2010 Audi A4 opinions

adocholiday

Hi all,

Have 'verbally' agreed to purchase an imported (from the north) Audi A4 SE. It's a 2l TDI model and comes with some nice extras from the factory. The mileage which I'm trying to verify is only 70k which is a big selling point for me. The dealer is looking for €13k which seems reasonable based on other similar ads.

Anyway before I sign on the dotted line, I'd like to know of any major known issues I should have checked out or any opinions from previous owners.

I know about the clutch/flywheel issues alright but that's it. The only other negative is that I'd love something a bit more powerful but the 143hp will have to do

FR85

adocholiday wrote: »

Hi all,

Have 'verbally' agreed to purchase an imported (from the north) Audi A4 SE. It's a 2l TDI model and comes with some nice extras from the factory. The mileage which I'm trying to verify is only 70k which is a big selling point for me. The dealer is looking for €13k which seems reasonable based on other similar ads.

Anyway before I sign on the dotted line, I'd like to know of any major known issues I should have checked out or any opinions from previous owners.

I know about the clutch/flywheel issues alright but that's it. The only other negative is that I'd love something a bit more powerful but the 143hp will have to do

What year is it? Timing belt and full service history? DSG or manual gearbox?

As for the BHP if you get and like the car there is nothing stopping you getting a little map, you can easily bring the 140 up to 170.

adocholiday

FR85 wrote: »

What year is it? Timing belt and full service history? DSG or manual gearbox?

As for the BHP if you get and like the car there is nothing stopping you getting a little map, you can easily bring the 140 up to 170.

It's a 2010 with full service history and has a manual gear box. No timing belt done yet though, and a quick check online tells me it should be done at 120k kms, which is around where it's at now.

FR85

adocholiday wrote: »

It's a 2010 with full service history and has a manual gear box. No timing belt done yet though, and a quick check online tells me it should be done at 120k kms, which is around where it's at now.

Be wary of the belt as it's every 4-5 years or 120k so it's well and truly due.
The only other thing it might need is an egr clean out and give the turbo a good listening to.

Belt is a must at this point

adocholiday

FR85 wrote: »

Be wary of the belt as it's every 4-5 years or 120k so it's well and truly due.
The only other thing it might need is an egr clean out and give the turbo a good listening to.

Belt is a must at this point

Great thanks I'll make sure the belt gets done before I take it and I'll ask about the EGR valve. What do you mean about giving the turbo a listen to? I've never owned a car with a turbo before so no idea about them

FR85

adocholiday wrote: »

Great thanks I'll make sure the belt gets done before I take it and I'll ask about the EGR valve. What do you mean about giving the turbo a listen to? I've never owned a car with a turbo before so no idea about them

A lot of diesel engines can give turbo issues, some of this issues can be flagged by either loud whhhoooossssiing noises or they can sound like an air raid siren, some of the odd noises might be as simple as a loose boost pipe as vw have a **** clip design on the pipes. As mad as it sounds if this is you first turbo, give it a minute to warm up in the morning and allow it to cool down after a good run, when you start it in the morning leave it to idle for a couple of minutes and same when you come in from a run to let it cool again by letting it idle for a few minutes. I have 220,000 miles on a 170 bhp 2l and I'm on my original turbo.

colm_mcm

Have you verified the service history?

adocholiday

colm_mcm wrote: »

Have you verified the service history?

No but it seems the car was serviced regularly between 2 garages, both Audi, and I have the numbers for both will be calling them tomorrow

colm_mcm

Worth doing. I looked at an accord with full Honda history that was completely made up.

bazz26

Easy peasy to buy a blank service book from ebay and stick and stamp stuff in it. You need to verify it with the garages.

Moanin

FR85 wrote: »

Be wary of the belt as it's every 4-5 years or 120k so it's well and truly due.
The only other thing it might need is an egr clean out and give the turbo a good listening to.

Belt is a must at this point

Timing belt is overdue and should be done asap

PaulKK

6 year old (nearly 7) diesel A4 from the north, with 70k miles and an overdue timing belt.

Tread carefully here. If there's any doubt back away, the country and the UK are full of A4s, there should be plenty of choice.

The cheapest 140bhp on carzone around that mileage is nearly 15k. Ask yourself why. Also ask yourself why someone in the UK would buy a diesel A4 to do less than 12k miles a year in.

It may well be genuine but I suggest you do your homework thoroughly.

adocholiday

PaulKK wrote: »

6 year old (nearly 7) diesel A4 from the north, with 70k miles and an overdue timing belt.

Tread carefully here. If there's any doubt back away, the country and the UK are full of A4s, there should be plenty of choice.

The cheapest 140bhp on carzone around that mileage is nearly 15k. Ask yourself why. Also ask yourself why someone in the UK would buy a diesel A4 to do less than 12k miles a year in.

It may well be genuine but I suggest you do your homework thoroughly.

Fair points all round but the dealer is someone both my parents and I have bought from before with no problems so I'd trust him to a degree. He's not an Audi dealer though so there is that element of risk.

Regarding the mileage, I only do about 7-10k miles per year myself but this country has gone diesel crazy since 08 so petrol cars are too hard to find. I guess the guy who had the car first just decided he wanted a diesel regardless of mileage. I've been car searching for about 6 months and only recently resigned myself to having to go diesel.

All I can do is verify the service history, do a history check, and ask the dealer to do the belt/oil service before I buy it. If any of those things aren't to my 100% satisfaction I'll back away.

Edit: I've made a mistake in the OP it's the the 120bhp model so the price is more in line with other similar examples.