Discussion
Hi there, I was thinking of buying another s4 V8 and was tempted by one I saw for sale for just under 3 grand, 1 issue was probably steering pump, no problem with that, but the other was a lack of power, now over the years I have seen plenty of these for sale with the timing chains done then mysteriously they seem to be selling them on with engine faults that have developed, my assumption is the job hasn't been done properly, Anyway, the dealer assures the car has had an engine rebuild, timing chains etc, but was done by audi in Bristol, so I assume done properly and he says the problem is unrelated, if that happens to be the case, are there any usual problems with these cars that I could look at, or is it too much of a gamble?? I'm wondering if I could find the previous owner and see if he could shed any light on the issue. Oh just for the record there are no warning lights flagging up.
If it is unrelated and maybe a mechanical fault somewhere I was wondering if the guy spent money on trying to repair it and failed. I for example have a flatspot on my current car at low revs with no warning lights, no big deal really, but I have no idea where to start as it could be a number of things, so was thinking he may have had the same problem trying to locate it. any ideas would be welcome
If it is unrelated and maybe a mechanical fault somewhere I was wondering if the guy spent money on trying to repair it and failed. I for example have a flatspot on my current car at low revs with no warning lights, no big deal really, but I have no idea where to start as it could be a number of things, so was thinking he may have had the same problem trying to locate it. any ideas would be welcome
hmmm, sounds tempting, if I could establish its not engine related, in other words contacting the garage that done the job in 2014 and confirm the engine rebuild/timing chain job went smoothly, I can only assume the problem would be as suggested and mechanical and hopefully easily fixed at a more modest fee
Andy70 said:
hmmm, sounds tempting, if I could establish its not engine related, in other words contacting the garage that done the job in 2014 and confirm the engine rebuild/timing chain job went smoothly, I can only assume the problem would be as suggested and mechanical and hopefully easily fixed at a more modest fee
I would find out exactly what has been replaced in regards to this engine rebuild/timing chain job. There is a chance if they did just the chains and guides that the cam adjusters and a few other parts are no good now.I live down the road from All Audi and spoke to them about this exact work on my car. Ended up not going with them but they seemed to know their stuff, they also heavily advised replacing the whole lot, so a £5k job. I would imagine they would have recommended this back in 2014 too.
The only way to really know what you're dealing with is getting a specialist to have a look and at the very least examine the timing and other pieces that a simple code scanner won't pick up.
Lovely motors but be wary about modest fees regarding engine work, from my experience these don't come hand in hand!
that's the problem, id walk away if there was even a sniff of engine work, the car as on auto trader if any one wants to look, just in Gloucester and there is a pic of the receipt done by all audi. I remember taking mine there for bits and pieces and they implied that they wouldn't touch a timing chain job any more because of the potential problems which they had with one I suppose and this would have been 2015ish? And the receipt was for 2014 on this car so I wonder if that was the last one they done which was nothing but trouble for them apparently
Dr G said:
Yes, it is a job that can snowball and very difficult to quote/timescale for.
When we do them it tends to come with a caveat that stripdown often finds additional faults (that obviously cost more in time and money).
That's exactly what the specialists I went with said. It's hard to say for definite all the parts that will need replacing until you take it all apart.When we do them it tends to come with a caveat that stripdown often finds additional faults (that obviously cost more in time and money).
Andy70 said:
that's the problem, id walk away if there was even a sniff of engine work, the car as on auto trader if any one wants to look, just in Gloucester and there is a pic of the receipt done by all audi. I remember taking mine there for bits and pieces and they implied that they wouldn't touch a timing chain job any more because of the potential problems which they had with one I suppose and this would have been 2015ish? And the receipt was for 2014 on this car so I wonder if that was the last one they done which was nothing but trouble for them apparently
I know All Audi are doing the work now. I think where they may have changed tact is they will only really do the job if it's replacing the whole lot which makes it a £5k+ job. I've heard of issues arising when just the chains and guides have been done and off the back of this other parts then start to fail soon after.My advice with this job is either do it properly or don't get involved at all!
Andy70 said:
i think that's the receipt for the work from All Audi of the work carried out this is on the ad
That looks to have most of the key elements replaced but you'd need to see the whole receipt to see everything replaced.Unless you're very handy with doing work yourself, I'd get this car checked out by a specialist first before trying to buy.
Of course there's a chance it is something relatively minor and cheap to get it running right but chances of this are probably on the lower end!
Good luck.
Assuming the engine is OK mechanically and has good compression, I would put the lack of power down to a faulty air mass meter. VAGs are renowned for it.
You can check the cam timing with VCDS to make sure they did it properly. I think it's blocks 091, 092, 093 and 094. Need to google it to be sure. Looking for between 0 to +3KW on both banks. If it's wildly off, walk away. A laptop with VCDS is an essential tool when buying performance VAGs.
You can check the cam timing with VCDS to make sure they did it properly. I think it's blocks 091, 092, 093 and 094. Need to google it to be sure. Looking for between 0 to +3KW on both banks. If it's wildly off, walk away. A laptop with VCDS is an essential tool when buying performance VAGs.
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