BriGuy01-2.7T

Hello everyone, my name is Brian... I made an ill advised move this past Saturday that would pretty much be considered crazy and insane. I blame it on the extreme comfort, smoothness, handling, speed, tightness and everything else I felt when my wife and I test drove a 2001 Audi 2.7T Quattro w/127K on the clock. I literally felt like I was on cloud 9 as they say. As a matter of fact over a period of a month we test drove it twice. Saturday we decided to buy it. Here is the crazy and insane part... I bought it from a used car dealer who doesn't warranty cars with turbos. The turbos felt and sounded fine so I decided it wasn't a big deal. Before we test drove it, the owner/dealer explained that he just replaced the head gaskets, so if we see a little smoke, it's nothing to worry about... just the oil burning off of the engine from the head gasket job that was done. He said he didn't want to clean (in his words power wash the engine because there are so many sensors that could get damaged by doing this). We test drove it twice. The first time didn't see any smoke. The second time a few weeks later we did see a little smoke and figured that because the car had been just sitting there with a little oil on the engine it would burn off like he said. We popped the hood and it looked like the smoke was coming from below the engine maybe oil burning off the exhaust. Anyway the dealer assured us that if a week or so went by and it was still smoking that he would take it to a shop to have it "checked out." Well I'm not waiting a week because after we took it home on Saturday, I found that oil was leaking on my garage floor. I know I made a slew of mistakes here by not doing a more thorough inspection of the car before I bought it, but it's behind me now and I don't know if the owner is going to cooperate with me and do what's right to resolve whatever the issue is. I guess I'm just trying to figure out if I'm royally screwed. The car drove so awesome, there was no sign of transmission problems or lack of performance in any way. The brakes were great, and no weird noises or sounds. I'm just worried I fell in love with the car and jumped to wanting it so bad that I had blinders on. It's throwing the code 0741 for the torque converter and I've heard that can mean things that range from low transmission fluid or needing a transmission fluid flush/change to needing a new torque converter which is thousands of dollars. There are a few other sensor codes I'm not as concerned about but the oil leak and the code for the torque converter will have me lose sleep at night! I have a few friends that have owned Audi's and VW's and know a little about them. One of them is coming over Saturday to give me his opinion on what's going on. Any suggestions on what to do if the dealer refuses to cooperate?

N_Jay

Where are you?
In a lot of states a dealer must disclose any material defects even if the car is sold as-is.

Find a really good shop and get the pre-purchase inspection post purchase, so you know where you are.

BriGuy01-2.7T

I'm in WV and according to the FTC the state does not allow "as is" sales which is good for me if I need the dealer to take the car back because he didn't disclose what was really wrong with the car.

N_Jay

You may want o spend a bit of time reading the threads here.

These are wonderful cars when they run right, but to keep them running right they need a careful hand and proper maintenance.

They can also quickly become money sucking sink-holes if they have gone too long without maintenance or have been improperly maintained and/or abused.

You might have a gem that you got at a steal and it only needs a few annoying items fixed up, or the other. . . .

bilbo6209

Brian,

First off I know your feeling!!! I bought a S4 that I didn't get checked out before purchase and ended up having to put quite a bit of time and money into over the first year of ownership...
And yes the 2.7 T is a FUN engine and makes for a very fun car!!!!

I too would say got spend the $100 or so and get a mechanic to give the car a good Pre-Purchase check and then take this, and any info you can about the state statutes back to the dealer.

Start by talking to the dealer calmly and explaining that you feel there were issues with the car that were not disclosed prior to the sale, and that you like the car and would like to keep it if those issues are fully resolved. If he throws a stink then you can bring out the print out of the statutes etc and again keeping calm explain why they apply.

the calmer person will always win in a situation like this do your research make sure you have all your ducks in a row and make sure you know exactly what you will and will not except as an acceptable outcome.

Just my 2 cents
Bill

N_Jay

It does not have to come from a dealer.
My son bought me dad's 2000 A6 Quattro that was supposedly well maintained.
After going through all the records it was obvious that maintenance took a step down when the warranty was up and then trailed off further after 80K miles.

We bought it ay 124K miles after it was barely used for a year. (2K miles)
In that year it received about $2k in maintenance and repairs, including the full TB/WP and a new battery.

When I took it in for an oil change I asked to give it the once over, and they came back with about $2k to $3k of work to be done.
We did about $1800 of it and then my daughter proceeded to have an accident.
Not bad, but would have been totaled "IF" I had not just dumped the money into it.

The moral of the story, find out what it needs, than decide which way you want to go before putting in too much.

BriGuy01-2.7T

Hi guys and thanks so much for your responses! I really appreciate the input and certainly feel welcome and accepted to this forum! I caught up with the owner of the used car dealership again yesterday after work and explained that my A6 is still leaving a small puddle of oil on my garage floor overnight and it's smoking from time to time but not always. Good point about staying calm and cool when talking to him... I'm a mild mannered person so that's not hard for me to do and I really love this car although I do realize that I will more than likely have a "love/hate" relationship with the car. I have a lot of friends with VW's and Audi's so I'm familiar with what they deal with and I knew what I was getting myself into when we made the purchase. The owner swears up and down that the valve cover gaskets were just replaced and there was oil all over the engine from a bad leak that's still burning off. He did say to take it to a shop he deals with if the problem goes on for over a week. The reason I tend to believe him is because the oil level in the car is not going down. I've checked the engine oil level every day and it's still at full.

BriGuy01-2.7T

In my first post I mentioned that it was throwing a code 0741 for possible faulty torque converter. When I checked the codes for the check engine light again this morning, code 0741 wasn't among the two or three it was throwing like it was before and I didn't erase them. What's the deal with that? Why would it throw that code before and now it isn't? The other codes seem to be pretty minor (I think) 1113 and 1114 but I still don't want to go long without trying to resolve the issues.

N_Jay

Check the rear driveshaft seal at the back of the transmission/center differential/transfer case.

These are known to fail, drip oil onto the exhaust.

How do I know??
Well one of the reasons my dad was done with the car was because it smelled of burning oil.
He had the engine cleaned several time because the assumption was it was left over oil from leaking cam covers and seals.
(Remember, it just had all that work done, and was not being driven much.)
When I did my first service, I toped up all the fluid. The transfer case/center differential was very low, and it stated dripping right away.
It also slings the oil onto the exhaust.

If you check the threads, I don't think there is a C5 car with over 10 years and 100K miles that does not need this seal replaced.

clancy

There is likely an indy Audi shop in your area. Take it to them to do the inspection. They will know what to look for and can tell you much more accurately what it will cost to fix. An inspection by a shop that does not work on these regularly will be at a great disadvantage.

If the DTCs cleared on their own this is a good sign. Ask the shop what this means.

If you keep the car, do research on this site about common issues for this car and the resolutions. Also, read up about the torque converter seal issue. There are divergent opinions on here regarding fixing it. I have a 2000 A6 2.7 and a 2001 A6 2.7 both with the Tiptronic trans. We repaired one (did the torque converter replacement) and left the other as is. The one we did not repair (but changed the trans fluid every 20-30000 miles) has gone over 100000 miles with the issue. Otherwise the trans works fine. Gas mileage is only 1-2 mpg lower on the non-repaired one. Not saying don't fix it. Just saying it is a decision you must make. I do not regret not repairing ours. The cost/benefit is not there for us.

Just remember this is a 15 year old car. It will cost more to repair than a new car.