Would you...?

[Bren]

Would you buy an exotic modern with a rebuilt engine?

 

Audi s4 quite local to me that has had a £4.5 k engine rebuild after one of the timing chains went on the fritz.

 

The car is not cheap by any means, I am mindful that modern engines are constructed to such tight tolerances that they cannot be replicated outside a production line - a case in point being the engine in the Honda S2000, experts say a secondhand engine is a better bet than a rebuilt one as rebuilt ones just don't last.

 

Opinions?

[forddeliveryboy]

I've always preferred good s/h engines. If nothing else, someone else has had the hassle of wearing the thing in for you.

[Doctormop]

No, to be honest I would not,

Who spends that kind of cash on a rebuild and then tries to sell the car on?

Someone who wants to cut their losses before something else goes wrong perhaps?

Sounds like a lost cause to me. But then again I am a mechanical ignoramus,

[fred]

Unless it was rebuilt by a firm who you could look up and see what they did - and had references as long as a bog roll and had proper certified status the yes I would, but if it was rebuilt by Kenny the car man No !

[Uncle Jimmy]

Feeling poorer just thinking about it.

[Junkman]

Why would anybody buy an Audi S4? There are cars out there. Lots of them.

Buy one of them instead.

Should I ever toy with the idea of buying an Audi S4, I'd go and see my doctor.

[purplebargeken]

Walk away from the Audi! Tons out there runing happily, buy one of those if you have the need. 

 

If someone had spent thousands rebuilding a Triumph Dolomite 1300 engine then yes, complex Audi....... non.

[cros]

I'd rather dangle my prunes in a blender.

[HMC]

Bit of homework needed basically. Does the price reflect the history of the car? If your otherwise keen, look at the paperwork- who did it? What was done? I'd just look on the Internet to see how well known they are/ respected- you may find a place with a good rep did it- or not as the case may be. There are still enough places in the uk with good engineering/ Motorsport background that its not inevitable that its been cobbled up in a muddy puddle.

[Bren]

Apparently it was done by a reputable Audi specialist who prepares race cars.

 

It was done at the end of 2013 and has done 4k since then.

 

I was told on a first aid course that when the human body is opened up the organs can go into shock and not recover.

 

It seems that when modern lumps are opened up they are often not as good as new after being rebuilt.

 

Car has 73k on the clock, two former owners and reams of history.

[Volksy]

I think the main consideration needs to be why it went pop in the first place. Probably neglect. Missed oil changes etc. 

A car is the whole sum of the parts, not just the engine, so you can more or less guarantee that other parts of the car have been neglected as well.

[Asimo]

No.

Not a good idea.

It won't make you happy.

 

Modern engines don't need rebuilding unless they have been abused. If that car has been abused, ever, you don't want it. Ever.

 

And they are horrible cars, however capable they might be.

[garethj]

A friend told me about someone who had one of these and got it airborne over a hump back bridge. He kept the throttle pinned, because knob, and when the wheels came down there was a mismatch in speed between engine input and gearbox resulting in a very broken engine.

 

An Audi dealer quoted £20k to change the engine. I don't think £4500 gets you much in terms of precision engineering and knowledgeable assembly these days. It's a quarter of that to change a flywheel.

 

Avoid.

[NorfolkNWeigh]

Only if it was cheaper than the supposed bill for the engine rebuild. You mention it's not cheap, so can't see any advantage over the many other V8 S4s available from about £4/4.5k.

As others have said for a modern under stressed V8 to need a rebuild at such low mileage smacks of neglect and or abuse, assuming of course that mileage is genuine and Ive seen too many cars that have had an annual haircut between services and MOTs, to believe anything.

[cort16]

I'm always suspicious of stuff like 'just had head gasket done ' as it sounds line they're trying to offload it but this was done a few years ago with a few k under it's belt . It's probably fine but if you've got question marks then why bother? Fond one with full audi history with the correct matching tyres and all that.

 

I know junk man finds it hard to accept any car built in the same time period as colour tv is a wrongun these are really good . That v8 is a peach and it doesn't even look too flashy or puffed out like the rs4. Buy a good one (preferably an estate ) and enjoy.

[Bren]

This one is an avant.

 

I think the timing chain issues are a result of "longlife" service regimes that are no good.

 

Car is over priced - add £4k to the cost of the rebuild and thats the asking price.

 

To be fair, the prices for these are all over the place.

[Taff]

I once rebuilt a crossflow in my kitchen, is that the sort of expert opinion you really want?

[fordperv]

^ Wow ive never done a crossflow in my kitchen but built a couple of pintos and a 1.6 cvh from an rs turbo, I'm glad it's not just me and to top it off the mrs didn't go spare, i think it's because the cvh turbo was hers

[Junkman]

  On 26/03/2015 at 09:22, Bren said:

Apparently it was done by a reputable Audi specialist who prepares race cars.

 

It was done at the end of 2013 and has done 4k since then.

 

I was told on a first aid course that when the human body is opened up the organs can go into shock and not recover.

 

It seems that when modern lumps are opened up they are often not as good as new after being rebuilt.

 

Car has 73k on the clock, two former owners and reams of history.

 

I prepared many race cars in my life and I can assure you it's - contrary to common belief - not done in a sophisticated manner.

But my primary question here is, what piece of miserable tosh must a car be to need an engine rebuild after 69k miles?

 

Furthermore, a collegue of mine bought one new on the company purchase plan and regretted it every day for three years.

His car also accumulated an extensive history file, which is chrystal clear proof for a car to be shit.

[Twiggy]

That`s the entire Autoshite  annual budget you`re considering spending in one go ! ! !

[danthecapriman]

As others have said. No!

If it's needed a new engine or a rebuild at such low mileage then it's been abused and/or not serviced properly. This would put me well off, but the other issue is that if the engine couldn't take the abuse then the rest of the car has had it too and that hasn't been replaced or rebuilt! It's possible the rebuilt engine will now be ok but the transmission, axles, suspension, brakes etc etc could be the next thing to fail.

[New POD]

  On 26/03/2015 at 15:06, fordperv said:

^ Wow ive never done a crossflow in my kitchen

 

 

RD350LC in my bedroom.  To be fair the tolerances on a 1982 2 stroke, would hardly worry any diyer.

[stripped fred]

It could be OK but it's a gamble so I would probably look for a more original example. That's the problem with newer, more costly and complex cars. If it does go wrong you will have to fix it which will be costly or sell it as spares or repair and that will be costly too as you'll get bugger all for it.

[eddyramrod]

Don't touch it.  Run away.  If you think you need to run faster, call me and I'll give you a lift at appropriate speeds.  Seriously, avoid.

 

Or am I being a bit too subtle here?

[fred]

  On 26/03/2015 at 15:14, Twiggy said:

That`s the entire Autoshite  annual budget you`re considering spending in one go ! ! !

Annual Budget! thats nigh on my entire car history budget for the last 20 years be bugger

[Bren]

I think the general consensus is that this is a bad buy.

 

You lot are about as subtle as a napalm strike.

[oman5]

Much like an old S class, I'd see this as the sort of car that's only really viable if you can buy it cheaply enough to not worry about throwing it away when something hugely expensive goes wrong

[Pillock]

Proper race engines are designed to be rebuilt quite often. A race engine builder doesn't think 100,000 miles ahead, they think to the end of the last lap.

[twosmoke300]

Was it Colin Chapman who said that a race car should blow up as it crossed the line?

[Bren]

As my mileage has reduced I wanted something a bit special now I am not spending so much money on fuel.

 

I dont want diesel because of the grief they give.

 

I thought about a 5 series BMW with a six cylinder petrol engine, however the V8 engine models seem to be better value and have little difference in economy.

 

I think a BMW may be a safer bet.