hoops7k said:
Those cars are a BLAST to drive!! The pizza guy that used to live down the street from me in Fort Wayne has a blue one that is amazing. I was looking into getting one a few years ago but bought an M3 instead.
Has anyone owned a 2000-02 Audi S4?
- Thread starter hoops7k
- Start date
Those cars are a BLAST to drive!! The pizza guy that used to live down the street from me in Fort Wayne has a blue one that is amazing. I was looking into getting one a few years ago but bought an M3 instead.
Why not got for maybe a used M3 4 door instead? Or if it is going to be just a winter car, why not maybe a AWD BMW, WRX, E class with 4-Matic...some other ideas for you.
Because the S4 is way cooler than ALL of thosePacemaker Kid89 said:
I like BMW but I think I could probably only get an E36 M3 for the same price. Also that would not be a good combo with the Colorado winters. I really do like the Wrx Sti's but I just don't want that much attention plus the interior is not so great. Plus the insurance for the Sti is off the charts for me. I really want something that is fun to drive and AWD that does not have everyone staring like the X does. I don't want people in Lexus LX 470's trying to race me at every stop light. I think by debadging the S4 you would not have that much attention. I plan on no exterior mods. The 330 XI BMW is a great car but when upgraded it takes a lot more money to get as much horsepower as would come from S4.Pacemaker Kid89 said:
To all those S4 owners do you feel that the transmission and the turbo’s are the main problems to watch out for??? Is the level 10 transmission upgrade a good idea? I am definitely go to have the entire car checked out before purchase even if it is under warranty to anticipate some of the costs of ownership…
I am forbidden to buy another German car. I have a 97 A6 Avant for my daily driver. I'm no stranger to Audi, but how quickly I forgot. The best I can say is that it is a great driving car. Many Audi owners love them, but also say they would never own one outside of the warranty. I got mine with 74K miles on it. Now it has 119K. Here is the bad,
1. Replaced most of the steering parts. $3000
2. Rebuild all four brakes $900
3. Replace all brake hoses, and two frozen rear calipers. $700
4. Repair sunroof many times. This is a story in itself. I finally have it disconnected and permanantly close so that it can't open itself any more. about $600
5. Replace failed central heater flap motor $600
6. Repaired/replaced all burned out dash lights. Some of the lights are not replaceable and use soldered in 'grain of wheat' bulbs. I repaired them.
7. The chime that warns of headlights left on, door open, etc stopped working. You must replace the instrument cluster to fix it. The speaker is in the center of the $900 cluster. I decided not to fix it.
8. The electric cooling fan stopped working. The dealer wanted to sell me a new radiator for $1100. It turned out to be a $40 temp switch.
9. The paint just self destructed. I still don't know what caused this, but in a few days, patches of milky white blotches appeared all over the car as if the clear coat separated from the base coat, but there is no blistering and the surface is still shiny and smooth.
10. I bought brand new Audi factory wheels which discolored and dulled in a year. Massive amounts of brake dust on the front wheels. I notice thatalot on other Audis and Volkswagons too. Both my Acuras stay clean as a whistle.
11. Parking brake froze up. Rear calibers had to be replaced.
12. Rear hatch assembly broke and had to be replaced. $340
13. Bose stereo had burned out subwoofer amp. I repaired it for $120
14. Battery under rear seat caught fire. A spring in the seat presses down on the positive cable and wears through it. When contact is made, the spring heats up and burns the seat. After I posted this in the Audi forum, I was contacted by a lawyer in California who wanted me to fly to Las Angeles to testify at a trial in which a man burned to death in his audi and his family was sueing. Then a layer from Audi contacted me and even came out to look at my car. Nothing was done and this is surely a design defect. I "fixed" my car with heavy rubber insulation. When it happned, my car shut off and all the electrics went dark. The car filled with smoke, but I was able to get out and get the rear seat off before it burst into flames. The guy in CA was not so lucky.
15. My aspirator fan has just started making squealing noises.
16. The check engine light started coming on. The intake had to come off so that carbon could be scraped out of the EGR valve passageways. $750
17. Had to replace two torn rubber CV joint boots $270
All this in a car that is less than 8 years old and was well maintained and cosmetically perfect when I got it.
The audi S4 will likely not be a trouble free car.
1. Replaced most of the steering parts. $3000
2. Rebuild all four brakes $900
3. Replace all brake hoses, and two frozen rear calipers. $700
4. Repair sunroof many times. This is a story in itself. I finally have it disconnected and permanantly close so that it can't open itself any more. about $600
5. Replace failed central heater flap motor $600
6. Repaired/replaced all burned out dash lights. Some of the lights are not replaceable and use soldered in 'grain of wheat' bulbs. I repaired them.
7. The chime that warns of headlights left on, door open, etc stopped working. You must replace the instrument cluster to fix it. The speaker is in the center of the $900 cluster. I decided not to fix it.
8. The electric cooling fan stopped working. The dealer wanted to sell me a new radiator for $1100. It turned out to be a $40 temp switch.
9. The paint just self destructed. I still don't know what caused this, but in a few days, patches of milky white blotches appeared all over the car as if the clear coat separated from the base coat, but there is no blistering and the surface is still shiny and smooth.
10. I bought brand new Audi factory wheels which discolored and dulled in a year. Massive amounts of brake dust on the front wheels. I notice thatalot on other Audis and Volkswagons too. Both my Acuras stay clean as a whistle.
11. Parking brake froze up. Rear calibers had to be replaced.
12. Rear hatch assembly broke and had to be replaced. $340
13. Bose stereo had burned out subwoofer amp. I repaired it for $120
14. Battery under rear seat caught fire. A spring in the seat presses down on the positive cable and wears through it. When contact is made, the spring heats up and burns the seat. After I posted this in the Audi forum, I was contacted by a lawyer in California who wanted me to fly to Las Angeles to testify at a trial in which a man burned to death in his audi and his family was sueing. Then a layer from Audi contacted me and even came out to look at my car. Nothing was done and this is surely a design defect. I "fixed" my car with heavy rubber insulation. When it happned, my car shut off and all the electrics went dark. The car filled with smoke, but I was able to get out and get the rear seat off before it burst into flames. The guy in CA was not so lucky.
15. My aspirator fan has just started making squealing noises.
16. The check engine light started coming on. The intake had to come off so that carbon could be scraped out of the EGR valve passageways. $750
17. Had to replace two torn rubber CV joint boots $270
All this in a car that is less than 8 years old and was well maintained and cosmetically perfect when I got it.
The audi S4 will likely not be a trouble free car.
my fiance drives our 2000 S4.
great winter car ... bought car @ 49k, now has 75k.
Nothing major for problems YET (knock on wood) but so far some of the issues include ....
1. bad bearings in the rear
2. Full steering rebuild ... rack started leaking
3. Ignition tumbler broke, .... key just spun and did not turn motor.
4. bad bypass valves (same as on my basch s/c which i now use a tial BOV)
5. sunroof rattles when inner cover is open, goes away when closed
Maintenace so far ....
1. brakes @50k
2. Fluids
Mods (minor cos its her car) and we want to keep it as reliable as possible, car looks great with minor mods!! ......
1. AMS chip
2. HR SPort springs
3. 19" OZ SLs on Pirelli Neros
4. clear front lamp mod
5. RS4 grill and updated s4 emblems
6. short shift
Some pics ...
The car is an absolute blast to drive in winter-snow OR ice, we use dunlop wintersport M2's all around
Kevin
great winter car ... bought car @ 49k, now has 75k.
Nothing major for problems YET (knock on wood) but so far some of the issues include ....
1. bad bearings in the rear
2. Full steering rebuild ... rack started leaking
3. Ignition tumbler broke, .... key just spun and did not turn motor.
4. bad bypass valves (same as on my basch s/c which i now use a tial BOV)
5. sunroof rattles when inner cover is open, goes away when closed
Maintenace so far ....
1. brakes @50k
2. Fluids
Mods (minor cos its her car) and we want to keep it as reliable as possible, car looks great with minor mods!! ......
1. AMS chip
2. HR SPort springs
3. 19" OZ SLs on Pirelli Neros
4. clear front lamp mod
5. RS4 grill and updated s4 emblems
6. short shift
Some pics ...
The car is an absolute blast to drive in winter-snow OR ice, we use dunlop wintersport M2's all around
Kevin
ktan said:
Wow - quite a list for "nothing major". Why do people accept the crappy build quality of a lot of "elite" makers and rationalize the problems away? Everyone complains about American cars, but I have yet to own a car made in the good old US of A that had anywhere near this list of problems within 5 years and 75k miles. Just curious.....
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my audi A4 1.8T experiances... similar to S4 in some ways
1. replaced both rear wheel bearings
2. replaces steering tie rod end links (diy job, about $125 in parts)
3. replaced leaky engine seals multiple times
4. replaced leaky tranmission seals
5. front seat "rocks" a bit. Can't be tightened unless you replace it.
6. power steering fluid leaking slightly
7. sunroof acts crazy opening on its own as someone else mentioned. I was able to fix this by cracking open the rotating sunroof switch/knob/thingy. I cleaned the contact area on it and haven't had any issues since. $150 to just replace the control.
8. specific to 1.8T - timing belt broke early. $4k in damage. Audi finally decided to pay for this after a class action suit was started.
9. brakes wear out pretty fast.
My car has just over 100k miles so some issues are expected. All these issues (aside from timing belt) were in the last 7k miles while i've owned the car tho. Great cars to drive, feels very solid still, no creeks, but not the cheapest to maintain. I am actually contemplating picking up a '02 S4 as a daily driver. The lower the mileage the better. Extended warrenty would be good to have, but if you chip the car you might run into issues with the warrenty.
1. replaced both rear wheel bearings
2. replaces steering tie rod end links (diy job, about $125 in parts)
3. replaced leaky engine seals multiple times
4. replaced leaky tranmission seals
5. front seat "rocks" a bit. Can't be tightened unless you replace it.
6. power steering fluid leaking slightly
7. sunroof acts crazy opening on its own as someone else mentioned. I was able to fix this by cracking open the rotating sunroof switch/knob/thingy. I cleaned the contact area on it and haven't had any issues since. $150 to just replace the control.
8. specific to 1.8T - timing belt broke early. $4k in damage. Audi finally decided to pay for this after a class action suit was started.
9. brakes wear out pretty fast.
My car has just over 100k miles so some issues are expected. All these issues (aside from timing belt) were in the last 7k miles while i've owned the car tho. Great cars to drive, feels very solid still, no creeks, but not the cheapest to maintain. I am actually contemplating picking up a '02 S4 as a daily driver. The lower the mileage the better. Extended warrenty would be good to have, but if you chip the car you might run into issues with the warrenty.
All of this makes me glad I never bought the S4 years ago.... 
I have a 2001 S4, 6 spd manual.
I like the car, but as some one said it's a bit heavy and it's not a sports car. Why you would think a 4 dr sedan is, I wouldn't know.
Mechanically, The check engine light was "on" everytime I took it for the included service (4yr,50Kmiles). It was never anything I would consider major(temp sensor etc.) but it was an annoyance.
The center dash display was starting to darken as it came up on the 50K and was replaced. Apparantly a common problem. I have had no problems with the turbo's or transmission.
My concern is the same one I have with most new cars. They have so many electronics in them to fail, do I want to keep a car past the warranty or included service period? Normally I keep cars 8-10 years and do my own work, but that may be impractical down the line.
My wife drives it most of the time and loves it, but really dislikes the front passenger seat as being extremely uncomfortable. To the point she would sell the car if she had to spend more time in that seat. Not just because she doesn't like how I drive. A dealer service guy told me that the front seats are not the same. Who knows if it is true. I just know my wife is fine with the drivers seat but not the passengers.
I would guess it's no better or worse repairwise than most new cars.
Sulley
I like the car, but as some one said it's a bit heavy and it's not a sports car. Why you would think a 4 dr sedan is, I wouldn't know.
Mechanically, The check engine light was "on" everytime I took it for the included service (4yr,50Kmiles). It was never anything I would consider major(temp sensor etc.) but it was an annoyance.
The center dash display was starting to darken as it came up on the 50K and was replaced. Apparantly a common problem. I have had no problems with the turbo's or transmission.
My concern is the same one I have with most new cars. They have so many electronics in them to fail, do I want to keep a car past the warranty or included service period? Normally I keep cars 8-10 years and do my own work, but that may be impractical down the line.
My wife drives it most of the time and loves it, but really dislikes the front passenger seat as being extremely uncomfortable. To the point she would sell the car if she had to spend more time in that seat. Not just because she doesn't like how I drive. A dealer service guy told me that the front seats are not the same. Who knows if it is true. I just know my wife is fine with the drivers seat but not the passengers.
I would guess it's no better or worse repairwise than most new cars.
Sulley
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