I recently bought a b6 s4 and it needs some love. Alternator and all of its parts need to be replaced, the valley pan gasket is toast, and the valve cover gaskets have got to go. All estimates i have gotten from good shops that specialize in Audi say somewhere between $4500 and $5500. I’m told the new alternator alone is about $1000. My question is whether or not it would be good to have a very experienced shop do the fix and drain my wallet, or would it be smarter to let my friend take care of it? I have a friend who owns a shop and works on all kinds of euro cars but has not worked on an s4 before. He is happy to do the job and it will save me thousands but I will end up with a rebuilt alternator. Does anyone here have an opinion on rebuilt ACDELCO alternators ? I found one for about $500. Some people say owning this car requires being handy with a wrench because you’ll end up paying a lot for these labor intensive jobs if you can’t do it yourself. I have also heard that it is best to just shut up and pay the money to have it done by a real Audi pro. Please help me make an informed decision.