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Four - Two

2024

Video: Four - Two

Video: Four - Two
Video: Melier Avenue - Four Two [SYBRS-08] 2024, March
Four - Two
Four - Two
Anonim

OPERATING EXPERIENCE

Disappointment

"FOUR" - TWO!

The editorial office received a letter from an engineer at a major auto fleet in St. Petersburg. 25 Audi A4 cars purchased in May 1995, he said, turned out to be real Trojan horses: breaking one after another. We checked - the facts were confirmed.

Arthur VASILIEV, Anatoly SUKHOV

German cars in Russia love. And when five years ago the leaders of one of the Petersburg banks decided to understaff their native institution with a herd of thoroughbred foreign cars, they almost without hesitation chose Audi A4. The car is small, but prestigious, and no one in the city has ever had this before - only six months on the assembly line. And so, 25 recruits were assigned to the Mercedes, Volvo, Zhiguli and Gazelles.

At first, cars delivered only pleasant sensations - a powerful engine, handling beyond praise, silence in the cabin. But a year passed, the warranty ended and, as if on command, malfunctions rained down.

In a conversation with us, the fleet engineer admitted that if he had only one such “four” from this party, he would have fired the driver without hesitation. Still, "shake" an expensive car! But the cars got up one after another, as if under the dashboard was not a mileage counter, but the mechanism of a hellish machine. Running parts began to order in bulk. The statistics did not deceive: unreliable nodes continued to break "just in time." The car of the "main" (VIN WAUZZZ8DZSA090316) had a difficult fate as a pioneer - its counter was spinning faster than others. 25 thousand km - a thud in the front suspension: stabilizer struts worn out. Instead of the usual rubber bands there are ball joints. What did the former design not please the engineers from Ingolstadt? Replacing the struts muffled the “bukh”, but already by 30 thousand km the “ball bearings” of the front suspension had “requested”: first the lower ones, and then the upper ones. I had to shell out a set of levers - separately the supports cannot be replaced.

Along the way, an unfortunate design feature also emerged: the brake discs are attached only with wheel bolts, so when replacing a wheel, the disc moves and dirt can get under it. Hence the skew and strong beating of the disk (there is no need to talk about the normal operation of the ABS).

After the suspension was rebuilt, characteristic sounds disappeared, but the car did not remain quiet for long - in the spring, with the transition to summer tires, the rumble of the rear wheel bearings, previously imperceptible to the noise of studded tires, was clearly heard. It turned out that the bearings are barely greased! The expensive car was monitored and regulated according to the regulations, but it didn’t occur to add grease from Novia - Audi nevertheless!

Further more. Another MOT (45 thousand km) is the replacement of loose steering rod ends. Having shaken the CV joints, they could not believe their eyes: with absolutely whole anthers, there is a huge backlash in both outer joints. We ordered new ones, but while waiting for delivery, on the 46th thousand run fuck-bang! - Right at the front door of the bank, the SHRUS figured out. They returned to the garage on a "tie." When tying the cable, we realized that it is impossible to cripple the front bumper when towing: a plastic jumper (holder for the bumper plug) is located just opposite the cable eye. A good tip for a picky buyer: if the plug falls out or rests on a self-tapping screw, then the car was dragged in tow. At the 64th thousand, the ball joints of the already replaced front suspension arms creaked plaintively, as if it were not products from the well-known TRW company, but a medieval arba. I had to "put them on the needle" - to inject grease under the anthers with a syringe. Despite the disappointing forecasts, these supports reached the next MOT (75 thousand km), after which they went to the scrap metal after the first. The bearings of the front hubs were ordered to live long for the same run: the right one rumbled, especially in the corners, the left one was silent, but fought so that the brake disc touched the caliper.

After repair and maintenance, it seemed that now you can enjoy the ride without running around the car in search of a source of knocks. But all the previous malfunctions seemed minor flaws in comparison with another surprise. In winter, on a deserted highway, the teeth of the camshaft drive belt were cut off. An expensive foreign car helplessly drove to the side of the road - that's it, we arrived. You’ll even have to spend the night by the fire - you won’t start the engine, you won’t heat the interior.

Audi recommends replacing the belt after 120 thousand km. Naturally, trusting the famous company, the mechanics were not worried - the car did not pass even 80 thousand! The failure was considered an accident, albeit an expensive one (a set of valves, cylinder head bolts, gaskets, oil seals). As it turned out, in vain. Soon, without running through 100 thousand km, almost simultaneously two more engines jammed. Timing belts on all the machines meticulously examined: breaking up the cord, gusts, traces of oil - no. Just in case, they decided to change them after 80 thousand kilometers.

There it was! Two more engines with just checked belts were ordered to live long. Five engines with one fault! Thousands of brands for repairs. Is it too much? The director issued an order: change belts every 60 thousand. Two years have passed since then - not a single cliff. Gentlemen from Audi, maybe in your service book just a typo?

Dismantling the engines for repair, we also revealed another unreliable unit - the belt tensioner is now mounted units. His roller, distorting on a spring-loaded axis, ruffled the belt along its edge. It turned out that the "process has begun" on almost all cars. I had to urgently change the tensioners, and at the same time damaged belts. Looking ahead, we note that Audi soon changed the design of this unit. Well, probably better late than never. But if the parts can still be replaced with new ones, then what to do with the body? Protective coating of thresholds and paint on the arches of the wings peel off to shreds - Moskvich patent? Galvanized metal, of course, rusts slowly, but this is not the reason to paint the body somehow.

On the 92nd thousand - the chassis repair again: replacing the tie rod ends that have emitted the spirit of the rear struts and - for the third time - the stabilizer struts. After unpacking the delivered parts, they were surprised: instead of the ill-fated ball joints in the stabilizer struts, they were ordinary silent blocks. Indeed, cars run with them to this day - no complaints. The hinge experiment failed, and Audi actually admitted it. But why did the “experimental rabbits” become owners? Really the Germans began to take an example from our car factories?

Electrical equipment delivered its share of the hassle. Weakly protected ABS sensors do not resist St. Petersburg salt for long. With the annual replacement, they have to be literally drilled from the nests. The throttle position sensor does not shine with reliability either: after 100 thousand km, idle speed floats. At the 109th thousandth on the “flagship” car, the fuel pump failed, the wiring of the sound signals turned off, and even they soon salted and became silent forever. The glass washer pump lived for only two years.

Sometimes the car simply refused to go on line - it did not recognize the coded key. Only after the third modification by the Audi company of the friend or foe system did it work reliably.

The Valeo headlights installed at the factory burst from snow and spray, just like the VAZ sixes. Moreover, on the machines where the Bosch lights were on, everything was fine. A few cars cracked the windshields. Although the machines are not equipped with air conditioning (a frequent cause of cracks is the cold air supplied to the glass heated by the sun), there were no chips. Marriage again?

“A4” from the first lots (including our little ones) obviously didn’t live up to the expectations of the leaders of the auto fleet, they found themselves with childhood diseases, which is called “raw”. The fact that many nodes have undergone refinement (stabilizer, tensioner, tie rod ends, electrical parts), only confirms this conclusion. And the consumer has to bring the car to mind - but for an additional fee. So, when buying a used A4 for a reasonable price, think about it: maybe the owner just doesn't have the money for expensive repairs?

From the editors. Interviewing 25 owners of the Audi A4, we got the following result: only three “lucky ones” for 100 thousand km did not know any breakdowns, and 18 people spent $ 150 to $ 2, 000 for repairs (mainly suspension and brakes).

This belt did not pass and 80 thousand.

Tensioner after modernization (a): instead of an axis - a sleeve; such a tensioner is dangerous for the belt (b).

Stabilizer post after retrofit (a); this rack did not last long (b).

RESOURCE OF SOME PARTS AND ASSEMBLIES

(average data for all vehicles in the fleet)

Detail (knot) Resource, thousand km

Front Wheel Bearings 80–100

Rear Wheel Bearings 40

Front suspension arms TRW 30–50

(ball bearings)

Levers of a forward suspension bracket "Lemforder" more than 50

(ball bearings) (no failure)

Stabilizer Stands Old Model 20–25

Stabilizer racks of a new sample more than 50

(no failures)

Front shock struts more than 100

Rear shock struts 100

Timing belt 80

Fan belt (skewed roller) 50

Lambda Sensor, converter 100

Fuel pump 120

Note. Very reliable (virtually no failures) gearbox, clutch, engine (except for the timing belt), steering, exhaust system, interior equipment.

COSTS FOR SPARE PARTS FOR 130 thousand km

(excluding maintenance and consumables

and cost of work)

Part Name * Price, US $

Front suspension arms, kit 1130

The same company TRW 600

Stabilizer Stands (3 sets) 198

External CV joint, 2 pcs. 700

Tie rod end, 2 pcs. 140

Front wheel bearings, 2 pcs. 150

Rear wheel bearings, 2 pcs. 110

Brake discs, kit 280

Monro rear rack, 2 pcs. 120

ABS sensor, 4 pcs. 172

Fuel pump 165

Washer pump 58

Intake valve, 12 pcs. 240

Exhaust valve, 8 pcs. 392

Belt Tensioner Pulley 60

Cylinder Head Bolts, 10 pcs. five

Cylinder Head Gasket 50

Total: 4, 570

The price of a new car is $ 30, 000.

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