Audi/VW owners chime in (1 Viewer)

[Heckraiser]

That v8 is just insanity. Who left the crackpipe burning in the audi engineering breakroom? It's like a layer cake of chains and cogs Quick glance: 4 different chains and 5 tensioners?

 

[re_guderian]

...The true american way would be to buy an electronically retractable screen mounted into the ceiling, auto-darkening/shaded windows, and a projector in the back..... size of the screen only being limited by the depth of the room

I'm married with three kids, I do the best I can...

 

[surfpig]

That is just easy access! I finished up a 2.7T reseal/tbelt just this morning. I guess I have been doing them for so long that it's just routine now. May as well pull the cams and reseal everything while you are there, maybe replace the tensioners if they are pitted.

Here is the backside of a an S4 V8, same story on the 3.2 V6 engines. Now this is a pita:

View attachment 1161303

Holy jesus fxxx the WTF???

 

[Spike Strip]

Previous VW diesel/ VW gasser/ Audi gasser owner .... Never again.

 

[Dubbinchris]

I like my Audis!

 

[Heckraiser]

That quattro coupe is straight bad ass! :bowdown:

 

[Skillet]

Holy jesus fxxx the WTF???

I'm with SP.

How could you design such a contraption? Much less...let it reach the production stage?

That is fxxxing stupid.

 

[Doc]

knowing all of this- I bought a nice 06 A8L, one of the last before the timing chain insanity. They are truly amazing machines.

I know a Lexus/Honda/Toyota will be less drama in the long run, but I have a 1 hour commute through a twisty mountain pass every day. I tried driving a lexus- it was just to ..... blah.....

If you want a car that makes you want to drive it, you gotta go German.
If your cars only get you from A to B, then it doesn't matter what you drive.

The picture is from the inter webs, but is identical to mine. Eons of class.

 

[speycaster]

I have a 2002 VW Jetta TDI, Bilstien coil over all the way around,after market sway bars, corner balanced, stage two tune, larger turbo, bigger injectors. Corners like it is on rails, I drive it like it was stolen and it still puts out high forties for mileage. 150 plus HP gets it down the straights and over the hills quite well. Nothing but regular maintenance to keep it running, but it did need a new starter last week. 240,000 plus kilometres on it so that is to be expected, clutch will be coming up as well as brakes.

 

[Aussie FJ40]

Subaru Outback with the H6 engine,had 2 and couldn't fault,last one was the premium model and a beautiful car in every aspect,handling,build quality, and went like a cut cat

 

[RiverRatMatt]

What year were those? I only have around 27k on my 2012 but it shifts flawlessly. And the rev-matched downshift is a thing of beauty. And manual mode in the G won't try to outsmart you like on some other brands; it will hold rev limiter until you command otherwise.

And in Sport mode, it's very, very good and doing multiple downshifts when you brake hard into corners so that when you come back on with power it's right at the peak of the power band. It's rare that Sport is doing something I don't want it to do, other than maybe holding a gear because it thinks I'm still playing when I'm waiting on traffic to pass.

The only complaint I have is that regular Drive is biased heavily toward fuel econ. It's a 7 speed so you can end up with some pretty tall gears at relatively low speeds. Sport solves this but can be a little on the buzzy side for just driving around town (4k upshifts).

I don't see the problem with that last bit, let your torque converter save you some money. It isn't a motorcycle where instant acceleration is life in daily driving

 

[CycloSteve]

Subaru Outback with the H6 engine,had 2 and couldn't fault,last one was the premium model and a beautiful car in every aspect,handling,build quality, and went like a cut cat

Having just helped my brother change the effing spark plugs on his 2006 Outback today, I would NEVER recommend that vehicle to anyone who likes to do their own service. 1.5" between each head and the frame = 2 hours to change four plugs. Morons. To boot, he blew the radiator driving over to my house, so we spent 7 hours working on a car which has less than 100,000 miles just to change the oil, spark plugs, and radiator. Nope, Subi lost any chance of ever getting a $ from me.

 

[Aussie FJ40]

Having just helped my brother change the effing spark plugs on his 2006 Outback today, I would NEVER recommend that vehicle to anyone who likes to do their own service. 1.5" between each head and the frame = 2 hours to change four plugs. Morons. To boot, he blew the radiator driving over to my house, so we spent 7 hours working on a car which has less than 100,000 miles just to change the oil, spark plugs, and radiator. Nope, Subi lost any chance of ever getting a $ from me.

and your talking about a 10 year old car,there are bad stories about every car made,I do 100000 ks a year,put 263850ks on one subi and done nothing except service it,but then again I'm only talking from my experience of doing around 430000k in Subaru outbacks,everyone has a story,that's yours,mine was different,try owning a Audi and see how you go,that will cure you on Audi really quick,also I find some people should not work on cars because they don't know what they are doing

 

[kbahus]

Subarus have to be one of the easier vehicles to work on, I am behind schedule if I don't have head gaskets done in an 8 hour day including pulling and reinstalling the engine. The standard service is timing belt, water pump, radiator, and spark plugs at 75-100k. Roughly $1000ish to last another 75-100k if the head gaskets don't blow. Not bad really. These VAG timing services have a insanely higher price tag associated with them. This makes Subaru DOHC spark plugs a breeze:

 

[OregonLC]

That and remove the heat shield on the frame rail. Gives an extra 3/8".

Loved my OBXT but Subarus are far from well made cars. Nice performance and some cool features but mediocre durability at best. Radiator a wear item at 75k? Lol. That's about when mine went too.

 

[Heckraiser]

My Saabaru did get a replacement motor at ~50k due to a spun bearing (while owned by PO). Not a common problem, but not uncommon enough that I was the only person I knew with a replacement motor. Seems like if your engine makes it past 70k then you've got a keeper that will go to 250k. Subarus are like legos, I never had any trouble working on mine.

 

[Dubbinchris]

Subarus have to be one of the easier vehicles to work on, I am behind schedule if I don't have head gaskets done in an 8 hour day including pulling and reinstalling the engine. The standard service is timing belt, water pump, radiator, and spark plugs at 75-100k. Roughly $1000ish to last another 75-100k if the head gaskets don't blow. Not bad really. These VAG timing services have a insanely higher price tag associated with them. This makes Subaru DOHC spark plugs a breeze:

View attachment 1162489

I can do an Audi timing belt in 8 hours including the water pump and what not. Although this is what it looks like to gain enough access.

 

[kbahus]

I should have specified the timing chain/tensioner services cost a lot more. The tbelt services are around the same as anything else unless it needs a reseal. Book time is pretty slim on the tbelt/wp job if I recall.

Oh yeah, your UR Quattro is bad ass!

 

[Dubbinchris]

I should have specified the timing chain/tensioner services cost a lot more. The tbelt services are around the same as anything else unless it needs a reseal. Book time is pretty slim on the tbelt/wp job if I recall.

Oh yeah, your UR Quattro is bad ass!

I don't wrench for a living but do all my own work. The above job was a hell of a job, but I'm glad I don't have to do a tear chain job....F that.

Yeah I'm pretty lucky to have been able to get that urq some years back at a good price. It's an 85.

 

[CycloSteve]

We could have used the wobble-tool. Basically built our own with a 5/8 plug socket, 3" wobble extension and a flex-head ratchet. Still had to hand-spin the last part of the plugs out, as there was no room for the ratchet.

I will take changing my Audi plugs (both the 1.8T and 2.8) any day over doing a boxer Subaru. Something about being able to simply pull a boot, and slip in the socket, vs. pull a ton of plastic over and under the motor, unbolt the coils, wedge your hands into a non-existent space...it would be easier perhaps to just drop the motor or pay someone else to do it.

The only good thing about the radiator blowing was that my brother was coming over to my house to do the tune-up...in preparation to drive to Iowa and back over the Christmas holiday. Both of us were not happy about having to fix the subi-steamer, but at least it did not let go in the middle of Kansas in sub-zero temps.

Comparatively, today I pulled the exhaust, driveshafts, t-case, sliders, and IPOR belly pan off of my 80 in less time than it took to do the rad and tune on the Subi. I will take my 20 year old Toyota over either the Audi and Subi for service any day...don't even need to jack the truck up to roll the t-case out on a trans jack.