I just got an 01 Allroad. I have been looking for about a year. I found a black one w/35,000 miles Certified. Picked it up Sat.

The first concern is the wear on the steering wheel. The leather is wearing off pretty badly. I went to my local Audi dealer today to see if Audi will cover it under factory warranty. Has anyone else had this issue?

I quickly glanced at MPG issues, I hope mine gets better than 17. I traded my wifes Odyssey off for the Allroad for poor gas mileage, but primarily because it was a minivan.

My 01 is black and I hate trying to keep black clean. Is there any suggestion with what works well with Audi black paint? I normally use Zaino or Zymol.

And finally anything I should be on the lookout for in this car? Potential issues? Any information would be great. Glad to be aboard

 

I've had my '02 for a year and can barely get 21 MPG on the freeway and in town it dips down to 8 MPG sometimes. But I do have a heavy right foot and I live in San Francisco.

As for problems - the first year allroads had plenty of minor issues but they should have been taken care of by the time you got it. THe major thing is the timing belt - needs replacement at 60K or so and is not covered under warrentee

 

Good news is..allroads are more fun than the Odyssey. Bad news is...allroads probably get poorer mpg than the Odyssey.

 

Potential problems include:

1) at some stage - Reverse is selected and then moves a few feet then "nothing". Dont let anyone at Audi or in this forum convince you it is the torque converter or a rebuild Trans. It is a small "safety switch" as part of the valve assembly in the trans that fails and needs to be rectified. Few hundred dollars by an independent mechanic.
2) A small amount of smoke caused by burning oil coming from the engine bay. Nothing huge but the problem is, the smell comes in thru the A/C. To stop the smell, slect "recirc"! The proper fix is the rocker cover gaskets. Not an easy job but an independent can fix fairly reasonably. Also you can get problems with the oil return tube for the turbo that leaks creating the same symptoms. Just an "O" ring but a little labour intensive nonetheless. get both done at the same time if the symptoms occur.
3) Headlight washers s...t themselves causing all the fluid to run out. You need to take the front bumper off to repair so not an easy fix. As they operate only when the headlamps are on, you might just live with the problem and use washers with no headlamps.
4) allroads are notorious gas guzzlers for the size and weight of the car. That, I cant help you with.
5) tell-tale lamp in centre of dash can show incorrect signals. I didnt find the solution on mine and so just periodically reset thru a scanner.

I hope this helps. They are great cars but are a bit femine ..... high maintenance!

 

Wow are you guys really getting that poor of gas mileage? I didnt think it was that bad. We have an 04 allroad 2.7T and love it. I have an A6 4.2L and dont think I could get 8 if I tried. highway has been giving me around 23-25 and if im on it a bit Ill get maybe 13. Heck Highway in my 2.8 A6 I was getting 400 miles to a tank of regular. That was driving from PA to MO. that was running it pretty low but filling up with the puter showing 60 miles and already having put 380 on the tank. I know the allroad gets a bit less, but I dont think we have gotten that bad. Ill have to check today since the wife took my 4.2 and seems to really really like it. (ahhh crap) but the allroad is an awesome car. Not only is the the nicest looking wagon on the roads, it is also great performance and cofort wise. ours only has 30k on it now and only thing I have experienced that I could say to look out for is the tire wear. Be vigilant checking the pressure, and I have seen a few stories about the air bags failing from time to time. That is typically repaired under warranty and from what I have read it fails rather early in its life if it is going to fail. Other than that, they are just really fun to drive, and the adjustable suspension really lets you change the ride quality, looks, and performance. Oh and one thing that I have done from time to time is if I am alone on the roads or in the Right lane with no lane changes anticipated for a while, I will activate the fold in mirrors and fold them in. It reduced the drag and can have a minor impact on fuel efficiency if doing a lot of highway driving I suppose. Just something I have been playing around with after seeing that the Lamborghini does that automatically. just be conscious of it when you get around other cars and need to change lanes.

 

 

Having just replaced both front suspension airbags on my 2001 allroad at 76,000 miles, I think this is a potential problem area that you need to be aware of.This is an expensive repair. The mechanic that did the work on my car suggested that I periodically raise the car to its highest setting and hose off the airbags to remove any accumulated road grit that might abraid the bags and cause an air leak.The front bags seem to have the most problems. You will find lots of helpful information in this forum about suspension dropping problems,airbags and their compressor. My mechanic also said that the replacement airbags he installed appeared to be more heavy duty than the originals.Maybe Audi realized that they had a problem and upgraded the replacement bags. Based on how much I had to pay for them, I hope that is the case.All this being said, the allroad is a great car, particularily if you have need for a vehicle where you can change the ground clearance.

 

Hosing off the airbags sounds like good advice. Thanks for sharing that!

 

I'll probably go out and hose off my airbags tomorrow morning! And then I'll think about taking care of the ones on the car.

I think that sfrobert is getting 8 mpg on his current mpg computer setting. To get an average of 8 mpg, you would pretty much have to be one of the Dukes of Hazzard. Or Hutch. Or Starsky or Jim Rockford. Or maybe Mannix.