S5 4.2 V8 - High-ish miles info

[Rich M]

Hi All

Hoping you can help me here.

I recently had to chop in my V6 S4 Avant for a new Q7 with now having 3 kids, which the wife now drives. This means I have adopted her mega powerful 1.4 SEAT Leon FR 5F and so having owned high performance cars for the past 10+ years I am struggling with restaining myself from chopping it in for something around the same price as the Leon.

I have been wanting a V8 for ages and always liked the S5 4.2 tiptronic but the examples I have been looking at are at around 80-100k miles. To be honest this doesnt bother me one bit and budget would include anything for comsumables that could need repalcing but are there any big issues I should be aware of before purchasing?

After some research, only one I can come up with is the good old carbon buildup with it being an FSI engine but other than that, mechnically they seem pretty solid.

Thanks

 

[DrEskimo]

Gearbox seems to be a biggy. I know of a few examples, both manual and auto, that have had really bad failures of the gearbox...

 

[Rich M]

Gearbox seems to be a biggy. I know of a few examples, both manual and auto, that have had really bad failures of the gearbox...

Hi

I have seen the odd ones about manual trans, more so than the auto trans. There was one on youtube of a auto trans issue in which Audi couldn't diagnose for him by the looks but thats all i could find

 

[DrEskimo]

There were a few instances over on A5OC. On the manual, the tell tale sign was the stop/start not engaging when the clutch was fully depressed.

By all accounts, it was a long and costly diagnosis/fix. There were enough threads to make me think it was something to look out for at the very least.

 

[Rich M]

Thanks for your response

I read somewhere that Audi class the auto trans on these with lifetime fluids and therefore only service it on request although not sure how true that is.

Hopefully I can find an example with good service history and would probably take it to MRC for a full health check

 

[DrEskimo]

Thanks for your response

I read somewhere that Audi class the auto trans on these with lifetime fluids and therefore only service it on request although not sure how true that is.

Hopefully I can find an example with good service history and would probably take it to MRC for a full health check

Yup, spot on. Tiptronic is classified as a sealed unit, and therefore Audi don't stipulate an oil and filter change every 40k. Most owners will disagree...!

As a result though, it aint cheap to get it done....