what will fail on 2.5 tdi

vorsprung dork

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i bought the 2.5 for one reason alone and that was the noise that it makes! i went into this blind! never got any info on them beforehand! i read with so horror about 4k repair bills for failed engines! what can i expect to go wrong or prevent before it happens? a brief history of the car is i got it with 80000k on the clock its now on 85000k the cam belt water pump and fuel pump belt were changed at 79000 and the oil and fuel filters have been changed every 15000k with fully synthetic oil! its the 163 front wheel drive sport model! im new to this forum! but have ran audis for 10 years my 1.9 has only cost me £15 in five years of ownership(repaires not servicing) and all that was,was an engine temp sensor! love my avant but if im gona get 4k biils i would rather chuck 4k at trading up! dont want to do this as i think the b6 is the best looking a4 by far!
 
reminds me of the same anxiety i had when i bought a subaru impreza on impulse... i went on the forums, and read horror stories about leaking rocker cover gaskets, thrashed turbos, cracked manifolds etc.

truth is, if the engine's been looked after (i.e. correct grade oil, regular maintance etc) the car should be in fine knick! if ur really that nervous about owning her, sell her on now! buying any car used it bound to have some element of risk: i mean, having heard some of the stories of stealerships, even a full (insert manufacture) service history doesn't mean anything :)

if you REALLY love worrying yourself, have a read of this... its where i go for my worst-case scenario input on any car...

A4 B6 2001 | Audi | Car Reviews | Honest John
 
Had mine since Oct 2009, 2003 2.5 tdi convertible.... had it serviced, replaced front tyres for MOT, boot lock solenoid/actuator failed (£35 Audi), wiper arm snapped off (£33 Audi), head light bulb replaced, ....errrrrm.....brake pad warning light just come on so about 15000 miles still left on them, lol.....errrrm....70k service due next month.....errrrm....thats it!
 
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There's lots of things to be aware of, but as long as you are aware of them they shouldn't trouble you.

I'll reply more tomorrow when I've more time. Basically when you change the timing belt, change everything, belts, pulleys, bolts, thermostat, water pump etc.
 
Keep an eye out for camshaft wear I have just replaced mine and bring the oil changes closer to 10 k mate the longlife oil changes doesn't do them much good use a fully synthetic oil that's really all I've really come across obviously your gonna have things go wrong on cars mate but that is the whole second hand motor thing if it's got bits that spin on it it's gonna break one day just prolong it as much as you can with regular oil changes

Oh and just for the record don't let the cambelt go overdue I bought mine with it gona and ended up spending 2500 quid on it that was with the cams and a turbo that was knackered for some reason too
Hope this helps mate:thumbsup:
 
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You better stop worrying and drive the car. There are many things that can go wrong on them but its allways due to neglect- preventative maintenance is the best and will be less expensive if caught early. I will also drop the oil changes at max 6k and only use high quality fully synthetic oils- your engine will thank you for it. If its a easrly model then replace the engine breather and take the car once in a while for a quick blast on motorway to clean the cats and unclog the turbo. Mine are high mileage: 190k a4 quattro, 154k allroad. Both work fine- the a4 is in much better mechanical nick than the allroad but i kept on top of it since i bought- it !
 
There are many things that can go wrong on them but its allways due to neglect- preventative maintenance is the best and will be less expensive if caught early.

So true.

Prior to my ownership when the 80k cambelt change was done, the previous owner saved £x by having a visual check done on the idler and tensioner pulley rather than a replacement. I'm pretty sure the replacement cost of those pulleys was significantly less than the replacement engine I had to have fitted after one of them failed causing the cambelt to skip ....

Audi recommend 80k for a cambelt change, personally 60k is an absolute maximum for me, and while the front's off it makes sense to replace everything, ie belt, both pulleys and bolt, thermostat and water pump.

Some models are renowned for soft cam's, I'm not too sure on the facts here so will leave it to adamss24 to explain. The only other large cost possibility is a new fuel pump, the VP44 can fail which is £500 plus to rectify. You'll also read about glowplug/injector/battery issues on here, but they're all a relatively cheap fix.

As mentioned, change everything when it needs doing and you'll be fine.
 
thanks all! shiting myself over nothing really!! to answer a few things! my cars an o4 so its a late b6 looking thorugh my service records it had a full cambelt kit all the pullys belts bolts and water pump changed! gona start dropping the oil every 9k to be on the safe side! right worry over! bring on the remap! one other thing mine is a 6 speed manual! is this a good gearbox? this may sound silly but im sure someone told me the 6 speed audi box has somthing to do with bmw???
 
Manuals are fine, it's the tiptronic boxes that are prone to failure but there is an upgrade / modification.
 
Manuals are fine, it's the tiptronic boxes that are prone to failure but there is an upgrade / modification.

Manuals are v strong and it's not the tiptronics (standard auto with tiptronic selctor) that are a problem: with the scheduled oil change, that box is also pretty strong... it's the FWD MULTItronic (CVT) gearbox that needs an upgrade. Chances are if it's a 2.5TDI FWD auto (i.e. multitronic), then it would have had a an Audi recall. Some of the 1.8T's and 1.9TDI's were also replaced with Audi picking up the bulk or at least some of the tab... but not all.

If it's an auto, then it's probably a multitronc.... but also probably has a £1200-£1500 "Audi paid" bill in the history... or call an Audi garage and check - they should have that on record.