doktorekny

Just wondering. Trying to pickup something not too expensive to get me by for a while, D3 is within my price range. What do I watch out of when Buying a D3 with high milage (100K)? What are common problems with these 4.2L engines? what years to avoid? What other issues to watch out for? I dont know how to weed out garbage. Thanks. Mark

Dville

Read this...
http://www.dognmonkey.com/audi/looki...sed-a8-d3.html

I got a 2006 because I can service the timing belt in my garage. (mine just had the timing belt and water pump serviced when I got it)

The 2007 needs engine removed to do work on timing chain guides,if you keep it that long.
The 06 and earlier have injectors before the valves to wash off the carbon deposits, the 07 and later have direct injection fuel into cylinder, so carbon builds up on back of intake valves and eventually over time, performance will decrease.

timing belt, water pump, and control arm bushings are serviceable, but would be better if they were already done.
suspension airbags sometimes fail and used to be expensive, but the o-ring, bag, and complete assembly are all sold separately now.

the_duke

I would recommend you spend many many hours reading this forum before buying a D3. Parts are not cheap and they can have quite a few problems. Having said that they are great cars and if you are willing and able to do the work yourself they can be inexpensive to own. If you have to pay a shop to fix and diagnose then I wouldn't own one without the ability to pay big money for repairs. As far as the debate between timing belt vs chain motors the reality is that there have been very few issues with the timing chain motors in the D3.

Jack88

It's a reliable car, but it's very important to be on the lookout for any signs of deferred repair or maintenance. The timing belt motor and later FSI motors have proven to be very reliable. My top three things to look for are any signs of water intrusion around the floors(front, rear, or trunk,) a VCDS scan to look for faults(especially compressor overtemp shutoff fault,) and when the last time was it had a full timing belt service.

richard-tx

I have 2 d3. One is an 06 with 135k and the 08 with 77k. While I did do some maintenance on the 06 when I got it at 100k miles. I would not call it expensive nor difficult. The timing belt had been done on the 06. The 08 does not have a timing belt. I have not done any carbon cleaning on the 08. It may be coming due and I will do the Audi recommended chemical treatment first. The biggest expense so far has been tires.

I recommend changing the oil at 5000 - 7500 mile intervals.

So far this year and last year I have replaced nothing on the 08. The 06 needed a used headlight as the adaptive motor inside the headlamp failed. I replaced both front shocks with a RMT rebuilds and replaced the ring in the compressor. I also did upper and lower control arms at the same time. Changed brake pads on both cars but that is shade tree work.

Expensive? A friend of mine took his Ford F-250 truck in. His estimate for repairs was around $22,000. Most of the cost was to rebuild the worn out front end.

mishar

If I understood this right you should not buy D3 A8.

doktorekny

NO, you did not understand it right. Im trying to see who is trying to sell me a lemon so I love to know what to ask for and watch out for.

mishar

OK, but answer is still pretty much the same. All of them are more of less lemon. They are very complicated, parts and labor (if you have to pay for it) very expensive, they are old and full of potential problems. At the end difficult to sell. Kinda of a project car.

TSHong

I think this is the key for me. The D3 is not a car to get you by unless you are a DYIer. Like others have said, if you have to pay for someone else to repair the car, then stay away. For an example, the front struts can be done for about lets say $800 when RMT has some special with your own labor. Even the cheapest Indy shop would charge somewhere in the close to double that.

richard-tx

100k is not high mileage. I know where there is a D2 that has over 350,000 miles on it. Apart from the common D2 transmission issue that happened at about 120,000 miles, nothing else except normal wear items.

The air struts and compressor are a once every 9-10 years thing.