S4 Owners Reply Please

I am considering the S4 or the S4 Avant. What's the general long-term opinion of the car? Reliability? Pet peeves? Disappointments? Thanks for your help.

I travel quite a bit and wanted to mix buisness and pleasure. Currently in an 04' TL. Nice but needs more ooomph.

James Enman

Reply to
James Enman
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The S4 ROCKS. And stock it will blow the doors off an Acura... But add an after market chip - and DAMN. That is one amazing car.

I have had mine for 3 years. I am at 70K miles. I drive it hard.

It has been very reliable. So far all I have done was a MAF sensor - under factory warranty and a power steering compressor, not under factory warranty - but under my aftermarket warranty. I have also had to replace my divertor valves and TBB - but those are weak and often break when you chip the car - and my car is chipped, so I cant blame Audi. Those parts were under $200. Oh yea - and I just did the brake pads on the front. Did it myself - easiest brake job I have ever done!!!

Pet peeves... I wish it got 40Mpg like my old honda civic did...

Cheers,

Adam

Reply to
Adam Schwartz

The current S4 (which uses a N/A V8) won't benefit as much from a simple chip upgrade as the old Turbo car did.

Sounds like you have the old model (2.7T V6).

DV and TBB won't apply to the current S4.

Reply to
Peter Bell

I have a 2001 S4 Avant and love it. Driving the car, is like driving on a different plane of performance. You just wish the other cars would move out of the way or something like that. The extremely tight suspension, the power and the Quattro, give you much superior driving performance, to most other cars you will consider. I sort of think of this car like a rocket ship on a rail. You can compare the numbers on paper with a lot of other cars, but in reality, this car has more.

But you do go through tires, and they are expensive. Visibility is a little lacking - be careful when backing, etc. I have the standard leather seats, instead of the ones with the suede centers. I wish I had the suede centers, so as not to slide as much when taking hard turns.

It's a German car so there are things to go wrong. Just think about things, like letting your car warm up properly before going into high performance driving. Or let it cool down before before turning off.

I suggest that you keep on top of noises. I have had some things replaced under warranty from hearing noises which I didn't like. That is true with any car. I don't thik the current car has a Turbo, but instead, that larger sized V8. Since mine has the Twin Turbos, I am extra careful about taking good care of them. I don't want to replace them.

I have gone through brakes, but I am in the mountains. By the way, the brakes are phenominal.

My one complaint about the car is that if I open the sunroof, then there is a annoying noise created until I also open a window. I hope they have corrected that little flaw. It is something which has been bothering me. A nice thing in my opinion, is that you will feel better about parking the car somewhere that you may have second thoughts about parking a Porsche. Most people don't realize what the car actually is.

Best of luck with your S4.

Reply to
R

In my car the noise is only heard within 3-4 MPH of 40 MPH. A hand on the wind deflector at the front of the sunroof also makes it go away.

Reply to
John F. Carr

Hey guys!

There is an easy fix for this which Audi designed into the system - once somone told me about it, from the bi-turbo yahoo group, I dont have the problem anymore.

There is a special sweet spot that you are supposed to open the sunroof to so that this weird sound doesnt happen. If you look at the switch you will see that there is a white line that goes around it, with a break in it. Turn the knob so that it lines up with the break in the outer white line. This opens the sunroof about 90%. The weird sound will NOT happen when the roof is in this position. This applies to A4's as well.

Try it! It works... I hope this all makes sense.. if it doesnt, just go look at the switch in your car, and you will see what I am talking about.

cheers,

Adam

Reply to
Adam Schwartz

On my B5, that's the next-to-fully-open position of the switch...

/daytripper '00 s4 6spd

Reply to
daytripper

Sounds a like BMW-feature, our 3-series does the same. Apparently they have same designer ;))

- Yak

Reply to
Michael Burman

Re: the Sunroof problem. Thanks, This works. I have never seen the little white guide line around the switch, before this. It's up, in there, and probably more visible from the passenger side. The sweet spot is marked and improves the noise problem.

Thanks for the help - I would bet, this was a design flaw for which they found this correction method. Not the neatest fix, but it works. The Audi salesman should describe this situation to buyers. Although there is so much to learn about the car, I guess that is one of those overlooked things.

Reply to
R

Well, the new S4 will definitely get you more ooomph. I think that the new naturally aspirated V8 will be more reliable in the long run than the bi-turboed V6 like I've got. The DVs, MAF and the TBB have been mentioned, but they go away in the new model. Of course, there's nothing to say that the 2004 S4 won't have it's own plumbing problems. It is doubtful though.

Go drive one...betcha you'll buy it... =)

Elroy

2000 S4
Reply to
elroy

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