0.3 of a sheds worth of Audi A4 Avant Tdi
Discussion
After admiring people with the more shed-like cars on here I thought I’d show my latest purchase.
After buying a dream car and realising it actually wasn’t quite what I was after I needed a new daily. Cheap to run, reliable and able to fit a mountain bike in the back. After setting a £1500 budget I looked at a few cars from local cheap car centres, a truly harrowing experience.
After discarding this car originally due to the mileage the detailed, honest advert and fact it had been loved for so long by its previous owner persuaded me to go and have a look.
So, 259,600 miles, the most ridiculous service history I’ve ever seen and I’m weirdly excited about it?
Looking forward to putting the “1.9 Tdi Engines go forever” to the test.
After buying a dream car and realising it actually wasn’t quite what I was after I needed a new daily. Cheap to run, reliable and able to fit a mountain bike in the back. After setting a £1500 budget I looked at a few cars from local cheap car centres, a truly harrowing experience.
After discarding this car originally due to the mileage the detailed, honest advert and fact it had been loved for so long by its previous owner persuaded me to go and have a look.
So, 259,600 miles, the most ridiculous service history I’ve ever seen and I’m weirdly excited about it?
Looking forward to putting the “1.9 Tdi Engines go forever” to the test.
205pat said:
Looking forward to putting the “1.9 Tdi Engines go forever” to the test.
They are pretty long lasting, though not immortal. My mate's skipped a tooth on the oil pump and went for a burton at a couple of hundred thousand miles... So we swapped in a replacement for about a hundred quid or so, and it carried on happily until the car was bummed to death by a Transit.Ooh I had one of those, in navy blue. They really do go on forever. The previous owner of mine literally used it as a shed and I spent days cleaning the interior for fear of the plague. It had done over 240k and cost me about £240 to buy. The clutch was really, really high but it still towed another of my cars with no problem, even having to pull away from a junction on a steep hill! It was a total shed, but I spent some money on it and drove it for around 10k miles with no trouble at all. Loved every second of it, if people saw me coming on a narrow country road they would actively get out of the way once they saw the state of it! I remember the injection pump timing was a bit out and I couldn't be bothered to fix it so I just put up with a slightly odd power/torque curve... More pictures please, excellent shed-barge!!
Well what do you do with a battered old bus on day 1 of ownership - a 280 mile round trip to pick up some parts for my Integra. With it being mainly motorway it wasn’t exactly tough going but the main thing was to make sure it gets a good run before I go back to work next week. It also gave me a bit of time to get to know what may need attention in the future.
The car was spot on, and still hasn’t used all the £30 fuel I put in (coming from an E46 M3 this feels incredible). However there are a couple of minor niggles. The clutch is biting high so interesting what Gallons per mile says, I guess we’ll see how that goes. The windscreen wash doesn’t work and the aftermarket head unit sometimes turns off when you take the key out, sometimes stays on!
Stopped at a nice spot for a bit of lunch, got some strange looks from people wondering why the hell I would take a photo of such a shed of a car in the car park!
Tomorrow is the bike test.
The car was spot on, and still hasn’t used all the £30 fuel I put in (coming from an E46 M3 this feels incredible). However there are a couple of minor niggles. The clutch is biting high so interesting what Gallons per mile says, I guess we’ll see how that goes. The windscreen wash doesn’t work and the aftermarket head unit sometimes turns off when you take the key out, sometimes stays on!
Stopped at a nice spot for a bit of lunch, got some strange looks from people wondering why the hell I would take a photo of such a shed of a car in the car park!
Tomorrow is the bike test.
As I said earlier, the clutch on mine was on the top of the pedal but it never slipped on me. i did 9k miles like that too. I did once lose the clutch completely but that was seals on the master cylinder! I had to drive home from work just matching the revs... Only sold it on because I'd fixed my £50 Puma and wanted to drive that for a bit.
Gratuitous pics of my bus:
Gratuitous pics of my bus:
Bluehawk said:
SeanEP3 said:
Ssomeone told me once that Audi made the clutch purposely high, to make driving it easier.
no idea if that's rubbish though.
I have a b6 A4 avant 1.9tdi, and I absolutely adore it. when it dies, I will get another!
It wasn't someone trying to sell you one was it? no idea if that's rubbish though.
I have a b6 A4 avant 1.9tdi, and I absolutely adore it. when it dies, I will get another!
"They're all like that sir.."
I do like a proper bargain basement motor. They get me more excited than something shiny and expensive.
High mileage older diesels are good, it means they've been used. We've had our fair share of 200/300/400k milers and they've all gone on to new happy owners.
Your car looks in good shape and the extensive history points to someone who looked after it Vs the usual stereotypical 'vw dub' owners of such fair.
Has made me jealous though, if I can get out of London I'd be driving another shed!
High mileage older diesels are good, it means they've been used. We've had our fair share of 200/300/400k milers and they've all gone on to new happy owners.
Your car looks in good shape and the extensive history points to someone who looked after it Vs the usual stereotypical 'vw dub' owners of such fair.
Has made me jealous though, if I can get out of London I'd be driving another shed!
Buff Mchugelarge said:
Bluehawk said:
SeanEP3 said:
Ssomeone told me once that Audi made the clutch purposely high, to make driving it easier.
no idea if that's rubbish though.
I have a b6 A4 avant 1.9tdi, and I absolutely adore it. when it dies, I will get another!
It wasn't someone trying to sell you one was it? no idea if that's rubbish though.
I have a b6 A4 avant 1.9tdi, and I absolutely adore it. when it dies, I will get another!
"They're all like that sir.."
I did buy it expecting a new clutch soonish, but 20k later, no slips, no smells. properly solid car! Love mine. I have a MY00 with 238,000 miles on it. Just passed it's test without too much hassle. Burst shock and a good service.
It's the second car in the house and doubles up as a van, skip, lorry, jeep and the rest. It's more often full off tools or things for the tip than it has the back seats up.
Only thing I've against mine is the drivers seat is showing everyone of the 238k so I must get some sport seats soon.
It's the second car in the house and doubles up as a van, skip, lorry, jeep and the rest. It's more often full off tools or things for the tip than it has the back seats up.
Only thing I've against mine is the drivers seat is showing everyone of the 238k so I must get some sport seats soon.
A pal of mine has an N reg 1.9 TDi A4 estate just like the OP... when it has been washed it still looks very good, in that deep metallic green.
It needs a few bits of trim ( the door protector strips etc that always seem to be missing ), but it drives so well. I keep telling him to get a remap....but he is not into that sort of modification ! There used to be a thread on here about a similar era Passat Tdi that was bought as a daily, but the owner started renewing all sorts of stuff until it was almost better than new.
That era of Audi/VW was probably the best in terms of quality control as the current ones seem to have well documented engine design flaws.
It needs a few bits of trim ( the door protector strips etc that always seem to be missing ), but it drives so well. I keep telling him to get a remap....but he is not into that sort of modification ! There used to be a thread on here about a similar era Passat Tdi that was bought as a daily, but the owner started renewing all sorts of stuff until it was almost better than new.
That era of Audi/VW was probably the best in terms of quality control as the current ones seem to have well documented engine design flaws.
Paul S4 said:
A pal of mine has an N reg 1.9 TDi A4 estate just like the OP... when it has been washed it still looks very good, in that deep metallic green.
It needs a few bits of trim ( the door protector strips etc that always seem to be missing ), but it drives so well. I keep telling him to get a remap....but he is not into that sort of modification ! There used to be a thread on here about a similar era Passat Tdi that was bought as a daily, but the owner started renewing all sorts of stuff until it was almost better than new.
That era of Audi/VW was probably the best in terms of quality control as the current ones seem to have well documented engine design flaws.
Mine is that dark green too. Previous owner, a good friend of mine, machine polished it for practice before setting to work on his 1989 MK2 Golf Gti so it's not hard to make it nice again with a coat of wax.It needs a few bits of trim ( the door protector strips etc that always seem to be missing ), but it drives so well. I keep telling him to get a remap....but he is not into that sort of modification ! There used to be a thread on here about a similar era Passat Tdi that was bought as a daily, but the owner started renewing all sorts of stuff until it was almost better than new.
That era of Audi/VW was probably the best in terms of quality control as the current ones seem to have well documented engine design flaws.
This is the thread about that Passat, impressive work. He's also done a MK4 Golf in the same manner.
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
Thanks for all the positive comments - I’m a big fan of the incredible cars on here (LFA!) but there is something about a shed that makes me smile.
So, couple of weeks in and the high clutch is... fine! Ok it’s not brand new, but some hard Hill starts and if anything it’s feeling better than when I bought it. Still getting used to the MPG, I came from an E46 M3 to this so 25 to 55MPG is a revelation! Most importantly, it’s passed its big test of getting a very long mountain bike in the back (ok with the front wheel off) with bags of room to spare.
Long may she continue!
So, couple of weeks in and the high clutch is... fine! Ok it’s not brand new, but some hard Hill starts and if anything it’s feeling better than when I bought it. Still getting used to the MPG, I came from an E46 M3 to this so 25 to 55MPG is a revelation! Most importantly, it’s passed its big test of getting a very long mountain bike in the back (ok with the front wheel off) with bags of room to spare.
Long may she continue!
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