Buying an... Audi A4 B5 (T reg)

[robdhc]

Appreciate this is a borderline modern so apologies in advance

I'm planning on viewing an Audi A4 B5 over the weekend, with plans to daily for (at least) the next two years before eventually/hopefully building into a replica 1996 BTCC winner

The one I'm looking at is a 2.8 V6 quattro, description received provided below

"Audi 2.8 30v Quattro.
1999 , 152,000 miles . Nice old thing, never let me down. Needs exhaust and throttle position sensor reset, after a period of being parked up for MOT Had new Fuchs clutch fitted 800 miles ago . Brand new spare DMF and left hand side front pipe and cat in the boot. Charcoal leather in grand condition and fully functioning Audi Concert Cassette with six CD changer. Been unwell and can't find motivation so must go"

My primary hesitation is that the MOT expired (not failed) in February. Questions for you good folk are as follows please

1. Any info on how painful a 'throttle position sensor reset' is, or how one would go about it?
2. Any words of caution for this particular model, considering all of the above?
3. Friendly advice for driving it the 55mi home to my local test station?

Thanks,
Rob

[qwerty]

Front suspension Arms.


I also had to put a steering rack on my diesel one. Apart from that it was bulletproof and one of the best cars I've ever owned.

[vitesseefi]

Front suspension arms as he said.

The 30v 2.8 is a nice engine. Timing chain tensioner (on the link chains, the main drive is belt) can give trouble, a nasty, short lived clatter on cold start) and they do tend to leak oil from just about everywhere sometimes - check breathers first.

Deceptively quick car and getting fairly rare.

[robdhc]

Thanks qwerty and vitesseefi

For the price we've all but agreed I don't think I can go too far wrong, the arms don't look too awful or expensive to do. Will keep an eye out for rattle on start up too

[qwerty]

Aug 20, 2022 18:55:13 GMT robdhc said:

Thanks qwerty and vitesseefi

For the price we've all but agreed I don't think I can go to far wrong, the arms don't look too awful or expensive to do. Will keep an eye out for rattle on start up too

I bought a kit to replace all of the arms in one go. It was a Febi Bilstein kit and I think it was about £130, instant peace of mind.

Honestly they feel so well screwed together. I went from the Highlands of Scotland to the South of France in mine and it just soaked it up.

[duggers]

I'm unsure why it woud need a TPS reset just because it has been sat. If you've got a diagnostic tool put that on it before you part with any money.
TPS reset can be done wth VAG COM (VCDS) if you know someone with it.

SHOULDN'T NEED A TPS RESET JUST BECAUSE ITS BEEN SAT, sorry did i shout that..........

[robdhc]

Aug 20, 2022 19:28:16 GMT duggers said:

I'm unsure why it woud need a TPS reset just because it has been sat. If you've got a diagnostic tool put that on it before you part with any money.
TPS reset can be done wth VAG COM (VCDS) if you know someone with it.

SHOULDN'T NEED A TPS RESET JUST BECAUSE ITS BEEN SAT, sorry did i shout that..........

Message received with thanks. Been doing a bit of looking in to it, but makes sense to get any codes when with the car and try to understand potential issues then. Thanks

[robdhc]

Once again thanks all for the advice - time will tell if I listened properly..! Couple of useful spares included, and seems to be well cared for (best intentions at least)

[qwerty]

Must have been late registered as I was sure that T reg was face-lift. Looks great, love the colour. Keep us up to date

Tom

[robdhc]

Aug 21, 2022 20:42:45 GMT qwerty said:

Must have been late registered as I was sure that T reg was face-lift. Looks great, love the colour. Keep us up to date

Tom

Likewise, I believe 97 was the year the facelift models started rolling out?

Daft as it sounds, one of the reasons I was so keen. It had to be a pre-facelift model (see original post re 96 BTCC replica) but I also have an R reg private plate. This ticks both boxes!

MOT to book and an Audi recall required, so I'll be getting a thorough inspection early on

[droopsnoot]

If you have a laptop, worth getting the free version of VAGCom or VCDSLite and a cheap (under a tenner) cable from eBay. That'll do basic code reading and resetting and you can upgrade to the paid version if you need more. I forget the details, but I believe this is more capable than a generic code reader / reset tool.

[robdhc]

Aug 23, 2022 12:06:10 GMT droopsnoot said:

If you have a laptop, worth getting the free version of VAGCom or VCDSLite and a cheap (under a tenner) cable from eBay. That'll do basic code reading and resetting and you can upgrade to the paid version if you need more. I forget the details, but I believe this is more capable than a generic code reader / reset tool.

Thanks droopsnoot, I'd started looking into this but all looked too technical for me... I may however brave it, what's the worst that can happen?!

Are the below the ones?

www.ross-tech.com/vcds-lite/download/

Multibao OBD2 USB Cable KKL 409.1 Auto Scanner Scan Tool, USB COM interface cable amzn.eu/72DBVCH

[droopsnoot]

I would say they're correct, I think if you had something much newer you'd need a different (more expensive) version. Looks very much like the cable I've got.

Cheaper cable here: www.ebay.co.uk/itm/363701236361

[ChasR]

As someone who has used VCDS over the years on cars of mine and many other friends cars, the lead will soon pay for itself as will the paid fee.

It's a fantastic tool for VAGs

[andy88]

Aug 22, 2022 5:40:07 GMT robdhc said:

Aug 21, 2022 20:42:45 GMT qwerty said:

Must have been late registered as I was sure that T reg was face-lift. Looks great, love the colour. Keep us up to date

Tom

Likewise, I believe 97 was the year the facelift models started rolling out?

Daft as it sounds, one of the reasons I was so keen. It had to be a pre-facelift model (see original post re 96 BTCC replica) but I also have an R reg private plate. This ticks both boxes!

MOT to book and an Audi recall required, so I'll be getting a thorough inspection early on

I believe there was a minor update for '97 and then a more comprehensive facelift in 99

Original from '94




'97




'99

[robdhc]

Aug 29, 2022 12:22:27 GMT andy88 said:

Aug 22, 2022 5:40:07 GMT robdhc said:

Likewise, I believe 97 was the year the facelift models started rolling out?

Daft as it sounds, one of the reasons I was so keen. It had to be a pre-facelift model (see original post re 96 BTCC replica) but I also have an R reg private plate. This ticks both boxes!

MOT to book and an Audi recall required, so I'll be getting a thorough inspection early on

I believe there was a minor update for '97 and then a more comprehensive facelift in 99

Original from '94




'97




'99

mistake (noun) 

/mɪˈsteɪk/

​an action or an opinion that is not correct, or that produces a result that you did not want

I seem to have bought the wrong car.  Fortunately however this is a very "me" thing to do and as such I'm accustomed to the disappointment 





Any idea on what the key differences are, so I can compensate for them accordingly please?  During the minimal research I did, at no point did I realise there was a 'mid-facelift' model!

Though the long-term aim is to build a replica, it (evidently) won't be 100% accurate and I'd never planned that anyway

Cheers,
Rob 

[andy88]

I think the biggest difference might be the rear light clusters. Also up until '97 they had this little Audi badge under the side repeaters (looking at photos, the BTCC car has them)



Hard to see anything else different. The post-99 one has far more changes.

[robdhc]

Aug 31, 2022 17:47:37 GMT andy88 said:

I think the biggest difference might be the rear light clusters. Also up until '97 they had this little Audi badge under the side repeaters (looking at photos, the BTCC car has them)



Hard to see anything else different. The post-99 one has far more changes.

Thanks andy88, this is really useful. Once I have some time to properly look into these and work out the differences I'll share anything else I find