I recently purchased a used 2001 A4 Avant with 132,000 miles. Love the acceleration of the turbo, solid AWD, moonroof, fog lights, projector lowbeams (considering modding with HIDs in the future), tight handling and the elegant yet non-boasting styling.

I have a service record for the last few years, and initially I was really impressed by the car. However, it seems it may have been a short-lived romance and now I find out that like some girlfriends it might be a bit high-maintenance and not worth it.

One of the reasons I bought the car was because @ 125k it had the following:
New Timing Belt Kit
New Water Pump
New Plugs
New V-Belt
Other 125K Service Maintenance.

Having had it just a few days, now the Service light comes on but at least it's not a level 1 priority. I am pretty sure that the thermostat needs to be replaced since the engine takes an hour to warm up, and as soon as I drive on the highway @ 0 degrees F, it cools right back down.

The nearest dealer is 360 miles away, but there is a local shop/seller for Audi and other German imports. Should I be pissed with this shop (Fairbanks Imports) for not having changed out the thermostat when the timing belt/water pump was replaced? It seems to me that you always change the thermostat when you do the water pump, unless this is different with Audis.

Also, the outer rear brake pads look really low (almost metal to rotor) yet a an indicator to this effect has not come on. Since the car received the full 125k interval inspection and the brakes were purported to have been fine (they did not actually write the % of wear on the check list!) I find it highly suspect that the previous owner (drove about 30 miles a day on level ground with mostly highway driving) would have worn down the brakes to the point that they are now. Note that the rear brakes were down to 25% at 109k. Does it seem reasonable that the brake pads would have worn down that much (former owner was in her 40s and didn't strike me as someone that would ralley the car).

So right off the bat, to get the thermostat replaced I'm looking at $120 for parts (I was told the thermostat was built into the outer housing and had to be replaced with the housing?) and $315 (3 hours) of labor with the rear brake pads/rotor resurfacing another $250. This strikes me as considerably pricey! I have had entire radiator flushes performed for less and never seen a thermostat that costs more than $50.

So while I like the German engineering compared to my other AWD car (1992 Subaru Wagon with malfunctioning heater core and/or heater vents) I am having second thoughts about the Audi if everything is going to cost three times as much! My friend already cheerily informed me that if I run into tranny issues that I can scrap the car since it would cost more than I paid for the entire car since the tranny is sealed and can't be rebuilt.

Someone please tell me that I didn't make a huge mistake with this car...

 

for the thermo, it is like a $6 part and will take about 15 minutes maybe to do..... 10mm(iirc) socket/extension/maybe a bend...... just put it on the top bolt head and undo... bottom one will need the bend/knuckle and is a tad more difficult


rear pads like 45 maybe and rotors are maybe 60 bucks... borrow a tool from the auto parts store



if you can't wrench on these cars then yes it will be expensive

 

Thanks. I wish I could find somebody locally that would do what you described. While I have some wrenches, I don't have a garage and/or means of catching the coolant.

Since you have the same car, can I can tell the shop to ONLY buy the thermostat, do you think I can persuade them that it should not take 3 hours?

I may be able to do the brakes myself, but you said I need a special tool to do so on these cars?

 

just to compress the calliper back in

as for the t-stat... you will loose minimal coolant, but a oil catch for that