Afroney

I have a 86 4000CS quattro with about 100k miles on it. My first issue with this car is the clutch. I learned to drive a stick on this car, and the clutch seems really picky. Its much harder to drive this clutch than a Jetta or an Escort. Ive had my buddies try to drive it, they are pretty good with manual trannys, and they all say that it is the hardest thing to drive, they stall it when putting into gear, and they say that the shifter is really hard to move? Are Audi manuals normally like this or do I have a possible mechanical problem? I guess my second statement is even though Audis are good preformance cars and have very good engines and trannys, I ran into a problem that really pissed me off. The gas pedal linkage snapped on me awhile ago. I took one look at it and thought to myself that this is the worst design i had ever seen. It was really cheaply built and nasty to put back together. Any of you guys ever had this happen? Dont rip me apart for posting bad stuff about Audis, they really are better than most of the cars out there.

CGTCOMM86

ok, on the first part... your prblems are not connected. my old 4kqcs was the easiest thing in the world to drive. so you may have a: a severe compression problem (unlikely) b: a brand new clutch (unlikely) c: too much torque (highly unlikely), or d: you're reatrded (not likely due to the fact that you own a 4000, and were able to write the previous thread). i say, if it doesn't slip or make any strange noises, just get used to it. about the shifter. try takin g it apart, greasing everything up, and putting it back together, i did that on my cgt and my 4k. about the throttle cable. the thing about german engineering is that anything important is extremly well (sometimes over) engineered, so that if you find a part on your car that seems cheap, it's not that crucial or hard to fix. the good thing about these cars is that the things that will go most often (cables, hoses, axles, brakes) are all nice, but not so nice as to be really expensive to replace.

audinutt

well. the clutch on my 4kq is one of the easiest to drive out of the many standards i've driven. It sounds like something is wrong either with the clutch or the idle-stabilizer. i can idle up a hill in 3rd gear with my foot off the accelerator. also, the shifter shouldn't be so hard to move, check your gear oil, probably due for a change, redline synthetic mtl or mt-90 works well in these gearbox. always remove the fill plug before pulling the drain, sometimes the fill plug will be difficult. you will need a 17mm allen to do this.

The gas pedal linkage...
I've had it happen too, what happens is those rubber bushings deteriorate after years, good news is at least there is a hook on the end of the cable. i've taken the hook and hooked it through the hole on top of the pedal and put 2 zipties together (heavy duty ones) and fished it up in there and secured it slowly. still working a year later (knock on wood) you just can't actually push the accelerator all of the way to floor, the throttle will still open all of the way, it's just the travel was shortened from deleting the pivoting piece with bushings.
but the bushings are cheap, i've got a pair now, but didn't at that point, it's just kinda on the backburner because it's functional.

the 4000q's are great cars, i put my 1st 4kq through hell. but i learned how to handle different situations and limitations on the car. my second is babied in comparison, it's got a a tick under 300,000 on the clock and the compression checks great, and everything else works great (knock on wood again).

they are built to last, it just takes proper maintance to keep them in top condition. but when they are, they are great I've always thought it was better to buy a used car and fix it up and make it the way i want it than deal with depreciation and big $$$ for a car payment every month.

audi ownership can be a very frustrating one. repair bills can be expensive, i know if i couldn't work on my 4kq i wouldn't be able to afford to keep it. you'll save a lot of money if you start doing things by yourself than taking the car somewhere. try audifans.com

enough rambling, happy quattroing

-rich
'86 4kq

Chris in VA

I never really had a problem with the shifter itself. The clutch on the other hand tends to get VERY stiff as it ages and can be a beast declutching. One note...after talking to more than a few people from Germany, they mostly said Audi's are ho-hum cars over there, similar to Chevy's. I think we're enamoured with them due to the quattro...