New Here; Audi 200 20vT

[NeverOEM]

Hey everyone, my name is Tim and I have recently come into ownership of a 1991 Audi 200 Quattro 20v Turbo. The car has under 180k, purchased from the original owner out of Oak Harbor, WA. I've been a Volkswagen and Audi enthusiast for quite some time, although almost all of my experience is dealing with the latter, VW derived Audis. I, myself, had a MkII 2008 Audi TT with the 3.2l VR6 for about seven years until an eighteen wheeler in Texas thought it was time for that to end. So, I figured I'd go buy something stylish for a new daily.

The car is in pretty much pristine shape, minus some damage to the front passenger fender. The car is Lago Blue Metallic, sedan, with grey interior. I'll get some pictures together soon, but I have been enjoying the car immensely for it's comfort and efficiency. I have a lot of ambitions to bring it up to where I want it; mostly in the chassis for now. I have been looking into how people set up the suspension, trying to decide if the cup kit offered by ECS is the route to go or going the extra mile to set up the coil over. I also wanted to do a slew of bushings while I was under there and was wondering if there was an option a bit firmer than stock. I feel I may find more than I expect and am looking into what options are for suspension components. Any parts swap from other chassis? Anything available to get more adjustment out of the suspension? Any help is appreciated, I'm excited to learn more about these old 5 cylinders and what the heritage looks like.

Cheers.

[ringbearer]

Welcome!

AK Motorsport and Hersch performance and good, check them out. I did diy coil overs and am happy with them.

[loxxrider]

Yay another member for the t44 mafia

Your car sounds like the brother/sister car to my avant. It's also Lago blue with platinum interior.

There are options for bushings from powerflex and hpr (as mentioned above) is starting to make some too. They can get the powerflex for you too.

As far as springs and dampers, I think it depends what you want. Coilover setups are pretty much as refined as you make them. You have to get a little creative when it comes to strut mounts and that sort of thing. I'm trying to get a solution produced, but it's pretty cost prohibitive. There are members here who can share their designs for cheaper solutions tough if you want try one of their routes.

If you just want it stiffened up a little, the cup kit may be just what you want.

[pilihp2]

woohoo t44 life!

I would probably recommend the cup kit for a daily driver.
Coil-overs are sweet but there really isn't enough out there for these cars to really properly do it. Camber/caster plates being the big thing.
I'll be doing a custom weld-in GC camber plate setup on my own in the future, but that's extremely involved in comparison.

welcome though. Glad to see other T44 peeps. And other peeps in general.

[NeverOEM]

Thanks for the welcome guys. I've been sort of looking through some of the coil over builds for some time. This was the first site I came to that seemed to offer actual information on anything useful the first time I looked into the subject a few months back. I think I will probably start with the cup kit for a simple solution for now. I can take things to the next stage later on as needed and I'm in no hurry. I just want it to be a touch less floaty; I often make the joke to my roommate that it's a sport sedan waiting to happen. I'll address the power once I have been underneath the car and assessed the state of things. It's been to one shop to replace a radiator after the neck gave on me when I picked it up, and I was assured it's been cared for. The swap to discs up front and the euro headlights definitely seemed to support that statement so I'm confident I've got a gem for another 70k at least haha. Thanks for being so open to sharing some knowledge with a scrub such as myself and I'll get some appropriate images up here soon. We've had snow lately so she's a bit dirty as of now.

[loxxrider]

We're always happy to help here because the information about these cars is so limited and spread out compared to other makes and models. We have to take care of each other!

My sedan has coilovers and my avant has a spring damper combo, probably similar to what you're looking at. The avant is my main commuting car for work (on an oil rig) and I think that suspension is great for my purposes. It rides nicely on the road, yet is compliant enough for the rough rig roads I go down or backwoods Ohio, PA, and WV roads with little or no pavement.

These things definitely feel much more like sport sedans after tweaking the suspension just a little. I love the "sport sedan waiting to happen" label

[ringbearer]

Rocket couch!

[themagellan]

I wrote a huge welcome post, then the computer restarted by itself. Go windows 10. Here's the TLDR notes:

Get HPR Transmission & Engine Mounts (Things will continue to break until you fix your mounts ie; your radiator coolant neck)
Change your Sway Bar Bushings (OEM)
Change your Subframe/Diff/Balljoints/TieRods/Wheel Bearings if you want to increase the road feel and stability. (Just shake your suspension, or have someone do this, it may not even be really worth it yet) any OEM parts work good for this.
Check your Boost Reference line to the ECU, they're always trashed
Get a Cupkit if it's a daily, [Koni Shocks] set the front softer than the rear and you will massively reduce understeer.
Rear Sway Bars are available from Apikol
Bigger Brakes will make the chassis 'Feel' more manageable (I still need BBK)
Get Euro Headlights, or break out the candles when you drive at night
These cars can fit wide tires, get some.
Check all your vacuum/boost hoses, then check them again. They're leaking (especially your block breather)
After you checked and fixed your vacuum/boost hoses, do it again you probably have a leak.
Get the right spark plugs - F5DPOR-5 just run these.
Check your Rotor, it's probably not the correct one and your motor will bend a rod if you enjoy floggin' it.
Buy new plug wires, you'll be happy you did.
Get a chip or VEMS if you haven't, these cars are sound asleep until you give it one.
Check the Knock Sensors, they'll probably turn to dust in your hands
your G28 and G4 sensors are probably soon to be worthless too, just inspect them they have a big job to do.

Buy the Robert Bentley Books (3 Book Set) and save your self endless hours

Read and consult this website when things go wrong: http://www.sjmautotechnik.com/trouble_s ... ouble.html

Consult theprojectpad.com when you've tried everything yourself


Launch it every day without concern, and give it a proper beating daily. They're really solid cars, and great value. Easy to work on, and loads of fun.

I hope you enjoy.

[loxxrider]

Really solid advice ^^^

Except maybe the launch every day part lol

[PW200-20VT]

I am glad someone who cares bought that car. I almost bought it just to tear is apart to put everything I wanted/needed into my 200 that I acquired from Olympia about a month before yours came onto the market. It just looked like it needed work (dirty, all OEM intake boots, ect) but I am glad to hear it hasn't been nightmare for you. I should have just pulled the trigger haha.

I would go about changing all the items that were mentioned. Look over my thread, as I am also a new 91 200 20vt owner.

Oil, fuel, and air filters obviously.

Knock sensors for sure. Mine literally, as mentioned, disintegrated upon removal.

All the coolant temp sensors and switches (MFTS, coolant sensor for gauge and ECU, Radiator temp switch, after run temp sensor). Make sure your fan is running properly and "jumper" your after run temp sensor connector to ensure it kicks the fan on as a quick test as well as jumper your radiator temp switch connector to ensure all speeds of the fan work/turn on properly. This is critical. If nothing

Obviously i would do the timing belt, thermostat, roller and honestly i would change out all of the oem rubber coolant hoses if they are still in there and get a new expansion tank as well. If you see green coolant in your expansion tank i would def flush the whole system at least.

As mentioned I would change the snub mount, engine mounts, trans mounts, and rear diff mount (apikol). This made a world of difference for me.

As mentioned I would also go over all of the vacuum lines. Find the green hard line that is located against the fire wall and start from there. The line that runs next to the intake plumbing down to the BPV sees a lot of heat and becomes fused closed.

I would buy 034 motorsports full silicone breather hose kit as well and just replace all of the oem breather hoses. They are probably ripped and mushy beyond belief.

Getting to the cap and rotor; save yourself some trouble and just replace the plug wires, spark plugs (get the exact ones mentioned above), rotor, cap, and the plastic distributor drive gear. I also did the hall sender sensor that is located in the distributor body just for peace of mind.

I would do the o2 sensor as well.

Look for oil leaks. If you are going to do the timing belt, just get the crank and cam seals done and the oil pump gasket while in there.


Good luck with the car and welcome.

[loxxrider]

Don't let this scare you away! These guys are mentioning a lot of things, and they are potential issues, but you should he able to chip away at this sort of thing while driving the car. They can survive with lots of problems and just keep going somehow

[88a5tq]

Wow thus is probably the best welcome thread ever! Sticky these lists lol. I can't really add anything except that you need concrete (paper) proof of when the timing belt was done. If it's over 5 years old but not anywhere near the 60k miles interval, CHANGE IT. Actually, I need confirmation on that 5 years part Anyone?

Just focus on the air and coolant lines, ignition rotor and plugs, and timing belt stuff first and foremost and then chip away at the other stuff on the above lists after that while you shamelessly beat on the car everyday. Welcome to the mafia.

When I first bought my 88 audi 5000, the timing belt snapped after 6 months of driving. Devastating to the valves! When I bought the 200 20vt, I drove it home and around for a week of less than 80 miles. Stopped driving at that point and did the timing belt components out of fear. It's can ruine this addiction before it starts

[loxxrider]

Wow thus is probably the best welcome thread ever! Sticky these lists lol. I can't really add anything except that you need concrete (paper) proof of when the timing belt was done. If it's over 5 years old but not anywhere near the 60k miles interval, CHANGE IT. Actually, I need confirmation on that 5 years part Anyone?

Just focus on the air and coolant lines, ignition rotor and plugs, and timing belt stuff first and foremost and then chip away at the other stuff on the above lists after that while you shamelessly beat on the car everyday. Welcome to the mafia.

When I first bought my 88 audi 5000, the timing belt snapped after 6 months of driving. Devastating to the valves! When I bought the 200 20vt, I drove it home and around for a week of less than 80 miles. Stopped driving at that point and did the timing belt components out of fear. It's can ruine this addiction before it starts

I totally agree on the sticky... I think it might be time for a t44 section!

I also agree on the 5 year interval on the t-belt. My avant came with one that had maybe 20k miles on it, but it was done 5 years ago, so I decided to have it done. It probably didn't truly need it, but it made/makes me feel better having a fresh one. I will not let it get to 5 years without hitting 60k more miles

[NeverOEM]

Hahaha thanks for all the sound advice guys, this welcome has been a great help. So far I've heard a lot of things I already had in my mind and more, so I know where to start. A few lucky notes; the previous owner was also an enthusiast and really knew the car. It already has the front brakes swapped and the euro head light housings; two things that really eliminated any concerns pulling the trigger with it. The timing belt and water pump were both done recently (under 20k, within three years), but I figured I'd do it myself whenever I jumped into the motor to freshen up. I'm definitely going to start from the suspension up as the motor is running healthy for now. New O2 sensor also when I bought it as well as fresh coolant when the rad neck went. I was entertaining the idea of solid subframe bushings since that's an option. Anyone run those? I can deal with a stiff ride so I am not too worried as long as it doesn't make it unbearable.

I'm really excited to be getting into the car, won't be scaring me away

[loxxrider]

It's definitely a good idea to do the subframe bushings because most of these cars have never had them replaced and at this age and mileage, they are definitely not in great shape.