Hi Sylvain If you speak German or you have a friend speaks French and Germany, there is nice powerful description for buying a car on the German Forum. Put the best is if you check the car with an old experienced guy “ The price normally does not include same very expensive repairs you will encounter after a while. Take care it’s expensive hobby. Cheers Ruedi
Where dose one start to describe what to look for when buying an Audi V8.
Mileage: Over 200 tkm is not a problem as long as the vehicle has been properly serviced and the previous owner has used the vehicle for long journeys.
Body work: The metal panel between bootlid and bumper tends to rust but that’s about it, the cars are fully galvanized.
Mechanics: If you are looking at a car then take it to a garage and put up on a ramp check for badly repaired accident damage... Audi V8 parts are very expensive and corners are cut when body repair shops carry out the work. Check for oil leaks. If any light coloured oils or red coloured oils are leaking this this could be a hydraulic leakage from either the steering or the gearbox both repairs are expensive. If there are any normal oil leaks then the question is how much... Most cars with high are very rarely dry and tend to sweat a bit but oil that is running and forming drips are a more serious problem resulting in some high costs.
Brakes: If the front brakes have been replaced then breathe a sight of relief because a single brake disc costs 177 Euros. If they have not been replaced and the car is worth the buy then this should be taken into consideration when haggling for a good price. Check the rear brakes. The discs should be perfectly shinny: Any signs of rust on the brake disc braking surface are a sure sign of a damaged calliper. Check the hand brake arms on the rear brake callipers. If they do not move and return when pushed then it is a good sign that they are damaged.
Electrics: When checking over the car makes sure that everything works even the dash lights and the dimmer (more expensive replacement parts). All windows and sunroof work and if the car has seats with memory setting that all the settings work.
Test drive: Take the car for a test drive at high and low speeds a good Audi V8 makes no noise at any speed other than the V8 engine sound. Check that the cruise control works and watch the temperature for normal driving conditions. On country roads at 20-25c the engine should work at normal 90 c and the engine oil at not mutch more. At high speeds the oil may rise but the engine should not run over hot max 100c check the oil pressure at working temperature? At idle speeds it should not drop below 2 bar and at full revs should happily reach 5 bars.
The only thing to watch for when buying and Audi V8 is that many people buy these cars not realising the running cost and many previous owners have only carried out the necessary checks and some none at all. Take your time when buying a V8 there are so many “dogs” on the road and you may have to travel the length and breathe off Europe to find a good one. It took seven different cars before I finally found a decent one.
Where do I live? In northern Germany, near Bielefeld. What do you mean with the service manuel? Do you mean the service repair manuel or do you mean the vehicle service history?
Both are not available from the Audi dealers for different reasons but if you require a service repair Manuel then I can copy you one. Mine is in DVD format and it is German. What’s the V8 like that you have found tell us more?
Yeh, my DVD is unfortunately in German. I bought it on the Ebay market in Germany. I don’t have an English speaking CD. The price for the CD at Bentley publishers is way overpriced considering that there isn’t even the wiring diagrams included. Not so long ago there was an American V8 specialist on the German forum who seemed to be quite clued up on the Audi V8. His email address is: jward@mti-interactive.com. Perhaps he can help you with the technical manuals.
