ocles_inc

I've recently bought another 2000 Audi A6 Quattro 4.2 V8 (gotta catch 'em all). The car is in sad shape, including the transmission not working. The seller wasn't all that specific but the price was $300 so I decided I'd chance it. Worst case I can get some analysis on the car done and end up with some good parts. When the price is low enough, I take a zero-based approach, e.g., "hey, a nice passenger seat" or "maybe the Audi Symphony stereo still works" or "ooh, it has two nice hub-caps."

Working on the car wasn't likely to be all that much fun because there was a weird chemical smell in the car, and it looks like someone had flung yellowish mud-like fluid at the inside, with much of it on the driver door. Ewww. My best guess was that someone had lost his lunch in the car, and I mean "go-for-distance projectile vomiting" not "ooh, my slice of cheese fell between the center tunnel and the seat squab." On the floormats (nice Weathertechs, it looks like) there was some more yellow stuff. That probably explained that the car reeked.

I asked my friend to go to the seller's location, and pick up the car for me with his truck and an auto transporter. As it turns out, the transmission problems included the car being stuck in "park" so getting it loaded took much skill and all the patience he had.

Today, out of morbid curiosity, he looked into why the transmission was stuck in "park" and he played with the shifter console. The previous owner had done the same, and the shifter mechanism in the center console was in shambles. My friend discovered that some of the plastic parts were melted. We looked more closely and we concluded that the yellow stuff had been the contents of a fire extinguisher that had been sprayed inside the car. Aha! That's less disgusting than dried vomit. By my standards, anyway. So, that's good news. Sort of ...

I have a stash of center console shifter parts from another 2000 Audi A6 Quattro 4.2 V8, and we compared the healthy parts to the melted ones. We tried to lovingly dismantle the melted remains of the shifter mechanism in the center console but we made negligible progress. I had to go run a bank-related errand and when I got back he'd solved the problem by giving up on gentle persuasion, and he'd bludgeoned the center console plastic parts into little pieces with a hammer. He seemed more cheerful, having done that. After clearing away the debris, he was able to get access to the shifter cable, then was able to get that to work, so now the car isn't stuck in "park" any more. As for me, I'm happy because I no longer have an immobilized Audi blocking my shop entrance.

Anyway, this is a new-to-me problem. I'm unaware of an Audi A6 Quattro having a fire in that area, and I'm inviting opinions as to what might have caused this. If you wanna offer witty remarks, go ahead -- we might as well have some fun with this sad situation.

Also, if anyone needs parts for the shifter mechanism in the center console ... I have some used ones for sale.

~Tanya

jimweisptd

Long shot here, years ago my car (US built) had the cable from the shifter seize in the housing, due to a bad ground it welded it self, the shifter cable was the ground path.

ocles_inc

This sort of stark, real-world experience is very welcome. :-) Thank you!

~Tanya

tanya_charbury

Here's a happy update from my very tenacious little Audi C5 A6 Quattro 4.2 V8 shop in northern Nevada. About six months ago, we bought a $300 car that had been on fire. Fire extinguisher dust was all over the inside front of the car, most of it focused on the shifter tunnel area, which is where the flames came up and did the most damage. Our latest guess is that something related to the catalytic converters had caught fire.

When we bought the car, the carpet was soaked and the inside of the car smelled moldy. The center console area was a charred mess. The junkyard from which we bought it didn't even let us gently winch it on a trailer; they loaded it with a forklift and dropped it unceremoniously onto our trailer.

Over the last six months, we have methodically been fixing it up.

And, last night ...

I DROVE IT!

I was literally sitting on a plastic milk crate with a cushion on top, but I drove it. It's quick, it shifts through all the gears beautifully, and the roar of the V8 sounds lovely through the open hole in the transmission tunnel where the shifter used to be. For shifting, we use two Vise-grips. It works! And, there's something visceral about seeing a drive shaft turn, while driving.

How did we get here? First things first (and I'm trying to be a good example) we sent off a front lower valve body housing to the ZF distributor in Connecticut. They renewed the pressure regulator for us (and they'd do this for you too, if you send them your old unit and some money). This is essential for preventing the classic pressure spike that blows out the clutch A drum and kills off the first 4 forward gears, putting the car in "limp home" mode. If you own one of these cars with the ZF 5HP-24A automatic transmission, then yes -- we can sell you a replacement unit after you blow out the clutch A drum but we'd much rather sell you fun stuff, so please consider getting that pressure regulator renewed so your transmission lasts for many more years. Heck, our fire submarine car doesn't even have seats and the pressure regulator renewal was a higher priority than seats, for us.

Many people are afraid of these cars. They're supposedly fragile, and my answer to that was to enter our black Audi C5 A6 Quattro 4.2 V8 in the Virginia City Hill Climb, and the driver (also a tech at the shop) drove it hard up the hill, many times, over two days -- and aside from a vacuum leak that my other tech fixed while we were in the lineup for the next run, the car behaved beautifully. It's actually my daily driver, parked outside my apartment as I'm writing this, and it still has the race number decal on the door. So, no, they're not fragile as long as you have the pressure regulator renewed, and the timing belt with its related parts renewed (and neither of these tasks is difficult -- they just sound difficult).

The next premise is that the parts and maintenance are prohibitively expensive. And, no, they're not. With careful shopping of the right blend of used and new parts, and with the right blend of involving the local Audi dealer at key times, doing the work oneself, and involving a savvy local general repair shop, I've been able to keep six of these 2000 / 2001 Audi Quattro 4.2 V8 cars going, the oldest one for the last two years, which is when this obsession began. Now and then something breaks, and we fix it. Yes, I'm in the used parts business, but none of my sources are closed to anyone on this forum. It just takes some careful shopping. If I can do it, you can do it.

The next premise is that these cars are prohibitively complex, especially the electrical aspects. And, no, they're not. Granted, my tech chickie is to cars as Kasparov is to chess (except that she looks like a black-leather fetish model and he doesn't) but my point is that she's not a magician. These are solvable problems. My little three-person team started with a $300 car that had caught fire, and had an inch of water in the footwells under the carpeting. Some of the wiring had burned too. And yet, with a calm, methodical approach, the bad parts were replaced, and the car runs just fine.

A week ago, it could drive but 5th was the only forward gear because the output speed sensor cable insulation had melted and shorted the wiring inside. So we installed a replacement unit, and with the floor now nice and dry, we installed a replacement transmission control computer. So now, the car shifts fine in all gears.

A day ago, the way to start it was with an Autozone blue electrical wire attached to the starter and hot wired to the positive of the battery. But, my tech finally traced the flaw to a well-toasted starter inhibitor relay, and she replaced the previously soaked central locking control module with one from a donor car, and now the car starts with the turn of the ignition key.

The inside still looks like a charred mess, with yellow dust all over the place, but it's getting better, and we're proving the basic point. If we can bring a car like this back from the brink, perhaps we can inspire you to keep your own C5 A6 car going too. :-)

~Tanya

tanya_charbury

Here's a picture of our $300 runs-and-drives fire submarine car in our shop. The name comes from it having caught fire before we bought it, and due to having had its floor-pan covered by an inch of water (probably used to put out the fire) when we took delivery,

The right side body panels and the transmission pan got trashed, presumably by a forklift at the junkyard from which we bought it.

If power-to-weight ratio matters, then this is the fastest 2000 Audi C5 A6 Quattro 4.2 V8 we own, without the weight of the carpet, seats, stereo, center console and various other trim panels. My tech chickie is also threatening to install a reprogrammed ECU that will create some more power, too.

We've replaced the old instrument cluster, which was caked with yellow fire extinguisher powder, with another one, off another 2000 Audi C5 A6 Quattro 4.2 V8.



We've swapped out the dented transmission pan already. It no longer leaks, yay!

We're next planning to take it to the local A/C shop to get the refrigerant sucked out, so that we can remove the front clip totally and have easier access to the many places on the engine where leaks might be occurring.

Also, the owner of the cushion wanted it back, so we're once again using an uncushioned milk crate as the driver seat. We might have to make a plan about that - either eat more cheeseburgers, or get another cushion or something formal. Right now, I have $1.50 or so in the bank so the first option sounds best.

~Tanya