A3 8P Repair or run till it stops?

[MrGo]

Hi all, I have just gotten myself a second-hand 2008 A3 8P 1.9TDI with the dreaded BXE engine and was wondering if it was worth it to repair it to tip top condition. I bought it off someone for £1000, which I thought was a good deal since other examples went for about £3000 and autotrader quoted me £2000 for it. It has 186,000 miles on it right now and I did a full servicing on it myself. So far, the car has no major mechanical or electronic problems that I can tell, except for a minor oil leak which I think might be from the rocker head gasket. I am not sure if the head gasket might be leaking oil too, though, as I vaguely remember seeing some oil marks near there. I haven't had the time yet to check on it yet, and because of how rare it it for head gaskets to leak oil externally, combined with no oil and water mixing in the block, and no power loss, I feel like it might be unlikely. The oil leak, however, is nothing major as there is no visible dripping and no oil on the lot despite being parked up for more than a week.
It also require suspension bearings to be replaced along with the drop links. The underbody is quite clean with only surface corrosion and no structural issues. I have already spent £350 on it so far with a new set of tyres and a new battery

I am considering if I should invest about £1000 in it more in repairing the suspension bearings and doing some preventive maintenance on it. What I have noted down so far is to replace the timing belt along with the water pump as I do not have a full service history for the car. I am also thinking of getting the main and big end bearings changed to sputter coated ones to prevent the conrod failures along with doing up the clutch at the same time since the engine will be out for it. I have been quoted £500 for the sputter bearing change and labour but I can't imagine adding on the timing belt, water pump and the clutch would be more than £200 extra. The clutch and timing belt is still fine so far but I was thinking that if the engine was going to be out, it might be worthwhile to get them done together to save on labour costs.

I must admit that I have not worked much on cars, only doing my own servicing. I have however, bought up some tools and am willing to work on the car for easier components to keep costs down, such as ones that only require me to undo bolts to replace parts. I also have VCDS with me so I can do my own diagnosis for the most part. I guess my main concern is if I should invest the money into repairing the car entirely or if I should just do the bare minimum (suspension bearings and topping up the oil every now and then) and run it till it stops. I am looking for a car that is quite reliable and will not throw up any issues daily, which I have heard the 1.9TDI is quite renown for (except the BXE). I haven't heard of anything else that could go wrong with the car I have except for the conrod. I might have to change the brake discs in the near future along with the front springs as they are rusty but not broken yet. (Brake pads are fitted new by previous owner hence not changing them now) It doesn't have a DPF and I do not live near any ULEZ zones which is why I chose the model I got. My budget would definitely be around spending £1500 max on it this year before I consider just running it till it stops, or if I could delay some of the servicing for 3/4 years down the road, it would be much more palatable for me.

In short,
I have a 2008 A3 8P 1.9 TDI (BXE) with 186,000miles. No Service history except the one I just did. Wondering if it is economical to do preventive maintenance on it or to just run it and wait for issues to develop.

Faults:

• Worn suspension bearings
• Worn drop links

Preventive maintenance measures I am considering:

• Minor oil leak (rocker head gasket, maybe head gasket?)
• Change conrod main and big end bearings to sputter coated ones
• Timing belt and water pump
• Clutch
• Brake discs + pads
• Front springs

Thanks!

[cliffcoggin]

Be aware that timing belt failure, which will happen without any warning, will destroy the engine. Can you afford for that to happen?

You have no choice but to repair the suspension and steering parts as they are MOT failures.

The other repairs are optional at the moment.

[MrGo]

Thanks, I'm just wondering if it will make sense to spend about £1000 on a car that is worth £2000 as I'm not sure how much longer it can last. I have a couple months left till the MOT so not much hurry there. Have found that it is the drop links bearings which have gone so not much hurry in fixing those as well.

[cliffcoggin]

You need to consider what is essential and what is merely desirable. For example why are you considering changing the main and big end bearings? Do you have evidence of wear?

[Steve Q]

Im always on the side of preventive maintenance but then again I'm sentimentally attacked to my A6 c5. 

All items you've mentioned are wear and tear items. The 1.9 is quite a strong engine if well looked after. 

[MrGo]

On 3/10/2023 at 9:19 PM, cliffcoggin said:

You need to consider what is essential and what is merely desirable. For example why are you considering changing the main and big end bearings? Do you have evidence of wear?

Thanks @cliffcoggin, I was considering the big end and main bearings as preventive as I have heard of the BXE engines throwing their conrod out due to fragile OEM bearings. As the car is reaching 200k miles soon, I was concerned that it might start to be an issue soon.

I had a peek at the timing belt yesterday and it seems to be pretty new, possibly changed by the previous owner before I got it on? Admittedly, I couldn't see the entire belt but the 2 sections I could see from the upper timing belt cover did not have any cracks and were not glazed. Think I can run for about a year on it as I don't really put much miles on and then consider doing a big servicing.

I'm going to be sorting out the suspension and oil leak for now, and wait till anything else breaks. Just hoping the bearings will last till my next servicing as I just did an oil change a month ago. Don't fancy throwing it away.

[MrGo]

On 3/11/2023 at 8:18 AM, Steve Q said:

Im always on the side of preventive maintenance but then again I'm sentimentally attacked to my A6 c5. 

All items you've mentioned are wear and tear items. The 1.9 is quite a strong engine if well looked after. 

thanks @Steve Q, that's exactly how I am starting to feel as well. The car was in a bad shape inside when I got it and I spent quite a long while cleaning it up. As it is the first decent car I could afford, I have grown quite attached to it in the short time I've had it for.

I am going to try and get to the bottom of the oil leak to see if it is anything major that would make me consider the car to be a loss. After that, I'll start to invest in building the car up to a decent standard again. Hoping that I don't make the wrong choice and end up in a spiral of replacing part after part after.

[Steve Q]

10 hours ago, MrGo said:

thanks @Steve Q, that's exactly how I am starting to feel as well. The car was in a bad shape inside when I got it and I spent quite a long while cleaning it up. As it is the first decent car I could afford, I have grown quite attached to it in the short time I've had it for.

I am going to try and get to the bottom of the oil leak to see if it is anything major that would make me consider the car to be a loss. After that, I'll start to invest in building the car up to a decent standard again. Hoping that I don't make the wrong choice and end up in a spiral of replacing part after part after.

As I tell anyone who buys an old Audi. Regardless of how cheap the car becomes the bills always remain expensive.