Hey, guys. I'm looking to make my first car purchase (I'm 24) and I'm pretty well settled on a 2004ish S4. That's the one I want. I own a Camry, so no, the Audi won't be my daily driver.

Anyway, I'll get to the details. The one I'm looking at right now is for sale by a private owner for $17,000. It's a silver, 2004 with 86k miles on the dial. It has the "winter package" and appears to have all or most of the other optional upgrades. As far as cosmetics go, it has a few small dings from people hitting it with their car doors and stuff. The seats in the front have a bit of wear like the wrinkling that develops. There's also apparently a bit of clear coat or something that's peeling/wearing off of some interior trim. This is all based off of what the seller has said, by the way. I have only seen some exterior pictures.

Sounds like maintenance has been done properly. He says he's always used full synthetic oil, premium gas etc. It recently had it's scheduled tune up but they did not replace the timing belt which I thought was usually a standard replacement around this mileage. It's also recently had brakes and a few other basically routine things done to it.

I really haven't found any other later model B6 S4's within a few hundred miles of here (Auburn, Wa) to make comparisons. I think the price is a little high but I'm not sure what would be an unreasonably low offer either. The blue book value of this car in it's condition is roughly 15,500. What do you guys think? Also, what other questions should I ask about this particular car?

I really hope you guys can help me with this. It's a big purchase for me and I don't want to regret it.

 

might want to pm imthedevil as he is thinking of getting one and knows all the known issues with the b6, tranny, motor issues and what the build date is for when they were fixed... iirc it was 10/04, so you might be good


as for the timing belt, he/she didn't do it cause of cost, at least for the 1.8t's it is about 1500 for the dealer to do it


if he was asking 17 and fair market is 15,5.... i would say i defently want the 15,5 w/o the t/b being done..... also make him aware you know of all the other flaws.... more or less devalue the car to him



also check the faq's on the forums

 

Hey, got your PM. Kraut is on target with what he recommended. I'd ask outright why the seller is asking $1500 above value for a car that is due/overdue for its most important interval maintenance. It sounds like a nice car but not necessarily an exceptional one based on your description.

The 10/04 build date cutoff refers to one of the two major mechanical issues that has arisen on these cars, which is cam chain tensioner failure. Most modern Audis drive only the exhaust cams off the timing belt, and use a tensioned chain assembly inside the head to drive the intake cams from the exhaust cams. On earlier cars it was an issue as well but to fix it requires parts (around $250-300) and a couple hours of your time if you know what you're doing. On this car though, the parts run a little under $500 per head, and an engine pull to change them (I've seen repair prices around $4500 parts and labor). From what I read, a build date of 10/04 is the cutoff, with cars on or after that date using an updated tensioner assembly that isn't known for failure like those on cars built before that date.

The other big buzzkill is fragmented flywheels. I don't know of any build date cutoff for a solution to this, or if there even is one. A clutch and flywheel assembly is around $1800 and of course the labor involves pulling the transmission to replace it. You can get better parts prices from Ringer Racing (owned by a member here) but the labor is going to hurt.

Those are the only two major potential problems I know of on these cars - you'll find more info from current owners. I know member Baby Kito is on his second one and had both these issues on his first car. He can likely give you further details on these and other problem areas.

There's a hell of a lot to like about them - you could ask for receipts if the owner says these have been dealt with, and if they have you're probably fine. Good luck and post pics when you do get your car

 

I'm confused about something. I must have been reading about a v6 S4 on this site when I read about the timing belt needing to be replaced at 75k or something, because I just finished reading that the 4.2 doesn't have a timing belt. It has four timing chains on the back of the motor. If that's the case, I feel pretty silly having just learned that. I also read that it costs upwards of 5k to replace the tensioners since the motor has to be removed from the car.

I talked to a guy who is selling an S4 today (I'll elaborate further down) and when I asked him about the timing belt he said that he was going to replace it. WTF? If this car doesn't have a timing belt, then what the hell is he thinking of? haha.

Anyway, I mentioned to a buddy of mine I might go look at an S4 this week (the silver one) and he mentioned to me that he knows someone who is selling a 2005 S4 with 60k miles on it. Sweet! I went and checked it out. It's that dark blue color which is my first pick. He only had a few minutes to open up the hood and stuff real quick since he was at work, but it looks pretty nice. My buddy says he said something about wanting 15k (I didn't bring up $ yet). I gave him my number and now I'm going to sit and hope he doesn't flake out.

I'm glad you guys seem to have the same rational as I do about the asking price for the previously mentioned s4. I'm still gonna go check it out but I feel pretty confident about walking away if he isn't willing to come down a good bit with the price. I do have my suspicions that the listed asking price is just "High balled" and that he would go considerably lower. Depending, of course on how bad he wants to get rid of it.

 

I looked at B6's for some time before going with the B5 as a result of the cam tensioner issue and thus far I'm glad I did. That's an expensive fix that could come up at any time. IMO I would try and find one that has had the tensioner replaced as well as the timing chain, especially for that money. Even if you have to go a little higher mileage to find one it would likely be worth it long term to avoid having to pay for these service items.

As far as your Silver B6 for 17K. I wouldn't pay over 14 due to the service he skipped out on. For 17K that car should be beyond perfect.

 

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