Audi 4000 Go or No-Go?

I've been trying to sell my Suzuki DRZ400SM for some time now, and a friend has a 4000 4-door that he wants to do a partial trade with, if I want. I was thinking that might not be a bad upgrade from the 245 with squirrels in the heater, blown out seats, and a ripped out stereo.
What do you all know about the 4000? Are they generally sound, easy to work on, or should I stay away?

I want a DRZ400SM! There was an all black one that I used to see when I was on my scooter on way to work.
Audi 4000's are Audi's. You'll get to work on them. Some stuff will be 'quality german engineered' which is also known as, WTF do you mean I have to pull the engine to remove that power steering line!?!?!?!

Grant, it's still for sale. 2007, Black, 6kmi, $3500.......

There's an S1 Replica sitting in my back yard that I've been trying to get my roomate to sell. Buy it instead. *innocent puppy eyes*

Grant, this is a 4000, not a brand new V8 Audi. You do not have to remove the engine to change the power steering hose, in fact it's one of the easiest things to do on an older Audi. I had an '84 4kq for about ten years. It was a tank, it had over 300,000 miles on the original drivetrain when I sold it. Just do normal maintenance and they'll last forever. Nothing on those cars is particularly difficult to work on. They are pretty simple compared to newer Audis. The new ones are not so fun to work on.

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Doivi Clarkinen
The new ones are not so fun to work on.

Sadly, ANY new car is not fun to work on

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-Jason

Yeah, I was being generic.
We had a 5000. Super comfortable ride, easy to drive. Never worked on it, but recall it being worked on alot and costly maintenance. The owner was in his 90s though and had bought the car new and said other than his E-Type it was the best car ever.

Jeezums you're in OR? Ah to have a 4k from that part of the country. In the North East they tend to get soft in a hurry.

Here's a good example of what kind of car they are: Team O'Neil uses them, they come in to his school w/100k-150k miles and he will beat those cars mercilessly for 10yrs. Metal will bend, pads will wear out, but they just keep going...

They really don't build cars like that anymore - drive train is bullet proof - CIS if maintained is bullet proof and the electrics are mediocre at best, the odo's tend to give up, the a/c hardly ever works, the door handles break, the e-brakes tend to stick, the electric window switches stop working, but the locking diffs are a hoot in the slippy stuff (if the vacuum actuators are working). Yeah, nothing really hard to work on...

BTW - Mr. JVL has some sweet suspenders for them if you decide to go that way.

Audi 4k's are some of the funnest underpowered dogs I've owned. Timing belt is a biggie every 100k miles, Clutch isn't much fun either. Other than that they are cake to work on. 10v Turbo swap is super easy and cheap. If the Differentials dont lock replace the vacuum lines for them. If it doesnt idle well, clean the Idle Stabilizer Valve. Motorgeek is practically dedicated to the old 5 cyl "Owies." If you decide not to get it PM me the info, cause I've been keeping my eye out for a 4k as a daily.

Oh and if the Gas guage is accurate, it might be the only 4k in the world to have that feature.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/15/2011 04:58PM by aj_johnson.

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aj_johnson
I've been keeping my eye out for a 4k as a daily.

Second time today someone mentions they've been looking for something that seems so common around here. Here's two nice sounding ones for sale...
http://denver.craigslist.org/cto/2214792365.html
http://denver.craigslist.org/cto/2258595188.html

2nd one is already sold. Sent an email to the Red one. I went through 2 4ks when I was living in Boulder, but here in Idaho if it aint a truck, good luck finding one.

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NoCoast
Yeah, I was being generic.
We had a 5000. Super comfortable ride, easy to drive. Never worked on it, but recall it being worked on alot and costly maintenance. The owner was in his 90s though and had bought the car new and said other than his E-Type it was the best car ever.

5000's are a bit worse to work on than 4000's and the take a bit more fiddling. I've had a bunch of them. You get used to it, though. Still, relatively simple compared to a newer German car, though.

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aj_johnson
Audi 4k's are some of the funnest underpowered dogs I've owned.

Whaddaya mean "underpowered"? My car has the same engine/trans as a 4000q and I'll have you know that I was able to achieve over 90mph on the downhill part of my commute!

I hasten to point out that my Subaru was only ever able to go over 87mph once, and that was after I blew all the water out of it. So: Not having drag on the water pump is worth 5mph on a Subaru.

Therefore, advantage: Audi!

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Timing belt is a biggie every 100k miles, Clutch isn't much fun either.

The timing belt is definitely not as fun as on a newer Audi where it takes about five minutes to pull the nose forward so you can walk right into the engine bay and start spinning wrenches, but it's not awful. Figure 90-120 minutes if there are no rusted bolts. I did my first one in about two and a half hours, and a lot of that was figuring out how the water pump comes out.

I used to be a fan of Motorgeek but something about the general nature of the site soured me. One of those places where if it's not their specific way then it's crap. (Same reason I'm off the GRM forum nowadays)

The 10vt setup is especially cheap because the factory did it, so you can source the two or three B-chassis turbo specific parts (downpipe, tie-rod, CIS inlet arrangement) or you can bend your own tie rod and alter the bits out of the 5000 Turbo parts car, which I'm surprised that they haven't all been crushed by now.

I'm in the process of getting the bits together for the "MC2" (1990 200 10v) turbo engine conversion for my car... the only problem is that the while-I'm-in-theres keep piling up. I already pulled the head and installed ARP head studs and the S4 head gasket, now I'm realizing that I WILL be cranking the boost up on this pig so the sodium exhaust valves need to go (they like to lose their heads at high boost) and since I'm doing the exhausts, I may as well upgrade to 40mm intakes and clean up the bowls, and I noticed a crack forming in the exhaust manifold by #4 so I need to change that, and while I have it off I may as well port the one going on, and...

But until then, the 330k JT engine is still soldiering along, as is the original transmission and clutch.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/16/2011 05:58PM by Pete.

Consider popping the head off an NG/NF on there while your at it (whichever one had the injectors in the head) The head has bigger valves and a slightly better cam.
Regarding your MC swap. How much wiring did you remove from the car the motor is going into and how did you go about it?

Also, believe it or not, I got my 87 4kq up to 137mph at one point in time.

So here's a new twist. A friend just offered up his 240 turbo. Needs a fuel pump (he thinks).
He's getting married and he's thinking he doesn't need two cars. And it's cheap, and the heater works, and it has a radio, and comfy seats... all things that my wagon is lacking.

I should add a pole to this thread.