I've found an 01 A6 with the biturbo, 135K km, manual trans, for under challege money. Going to look tonight hopefully. Seller says bought as project, runs strong, needs brakes, tie rod ends, and a windshield.
I must confess, I love Audis. I've also loved women who were bad for me, but mercifully I've learned (with women anyway).
Talk me down. Or tell me how to get it to challenge on budget.
Jeff
Replace the broken parts and sell for profit while you can.
DOESN'T MATTER GOT 2.7TT
I'd buy it. But I'm a sucker that way.
I wonder what the car is worth in parts....
I love & drive Fiats, Alfas, Maseratis and I"m terrified of Audi products, I just don't think it is possible for them to be reliable.
That wouldn't scare me. Changing the turbos on one does. I'll do it, but I won't enjoy it.
The ball joints are not that big of a deal, but they're kind of pricey new. The good thing is they also fit A4 and Passat, and commonly fail, so you can probably find some nearly new ones at the Pull-a-part from a Passat.
On a challenge budget? 
m4ff3w wrote: I love & drive Fiats, Alfas, Maseratis and I"m terrified of Audi products, I just don't think it is possible for them to be reliable.
Wait... you're scared of Audis and you tried to DD a BiTurbo? Just how scary IS a VAG product?
Bring along VAG-COM to do a complete scan before you buy. Under no circumstances should you buy this car without doing that first.
Honestly if it's under challenge budget and has good compression numbers, i'd buy the E36 M3 out of it. Bonus points for having turbos that aren't blowing massive amounts of oil through the intake.
The rest i don't care about. Could break even after parting it out and scrapping the shell.
Just give me the motor and trans.
^ This. If nothing else, those parts are worth something as long at that timing belt hasn't let go yet.
This thread reads like a hit it or quit it debate..
My answer to the original question. Yes.
I own a Fiat built by communists and I wouldn't come near an Audi out of warranty.
I'm in Hamilton if you want to borrow my VAG-COM....
Or if you chose to pass on it, let me know.
Hard to go wrong for the price. No one says you have to fix it, so at worst its a 2000 grand hit to the wallet.
Since you are in ON, you may want to make sure it passes an E-Test before you do it, though. They've changed the program, and made things a bit more of a challenge.
Nathan, you can find it on Autotrader.ca It's the only A6 with a manual. I'm passing.
Cheers
Do the brakes and tie-rod ends yourself, hopefully that will keep it in budget.
Thanks Jeff! Gone. Probably best that way. There's another in Ottawa for slightly more, but that's a bit too far out for me these days. Getting a VAG car to pass the new etest is difficult - a CEL is a fail, and a recently reset computer will also result in failing the test.
I'll just add this: My wife bought a 2001 A6 2.7T brand new and drove it for just over 100k trouble-free miles. The ONLY thing other than routine maintenance was an auxilliary water pump that failed around 50k, and since the car came with a 4-year, 50,000 warranty, the repair was at no cost to us. A wonderful car that would likely allow me to roll the VAG dice one more time.
The turbo replacement is what got us out of the car. I was willing to tackle it, but the wifey didn't want me tied up with a disassembled Audi that long.
That said, I'm not sure I'd want the same car with over 100k on it, unless the owner could prove that all maintenance was done on schedule, and it was a veritable cream-puff. Repairs can be expensive and excessively complicated.
Kenny_McCormic wrote: I own a Fiat built by communists and I wouldn't come near an Audi out of warranty.
^^^^ THIS.
I ran auto repair shops and tranny repair shops for 7 years. If it weren't for 99-present VW and Audis, we would have been out of business. Parts are stoopid expensive and many of them hard to get aftermarket.
Don't believe me? Order a CV axle for one. I give you a 15% chance that its the right one. I swear they changed the configuration of those things 10 times a day on the assembly line.
Still don't believe me? When the secondary air injection hose goes bad (and it will... probably already has 3 or 4 times on this car) and you think, "I'll just replace it with some fuel hose," then you realize it has these freaky snap-on o-ring connectors and you have no choice but to get them from the dealer and they're $180. Yes. For cheap, thin, plastic tubing that is basically like split wire loom without the split.
I could rant for ages about ABS drivers, aftermarket radio installations that will instantly destroy $3000 OBD2 test equipment, heated seats that illuminate the CEL, flimsy transmissions that defy rebuilding, aluminum oil pans that shed themselves of drain plug threads if you don't change the oil during the proper moon phase, leaking rear main seals, PCV canisters that either require removing the intake or all the skin from your knuckles, timing belts that require jedi powers to replace, VVT valves that get clogged by a single random pubic hair, or proprietary control arms with cast-in bushings and ball joints that can't be replaced.
Instead, I'll just say this. We had an 03 Jetta with 70k on it at one of our shops. We did $1800 worth of repair and the customer ended up going to jail. We filed a lien on it and got a title. At that point, I had the option of selling it for a fair market value of $6000, or paying $1800 into the till and keeping it for myself.
I put it on Craigslist for $3000, took the first offer, and slept like a baby that night.
Oh, and I'll add this.... I have a co-worker who (unfortunately) knows that I used to run repair businesses. He has an A6. There is not a single week that goes by when he is asking me about repairs. First it was a simple idler pulley. Then it was the VVT valve. Then it was a CEL for an evap leak. This week its a fuel pump.
RUN AWAY. If I got a free 99-present VW/Audi, I would sell it for whatever I could get. If I couldn't get anything for it, I would insure it and set fire to it.
I wouldn't damn them as much as Curtis, but saying you want to buy a B5 Audi 2.7T or Audi anything from that generation for that matter and expect it to be problem free and reliable is about as logical as saying you want to find a good clean and moral Christian woman in a whore house! The Audi will give you the automotive equivalent of herpes! Everyone I know who has owned an S4 from that era curses that car's existence. The only person I know who is happy with his is also a mechanic at a performance shop.
Contradiction wrote: I wouldn't damn them as much as Curtis,
I think you just did... and more 
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