quattro or not?

[clough103]

how do you know if your a4 is quattro or not if there is no badges etc to indicate

bought an a4 avant r reg last week and believed it to be FWD however wondering why the engine is mounted sideways in the engne bay same as my BMW engine bay. first time i have seen this for a front driven car??

 

[Blue_Thunder]

An easy way will be to pop your head under a rear wheel and see if there's a driveshaft attached.

 

[mikeya4]

i think the a4 b5's are all longitude mounted, my 1.9 fwd was. and so is my 2.5 quattro.

 

[Siena]

how do you know if your a4 is quattro or not if there is no badges etc to indicate

bought an a4 avant r reg last week and believed it to be FWD however wondering why the engine is mounted sideways in the engne bay same as my BMW engine bay. first time i have seen this for a front driven car??

I think you mean mounted longitudonally.

Longitudonally-mounted set-ups have been used for decades in FWD cars, the "sideways" (transverse) layouts is a newer design.

Example of FWD cars with longitudonally-mounted engines are:

Audi
Saab
Renault
Volkswagen

It was only in the last 10 years Audi first used the transverse design, in the Audi A3, back in 1998. There was an Audi 50 in the '70's with a transverse design too, but it was more a Volkswagen Polo rebadged.

With your car, best way to determine if it's quattro or FWD is to look under the rear, if there are driveshafts coming from a rear-mounted differential, it's quattro. If none, then your car's FWD.

In addition to all this, there's usually a discreet "quattro" badge on the dash / fascia trim, above the glovebox. It's easy to debadge a quattro, though not common. Less unlikely is the deletion on the dash badge, as it involves replacing the trim due to the badge recess.

I'd say at a rough guess, your car's a FWD model.

 

[hutchybee]

Personally I would start it up and rev it to the limiter, engange first gear and pop the clutch! If it spins like a mofo its FWD and it it launches like a mofo its 4WD!:thumbsup:

 

[Broken Byzan]

^^ Foolproof^^

Assuming money is no object, looking under the rear is cheaper

 

[docurley]

Even easier is to look at the dash trim by the glove box, if it as a small badge saying Quattro then thats what you have if not it will be plain.

 

[clough103]

thanks guys will have a scout round when i get home from work. I assumed it was a front wheel drive been a normalish 1.9TDI but when i saw the engine facing rearwards rather than in your typical ford etc i was curious as to whether id dropped on a 4wd quattro.

 

[hutchybee]

You are a braver man than me as I couldnt buy a car without looking under the bonnet before purchase.....

 

[rasA4]

Personally I would start it up and rev it to the limiter, engange first gear and pop the clutch! If it spins like a mofo its FWD and it it launches like a mofo its 4WD!:thumbsup:

LMAO

 

[Scotty]

Since I recently had a B8 A4 delivered without the ordered quattro, I've spent some time on this subject :

It doesn't say quattro on the glovebox, grill or tailgate
It doesn't have rear drive shafts
You can spin the wheels very easily and you get torque steer
The fuel tank is larger than it should be
Vag-com tells you
The emissions numbers in the sticker in the service book, don't match the published stats
etc etc

I think I got up to 11 ways when I was going through it.

 

[PaulJC84]

So you traded the S4 for the B8 shape A4? How you liking it?

 

[Broken Byzan]

Since I recently had a B8 A4 delivered without the ordered quattro, I've spent some time on this subject :

It doesn't say quattro on the glovebox, grill or tailgate
It doesn't have rear drive shafts
You can spin the wheels very easily and you get torque steer
The fuel tank is larger than it should be
Vag-com tells you
The emissions numbers in the sticker in the service book, don't match the published stats
etc etc

I think I got up to 11 ways when I was going through it.

I hope they sorted it for you?

 

[Scotty]

I'll actually fall on my feet as I'll get a 2010 model with 3G MMI, rear LEDs, Stop/start engine, new mirrors etc etc but so far the new car's not ordered so I'm still running around in the FWD model.

The car's really great apart from I can't get used to torque steer and the lack of traction. I'm a total convert to quattro ..... not surprising since I've had it for 8.5 years!!

 

[rasA4]

like your signiture
A4 Avant (B8) - the worlds first FWD quattro!

 

[clough103]

hutchybee i did check under the bonnet... which is why i noticed the engine was mounted differently. and as i said the fact of whether it was FWD or 4wd wasnt an issue with buying the car anyway. I got it for a cheap price as there were a few niggles and the bodywork wasnt the greatest, however it will be used as a runaround for our dogs and not spoiling my BMW 330d lol

 

[aragorn]

Does sound like its just a FWD.
All A4's have longitudinally mounted engines, presumably because it would require a lot of engineering of the front end to run a transverse motor for the FWD cars and a longitudinal one for the 4WD cars.
Plus Audi do seem to love their transaxles.

 

[EssVier]

Personally I would start it up and rev it to the limiter, engange first gear and pop the clutch! If it spins like a mofo its FWD and it it launches like a mofo its 4WD!:thumbsup:

Haha, the non-scientific approach, and also saves getting dirty! Result!

 

[hutchybee]

hutchybee i did check under the bonnet... which is why i noticed the engine was mounted differently. and as i said the fact of whether it was FWD or 4wd wasnt an issue with buying the car anyway. I got it for a cheap price as there were a few niggles and the bodywork wasnt the greatest, however it will be used as a runaround for our dogs and not spoiling my BMW 330d lol

Sorry mate. The way I read the post made it sound like you didnt notice the longitudinal layout until after you bought it.