r0n

Hi, I am new to this forum as well as in Audi vehicles. I preparing to purchase a 1.8T 97 - 2000 A4. I am interested in the 1.8T because of the turbo. Less $$$ for more HP... well that's my experience with other turbochared cars I had. Can you guy's please school me (educate me) the A4's? Answering the following questions would really help me out.

1) Any year A4 I should avoid?
2) What common problems does these vehicles have.
3) When lowered correctly to 1.5" lower, do you lose your ride? is it bouncy etc.
4) How much HP can a stock block handle.
5) If the timing belt breaks will it damage the Valves? Belt or Chain?
6) What's the weak points of the car... tranny, engine, suspension etc.
7) Can the manual and auto tranny's handle hard driving?
8) Anything else I need to know about these cars?

I started to search the forum but notice it would take me too long to find the answers. Some day I hope to know the A4's in and out.

Thank you for reading my post and helping.
Ron Sotto

Mr. White

Here's a quick response...

1) Any year A4 I should avoid?
-buy a 99.5. best year.
2) What common problems does these vehicles have.
-varies...
3) When lowered correctly to 1.5" lower, do you lose your ride? is it bouncy etc.
-no, if done correctly, very good ride. Obviously stiffer, but still really nice...sporty.
4) How much HP can a stock block handle.
-quite a bit...
5) If the timing belt breaks will it damage the Valves? Belt or Chain?
-yes...if the timing belt and tensioner hasn't been replaced, that should be done
6) What's the weak points of the car... tranny, engine, suspension etc.
-i wouldn't say much with the sport A4
7) Can the manual and auto tranny's handle hard driving?
-yep...autocrossing pushes the car pretty hard
8) Anything else I need to know about these cars?
-fun, nice car.

I love my car!

gersting

I am also looking into a 99-01 1.8T A4 (avant).
Could you elaborate on why the 99.5 is the best "vintage"?
How would one ID a 1/2 MY?
thanks
gersting

DukeBoy27

Umm... search on this forum, plenty of talks about it.

gersting

thanks for that-
i have searched and pull back hundreds of
subject line "I have blank and love it/hate it" with no associated message describing problems
or benefits of that car.

Not particularly helpful.

IMO asking for further clarification is a
reasonable question.

Mr. White

to learn. When searching, try several different word phrases to find what you're interested in.

Here's an old post elaborating on the differences between the 99, 99.5, and 2000.

<a href="https://forums.audiworld.com/a4/msgs/210966.phtml">99, 99.5 difference</a>

FYI, people like the 99.5 because that was the last year the car was non-dbw (drive by wire. Here's some discussion on that...

<a href="https://forums.audiworld.com/a4/msgs/1121893.phtml">dbw and non-dbw</a>

I hope that helps! Read these threads and if you have any other questions, just ask!

Audi902

Well...stock the 2.8 has more HP than the 1.8T, so if that's what you mean by less money more HP than I don't think that is necessarily true. However, there is a lot more mods you can do with the 1.8T over the 2.8. Depends on what you want to do.

r0n

I do know 2.8 has more hp then 1.8 in stock form. What I meant is getting to a certain hp goal would cost less for example if I wanted a goal of 300hp, I'm assuming it would be cheaper to get the 1.8T to 300hp because the car itself cost less then the 2.8. Besides the cost of the parts I'm factoring the cost of the car. Is this correct?

Humm... all this time I thought no one replied because I didn't get a followup reply. Good thing I did a search.

r0n

Thanks Mr. White. The answers did help me help me more then you thought. The most important answer for me was what year to get.

-R

gersting

Mr. White-
Thanks for the useful info and support on asking
questions. I appreciate it.
I will study those links further.
gersting