skiracr

Bear in mind that people on these forums are pretty "into" their cars.. and represent a small proportion of total owners... there are thousands of B6's out there running just fine. I did TB/Water Pump at 90K, but as mentioned, that is wear & tear on most any car.

Only other thing is Ignition Coils; if the MIL comes on, check those right away. I waited too long and burned up my cat. That was expensive...

Besides, Audi is recalling coils now (finally admitted it!).

Don't be afraid, it is a great car!

B6A430V6

having been a 3.Owner (see what i did there) for several years, youll encounter, oil changes(every 4k miles), coil packs because misfires happen much more often than you think, timing belt and water pump(80-100k miles), lots of tires, because i believe that the standard 1.8 tires are 205, or 215/45/16 and the 3.0 quattro premium has 235/45/ZR17, and if you keep up with those, then the rest is just, spark plugs, I flush my radiator and coolant once a year, spark plug leads, and the worlds most expensive headlight should it go out, mine went out once and that was 10 years ago, come to find out it just came unplugged, welcome to the life of owning a 3.0. it sounds daunting but in all actuality you care for it like you would a normal car just with more expensive parts, but you are in for a pretty fun ride with a 3.0, i personally have a few cars and this is by far my favorite, not in terms of raw speed, but once winter hits, wherever you are, youll understand....

turbo510

I've got a different take on several points:

I do oil changes every 10,000 miles, 0W-40 M1.
Never had misfire issues, but do have the replacement campaign coils from Audi.
Tire wear is fine, now that I've changed front control arms and set the toe-in to zero.
Coolant doesn't need frequent flushing if using G13 and distilled water.
The expensive headlight; if you mean the Xenons, those bulb units cost me $65 per-side and are an easy change, and with a lens polish job, huge difference in brightness.

Besides the "timing belt" job, there was one that was pretty challenging, and that was changing the plastic coolant pipe beneath the intake manifold. If your 3.0 leaks from the rear area of the engine, chances are that thing went bad.

Sumit Shah

They're reliable but require a lot of maintenance and upkeep which can be pricey..

I've changed my timing belt and water pump twice already which really hit the wallet hard.

I'm at 150K miles and my serpentine belt recently broke and the cost to replace it with parts was about another grand here in NY. Find yourself a mechanic familiar with Audi an avoid the stealership.

The timing belt should be inspected 30-40k miles of use and go for OEM parts.

Aftermarket will fail much quicker, making the cost of labor accumulate even more.

So its really not worth using cheap parts with things like that but thats just my .02 c.

turbo510

Hard to believe that you were charged $1,000 to change the serp belt, a $20 item. Even a new tensioner is about $55 from my usual source. By the way, a complete "timing belt" job includes a new serpentine belt, since the thing has to be removed anyway, so your shop should have done so.

Sumit Shah

The jobs were done at separate times so the cost of labor got me. For some reason the mechanic only changed the timing belt and water pump the first time bc the serpentine belt was fine at the time. When it broke, the cost of labor was nearly the same because of the need to remove the bumper.

shoebooty

Hey everyone,

I'm thinking about buying an 04 3.0L V6. It looks to be very well maintained, and has only 102k km (no typo).
The timing belt and water pump has been replaced. So too has the steering rack. Like I said, it looks to be very well maintained. Start up was smooth and not at all prolonged. Owner tells me he never has to add oil, and there isn't a speck of oil on the pavement where the car sits. None!

The thing is....I've been scouring the entire forum for this particular model. To be blunt, it seems these cars are a never ending horror story. I ask for your most unbiased opinions...."How reliable is the 3.0L v6 ?"

W261w261

So, what kind of a buyer are you?

A) You like the idea of driving around in a car that would probably sell for over $50,000 today if it was new. You will get some street admiration for driving an Audi, as long as the finish looks good, because many people can't tell the difference between model years. You don't want to pony up that $50k, but you have enough money *and the commitment* to fix things that will regularly need fixing. I would say compared to a Honda Accord from those years, the number of things that will go wrong will be 3x. The cost for the parts might in some cases be 3x also. You will be buying a car that has not suffered from deferred maintenance. You will not be doing your own work.

B) You are experienced or committed to becoming experienced with doing most of your own work. You have the time and the garage space.You love the car and will keep on top of it.

C) You have $3500 for the initial purchase and maybe another $1,000 for a few repairs, and think that should get you through a couple years of ownership. $4500 for a great looking Audi seems like a good thing.

D) You have noticed that you can buy one of these cars for $2,000,which seems to run pretty good. Maybe you can fix it up and resell it later, breaking even and driving free.

A) and B) might work for you, if the car is well-bought. A) will take more, say $1500-$2500 to fix things after your purchase that you missed, plus maybe $2k+ per year after that (a thorough mechanic's inspection can help here) . B) will be less, depending on your skill set. C) and D) - you're going to die, quickly or slowly, but you will die.

Moral of my story: don't play above your station with these, or any originally-expensive old car. Be adequately funded and be scrupulous about preventative maintenance, and you will be ok. I personally prefer the 1.8T,simpler and therefore less expensive. Aside from its earlier sludge problems, it is considered to be rightly or wrongly "bulletproof." I don't believe that term has frequently, or ever been applied to the V6. This is just my opinion. Turbo510 really likes the V6. It works for him, but he's very experienced, much more than me.

turbo510

Thanks for the compliment, W261w261. I do like the 3.0, the sound, power, and feel of the V6 are superior to the stock 1.8T, in my opinion. However, if I wanted a really high-performance A4, the turbo four is the way to go. Reliability-wise; the 3.0 has been really good to me. The only real problems that I've had, over many years, were generally not specific to the V6: a failed OE fuel pump, a marginal ECU relay, a blown-out power steering rack seal, noisy PS pump, a radiator leak, a coolant pipe (plastic!) leak, and currently a heater hose that needs replacement. Bear in mind that this car now has over 226,000 miles and I run it up to 90 MPH on a daily basis, after carefully checking for hidden CHP cruisers.

Postscript;

The 3.0's are much rarer than the 1.8Ts, due to the majority of the B6 A4's being the turbo/4. Likely the reason for that was that the V6 was a more expensive vehicle, mine listed for about $10K more than the base 1.8T. Technically the 3.0 engine is more advanced in some ways too; the engine block is Aluminum, not Iron. It also has main bearing cap clamp bolts to control crankcase flex, and all camshafts are individually adjustable hydraulically. While the 6-speed manual would be the most sought-after model, I've had no issues with the 5-speed automatic even with all these miles. My previous B5 A4 had the lower-tech SOHC 2.8 engine, but with a similar FWD version of the ZF 5HP19 transmission. The engine and transmission were both working fine when I sold it at 270K miles.

A4Audi4Fun

@shoebooty 211,000 km on my 3.0 V6 - coil packs, valve cover gaskets, timing belt/tensioner/water pump, coolant tank radiator, control arms have been my majoor repair items. Next timing belt will be done at the 230,000 km mark. For the mileage you are quoting, a timing belt and water pump change would be the 1st thing I'd address; I'd strongly suspect your car is still on original belt and that is a major disaster in waiting. Beyond that regular inspection and oil changes should be all you need. Agree with turbo510 - the V6 exhaust sound above 2500 rpm is wonderful to the ears.