1993 80 2.6 - Issues?

[Alan67]

Hi everybody.

Just joined the forum, and looking for your views on a couple of potential issues with a car that I am looking to buy in 2 days time.

As mentioned, it's a '93 80 2.6E Saloon. Very tidy throughout and being sold by a dealer who says it has 2 owners from new, who were known to each other. Car has 91,500mls but has been unused for just over a year.

When I went to see the car last weekend, with wife in tow, there were 2 glaring issues. The dealer has since informed me that these issues have been resolved, but I am looking for advice from anyone on here before I buy the car as to the possibility of whether these faults could have been 'masked' rather than being genuinely 'fixed'.

1st thing was the red oil can warning light on the dash. It comes on as soon as revs are applied, and will remain on until engine is switched off. Upon restart, it is unlit until revs are again applied. Dealer said that an electrical plug was disconnected.

2nd issue was a very obvious roughness/vibration to the engine, which could be clearly felt through the seat at anything above 1800rpm. All smooth again when revs returned to less than 1800rpm. The engine revs would plummet to the point of nearly stalling when this vibration was being felt. It also proved extremely difficult to keep the revs up and level, as it always wanted to return to a near stall condition. Dealer said that a split hose somewhere near the bottom of the engine was causing this. They replaced hose with a scrap piece they had laying around, and problem was 'solved'.

Dealer put the car through an MOT the day after I viewed it, and according to them, the only advisory was 'slight play at front nearside ball joint'.

Feedback sought and welcomed. Car is very tidy, but don't know how much trust I want to put in a 'Dealer' about the oil light and engine vibration.

Alan

[Mellis46]

So now its mot'd and running right he should have no issue showing it you again and letting you have a proper test drive which you couldn't do before

If, after that, you have any doubt its not been fixed properly, the mot is dodgy, or you just plain don't trust the seller, walk away...?

[Alan67]

Originally Posted by Mellis46

So now its mot'd and running right he should have no issue showing it you again and letting you have a proper test drive which you couldn't do before

If, after that, you have any doubt its not been fixed properly, the mot is dodgy, or you just plain don't trust the seller, walk away...?

Hi.

Thanks for your reply.

We are going back to view it again on Saturday. It's only around 50 miles away. One thing I'm not happy with is that he says that he has to drive due to his insurance cover. Perhaps that's changed now that it's MOT'd... we'll see. Just hearing alarm bells with that setup tbh. If he's adamant that he's driving though, I'll be asking him to get his hand off the gear lever between changes, brake test with hands off wheel, steering lock to lock, look for clutch slip etc etc.

If I do bring the car home, it will be getting MOT'd again at my local garage for peace of mind.

If the car wasn't in the condition it appears to be in, I reckon I'd have walked by now. But it is VERY tidy, especially looking past all the shiny bits!

Never had an Audi before, so I'm just feeling a bit 'exposed' I guess.

[sinbin5t]

Think i would want to do the test drive rather than him !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If he is a proper dealer there should be no problem with him letting you drive, don't like the sound of a bit of SCRAP pipe solving an issue either

Hope all goes well and the car is fine though !

[mikes2]

disconnecting a sensor isn't fixing anything. It's masking a fault which may or may not be electrical. It could be genuinely low oil pressure

It's possibly one of the oil pressure sensors. Not sure what they're rated at on the V6 but there's 2. One for low pressure and the other for high.

1900rpm is the trigger rpm on the 5 cylinder cars for the high pressure switch. I'd expect the V6 to be similar

[Alan67]

Originally Posted by mikes2

disconnecting a sensor isn't fixing anything. It's masking a fault which may or may not be electrical. It could be genuinely low oil pressure

Thanks for stepping in Mike
I might not have explained myself clearly enough.
What the seller told me the day after I viewed the car was that his mechanic investigated why the oil light was coming on. He found an electrical plug was disconnected (presumably an oil pressure sensor or switch?). Once he plugged it back in, the oil light worked as it should i.e going out and staying out after start up.

Originally Posted by mikes2

...1900rpm is the trigger rpm on the 5 cylinder cars for the high pressure switch. I'd expect the V6 to be similar

So, if this switch was disconnected, would that make the light come on at 1900rpm? If so, then I'm assuming that by plugging the electrical connector back onto this switch, this would correct the warning light issue. Yes?

[Alan67]

Originally Posted by sinbin5t

Think i would want to do the test drive rather than him !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If he is a proper dealer there should be no problem with him letting you drive, don't like the sound of a bit of SCRAP pipe solving an issue either

Hope all goes well and the car is fine though !

I am completely with you on all of this, but he seems to have dug his heels in on a few things, which I'm not very happy about tbh, but if I want the car (and I really do), then I might have to just let him do his thing if that's what keeps him happy, and use my best judgement about the condition of the actual car.

Bottom line is...I'm not buying him...just his car. Thankfully!

[mikes2]

Ah ok. That makes sense.

Sounds like the low pressure switch was disconnected. It's 0.3 bar which is basically no oil pressure

For the high pressure warning, when connected, the light would come on at 1900rpm if the oil pressure is too low (usually below 1.8 bar).

If the wire hanging loose was touching the engine, it would be grounding the signal

[Duffy3074]

I’d be getting a mechanical oil pressure gauge and checking all was well there first. An easy/cheap test.
The fact that there’s a low oil pressure warning showing combined with an obvious mechanical rumble would make me want to make sure all is well.

[John.]

Is it K816 in green by chance?