# My new used allroad



## Bergelvis (Mar 6, 2006)

I have gotten a lot of great information from the posts here at vwvortex, and from audiworld. I figured it was time for me to give back. There will be a lot of info, (maybe TMI, too much info), but, if any of it helps anyone, then I will have succeeded in giving back to this great VAG community. If you wish to continue reading, I suggest a drink, and or a smoke. Skip to paragraph starting with Dec. 10, if you want to skip to the allroad details. 

I'm a semi-employed remodeling contractor with a wife and two kids. In '05 I got married. In '06 I sold my '87 GTI mkII 16v to my friend's son for $2500. I can't believe I got that much. I had complete records, and it was a cool car. 2.0L 16v motor from a passat, autotech cams, euro ke fuel injection, custom home made K&N cool air intake, auto tech mandrel bent exhaust, lowered suspension, '90-'91 taller gears in gear box with quaiffe diff, 205/50/15 summer, 185/60/14 winter, with studs. I live near Keystone, CO, (near Breckenridge) we get hundreds of inches of snow a year. I owned the GTI since '90, 16yrs! It's still rippin around with over 300k miles! It shows, that if you take care of your stuff, it can last, and doesn't have to be a junk show. 

Then, I purchased a '98 A4 avant 2.8L 5spd for $6600. Business was good then, so I had my friend Chris, (who is a freelance mechanic who works on anything from jet skis to semis) do all the work on it. I'll leave those stories for another post if I ever get around to it. 

1st baby came in '06, 2nd baby in '10. We needed to replace my wife's POS '01 Toyota Corolla. Why did we want to get rid of it, even though it was so reliable and low maintenance? Too small, too slow, my wife and I fought to drive the A4, awd is way better in snow, and I couldn't get rid of the smell of dog diarhea and puke in the interior from when my wife's german shephard got sick in it. 

Dec. '10... Purchased an '01 silver allroad, 6spd., 114k miles, for from an ebay used car dealer from MI, with over 400 positive 99% feedback score. Car arrived on a car hauler in a suburb of Denver. It took over 4 weeks to get the car, car shippers suck, but that's a different story. I met the car hauler in front of a supermarket. He was able to park right in front of the store, because it was 2:00 am! The moment he drove it off the hauler, it reeked of coolant. Drove it to my friends' house in Broomfield. Parked, and crashed at their house. The next morning I seel the tell tale puddle, fill up the resevoir with straight water and start the drive up the mountain, 80 miles from 5000ft elev. to 10000ft plus through Eisenhower tunnel, down to 9000 plus at my house. No temp registration, no plates, dealer didn't put title in glove box like he said he would, so I couldn't get a temp in Broomfield. I did have AAA plus in case it broke down on the way. Made it all the way! Got in my driveway shut it off, got out and and coolant hose under the intake manifold blew, leaking green fluid all over my driveway. Hmmm... green fluid, not G12, hmmm... maybe it wasn't dealer serviced like the ebay seller said. 

Time to get to work: 
Pulled of intake manifold, found leak, replaced small 5" x 1" curved coolant hose, drained prestone, filled with Pento Frost SF G12. Car runs strong, but still smells like coolant, I also have to keep topping resevoir off. Purchased full timing belt kit, less a front crank seal. I start timing belt job, with my auto forensics/CSI hat on. I had the Bentley manual, it showed up before the car did, and I had this very helpful post with me: http://www.audiworld.com/tech/eng63.shtml . Thanks RMcQ. While trying to remove upper radiator hose to pull out lock carrier, the upper male fitting of the radiator broke off in the upper radiator hose. Another coolant problem. The accessory belt and timing belt looked to be in great shape, definitely not original, belts were Dayco brand, probably done 10-20k ago. However; the timing belt was very loose. I could twist it almost 360 degrees. The tensioner was weak, and the tensioner cam arm showed significant wear. They were also both original with Audi logos on them. The thermostat was also original. But; the water pump was new. Here's my CSI: Water pump went, leaking all over on previous owner. He was probably a hack (many call me that, but I've heard Audi dealers called way worse). He the did the water pump job himself. He was probably a cheap fxxxer. He put on a cheap water pump, but at least had the wisdom to replace the two belts. But no new tensioner, tensioner cam, tensioner roller, idler roller, or thermostat. Too cheap or ignorant to use G12, and probably too cheap to buy a Bentley manual. I do all that stuff, except the water pump. New Nissens radiator from autopartsgiant.com for $225 no tax or shipping, good deal. Same radiator $465 at local Carquest. New upper coolant hose, new resevoir and cap, multiple flushes and fill with G12 mixed for -45f (it got to -42 here this winter!). I had read in an allroad post by gragravar (great poster, thanks gragravar) that his viscous fan blades had exploded and done a lot of damage. With that on my mind I inspected mine as I was putting the car back together. Low and behold, mine had cracks in it. Carquest got me one in 12 hours! competitive price too, sometimes its good to do business locally. New fan blades were in opposite direction of old one! Hmmm... CSI.... The old one has Audi logo, but blades were blowing air forward!?!?!? Cooling issue? This one still puzzles me, check your Audi, do the blades blow the right way, I'm interested in knowing if anyone else has seen this. 

Did other miscellaneous maintenance stuff, put on Conti Extreme Winter Contacts, and started driving locally with my AAA card in my wallet. 

Car had slow coolant leak. If I wasn't a hack I would have purchased an Audi coolant resevoir adapter from toolsource.com. I would have used it with a coolant system tester I could have borrowed from my neighbor to properly find the leak. Instead I put it in the garage, got it on jack stands, got it to full operating temp, and found the leaks with a flash light. The coolant temp sensor o-ring was nearly obliterated, and the auxillary coolant temp sensor o-ring was in bad shape. Replaced those and now the car seems to be holding fluid... we'll see. 

I am the epitome of champagne taste with a beer budget. I still have less than $10k into this car that originally cost more than $42k. My wife and I love driving it. We feel like we are in a higher tax bracket when we're driving it. Power, luxury, great in snow, big, heavy, quiet, lots of room, great family car, safe, a little cumbersome, not nimble like the GTI, but I'm not 25 anymore. Oh... and the 6 speed manual sure is fun. The manual trans is soon to be a dinosaur with dsg soon to be on all cars. I know that this is the beginning of a long maintenance relationship with this car. Its not a Toyota or Honda. Now that its running well I'm turning to the A4 that hasn't seen any work since '09. I have to do both rear wheel bearings, timing belt kit, breather hose kit and head gasket from blauparts, front half shaft, maybe steering rack, and other misc service. Wish me luck, as I wish you luck in all your wrenching endeavors. Thanks to all those who have helped me in gaining knowledge to do this kind of work. 

The dealers are way to expensive for me, and from what I have read, they may be the most incompetent, negligent, and unaccountable service providers that exist. I have caught various pro mechanic shop in lies, stupidity, and negligence as my VAG tecnical knowledge has increased. In addition to the great forum posters I want to thank, and reccomend the following companies that appear to be first rate, and very helpful: 

Ross-Tech (makers of vag-com, they will personally respond to and try and help with diagnostics), my local Silverthorne, CO Carquest (Henry, Dave, Wayne and the rest of the guys), Blauparts, autopartsgiant.com (I know they are a megasite, but their prices help a guy with a tight budget maintain cars like these), toolsource.com (they have a lot of the tools reccomended by the Bentley manual), GPRparts (Jonathan can help source a lot of stuff, and is very knowledgeable even though he is more of a Porsche guy), my buddy Chris (aka:the Reaper), my buddy Fred (who lets me use his garage), and my buddy Dave (my neighbor who is the best mechanic I know who lends me tools and always has time to give me advice.


----------



## venstrata (Mar 30, 2011)

*Thanks for sharing*

That's a lot of information... The bottom line is that you are a happy Allroad owner who appreciates your ride. Now the question is...Will you be loyal to your Allroad down the road when she needs your support? If you are like me, it will not be a purely economic decision... Happy driving!


----------



## ShadowWabbit (Aug 16, 2006)

Good read! I'm contemplating buying an 02 with 81k, MT and 2.7T it seems like a good deal, but after reading this I'm not sure if I want it less or even more:screwy:


----------

