About to buy an Rs4 B7

[sjb]

Hi all, well I've as good as sold my E30 M3 and about to buy an avant for a sensible family car
I'm looking to spend under £22,000 and see there's a fair difference in what you get. My main concern is mileage - but I guess that's an open ended issue - even a higher mileage model 100,000+ could still be fine for years as long as the servicing and oil changes have been kept up - there's some right bargains to be had for higher mileage cars I've seen some near perfect spec cars for £16.5 - £18.5K!
I have read up on all the issues, coking, drc etc so I'm ok with that but when viewing the cars on YouTube I do notice they do puff a bit of smoke when revved, is this normal and not to be concerned about or have the cars on the vids got issues??

https://youtu.be/Z7toxqOpvpw

https://youtu.be/EVM6z4iCMHU

[birdiemachine]

They all seem to puff a bit of smoke, some of the more learned gentlemen on here will hopefully back this up, but every dyno video I've saw they all puff at certain point in the Rev range.

Good luck in your hunt, I flew to England from Northern Ireland 3 times to look at complete sheds before I found the one!

If you can grab a hold of someone's VCDS it would be useful to check the car over, servicing, usual stuff.

Then check the history carefully to see if it has ever had the oil cooler or drc replaced/fixed, they were known weakpoints.


There's a sticky on here somewhere with better advice.

Ps you are a mad man selling a e30 that belonged in a carcoon and watch your £££ grow!!!

[sjb]

They all seem to puff a bit of smoke, some of the more learned gentlemen on here will hopefully back this up, but every dyno video I've saw they all puff at certain point in the Rev range.

Good luck in your hunt, I flew to England from Northern Ireland 3 times to look at complete sheds before I found the one!

If you can grab a hold of someone's vcds it would be useful to check the car over, servicing, usual stuff.

Then check the history carefully to see if it has ever had the oil cooler or drc replaced/fixed, they were known weakpoints.


There's a sticky on here somewhere with better advice.

Ps you are a mad man selling a e30 that belonged in a carcoon and watch your £££ grow!!!

Thanks for the reply! I'm sure I read on here some time ago about the common puff of smoke but can't find the post now. I'm happy to travel for the right car, I traveled 380 miles just to buy my workvan!!! I looked at a 55,000 mile example for £19.5k that was 8 miles away and found that every panel bar the bonnet and front wings had been resprayed, with a mixture of paint and dust!! not what I was expecting for such a low mileage car.
I'm happy with what I know about the issues above, if they've not been addressed then the price should reflect that.....but some sellers/dealers don't seem to agree!!
I like to be able to jump in my toy and drive them whatever, as for the old M3 I'm too scared of even getting it wet and I'm getting a bit bored of that, same with my E46 CSL i had before that so I'm after a 'usable' beast
Sprint blue, Phantom Black or Daytona with dark wheels and optics seem to be relatively common out there luckily

[badma.ch/ne]

Hey SJB, new too and have been quietly catching up in the background! I'm on chapter flat shifting and launch control! .

I too noticed the puff of smoke on most RS4's and in fact R8's whilst on rolling roads and open to correction but I think you'll find that it's burnt-off fuel so nothing to worry about.

Having given a lot of consideration to buying THE right example, (spec & cond.) would I knock them down on price because the steel oil cooler pipes/auxiliary radiator hadn't been replaced? The DRC seals not shown any previous signs of leakage/replacement? - The car had reached 45k and not had the clutch replaced? Probably not. You can't say "here mate you've not dealt with any of the known issues and although they're not at fault want you to take 7k of the asking price is that alright, ya know, just in case, their common faults". I know what I would say as a seller. If the car's been well looked after and the previous owner can show evidence that they've asked for these common issues to be checked. Then they're not likely to fail in the short-medium term.

Is it fair to say that a lot of these are more common on the pre-face lift model year '55 - '65 as opposed to the later 07 onwards facelift?