i have urges to buy an S4. how much do they drink?

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Matt82

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hi there

ive come to terms with the costs of parts and the fact that its going to be far from straight forward to work on but one thing i keep hearing conflicting things on is how much they drink

can you post up how many miles you get per tank and how many miles it is to fill it all back up again?

im looking to get either a standard or lightly breathed on car tbh
 
around 24mpg average on the DIS for me

on a track day into single figures
 
i can average 28mpg on a 60mph long run, full tank will prob give me more than 300miles but never drove that long in my S4

im reguarly seein myself puttin 30quid in on a friday and by sunday its gone, not gunning it all the time but having fun.

they drink alot mate so jus be prepared for it if your gettin one.

you WONT regret gettin one though:rock::rock::rock:
 
ive managed to get 290 out of a tank on the motorway at a steady pace but round town in traffic etc its rubbish i was using nearly £10 per 15miles. i also had a fast 110 mile trip and used a full tank 1 way then half on the way back going slower .

Its all how you drive it really
 
to true andy, i used quarter of a tank from north london to my home town(150miles at a strict 60mph) then another quarter of a tank(nackered MAF) from abercynon roundabout(A470) to merthyr and that road is about 10 mile long maybe less so like andy said its the way you drive it.
 
but then again the smiles are worth the money most of the time . I miss it so much cant wait to get it sorted
 
considering the miles i do, i sadly dont think i can justify an s4. i really fancy one, i do all my own spannering, but this weekend alone i did 600 miles and still have over a third of a tank in my little golf

i require a car to do a lot of miles in and the cost of keeping an s4 in fuel over that sort of distance is going to rival 3rd world debt

sadly, i cant think of anything i want more to replace my ever faithful golf

:(
 
I was never worried about fuel costs ,
its more about how much spare cash you have in the bank for bits
there good cars but there are a bit of a cash cruncher if things go wrong
mine was mapped @ 320bhp and my dis was 24mpg local ish and @ 70-75mph on a run 28-30mpg never saw much more
great cars and very refined power wise .
 
The best I ever got was about 310 miles to a tank on a motorway trip up north.

Pottering round the village etc I generally get 20-22 mpg.
 
there is still one more to see, so there is time yet. tbh im only used to seeing 33mpg average over a tank as it is. %age wise an S4 isnt the biggest of changes.

the car ive got my eye on has a proper service history (ie 10k service intervals) but some reason had a top end rebuild last year.
 
should be 5k for oil changes really in my opinion mine has since new....i get an average of 20-22mpg @320+bhp and that includes absolutley flying on dual carriage ways and pootling about around home i dont do many milles so the fuel bill is not too bad for the fun you have but 600miles a week would cripple you the best i've seen out of £60 is 280 miles but the lowest mpg was 5.....
 
yup. ive always been a 5k-6k mile person for oil changes, but im over the moon that the last s4 im going to see has had 10k mile intervals rather than 20k :puke:

im used to getting 300-320 miles per 45 litre fill up on the golf. on long trips (ie motorway the whole way) ive seen 400 miles per tank, but typically its 300-320

the s4 has a 60 litre tank, but i dont know how much a typical fill up is.

my daily commute is 15 miles of sedate dual carriage ways in the morning and then rush hour crawl coming home. im very regularly travelling from essex to cheshire, 220 miles each way. last week i did more miles than usual, but i did go see an s4 estate in lancashire

ill do some more sums and see if i can justify the cost with this final S4 im going to see
 
makes no difference what you buy. it is just a degree of pain.
I get 20 in my 1.8t most of the time, but then I do enjoy it.
sensible trips don't happen very often as I take the car to get there before the bus/train not after.

if I sit at 75 in 5th on a flat motorway I can get 32mpg
If I sit at 90 in 5th on the same flat motorway I get 25mpg (on a closed course of course!)

i know which one I will be doing
 
now thats suprising to hear. one of the group that came to the ring with us last year had a mapped a3 20vt. hers got about 45mpg sat on the motorway

are the a4s on an older type of management?
 
A4's are heavier car, the only A3-based car close in terms of weight, is an S3.

45mpg even on a stock A3 1,8T does seem on the optimistic side. Was that DIS-info, or by real old school calculations?
 
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On the motorway sitting at 80-85 indicated our 1.8T will return around 35mpg.

Cant see why jcb's figures would be so much worse....

Craigs S4 manages about 240-250miles to a tank with normal driving, and as has been said maybe 300 on a run,
 
Siena said:
A4's are heavier car, the only A3-based car close in terms of weight, is an S3.

45mpg even on a stock A3 1,8T does seem on the optimistic side. Was that DIS-info, or by real old school calculations?
Click to expand...
real old school, were pretty geeky about that sort of thing. my golf only managed 42mpg, but thats 2.0 NA vs 1.8t, but both within a few bhp of eachother

i was two up in my car with tools though, she was by herself

weight wise i think the a3 is in the region of 1250-1270, but i was really impressed with 40+
 
My 1.8t does around 35 on a run, or as low as 6 when giving it some, so an S4 driven well could be a viable investment.
 
On the weight it depends if its quattro or not.

A3 1.8T = 1150kg
A4 1.8T = 1250kg
A3Q 1.8T = 1330kg
A4Q 1.8T = 1380kg
S3 = 1375kg
S4 = 1500kg
 
aragorn said:
On the motorway sitting at 80-85 indicated our 1.8T will return around 35mpg.

Cant see why jcb's figures would be so much worse....

Craigs S4 manages about 240-250miles to a tank with normal driving, and as has been said maybe 300 on a run,
Click to expand...
i didnt realise S4s were such drinkers.

to be honest its worth the premium to me for a comfortable/fast car, plus ive always thought they were great since i read a review about them in Performance Car mag back in 98
 
aragorn said:
On the weight it depends if its quattro or not.

A3 1.8T = 1150kg
A4 1.8T = 1250kg
A3Q 1.8T = 1330kg
A4Q 1.8T = 1380kg
S3 = 1375kg
S4 = 1500kg
Click to expand...
hers in non quattro, but had been on a weigh bridge back when we first got out gtech timing gear

i dont think i care enough about mpg to warrent changing from my gti to an a3, i want a damn s4 (just need to convince myself that it all makes perfect sense)
 
i thought my s4 was hellish after the s3, down on power an runnin ****... found out it was! after a remap, chip an new MAF its runs much better. i barely got 200 miles a tank southbound got 300 northbound but that was 'chip and handling testing' after that i seen a good 350 but i have never been a red light man! always run full ta half an fill up if poss...
as the guys above say the economy is there if you find it but thankfully so is the performance!
 
mafs appear to be changed almost routinely. £100 a pop too

doesnt seem many s4 types pay much attention when theyre filling up, probably because its best to just block it out haha

i think im just spoilt because my golf just sips at the stuff.

ill let you guys know how i get on with the viewing at the weekend
 
My S4 gets about 280 miles out of a tank with mixed driving. Seems to equate to about 23-24 mpg. If it goes on a long decent run and you arent going mad it will do 27-28 mpg. Sitting in traffic when you are not moving is where the needle keeps dropping and you arent going anywhere! Thats why i now try and use the girlfriends diesel golf for rubbishy mileage!
 
aragorn said:
Cant see why jcb's figures would be so much worse....
Click to expand...

quattro avant running 245 profile tyres and carrying a full compliment of crap in the boot and back seat!
I also don't tend to worry too much about fuel consumption when getting from A to B.
I can do London to Northumberland on a tank. regardless of how fast I go (within reason).
Thats fine by my standards.

My mate has an evo 6 and he fills up twice between Southhampton and Northumberland!!
 
You go to london via the M1? are you mental? :p

Ours is an avant too, although i do run quite high tyre pressures (30-40psi) for long motorway treks which will help the economy a bit, and the cruise helps too.

I cant imagine the quattro making THAT much difference, the main factor is probably the extra weight a quattro car carries, rather than the 4wd system itself, seen as most of the "transmission losses" that occur are acutally in the tyres as friction, rather than the diffs/shafts/etc
 
get yourself the S4 mate, you wont be let down at all, nice power and like all the lads have said, if driven well you will see an average 27-30mpg. make sure the car is healthy and your on to a winner big time, i aint stopped smiling since i bought mine:)
 
i get about 36mpg on a normal run with my 1.8t quattro and the very best i have had over about 40 miles is 42mpg. i think quattro does put a few mpg on it. not that that helps you know about an s4.
 
aragorn said:
You go to london via the M1? are you mental? :p
Click to expand...
12 hours Edinburgh to London return. mostly v. early AM. just don't use it in daylight!

aragorn said:
You go to london via the M1? are you mental? :p
most of the "transmission losses" that occur are acutally in the tyres as friction, rather than the diffs/shafts/etc
Click to expand...

surely a extra drivetrain must sap some?
 
Hmmmm well I'm getting around 18mpg and not really hard driving either, but then I know why it's so poor, looks like I bought a bit of a lemon lol, it turns out after doing a diag scan it needs 2 new EGT senders and bank 2 lambda replacing. Already done a few weeks ago was new MAF and F-hose, also I need to have rear springs replaced and looks like the ARB needs doing too.:crying:

Hopefully when all of this is done I should see a difference in performance, although to be honest I don't know if my S4 is meant to feel really quick or not.

A mate of mine bought an M3 343bhp and when I had a blast in that it made my S4 feel like a milk float :scared2:

Should the S4 be more in line with the M3 or is there a big difference:confused:
 
Tavli said:
A mate of mine bought an M3 343bhp and when I had a blast in that it made my S4 feel like a milk float :scared2:

Should the S4 be more in line with the M3 or is there a big difference:confused:
Click to expand...

A Standard S4 can't keep up with E46 M3 but a tunning one it might hold up with it but to blast it no way E46 M3 are fast :)
 
sounds like i really need to arrange that b5 vagcom cable. i saw an s4 in bradford at the weekend and it was clear that had a big boost leak, but it still felt fast. ive got a nagging voice in my head saying i should have bought that car

im after one at a dealer in nottingham but no one answers the telephone there
 
Matt82 said:
sounds like i really need to arrange that b5 vagcom cable. i saw an s4 in bradford at the weekend and it was clear that had a big boost leak, but it still felt fast. ive got a nagging voice in my head saying i should have bought that car

im after one at a dealer in nottingham but no one answers the telephone there
Click to expand...

Take your time and wait for the right moment S4's are very good cars but if you get a crap one then you will have alot of problems :( and also check the history of it as its very important :)
 
damn right about the history. the standard audi service interval was 20k miles by the sounds of it. FSH is a death wish in that case.

ive found two so far that have had 10k mile oil changes. id much rather something like that.

i really need to get a new vagcom cable sorted because at the moment i cant connect it up to the laptop
 
Hi Nez

I didn't mean the S4 should be on a par with the E36 M3 but hoped it would not leave me standing in no time at all, it feels a totally different car. I would hope that the S4 would at least keep the M3 in it's sights for a little while at least, I know how quick an M3 is but not sure if my S4 should feel quicker than it does?
 
audi upgrades
the way to enjoy a powerful car at very reasonable costs is get an lpg conversion i am running a 2.8 quattro a6 avant which as you all know is no lightweight its doing 100 mile for a tenners worth of gas thats mixed driving at the moment i am paying 48p a litre i have not noticed any loss of power as some people claim my engine is spotless internally the oil lasts longer as lpg produces very little carbon my car is bifuel so you have the option of running it on petrol although there is no reason to. its costing me slightly less than it cost me to run my last 1.9tdi a4 fwd also it increases the resale value just check out the prices of none lpg a6 quattros compared with the lpg equivelant
 
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