Buying a 2005 A6 - what to watch out for?

[BahnStormer77]

Looking at something like this (for a friend) and was wondering what there is to really look out for?

AUTOTRADER LINK

thanks!

 

[BahnStormer77]

Can somebody who knows the A6's better tell me if that is an S-Line?

For an A4 I would have expected half-leather and door blades as a minimum.... plus a more agressive front bumper.

Also, on HonestJohn, there's a fair bit about earlier 2.0 TDI's and issues they have.

Reports of engine vibrations from 2.0 TDI manuals after around 30,000 miles, apparently caused by "melted injector seals" from using the wrong fuel.

Seemingly widespread problem with dual mass flywheels on A6 2.0 TDI which causes stalling. These can start to separate and the clutch can fail by 45k miles requiring expensive (£1200) replacement.

Another problem of 2.0 TDI PD 140bhp and 170bhp is failure of the oil pump. The oil pump is driven from a balancer shaft via a short hexagonal shaft. After about 50,000 miles, the shaft can round off, resulting in a totally destroyed engine and turbo, plus a bill of up to £9000.
If the danger is known and the oil pump is removed by the garage in good time, a new replacement pump will cost over £500, plus the labour to remove and refit it. However, it is also possible to save the old pump and modify the drive at a fraction of the cost of a new one. Many local machine shops already have numbers of these pumps in for such rectification, the drive shaft of each having been on the point of rounding off.

Any way of checking for these issues (aside form the vibrations through the transmission)?

Is it possible to inspect for the oil pump problem?

Is a 100k mile version of the 2.0 TDI a big gamble??

 

[Finally Got An A3]

Watch out with your autotrader link, it contains the post code you use

 

[BahnStormer77]

thanks mate - I realised, but it's not my postcode, just a random one for somebody I was helping on a search a few months ago... that's in Hertfordshire somewhere, I'm in Surrey

I changed that to one 'round the corner, not that it makes any difference since neither are mine.

 

[BahnStormer77]

It's deffo NOT an S-Line (SE wheels, suspension and seats.... and confirmed by the log book)....

But it's also not the DVD Sat Nav: it's the HDD, so a nice extra...

That said, it is a BLB engine with no oil pump rebuild... so v risky.

 

[s8craig]

What makes you think it has HDD nav as that didn't come out in the A6 until 2009. So unless someone has retrofitted it it will be DVD nav.

It looks like DVD nav and it says that in the blurb, but in the interior spec is says MMI basic plus, but it certainly isn't that.

 

[BahnStormer77]

ah - thanks for clearing that up: you're right: it's the SatNav spec that has the full colour screen, but it runs off a DVD in the boot, not the base-spec monochrome one. When I first looked those up, I thought htere were only two specs (DVD=monochrome and HDD=colour), but I've since found out that is not the case.