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Hey guys, I'm here to document progress on our C4 A6 Avant dubbed AYeet. The original AYeet is long gone, sadly. It was a 1995 A6 Avant FWD that I had picked up for $500 in Chicago and used as a trail runner, all dressed up in Hella rally lights and a roof mounted light bar. This car was a blast and was pretty reliable as far as trips and driving was concerned. After a spring trail season bombing through ATV trails and being choked out with water about half a dozen times, the exhaust flange broke off at the exhaust manifolds and I decided it was time to sell it as there were no manifolds or exhaust pieces left out there. I ended up selling it and it was passed around until it eventually got abandoned in someone's back yard, got cut up and scrapped. I wish I would've known what happened as I would've bought it back and made a trailer out of it :bangshead: 🔨
So, while browsing around on Facebook Marketplace, I came across this twin to v1. It was a 1997 A6 Avant Quattro in the same Emerald Mica and Ecru interior but in MUCH better shape. Perfect interior, near perfect exterior paint and mechanically in great condition at a very reasonable price.
So we loaded up and hit the road to pick it up for a nice daily driver for my fiance. The deal was done after chatting for an hour or so with the owner about the stories the car has and how they came to purchase the car. The car had the typical leaky 2.8 v6, leaky exhaust, a mismatched front bumper, faded front right fender and some rear bumper damage. Pretty normal stuff of the C4 chassis. I had the front bumper and headlamp sprayers resprayed and reinstalled.
We ordered new brakes all around along with new CV's as the boots were tearing. Life was good with AYeet v2, until one night driving around town when the coolant warning light came on. I checked the level and it was fine, so I started digging on the forums for normal causes. Number 1 was a new coolant reservoir and sensor, nothing changed. We just continued to drive it thinking it was something with the circuit. Eventually steam started coming from the cowl, had the heater core just let go? The coolant leak was coming from the heater core outlet. So I ordered up a heater core and new hoses, the blower motor also had the typical squeak so I ordered a new blower as well. We tore it apart the next weekend and changed the core and the blower. I then bled out the cooling system, and air kept coming out of the bleeder on the crossover... and coming... and coming. After about 20 minutes of hissing, I knew something was up. At this point, everything pointed to the dreaded head gasket leak. I started collecting parts, Reinz head gasket set, Meyle head bolts, FCP assembled timing belt kit with the special sprocket holding tool, new Bosch water pump, new valley pan gasket.
We also narrowly avoided a massive headache. The headgaskets must've been replaced at some point already, being Reinz gaskets and updated head bolts installed.
We had the job done in 2 days worth of work, the exhaust manifold hardware being the worst part of it. All said and done, car running perfect. But wait, there's more. After idling for about 15 mins, the coolant light came back on... I noticed the radiator fans never kicking on. I slapped the scanner on and watched the temp rise up to 215* with no fan kicking in. The dip you see is from me turning the blower motor on and pulling out heat through the heater core.
On a whim, I replaced the coolant fan switch on the radiator and nothing changed. Then I decided to pull the radiator and flush it out, while taking it out, a hole got gouged in the core and a new radiator was ordered and on the way. While swapping everything over, i pulled the new coolant fan switch out to swap over and noticed the hole was plugged full of gunk. The bottom of the radiator was completely filled with gunk/mud looking stuff. So that was it then right? Actually yes this time it was. Since then, everything has been hunky dory.
I addressed the massive exhaust leak due to someone hacking apart the catalytic converters and emptying them. I chopped them out and replaced them with test pipes. This turned on the CEL due to no downstream O2's, this will be addressed later.
So, while browsing around on Facebook Marketplace, I came across this twin to v1. It was a 1997 A6 Avant Quattro in the same Emerald Mica and Ecru interior but in MUCH better shape. Perfect interior, near perfect exterior paint and mechanically in great condition at a very reasonable price.
So we loaded up and hit the road to pick it up for a nice daily driver for my fiance. The deal was done after chatting for an hour or so with the owner about the stories the car has and how they came to purchase the car. The car had the typical leaky 2.8 v6, leaky exhaust, a mismatched front bumper, faded front right fender and some rear bumper damage. Pretty normal stuff of the C4 chassis. I had the front bumper and headlamp sprayers resprayed and reinstalled.
We ordered new brakes all around along with new CV's as the boots were tearing. Life was good with AYeet v2, until one night driving around town when the coolant warning light came on. I checked the level and it was fine, so I started digging on the forums for normal causes. Number 1 was a new coolant reservoir and sensor, nothing changed. We just continued to drive it thinking it was something with the circuit. Eventually steam started coming from the cowl, had the heater core just let go? The coolant leak was coming from the heater core outlet. So I ordered up a heater core and new hoses, the blower motor also had the typical squeak so I ordered a new blower as well. We tore it apart the next weekend and changed the core and the blower. I then bled out the cooling system, and air kept coming out of the bleeder on the crossover... and coming... and coming. After about 20 minutes of hissing, I knew something was up. At this point, everything pointed to the dreaded head gasket leak. I started collecting parts, Reinz head gasket set, Meyle head bolts, FCP assembled timing belt kit with the special sprocket holding tool, new Bosch water pump, new valley pan gasket.
We also narrowly avoided a massive headache. The headgaskets must've been replaced at some point already, being Reinz gaskets and updated head bolts installed.
We had the job done in 2 days worth of work, the exhaust manifold hardware being the worst part of it. All said and done, car running perfect. But wait, there's more. After idling for about 15 mins, the coolant light came back on... I noticed the radiator fans never kicking on. I slapped the scanner on and watched the temp rise up to 215* with no fan kicking in. The dip you see is from me turning the blower motor on and pulling out heat through the heater core.
On a whim, I replaced the coolant fan switch on the radiator and nothing changed. Then I decided to pull the radiator and flush it out, while taking it out, a hole got gouged in the core and a new radiator was ordered and on the way. While swapping everything over, i pulled the new coolant fan switch out to swap over and noticed the hole was plugged full of gunk. The bottom of the radiator was completely filled with gunk/mud looking stuff. So that was it then right? Actually yes this time it was. Since then, everything has been hunky dory.
I addressed the massive exhaust leak due to someone hacking apart the catalytic converters and emptying them. I chopped them out and replaced them with test pipes. This turned on the CEL due to no downstream O2's, this will be addressed later.