Hey,
Not sure if this is the right place for this or not, but I'm currently looking at a 88 S4 Turbo II convertible, and it has a few problems, wondering what your thoughts are on it.

The wiper switch isn't working for whatever reason so has been replaced with a dodgy missile switch, not too concerned about that, turbo timer has been added which is nice. Lil bit of cracking on the centre console but overall interior not too bad, no rust I can see.

The ragtop has a split on the righthand side just behind the door, righthand side does have some plastic stripping missing and a couple of dents, not too bad but wondering how it will fair up in RWC (Roadworthy Certificate) conditions.

It is automatic, which is about the only MAJOR thing wrong with the car from what I can see :P it's a completely stock 13B and I must say after taking it for a test drive and punishing it and watching for smoke and everything after revving and letting go straight away etc. the engine seems to be in FANTASTIC condition, sitting on about 110,000 k's (not sure what that is in miles atm) it's been serviced every 5,000 (3,000 miles) and is currently about 500km's from needing a service but the oil was clear as anything. I took this as a good sign. Owner says it doesn't burn an overly huge amount of oil and I would believe her, good thing about females, they do look after cars mechanically :P

Oh, the one thing that did strike me as odd: It's done over 100,000 km's, about 80,000 miles IIRC, and hasn't had a rebuild but seems to be running extremely well, I'm hoping not to have to rebuild for a while if I do buy it.

The owner and her partner were a bit suss and really didn't like answering questions about where the dents and stuff had come from etc. So I didn't like that. They also asked me how good my job is for money, which also struck me a bit wierd.

Just wondering if you guys think it's worth going after for about $7,000au (once again, not sure how that stacks up to US$). Got a mechanic going to look at it in a couplea days, but I can always use an extra opinion.

I can always N-drop the tranny til it dies and convert to manual later :P

-Sean

 

ahh one of the mythical automatic turbo II's. we don't have those in the states. I looked it up, that's $5654 in US dollars. I wonder how strong that tranny is.

Have the mechanic do a compression test. Do a search about it on here... there should be 3 compression #s for each rotor.

Read the FAQ and the archives. The center console thing is very common on any 88, they are made of crappy plastic. People swap in the rubber one from an 89+ . The wiper switch is mentioned in the FAQ.

 

I thought the S5 one didn't fit right in the S4...

 

From personal experience, I must say they don't. well, at least not perfectly. You can have it on there, but it won't sit perfectly.

 

Yes and no. The assembly that the bulb to light the ashtray goes into is different between the two as are the holes in the dash framework that the assembly fits through- but if you don't give a flip about the light you can just unscrew the small plastic piece and it fits in perfectly otherwise. That light holder was all that I noticed being different when I switched them.

 

they have different vents at the top too

 

This is true- you need the vents from the same series, they're not interchangeable.