Audi 80 sport 2.6 E

Having had a few A6's in the family with the same V6 engine I'd say that its a wise precaution to make sure that the water pump is replaced whenever the cambelt is done.
As the cambelt drives the water pump if your water pump goes into self-destruct mode through age etc then its bye bye cambelt and bye bye engine .......
Just depends whether caring previous owners have gone to this extra expense at cambelt replacement time.........
Had a '94 80 TDi until recently with over 213K miles on original engine, body was still almost mint as these bodies are galvanized, so make sure the bodywork is up to scratch.
If you are looking at one I'd say just make sure it has been well looked after eg Genuine oil filter is always a good sign.
Loads of dubious pattern parts and I'd walk away.....
One thing these 80's suffer from is heavy wear of the front strut-top bearing; its rather a primitive design and believe it or not its the same bearing as on a Polo.....
Consequently I ended up doing mine virtually every MOT/ 15K miles, tried fitting Ur-quattro and S2 (ie uprated) ones in the hope they'd last longer but they didn't.....
Good thing though is that as these later cars had a split front suspension leg its a doddle to replace the strut bearing as the wheel hub etc stays in situ, job only takes approx 1 hour per side with all the right tools ...
Think the old B4 80's are a great car, much under-rated, and dare I say it, better built than the later Audis......
My 80 Avant was more solid than my current A4, thats for sure......

Hello and welcome.

I had a 2.6, which went on to 252,000 miles before I got rid - and even then there was not much wrong with the engine or gearbox, car needed an exhaust, windscreen, cat, brakes all round plus loads of other stuff, worked out to about £800 in total, so gave it to a mate of mine and got a company car instead.

As said though - the water pump is the weak link. Mine actually went (it has a plastic impellor on a metal shaft which just part company) all that happened was it got hot, I switched her off, got it towed home and replaced the pump and belt, and all was good - did about another 40k after that.


Welcome to the fun by the way /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/beerchug.gif