What to look for buying a B5 S4

[lancer]

Hey guys, noob to the B5 platform. Looking at buying a B5 S4. Coming from a B6 S4. What do you guys recommend looking at before I buy it?

It’s a 2000 with 92k original miles he says.
6 speed manual
Possibly a rare color combo, not sure
Santorin Blue with Blue alcantara interior

Any recommendations would be appreciated

Thank you

[m_haiser]

Timing belt, control arms, 1/2 synchro, the list goes on lol but they're amazingly fun cars

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[avant1987]

Smoke from the exhaust on start-up, de-acceleration, or at idle. Most likely that would be turbo related.

May it may not be a deal breaker for you but this car might set the record for total number of control arms and usually a few are always on the way out. So listen for suspension knocks and noises over bumps


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[MetalMan]

Get under the car, look for oil leaks, check out CV boot condition, and generally look to see if it's been abused.

My personal choice is a 2001.5+ B5 S4. Audi made a few updates that make the car a little better and easier to work on.

[thurr]

I've owned my S4 for 15 years and have done pretty much every upgrade and repair myself - rebuilt engine & tranny, most suspension upgrades, RS4 front bumper, stage 3, axels, drive shaft, headliner, heater core, hid headlights, audio system, many wiring repairs - the list goes on and on. I love my S4 and plan to keep it - it's my daily, but if I were buying one today I would either get a great deal one that is untouched/stock and plan to spend a good amount of time and money fixing things myself (because I enjoy doing the work and it's 20 years old) or spend more on a well-kept stage 3 from somebody who's been meticulous in keeping up with repairs and upgrades and has the records to show it.

If they haven't been addressed already, these are some of the things that will need attention soon: timing belt with associated items (water pump, valve cover gaskets, etc.), turbos (if they're stock you'll want to upgrade, if they're upgraded are they worn out?), all hoses (boost hoses leak, clamps wear out, coolant hoses leak), wiring (this engine generates a lot of heat, wires and connectors get brittle and cause maddening intermittent error codes - be prepared to replace or repair a lot of them), headliner sagging, heater core leaking (tubes from the core become brittle and break - major job to replace), suspension parts (control arms), axles and boots, wheel bearings and oil leaks (valve covers, oil cooler, turbo oil lines). This is a good place to start, but not a complete list - again, the car is old and any old car will need attention.

If you go with the well-cared for stage 3, you'll get a S4 with most, if not all, needs addressed and you'll only have to be concerned with keeping things up. You'll pay more for it, but you'll save a ton of money and time - there's no way I could come close to getting anywhere what I've spent on my car (my first stage 3 kit was from APR and cost about $10K 13 years ago, today they're much less). Even if you buy a stock S4 and do the work yourself, you'll still spend more fixing it up right and taking it stage 3 than if you buy a good existing stage 3. The best reason to do it yourself is that you like the work and can spread the upgrades out over time.

Anyway, my 2 cents. Good luck, it's a great car!

[VR6Bomber]

Hey guys, noob to the B5 platform. Looking at buying a B5 S4. Coming from a B6 S4. What do you guys recommend looking at before I buy it?

It’s a 2000 with 92k original miles he says.
6 speed manual
Possibly a rare color combo, not sure
Santorin Blue with Blue alcantara interior

Any recommendations would be appreciated

Thank you

There are less painful ways to spend your money.

and buy another reliable daily driver car is the best advice I can give.

[q20v]

and buy another reliable daily driver car is the best advice I can give.

100000%

I have two cheap winter beaters, B5A4 and B6A4 Avant, (actually need two because my brother helps drive my kids to school while I'm at work) and it's the best feeling in the world. I used to have to daily 100% the S4, including to bus park-n-rides 5 days/week. Nothing more nerve racking than that (okay, first world problems, I know). Never left me stranded and miraculously never got any door dings, though.

The guys have you covered on mechanical things to check, nothing I can add there. Take it for a drive and listen for anything out of the ordinary. Usually for me, I can look past certain mechanical things if the body is clean and rust free, as was the case with my S4 purchase. Not saying skip the mechanical check, it's good to know what you're getting into and it helps with negotiating the price!

Good luck and keep us posted.

[jballou]

To be honest with you guys.... if you buy a B5 S4, just expect to spend money on it. First thing to do is change the timing belt, water pump, etc. no matter what the previous owner(s) have said.
I always look for salt damage and any body damage....the rest is replaceable.
Don’t trust what most owners say, just go with your gut and not your heart. Mileage really doesn’t matter unless you are planning on flipping the car. I know cars with over 300k miles that are in far better condition than ones that has less then 100k. I remember years ago I helped a friend out and looked at one with “only” 19k miles on it. Car looked good in pictures, but inspecting it, it was the biggest pile of crap I have not ever seen, but came close. Don’t expect the car to be perfect, it never will be, don’t expect something for nothing, and automatically expect to shell out $2k right after you purchase the car. Better cars cost more period. Just cause one down the street has the same mileage and is $4k less, that is the game too many people play on these forums. But it can go the other way too, they could want too much for a junk car just because it has such and such products on it, but what about the rest of the car? Anyways, rant over.. it is a 20 year old car and the technology is even older than that.

[VR6Bomber]

As stated, i cannot stress enough the importance of changing the TBelt, no matter if the P/o said that he did it yesterday. Does matter, put a Gates on there day one.

[james 408]

Personally I'd recommend getting it on a lift, preferably with a tech older than 30, s4 specific. Have them shake it down, inspect things, blah blah.

If you're super familiar with the platform, you can probably tell what is or is not good just by driving it, and then check for obvious things. But the odds someone's selling a good condition s4 these days is pretty low, usually they're selling it cause they're afraid of something or know about something, or it's already a clunker in their eyes.

I'd definately add cam position adjusters to that list of things to watch, same job as a timing belt. watching boost guage, listening. serious leakage... sloppy clutch... sloppy brakes... Often cars that are beat on, if the person is reasonably well off or really cares for the car is going to be a much much better car than someone who hasn't "beat on it". It's the college owned project car or non-car guy commuters that tend to be total buckets, just neglected. Personally I would buy a raced car over a non-raced one most of the time, as odd as that sounds, but they would likely be asking more for it too, which should give you a hint. Rare color combo is a bit of a joke, don't pay a premium for a santorin sedan, it's not rare :) Rare for this car generally means less desireable, not some unicorn they couldn't get from the factory. the blue interior, for instance, is more rare, but not really worth more. Unless it's worth it to you, forget it. Pay a premium cause the guy sunk a bunch of money into it in the last 2 years. And has done that since he bought it.

[Silverex]

As stated, i cannot stress enough the importance of changing the TBelt, no matter if the P/o said that he did it yesterday. Does matter, put a Gates on there day one.

Why a gates belt? I never ran one since I’ve read multiple people complain that they squeak and why i went with continental

I've owned my S4 for 15 years and have done pretty much every upgrade and repair myself - rebuilt engine & tranny, most suspension upgrades, RS4 front bumper, stage 3, axels, drive shaft, headliner, heater core, hid headlights, audio system, many wiring repairs - the list goes on and on. I love my S4 and plan to keep it - it's my daily, but if I were buying one today I would either get a great deal one that is untouched/stock and plan to spend a good amount of time and money fixing things myself (because I enjoy doing the work and it's 20 years old) or spend more on a well-kept stage 3 from somebody who's been meticulous in keeping up with repairs and upgrades and has the records to show it.

Agreed 100%

I went with the buying a stg3 car with all maintenance done route, but unfortunately I didn’t know much about these cars at the time and took the PO word. After getting under it and doing research i ended up pulling the motor and built it, rebuild turbos, and resealed. If I knew what i knew now I wouldn’t have bought the car so definitely shake the car down, get her up on a lift, and have someone with knowledge of these cars look it over. Or buy a stock one and plan on dumping 3-5k in maintenance and more on any go fast parts

[SaulV]

I've owned my S4 for 15 years and have done pretty much every upgrade and repair myself - rebuilt engine & tranny, most suspension upgrades, RS4 front bumper, stage 3, axels, drive shaft, headliner, heater core, hid headlights, audio system, many wiring repairs - the list goes on and on. I love my S4 and plan to keep it - it's my daily, but if I were buying one today I would either get a great deal one that is untouched/stock and plan to spend a good amount of time and money fixing things myself (because I enjoy doing the work and it's 20 years old) or spend more on a well-kept stage 3 from somebody who's been meticulous in keeping up with repairs and upgrades and has the records to show it.

If they haven't been addressed already, these are some of the things that will need attention soon: timing belt with associated items (water pump, valve cover gaskets, etc.), turbos (if they're stock you'll want to upgrade, if they're upgraded are they worn out?), all hoses (boost hoses leak, clamps wear out, coolant hoses leak), wiring (this engine generates a lot of heat, wires and connectors get brittle and cause maddening intermittent error codes - be prepared to replace or repair a lot of them), headliner sagging, heater core leaking (tubes from the core become brittle and break - major job to replace), suspension parts (control arms), axles and boots, wheel bearings and oil leaks (valve covers, oil cooler, turbo oil lines). This is a good place to start, but not a complete list - again, the car is old and any old car will need attention.

If you go with the well-cared for stage 3, you'll get a S4 with most, if not all, needs addressed and you'll only have to be concerned with keeping things up. You'll pay more for it, but you'll save a ton of money and time - there's no way I could come close to getting anywhere what I've spent on my car (my first stage 3 kit was from APR and cost about $10K 13 years ago, today they're much less). Even if you buy a stock S4 and do the work yourself, you'll still spend more fixing it up right and taking it stage 3 than if you buy a good existing stage 3. The best reason to do it yourself is that you like the work and can spread the upgrades out over time.

Anyway, my 2 cents. Good luck, it's a great car!

Nailed it 👌🏾

[VR6Bomber]

I probably would not touch one that wasn't still stock or a very well documented build.
Nothing in between, these cars get hacked up.

[TheRussian]

If are looking for signs to back off a sale I'd say look for the usual stuff: rust, leaks (especially around the turbos), make sure it blows hot AND cold air, and make sure the power steering rack isn't leaking (that is a total bitch of a job). Other than that if it is a 6 speed then I'd be interested in the clutch and the condition, is a clutch from a reputable source or a "stage 2" ebay clutch... infact if it has any ebay parts on it and it's actually important for the car to work (i.e. turbo, clutch, flywheel, etc) screw walking away... run! it will blow up, and it will cost a lot more money then you ever wanted to pay. I wouldn't even really worry about control arms. yes the go out all the time, yes it is something to consider.. but I would use it to negotiate the price. The arms themselves aren't that expensive all things considered, and they aren't that hard to change out either.

Oh I should probably reiterate that you are going to spend like 2grand in PARTS right out the gate so don't be surprised when that happens. Timing service with all the rollers, seals, water pump (and thermostat while your there) should be done right away, might as well do a tune up...
infact anytime something happens and you need a shop to do a repair expect a 2k repair bill IF you can find someone you'd be willing to work on it. I've had shops flat out tell me they don't work on the B5 S4.

I've daily'd my S4 for something like 10yrs now (310K mi on the clock). Great car, but I didn't have the pockets to keep up with the maintenance for a long time. Its easy to forget its a 20yr old car and things are at/well past their service life, things are break and stop working all the time because it was never supposed to last this long in the first place. And replacement parts can be expensive, and depending where you are in life you may be choosing to eat ramen for the next two weeks because the brakes seized and cooked the CV shaft and the bearing from all the heat it created as you came to a very sudden stop on the freeway where you were going 90... and you need to be at work on Monday... (but did you die?)
It took me a while to catch up from all the neglect over the years from the previous owner and myself included (and there is a lot of cars like that out there so watch out). Not to mention all the sudden repairs that you need to do when something else happens to break during your test drive RIGHT AFTER YOU JUST FIXED A DIFFERENT PROBLEM.

I'm Finally able to maintain the car right now, but even still it hurts sometimes. I still do all my own repair work even though I can spend the 120-150/hr for a shop that actually knows what they're doing, because as anyone of these guys will tell you.... it matters (the trick is finding a shop that actually knows what they're doing!). I eventually bought another car so that I could fix the S4 on my own time and not have to rush and get it done over the weekend.

If I had to do do it again I would probably look for a decent stage 3 with a good interior. I've spent a lot of money in the pursuit of gains and it never really stops. Getting something with good upgraded turbos alone would go really far.

Not sure if that was helpful or not lol. But I thought I'd share my thoughts on owning a B5 S4. Purchasing a car is easy... living with her and keeping her happy.. now thats where it gets interesting.

[avant1987]

If are looking for signs to back off a sale I'd say look for the usual stuff...

This man and his entire post was spot on. Wise man giving invaluable advice. I am now on my second s4 and everything he said couldn’t be more correct based on my personal experience.


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