1st a4 quattro need advice please

[alexa4]

hi all

looking to buy an a4 1.8t quattro which will be my first audi. a friend of mine has got a 1999 one for sale. he had it for about 5 months now and had no problems with it and its a pretty nice car. its got a few mods done that where already done when my mate got the car. i had a drive and a look round yesterday and everything seemed fine and im ready to buy it apart from one thing.

the only thing thats bothering me is that when you turn the ignition on and all the lights come on the dash before start up, the engine warning light does not come on so i think the bulb may have been taken out to hide a problem. also the digital display in the clocks is all broken up so you can only just read it, possibly damaged when the clocks where in pieces to remove bulb? however the display does say OK. there is also a single beep when you put the ignition on is this normal or indication of a fault? the car has a full stainless from the turbo back and is decatted so possibly this is why bulb taken out if the warning light is on due to de cat exhaust.
the guy who had the car before my mate says the car been remaped to 220bhp but no paper work to back this up. could a remap affect warning lights?

hope that all makes sense as grammer was never my best subject at school lol. many thanks in advance for any help you can give me

 

[S4_dan]

Hi and Welcome.

My 2.8 V6 A4 Quattro doesn't have an engine management light on the dash either. The centre of the dash is the DIS. If there are any problems, then this will flash up a RED or Yellow symbol.

For piece of mind, buy a VCDS lead off ebay, like this one i bought few weeks back: eBay - The UK's Online Marketplace (works a treat) and scan the car. I bought this item at 3.45pm on a friday and it was in my hands at 9.35am on the sat!! superb delivery.

SCan the car before buying it. Peace of mind for you and your mate.

The DIS which you say is just readable is a very common fault on Audi's. There are fixes out there (do a search on the forum) or replace the clocks.

A single beep on startup could indicate a fault but usually three bleeps is something serious like ABS fault. So one beep could be low washer water, low fuel or a bulb out if the lights are on.

a Decat on the car could possibly throw a DTC fault code (which you would need the cable above or a scanner to read) but wouldn't put any warning lights on the dash.

As for the 220BHP I wouldn't know. Quite possible if its a 1999 1.8T QUATTRO SPORT model as they are 180BHP as standard. a 1999 1.8T Non sport is 150Bhp standard but can also be easily tuned as the 1.8T's are uber tuneable!

Hope this helps,

Dan

 

[Bradderz_1988]

decat wouldnt throw a trouble code as there is only one 02 sensor so the ecu is none the wiser and doesnt care lol, and ebay lead and vagcom/vcds is your best buy to go with any audi !

 

[alexa4]

thanks for the tip dan i just ordered one of those vcds leads. was it easy to use. been looking on the ebay add and it said you might have to register to get full use. did you have to register with ross tech?
also is it the norm then for a b5 a4 to not have engine managment light to alert you of a fault as it is replaced by the dis on the clocks.
if this turns out to be the case i will very soon be the new owner of an a4

p.s. what does DTC faultcode stand for

 

[alexa4]

thanks bradderz

how come you see so many people on line saying de cat can throw up fault codes? ive never heard of it on any of my mates other makes of cars in the past so thought it seemed strange.
by the way does your cars engine managment light come on for a few seconds to show bulb working when you put on the ignition before start up. the car im looking at doesnt and i want to make sure this is normal before i buy it in case bulb been removed to mask a big problem.
i suppose even if the bulb taken out i can just do a scan now and then when ive got the vcds and software

 

[jamie226bhp]

The newer models have two O2 sensors pre cat and post cat do these would show a fault code but the b5s only have one and 220 on a remap and standard ko3 is not achievable probably more likely to be 190-200 tops

 

[S4_dan]

I thought a 1999 might of had 2 O2 sensors hence my response. The lead only comes with a demo version of Vag-com 409.1. But it will at the very least scan the engine and display fault codes but not all of the description. Very easy to decipher from the code though what the faults are, IF ANY.

 

[alexa4]

cheers dan looking forward to vcds cable arriving. will scan car see if any codes on there. thanks to all for responses.

 

[aragorn]

They dont have engine management lights.

The DIS only shows mechanical faults like oil pressure or low coolant. It doesnt show anything electronic.

Bit stupid really, US model cars got the light, but UK ones didnt until they went to electronic throttle, and no UK B5 1.8T quattro has electronic throttle.

 

[boost-addict]

The newer models have two O2 sensors pre cat and post cat do these would show a fault code but the b5s only have one and 220 on a remap and standard ko3 is not achievable probably more likely to be 190-200 tops

its possible it has a ko3s or even a ko4 and 220 is easy on a ko4 and achivable on a ko3s

from 190 were only talking 30bhp. and if the turbo is a ko3s an extra 30bhp is easy. maybe in a ko3 could be pushed, not as effently but if some one has upped the psi wit just a quick generic remap then it could be done.,

but of course its not going to be reliable or do the turbo any good, so do check what turbo it has

 

[Kingfisher]

Wife has 206bhp on her car, just a chip, and i reckon that decatted may add up to about 10bhp (??). You are not going to see much more though without other mods. Hers has actually done 82k miles 70 + of which have been chipped so reliability at these levels appears to be fine.
It seems that dbw cars are capable of another 10 bhp ??

I'm reluctant to query any advice from Aragon..... he really is so knowledgeable .......but I think he may be incorrect about electronic throttles, but I'm very happy to be corrected !!!
Didn't they change over with the digital clock issue( same as the S4s?) Analogue clock in dash = cable throttle, digital clock = dbw. Above car was an early one,ordered early May 1999, facelift, July 1999, "T" registration with analogue clock + cable throttle. Geoff Everett ( at the old AmD in Oddington, in 2000) was very surprised to see a cable version.
I have seen digital clock equipped 1.8TQS B5 cars

 

[aragorn]

Your not going to see 206 REAL horsepower from the standard K03. It just cant flow that much air. Thats not to say you werent given a dyno plot stating that figure ofcourse.

Both my TQS's have digital clocks and both have cable throttle and neither have an engine light. No UK 1.8TQS has electronic throttle for some odd reason.

Digital clock added IMMO3, as well as oil level sensing and oil quality monitoring for long life servicing. A lot of S4's dont have an engine light either, and they're all electronic throttle even the earliest PFL models, so i guess its not just electronic throttle that defines the presence of the engine light.

Suffice it to say that most B5's barring the very last models produced have no light.

 

[Kingfisher]

Ah, really interesting ! Thanks - and there's me thinking that there were two types of TQS engine setups !!

Can't argue about the power as it's never been on another dyno, it went from
187.4 bhp @4908 rpm to 208.8 bhp @ 4420
233 lb ft @ 2847 to 255.3 @ 2874

It's the increase that was important not the 'bar room ' figures !!
Geoff tweaked it so that it was easy for her to drive, not peaky etc etc.
It does run very smoothly and pulls really well after about 3500 revs

currently has slightly leaky input shaft seal at the rear diff, cam cover seal the same and ditto an engine mount. There is also a subdued but definate droning noise from the rear that I suspect is a rear wheel bearing ( directly related to speed unaffected by power on or off)

 

[NineNails]

and oil quality monitoring for long life servicing

I'm intrigued, how does it monitor oil quality?
Si.