The old girls 21
 

the A8 that is..not the Mrs unfortunately!

Jumped into the car yesterday after a real Scottish downpour and heard the dreaded sloshing sound from behind the bulkhead, and began to wonder the last time I had that problem, must have been about 5yrs ago, and before that was the day I bought it back in May 07 for £2,500 which is the most I've ever paid for a car+++, Back then I used a piece of wire to unblock the hole and it has been kept in the boot ever since, so duly unblocked the hole and then realized footwell on both side was soaking, so carpets out and in greenhouse to dry out

During ownership of this car of nearly 10yrs it has only let me down once when the fuel pump packed in, apart from brakes and tyres and the services (which I do myself) this car has been exemplary

The car has a comprehensive service history before I bought it having the timing belt done at 78,841mls

So now the million dollar question is I am now at 155,000mls and the timing belt needs done again, been quoted from £900 from A4 audi in Glasgow to 1100 quid from a local Audi specialist

I don't think this is realistic in terms of the cars value, other odd niggles are popping there heads up now, sunroof suddenly stopped working and the window wiper linkages are like drunk Glaswegians on a Saturday night... headlight washers don't work and odd bits of rust are appearing, wheels could do whith a refurb

So now looking at another car in the near future, and I'm sorry it wont be an 8
I just don't have the money, Its gonna be hard taking a step backwards because I know there's gonna be nothing like driving her

Any way I'll keep you informed and just to let you all know this forum has been a great help in keeping her on the road


Sporran

Well, if you are considering getting the belt done I wouldnt choose A for Audi. My S8 had this done there at the 54k mark by the previous owner (THe Laird). When I had a 'stat failure I had the whole caboodle done by my local indy. Despite A for Audis claim on their website that only Audi OEM parts are used the belt was Contitech (one of the cheap replacements) and the pulleys were a mix of original Audi parts (i.e not replaced) and cheap non-Audi parts. My indy knows that I want to see what comes out and that i am choosy about goes back in.
But 21 yrs aint bad for a car and 155k isnt too much on the clock. As you suggest the issue is taking a step backwards. After the quiet comfort and, for its age, the toys. its hard taking a step backwards. and that goes for the Mrs too!!

Hi,

Please do post your progress on this: I have a belts/stat/pulleys gearbox service, check suspension rebuild to contemplate. Then a towbar . It adds up.

It is a difficult call as mine has 174k, 3.7 but with vital (to me) LPG kit and
LOTS of history. :o

I expect £2000 to spend OR buy a younger example with LPG?? :Confused:


Opinions?

Robert

Bluntly, that's the (occasional) cost of running these things.
My own view is that, unless there's something horribly/expensively wrong, better the (lovely, comfortable) devil you know....

PS They don't rust, but you can get weird surface corrosion.

Mine is 2 years younger and bought in 2008 for the same money and run on budget. I can understand that you don't want to spend too much money on the car if it has other niggles and there is always that uncertainty how long the gearbox will last but yours should be 4 speed at that age and they are mostly trouble free.

I can lend you timing tools if you want to change cambelt yourself and save some money. I have done it twice on mine now in 8 years and 17 000 miles. First time belt only (£30) putting fresh grease in roller bearings and belt (£30) + damper (£90) with fresh grease again second time. I also changed ancillary belt first time (£20) and ancillary belt rollers second time (2x £25) second time.

Or you can just run it without changing belt for as long as it goes. IIRC Dezzy run his from 80k to 230k+ without changing belt and without breaking it but his is now offroad now due to power steering leak.

Not to divert too much on the topic, but having had two, may I suggest if you do look at other cars, test drive a B6 S4, they are seriously good value for money at the moment, like, really cheap and they are IMO a smaller version of the the 8, at least I can see that my D3 S8 has a lot in common with both my S4s.

If you find one without timing chain issues, thats had the aux rad and the clutch/flywheel done you are laughing. Good ones can be had for about £3K now. +++

Try Audi Technik Centre in Bishopbriggs - that's who looks after mine now. I think you'll find them more competitive than A 4 Audi

Change it yourself! What have you got to lose. Or watch over a competent mechanic it's not rocket science it was designed and built by man, so man should be able to fix it. Admittedly mine is FL which very easy and could be done in about 3 hours. Listening to how much money some of my friends waste on there boring cars. even if the gearbox went it's worth fixing, I've done 50000 miles in less than 5 years and it's still worth more than I paid for it. I'm even thinking about getting another, a PF S8 this time.
Dave

They are not far from me, but it was them that quoted the £1100

That might be an idea, the only problem is I don't have any where to actually work on the car apart from my driveway
That's my way of thinking

I know that, but couldn't spell corrosion:ROFL:

Thanks for the reply's guys...I'll keep you informed

Sporran

Driveway is plenty for belts, that's what I am using these days. In the past I did not have even a driveway and have changed gearbox+clutch (for Rover 414) parked on the side of the street.

Or you could make use of my large double garage in Helensburgh one weekend. It even has free tea and coffee and a sandwich at lunch time! I'd be interested in seeing the job done.

But you are something else Ainars, :p

And you live in the southeast where it is a bit dryer than the north west. Even an oil change up here leads to trying to screw oil filters on whilst lying in a free flowing stream (at least on my driveway). If I went into the road i would be in a pond where the drain cant take the rain away fast enough. You'd need a snorkel!

Thats why I use The Laird's facilities on occasion +++

Here comes the Boring Old Fahrt.
Once upon a foggy evening many years ago, 53 approximately, I had an Opel Record whilst stationed in Arborfield near Reading. The gearbox was starting to play up but I was lucky enough to locate one in a scrap yard somewhere in Essex, sorry can't remember where.
Whilst on the way there the gearbox gave up the ghost, I phoned the yard, who said that they lived there and would be happy to do the deal anytime but if I took the old one they would discount the price.
I crawled under the beast at the side of the road, dropped the box, found an old newspaper, wrapped it and via two buses completed my journey to the scrapyard. Did the deal, think it was £20 and caught two buses back to the car. Installed the box and started the journey back to barracks.
By this time the fog had become a real pea souper so it was second gear along strange roads and took about three hours.
That box lasted me long enough to get me back to Germany about a year later where I trade the car in for an Opel Caravan (estate car).

Nobody supplied me with sustenance, and the guy at the scrapyard could have offered me a ride back to my car.

Brilliant! :)

I used to carry a spare head and gasket in the boot of my 1952 Austin Somerset, as it blew the gasket between cylinders 2 and 3 quite regularly. Got a dab hand at swapping them at the road side, but that seems trivial compared to your gearbox story!

Haha thats proper hardcore +++

Clutch control rod on my Scania 38T artic broke, it took 3 days to get a new one. I became an expert at pulling away in first gear and changing up through all 16 gears in the box without a clutch by the time the new part arrived. My father changed a gearbox in the middle of London Bridge in the 1950s on his Seddon...try doing that today.

Snapped a propshaft on a Volvo Van Hool Coach in Edinburgh as I left the hotel fully loaded. Another coach took my pax home and came back with a propshaft and a spanner. Unfortunately the other driver was too large to fit either underneath or through the floor hatch so I had to do the swap myself.
Then drove the bloody thing back to Wigan.
As for clutchless driving, 1st gear use the starter to roll and the engine fires and away you go. Dead easy even with 57 pax and luggage on board.
Another time luckily empty on the M6 dropped the propshaft and left it dead centre of lane two. Had 8 cars hit the thing and cost our insurance a packet. Luckily only wheel & tyre damage.

More troubles.. about a week or so ago the 8 would not start, got all ignition lights including key code, turn key and I hear the relays clicking under passenger foot well but not even a click from under the bonnet, put a volt meter on the battery and no drop in volts, mate picked it up from house and bench tested the starter and its ok, and he also said there was no fault codes, which I find hard to believe as it's never had a fault code reader connected to it in all the time I've had it, anyone any idea's

Stevie

Earth lead point behind front offside wheel arch cover?

Thanks I'll have a look come Monday and let you know how I get on

Stevie

Or the main power junction in the same place. Quite common for the terminals to corrode away quietly inside their little plastic box until one day no start.

Ok had a look at this and there was some slight corrosion but nothing to dramatic , but unbolted them cleaned them anyway and still no joy, at this rate it will be on gumtree for spares or repair

Stevie