Max_Power

OK so I have this gorgeous A6 3.0 CVT which I meticulously maintain and love. The tranny shifts nicely after the fluid change and the car rides beautifully on the Koni sport suspension. The car has 87K miles and no I'm not trying to sell it to you.

Here is my problem:
-> I keep reading all these crazy horror stories about CVT usually from people that they transmission is bad and they are devastated knowing that the cost of replacement is around $8K .
-> I also know that the timing belt is due at 100K miles which will run me (I would think) around $2K (especially if I do the water pumps too).

Would it make sense to try to sell my car now that it runs beautifully and get high dollar value and get a 2.7T with manual transmission or a V8 S4 with manual transmission or you think I'm looking for trouble?

How much is the cost for replacing the twin turbos for the 2.7T engine? How long do they usually last?

Is it true that the S4 V8 (2003-05) has timing chain - so in that sense has less things (no timing belt and turbos) to worry about?

redge2.7t

The 4.2 is a pretty bulletproof motor, the 2.7t can be alot more expensive turbo replacement usually runs at least 3-4k but the 2.7t motor is alot more tunable then the 4.2. I say go for broke with the a6 and make it nasty!

Max_Power

How different are the A6 4.2 V8 vs S4 4.2 V8?
Is it correct that the A6 has timing belt while the S4 has timing chain?

mithrilG60

Quite different, mostly in terms of configuration. The S4 V8 is even harder to work on than the C5 V6 due to the difference in configuration and the much tighter engine bay. The difference between the 2 cars are night and day though, mainly due the different transmission. The S4 also has a TINY gas tank (55L) so you can expect to be visiting the S4's natural natural habitat (ie. a gas station) with great frequency. The fuel economy on the C5 V8 is no better than the S4 but the tank is significantly larger (82L) so the range between fills is a lot longer.

Just Me

correct. They had to go to a chain to get the 4.2 to fit in the smaller engine bay. Basically smae motor otherwise. Aside from poor economy, very very good one too.

2.7 is also solid, if you treat the turbos nice and fix occasional rubber hose thingys.

G

Just Me

aside from the packaging int he bay, and the chain, what's different? Most parts cross directly....

mithrilG60

The core internals are the same, but a lot of the external parts are different because of the configuration changes needed to squeeze it into the B6 engine bay. The functionality and reliablity are the same, it's just working on the engine is more difficult. That's really what I mean by quite different.

Just Me

gotcha. Cant argue with "same motor in less space is harder". It's basically my opinion on Audis in general - too many parts in too little space, designed by people who [appear to] get a bonus if they make it dealer-only :-)

Peter Badore

The S4 V8 doesn't a timing chain it has four of them located at the back of the engine. I had a no start 2004 S4 V8 offered to me for $3500 because the owner did not want to incur the cost of an engine pull to fix the chains and bent valves. Read the S4 forum to see how common V8 chain noise and problems are. It makes one glad that the B5 S4 has a timing belt and two small chains to service with the engine in the car.