stevenmurray

An 83 with 40 or 60K sounds like it might have gone a few years without being driven. I'm not to knowlegable on this but a lot of parts like cylinder walls are bare metal and I'd imagine they'd rust up without the constant heat and lub of use. So maybe 40K is worse than 180K - but of course low milage owners want a premium. SO how do I know if the 40K milage car is a gem or nightmare?

With brakes it's probably obvious if they rust up - but I'd be concerned about internal rust in engine and tranny.

steve (NY - and humid)

urq20vt

Wow, that is the LAST thing that I would worry about on an '83 ur q.

Kidquattro

...I wouldn't worry about it. There are plenty of sub 50k miled cars out there that are alot older than 1983 that aren't a problem. It takes alot of time to rust out the inside of an engine and if the car is driven at least once or twice a year for more than fifty miles, i would think the engine would still be clean.

stevenmurray

I figured even minor pitting on the cylinder walls would start to hurt compression - I just don't have any idea how long that takes to occur. Brake rotors look bad after 1 week so I wasn't sure how long this takes inside the engine - one cylinder at least is likely to have an open valve. I know motors rust up and won't turn over - but I don't know if that takes 1 year or 5? How long can a motor go before you have to recondition the cyliner walls or risk snaping piston rings?
steve

urq20vt

Do run the engine before you do this, assuming that it does run, so you get an accurate reading.

Personally, I would be more worried about all of the rubber bushings, brakes and electrical system. FWIW, I have never heard of anyone finding rusty bores in an Audi as long as there are spark plugs in it.

I bought a '57 Triumph TR3 17 years ago that sat in a garage in WI for 12 years. I rebuilt the carbs, cleaned the fuel tank, changed oil, flushed the brakes, rebuilt the voltage regulator, put a little oil in the cylinders and started it right up. I drove it home 50 miles. While driving it that far after all of those years of neglect was foolish (I lost all hydraulics 2 miles from home) the engine was in great shape.

As for that urq, if it still has a WX engine, you can count on engine problems at some time anyway.

Kidquattro

...remember even thou a car sits and has no oil in it before start up the cylinder wall aren't completely dry. There is a fine coat of oil thru-out the engine so for there to be rust inside a cylinder wall the car would have to be immobile for a long time. My 88 5kqt sat untouched in my garage for a year-and-a-half before I started it up. We pulled the top end of and the engine was superclean. No pits, rust nothing clean as a whistle. And my garage isn't heated and gets pretty damp in there on humid days so I don't know, I guess do a compresion check if your worried. Is it your Coupe your wondering about?

Kidquattro

...which would be a result of rust in the cylinder.

stevenmurray

Hello KidQ
I guess I've overestimated the problem. I was curious not about my car - but about buying one. But as far as my coupe - maybe i don't have to exercise it every 3 or 4 weeks. steve