The reason my RS4 is no longer for sale

[Tomson]

Hello All,

Last Tuesday I took my car to a friends garage (local Audi Specialist) for a check over. The car was for sale and I wanted to make sure everything was in order.

No work done on Tuesday - to busy
Strange conversation on Wednesday - cars exhaust is to loud to check for noise changing some exhaust clamps to the middle box
Thursday - I was to busy to ring in
Friday - collect car in evening - Odd argument with owner.

No Boost what-so-ever.

Now, I have known the owner of the garage for a long time, not only on a professional level, but as a friend. He is assuring me that the car was like this the first time he test drove it to listen for the noise. He also initially insisted it was not turbo failure as no smoke, juat small overboost (might have been normal boost, he does not drive the car that much) and then nothing.

On Monday I dropped it back there, to have a new MAF - this was their initial diagnosis. No difference when I picked it up today.

Have not discussed anything with the garage. TBH I feel they have dealt with the situation really badly, depending on the outcome, depends on whether I choose to take it further with them. No apologies. As I said to him it went to the garage working fine and came back in a differnet condition.

Anyway, I feel that the turbos have gone, on Friday I disconnected the MAF and the N75 valve and still got nothing. I think the noise that I (and the local garage) assumed was an exhaust baffle was the noise of the Turbo, or turbos giving way amplified through the exhaust. So maybe it was going to happen, it was just unlucky timing on the part of the garage.

This if course leaves me in a sticky situation always around.

The options are:-

Sell the car with the blown turbos
Break the car
Get MRC to sort it, ready for selling again
Keep the car and get MRC to mend it and tune it

The car is booked into MRC on Thursday for a full health check.

I will set up a poll.

To say I am gutted is an understatement. Although, at least no one bought it and then lost the turbos. Of course it might not be the turbos? It keeps throwing 2 lambda faults. But there is no boost what so ever and the noise is getting worse. The local garage got the stethoscope out on it and it sounds to them like a wastegate has broken away? I have just decided it is best looked at by a company that specialises in RS4's. Namely MRC.

It reminds me of my 1st beetle I was driving that to Birmingham for an AA check over for the prospective new owner and it dropped its valves on the M42. Spent another load of money on it and kept it for another 3 years. Some cars just don't want to leave.

This also begs the question on how I should get the car to MRC on Thursday? Should I drive it?

[Contigo]

Unlucky darts mate have been reading your thread in the classifieds with interest and it looks like a mint motor. Ironic that the question came up about Turbo life too

I'd definitely get Doug to have a look at it before declaring it fubarred. It might be a massive boost leak but it sounds more like turbo's from the description you have given.

I'd not drive it there though, are you not in AA or RAC and can dictate to them where the car needs to go?

[hamski]

Jesus Tom, what a gutter!

Spent a very short time with you, but I know you genuinely wouldn't have wanted to let it go to someone if there was something wrong.

Head says break it and probably make as much, if not more than the sale price, but I'm sure that if you get it fixed, you'll probably keep it for ages with no regrets.

Amazing car - top bloke. Good luck

Graham

[TopBear]

What a nightmare, I'm thinking about selling mine as well, and like you I want to get it 100%, as I don't want any problems from potential purchasers.

No Boost what-so-ever

Has it been VAG-Com'd, .....any MAP (not MAF) sensor errors

[S4INT]

Gutted for you mate - it would be a shame to break the car, as it seems in such great condition regardless of the mileage. I think you should get MRC to sort it and then see how you feel after that.

[Tomson]

Cheers guys,

I am obviously really gutted about the situation. Thinking about ways of getting to MRC on Thursday. Currently my wife is going to come with me and then shuttle me home. I do have AA membership, but only roadside - so no good for getting the car there.

Has anyone in gloucestershire area got a car trailer I could borrow?

Currently my only option is still to drive to MRC

[Tomson]

Also, anyone got any turbos going cheap

[jimbo1234567]

ive got a set of ko4s but one has a snapped shaft , the others ok though

[mikeyquattro]

I may be able to get you a car trailer... Not too far away either (highworth)

[mattsimis]

It was me that questioned the life on the turbos purely from the mileage point of view. I think major kudos are due to your for not trying to pass this on to someone else and claim ignorance, seriously, top class stuff.

I bought an S4 from here before with a rattle and I suspected it was the exhaust manifold. I knew this and got a good deal on the price. Unfortunately the manifold liner took out the turbos when it finally broke away just 4wks later. Its an expensive and majorly time consuming job and should only be done by someone that worked on 2.7T engines before. VagCom'ing it to see if anything else is going on would be a good start (note my dead turbos didnt throw codes).

I went through a similar thought process:
Parting it out will be a long drawn out hassle and not that lucrative, repairing to sell is likely a money looser and also eats your time, repairing to keep is not a bad option, but you likely had your own reasons for selling to begin with. Sell the car with no turbos (assuming nothing else is wrong) is fast but you may have to take a dive on price.

[Tomson]

Mikey, thanks mate - I think, having discussed it with the Mrs I am going to chance my arm and drive it there. Work is mental at the moment, so I need to be back ASAP tomorrow to help jobs get finished. Cannot think of anytime today when I would be able to go out and hire one/borrow one.
Interestingly enough Cotswold trailers hire them for sensible money.

I suppose the next question is how much is the car worth with no turbos? Is it just the cost from a specialist of replacing the turbos knocked off the old asking price? I am sure it would be hard to convince prospective buyer of that. It would need to be someone from the forum or someone with mechanical knowledge. It would still need to go to MRC first for a full report.

Or how long would I now have to keep the car to see a return on my new investment - I would suggest several years. That would destroy my goal of having a 911 turbo before I was 35. Maybe they are overrated?

[dace]

Mikey, thanks mate - I think, having discussed it with the Mrs I am going to chance my arm and drive it there. Work is mental at the moment, so I need to be back ASAP tomorrow to help jobs get finished. Cannot think of anytime today when I would be able to go out and hire one/borrow one.
Interestingly enough Cotswold trailers hire them for sensible money.

I suppose the next question is how much is the car worth with no turbos? Is it just the cost from a specialist of replacing the turbos knocked off the old asking price? I am sure it would be hard to convince prospective buyer of that. It would need to be someone from the forum or someone with mechanical knowledge. It would still need to go to MRC first for a full report.

Or how long would I now have to keep the car to see a return on my new investment - I would suggest several years. That would destroy my goal of having a 911 turbo before I was 35. Maybe they are overrated?

Fair point and I really feel for you.

Have you driven a stock 996TT? The only reason I ask is I test drove one a few months back with a view to changing. The car was immaculate with 27k on the clock and one careful owner. After an hour of demanding roads and long dual carriageways, I was very dissapointed.

I was not that impressed with the power compared to the RS4 and for the extra money (approx 20k) not worth the change IMO.

Don't get me wrong lovely looking car, but you have just got to love our cars! IMO have the work done and keep it.

[mikeyquattro]

No worries. Good luck. Let Doug give it the once over and see what he has to say, then do your sums.

I've always wanted to go down the 911 route, but after hearing some horror stories from a friend who had one, it's put me off.

[Blue_Thunder]

You say you've disconnected your N75.

With this disconnected, you won't get any noticeable boost other than what the wastegate spring will allow - approx 5psi I think.

Plug it back in and see if you're boosting as normal.

[Nige_RS4]

Tom, the 911 is no good for the kids, the space in the back is very limited.

Back to the RS, if you can hire a trailer then I would do that - if the turbos let go big time and the internals go through your engine it will be big bucks.

Not sure what to do with new turbos - RS4 or RS6? The trouble with going down the RS6 turbo route is that it can become very expensive, very quickly, with bigger injectors, new manifolds, uprated clutch, fuel pump, etc...