[Conan_the_Librarian]

George,

Welcome to the forum. I hope during your look around you spotted the A8oc and of course our sponsors on this forum A8Parts. It would be great to see some photos of your 8 as we are all a 'bit' sad on here and share your joy of ownership of an understated battlecruiser!

To answer your questions, the reoutine servicing are well within the average DIY spanner monkeys capabilities, but maintainance and repair are a little more complex.

For a start if you intend to do your own maintance then you will need 2 bits of software and one vital bit of hardware.

Vag-Com - indispensible
ODBD II lead - Ebay variants avialable but you can't beat the real thing. As inmportant as a torque wrench during and engine rebuild!

ELSAWIN - VAGs digital technical and maintainance manual (available from E-Bay at very reasonable prices)

The service points are basicall 10000 Miles / 1 year for the engine and is realy only a check and adjust and oil and filter change. Don't skimp on oil quality it just ain't worth it. I'm sure Ben from AVP will be along shortly with tech specs.

20000 Miles/2 years - from memory, oil / filter / air filter/ HVAC filters/ Plugs (although I have had 50k out of a set!!!) and full check and adjust.

80k is cambelt and tensioner. Do the waterpump at the same time as you have to remove all the same kit to replace it if it goes wrong 10k after you've changed the cambelt. Some of us do this ourselves, but if you have the slightest doubt the get Ben at AVP to do it. I drive from Plymouth to his place in Burton upon Trent as he has the A8ocs complete trust, he knows what he is doing and he's a nice bloke!

Automatic Transmission Fluid and filter. This is a slightly contensious issue as Audi say it is filled for life. I and many others belive otherwise. You 98 S8 will have a 5 speed box and therefore you may wish to change the ATF and filter every 20 to 30 k. Mine was done at 53K with a rebuilt box and again at 80k when the transmission squeal started. I will be doing it again soon as I am above 100K now. Some have never done it and had no problems. Some have done it at the first signs of problems and it has been ok and some have done it and the gearbox has failed shortly afterwards.

I think 2 things are at work here. If started early and repeated every 20/30k your box will run on for 150k plus. If your don't do it and no problems apear you may get 130-150k.
Once probles start to appear your box is going to fail if you do nothing and may fail if you do a fluid and filter change. But then again it may not.

There is a very interesting thread on the subject here.

Once again welcome. Enjoy your stay and I hope to meet you at one of our events next year.