Hi All, I have a 1990 Audi 80 2.0 automatic with blown transmission. For less than the price of the trans repair I have been offered a complete 1988 car - 1.8 quattro 5 speed. I have plenty time, and room to store/work on both cars and am wondering if it might be feasible to consider swapping all relevant parts to do a 'quattro conversion' to the first car. The wrecker selling the quattro claims the shells will be the same and everything should 'just bolt in', but I'm pretty sure this is a complete quess and although I don't mind a big project I don't want to take on something hugely problematic and unworkable. I appreciate a manual conversion from a 2-wheel drive car would be more straightforward but I have had no success finding a suitable donor. In fact (although I realise it's sacrilege) I would be happy enough to end up with a working 2-wheel drive car using the gearbox from the quattro, but I suspect the centre differential would prevent this. Anyway, I would be extremely grateful for any input you guys might have on this subject. Cheers, Alan.

 

it wont be direct bolt on, becouse the wheel bases are diferent, and that will create problems, as well as probably you will have to get the tank up in the trunk. Unless its already in it.
basically you will have to drop everything from the engine all the way till the rear. thats a lot of work. Its easier to fix your current.
fix up the 88' and 90' and you be happy. you probably can find like 200 dollar rebuild kit for your current car.

 

I'msure it can be done, but it will be dificult and take up a lot of time ... and do not expec it to be simply bolt on ... compare the undrebodies of both cars really carefully

 

Many thanks for the input. I liked the idea of the quattro conversion but it sounds like it would be too much work. Unfortunately the quattro itself has been 'deregistered' which means it cannot go back on the road here without undergoing an inspection process that on top of the purchase price would cost more than just buying a different car. Likewise, a local transmission shop reckons that the automatic wouldn't be economic to fix. It leaks atf from a drain hole in the bottom of the transaxle and the shop say that to replace the seals on the pinion shaft, plus the pinion bearing that has likely also failed would mean a labour cost of 6-800 (New Zealand) dollars (something like US$400), assuming that I remove and refit the transmission myself. If I had the 800 bucks it would probably be better spent on another car! The shop guy did say that the seals were only something like fifteen bucks and the bearing wasn't expensive, so I have been wondering if there is any chance I could do the job myself. $600+ implies that it must be rather time-consuming, and I imagine that the differential has to be dismantled to change the pinion bearing, which probably requires knowledge & skill I don't possess. However, I'd be very interested to hear if anyone has experience of doing this job. In the meantime I'll keep on the look-out for a 2 wheel drive manual gearbox donor car just incase, as I'm reasonably confident I could make that conversion work. Unfortunately though manual Audis seem rare here. Especially cheap ones....