A quick background first as I haven't posted lately. I bought my S4 Sedan new in December, 2005. Yes, I still own it. I commute in the car and I have put nearly 130k miles on it. I'm posting to give folks an update on what to possibly expect from this car as the miles increase and the car ages.

Regular maintenance- I have the oil changed every 5k miles. I also have the scheduled maintenance done at 10k intervals. I have not diverged from this since I bought the car.

Issues- I had a cylinder misfire while the car was still under warranty. I took it to the dealer and they replaced all of the ignition coils. It turned out to be a recall part. If you have a 2006 S4 and the ignition coils have never been replaced you should take it to the dealer and have them replace them. They should perform this fix for free.

The driver's window raising/lowering mechanism began to bind and get stuck. The dealer fixed it under warranty.

After driving the car through Nevada at high speed, the transmission heated up and vented some fluid. The problem is that the vent tube is directly over the exhaust. Call it a minor design flaw, I suppose. It created a little smoke coming from the front right wheel well and a burnt fluid smell around the exterior of the car. I took it to the dealer in Salt Lake City where the tech quickly diagnosed the problem and how to fix it. The problem was that he had to take off the transmission to get to the vent outlet. At that point he simply installed a longer tube. The car was still under warranty so I paid nothing for this otherwise $800 fix. It's doubtful you will experience this problem, but I wanted to mention it anyway.

The car uses a lot of oil. On average, it needs a quart on average about every 600 miles between oil changes. This has been the case since around 60k miles. I've put another 80k miles on the car since then and it hasn't yet been a problem. The dealer confirmed that the 4.2 V8 uses oil. They said it needs a quart about every 1000 miles, but they also said that they rarely see S4's with this many miles. So, expect the car to use more oil as the mileage gets over 50k, but it doesn't seem to be a major issue.

Both headlights sometimes dip. Apparently, it's a defect in the mounting hardware that controls the adaptive headlight motion. I have never had this fixed since it doesn't happen that often. If it does, simply turn the headlights off and on and they will self-correct. I haven't had both headlights dip at the same time either. Had this been the case I would have coughed up the money by now and had them fixed. I think it's around $300 each to fix them.

And now for the first real issue I have had with this car since I bought it. Last weekend the check engine light came on while I was driving on the freeway. If I tried to accelerate quickly the light would begin to flash and the car would become jerky. Kind of like a cylinder misfire, but that's not what it was. I drove the car like a baby to the dealer last Tuesday. It took them until Friday to figure out what the problem was. The catalytic converter on the driver's side is toast. They said there was some back compression. They had to disable the O2 sensor and drive it, as well as run a scope into the catalytic converter and do a visual. I'm surprised it took them that long to figure it out. S4's have two catalytic converters. Fortunately, only one of them was bad because it's a $1000 part. By the time I get the car back later next week I'll be in it for close to $2000 including labor costs and rental car fees. I'm not phased by it given that I haven't really had to do anything but maintenance on this car since I bought it new. Then again, I suspect that my experience with my Audi has been somewhat atypical.

That said, if I can drive this car for the rest of the year and put 150k miles on it without needing another expensive repair I will be very VERY happy with my experience. I love this car. It's been a good commuter vehicle (75 miles round trip, 4 days a week). I also drive it to nearby Lake Tahoe to ski in the winter. I hope others here are having a great experience with their S4 as well.

One caveat- This is not a cheap car to own. Those of you who are thinking about buying one used at a "good" price need to be aware of this. Even though you may be looking at paying $15-20k, or whatever, it's not going to be like a $15-20k car. It's a $60k vehicle and the maintenance costs will reflect that. And you NEED to have the regular maintenance done by someone who is certified to work on newer Audi's. I can't stress that enough. Do not blow off the regular maintenance or you might be looking at a really expensive bill down the road.

 

Thanks for the update. Nice to see the car still running well at 130k. I believe that keeping to the scheduled maintenance goes a long way.

 

Nice writeup ColdRain. I liv ein the bay and drive to DonnerLake every weekend. Then I drive to Mountain View on the weekdays. It starts to add up.


How has your timing chain slap been? Do you notice it on cold starts? Has it gotten worse?

I have had pretty good luck with the car from 50k-100k. Only major repair was a torn power steering hose which resulted from me driving through 30 inches of snow for 10 hours to Tahoe one day when 80 was closed.

 

Thank you for all of the information. I recently bought a 2004 S4 with 80k on it. I bought it in march so I havent had it long. I have had the temp gauge work and not work. It will work as the car warms up in the morning until about 1/4 of the way up then it will fall back down to C. the car is running fine otherwise. I am assuming it is just the sensor in the back of the motor or the wiring. I tried moving the wires and that worked for a while, but I think it was just the sensor making momentary connection as it was going out. I am not sure what to do. any ideas?

I live in Sacramento and will be heading to Tahoe often in the winter. do you have any tips or suggestions for me?

Thanks,

 

Thanks coldrain for detailing your experience. I would like to say that on my 05 S4 cabrio, the passenger side catalytic conv. required replacement at 28,ooo miles (just before I bought it), also motor mount on same side replaced at 35,000 miles. Interior rear view mirror, starter motor and crankcase ventilation valve (second time) at 50,000. Recently, serpentine belt and tensioner replaced and both head gaskets at 54,000--note, 28 new engine bolts are required and they cost $10.80 each here at dealership in Canada) .
Concur that the engine does consume oil and has rattle of timing chain initially on start up (lasts about 1sec). Agree that regular maintenance is crucial, but notice that oil (Castrol syntec) stills looks quite clean even after 6,000miles. The car is almost 7 years old now but runs very well and seduces me to drive just for fun, especially now with the top down. Great winter car too.

 

Thanks for the update (and reassurance). I have a 2005.5 cab which I have used as a daily driver since buying new in June 2005. I have 87k. Very minor issues so far. Cam gasket oil leak, fuel pump filter, serpentine belt tensioner, mysterious intermittent brake light bulb problem. I too have noticed increased oil usage, requires about a quart per 800-1000 miles. If you read enough stuff here or on Audizine you can convince yourself the sky is falling (scored cylinders, oh my!). I love the car and would love to get another five years out of it. With snow tires it can handle anything a New England winter can dish out and is still a lot of fun to drive.

 

jlmjg5k : Your "intermittent brake light bulb problem" is more than likely a short in the 3rd brake light installed in the trunk on the cabriolet. The opening and closing of the trunk through the years has caused a bend in the wires and that's why it's only failing half the time. If you cut & replace new wires around the bend, you'll fix that.
Anyone having stereo problems, this will fix it as well.

 

Wow, that's a lot of miles! I just turned 40k on my '05 S4 and it's the longest I have ever driven a car!