[squelchy451]

I'm looking at a B6 S4, which is unusual because every time I looked in the past none of them had the timing job done, but this one does.
The owner also assures me that the car has had oil changes done and was driven civilly. With the right results from a PPI, I am inclined to take him up on this car.

I read that coil packs, valve cover gaskets, and engine mounts could be potential issues.

What do you think? I'm willing to budget a little for maintenance and repairs.

 

[flyboy02]

I bought my B6 under similar circumstances (165K with timing done) and ended up doing all of the things you mentioned. Budget really comes down to what you can do by yourself.

I don't know how familiar you are with the B6/B7 engine bay but it's a challenge to work in. So if you are not mechanically inclined/ patient or at least have small hands, you should be ready to outsource the maintenance which can be more expensive than you think, even for those relatively simple tasks. Since I bought mine I have done:

Transmission bell housing crack repair ($$$ welding)
JHM flywheel
JHM clutch
JHM Intake spacers
Main bearing seal gasket
Valley pan gasket
Coil packs
Harness repair of secondary air pump (expect your harness to have issues due to heat cycles)
ABS module replacement
All engine mounts
Control arms x2

A lot of these repairs involved service mode (removing the front bumper) which adds a premium to any repair bill. I did about half of those repairs myself to keep costs as low as possible but it still hurts when you're looking at a 15-16 year old car.

I've done some other upgraded to the car, but the above were definitely in the required column. I'm at 186K now and it still makes me smile. Hope this helps.

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[bmxSLC]

There are some repairs that are traditionally easy, that are made considerably more difficult based on the fact that you have zero room to maneuver in the engine bay. Super fun car but they are fairly difficult to work on.


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[lost_password]

I bought one with 125k and chain service recently done. I'm at 135k now. I've had some minor issues that required a great deal of work. If you plan on doing the work yourself it's not bad at all, just time consuming.

Only thing that scares me is the Dual Mass Flywheel separating, as I drive mine fairly hard. Just keep up on the maintenance and it can be a fun car still.