinGary

It all depends on what codes say. But at only $2500 it should be a good deal.

Harleyguy

The CEL is probably the least expensive item to fix. It is emissions related and can range from bad vacuum lines to bad secondary air pump. Unless you have a VCDS scanner it probably won't give you any info on the ESC warning light. The OBD II will give you codes on the CEL but won't read things like , ABS, transmission module, and other Audi specific systems. The oil leak could be problematic to repair. With the things you indicated as problems figure on at least doubling the price of the car ($5000). Things that you didn't list will probably also need attention. Suspension bushings and components, tires, CV boots, transmission service, etc. I would walk on this one unless you are looking for a hobby.

uberwgn

Tassie, there's no need to duplicate this thread.

W261w261

For openers, it probably needs a $2k timing belt. Then there's about a dozen other things that could be lurking to deeply wound your billfold.

Find a mechanic that knows these cars (meaning someone that works on a lot of them and has VAGCOM software). Pay him 100-150 and let him go to town. Buying an old Audi without full info is very dangerous.

These are not Hondas.

Tassieaudi

I just purchased an Icarsoft scanner, I hope to scan it tomorrow

Harleyguy

It will depend on which model scanner you purchased as to whether it will give you the info you need. The generic OBD II scanners will give codes for CEL and nothing more as a rule. You need a VAGCOM scanner to read all the systems on an Audi as I posted earlier. Course it's your money but RossTech is the favorite on this site among the experienced owners. You purchase their cable to connect a laptop and they allow you access to their diagnostic software data base; around $200 US.

Tassieaudi