hey guys, i dont currently own a audi, but ive been trying to find a decent manual tranny sedan for almost a month now and finally decided on audi. if all goes as planned i will be picking up a 97 a4 1.8t quatro with 150,xxx miles (ik its alot) for $3800. now ik ur thinking "couldnt you have found something nicer?" well i was a bit of a budget cause i need a nicer car and im going to college this year. ive only ever owned hondas so this is a big jump for me, my dad isnt all too excited cause hes a honda guy and he doesnt know anything about german cars. (we do 98% of repairs an maint. ourselves) so he is kinda worried about the high miles with the AWD tranny and that with all those moving parts something with go wrong and it will be pricey, but i have confidence
wish me luck on the car great forum guys.

 

Wilkommen to the forums

be sure to spend some time in the A4 section. read the stickies. you will find a lot of good info there. If you and your dad are confident with wrenching on your hondas you should have no problem wrenching on your Audi (though you will most likely end up with greater frustration). A lot of good folks on here with a lot of info to contribute when you run into problems.

hvae fnu

 

i picked up the car last night. i love it! ill post picks soon if you guys want. there are a few probs with it thought, cruise control doestn work. stereo has a mind of its own (doesnt like to turn on) and the driver side front suspension sqeeks alot, mostly just when its sitting still, like if you lean on it, or turn the wheel it creeks. but i dont hear it when im toolin down the road. any help with this? thanks, and also, what kind of oil should i use, i live in wisconsin, we use 5w-30 in all our other vehicles, will this also work. one more question, is it ok to run 87 octane fuel in it? sorry im new to all this german engineering stuff

 

Audi turbos need fully synthetic (i believe 5W-40 is the preferred weight) but you will likely get a bunch of different "opinions" (search and you can find several threads that discuss just oil).

Stereo sounds like a loose power/switch wire, might be easier just to replace it.

Suspension is probably the control arms (do a search) or could just be shocks/springs.

Not 100% sure on the 1997, but most common wisdom is that your car is tuned to run on 91 octane fuel from the factory. Running 87 octane wont hurt anything other than your fuel economy. while it may be cheaper to fill up, you will be filling up more often.