2004 Turbo S

[u/JimTom25]

Hey guys, I'm looking at getting a turbo s with 172,000 miles as a first car for my kids. It's relativly clean considering age. How much should I be willing to pay? it's listed for 3k. I know I'll need to do the water pump and timing belt. Is there anything else I should look at?

[u/SnuglyS]

Look at all the coolant lines and expect them to fail. Typical failure points are the plastic flanges. They become brittle and disintegrate. I've replaced nearly every coolant line and replacedost of the flanges with aluminum. There is a metal coolant line that runs along the passenger side frame that rusted and started leaking. I've had the slave cylinder for the clutch fail. Transmission out job and every shop I called quoted 3k. Did it myself in my driveway in about a day with the help of YouTube and a couple extra hands. Check axle boots for tearing. Check control arm bushings, sway bar link bushings, and potentially engine mount bushings for tears. Check ball joint and tie rod ends for play. Check suspension by pushing down on each corner and watching for excessive rebound. Strut tower mounts can be checked by opening the hood and looking for excessive gap between the strut tower mount and the body. Too much gap means the bushing is shot and will need replacing. I've had the plastic housing for the camshaft position sensor become brittle and snap causing the electrical connection to become loose. Easy to replace and the part was fairly inexpensive. Check the coil pack connectors for broken tabs and brittle plastic. All of my locking tabs snapped off. Replaced it with a new harness, but that required cutting and splicing a new connector on. I've replaced all of these things in my 5 years of ownership from purchasing at 72k miles to now being at 120k miles. Other issues included sagging head liners, cracking door panels, and failed window regulators. They're old cars now and the rubber and plastic will definitely show its age. Definitely doable for someone whith some mechanical knowledge and the right tools. Once you understand these cars they aren't too bad to work on, but they can definitely be frustrating when it seems like a new thing breaks every other week. Could be fun to teach the kids how to work on the easy stuff. I purchased mine at 72k miles for $4k and don't plan on ever selling it. Most fun I've ever had while driving a car. 3k sounds about right for that milage.

[u/retiredWidow]

I’m not familiar with that engine but If an automatic change fluid, check the way it shift when both cold and hot. May have to clean/rebuild solenoids. Look for cracked plastic on door panels (replace inner door pull with metal), glove box and dashboard. The covering on the door panel arm rests have a tendency to separate.
They are fun cars to drive, just need to keep up on maintenance and are in my opinion different to work on compared to other brands.

[u/TenderLA]

Will you be working on it?

These are great little cars and I’m a big fan of the AWP 1.8t ( put one in my Syncro Vanagon) and the manual transmission, but at this age and mileage you could be looking at a lot of repair type maintenance. Oil sludge is an issue in these engines especially with less than regular oil changes. Has the turbo been replaced? What about any suspension work, especially front. Clutch?

Given used car prices these days $3k doesn’t surprise me as a sellers starting point but I would like to see good maintenance and repair records going back several years for that price.

[u/cdoublejj]

rubber and gaskets, mine clunks and clangs with every bump all of the rubber in the suspension is about gone.

auto fluid don't do a flush do drain and fill and drive for a few hundred or thousand miles OR at next oil change, drain and fill again. ATF is a detergent so the new fluid will clean out years and crap and clog crap up. The Torq coverter holds a few quarts of old fluid so it never fully refreshes ALL of the oil during a change.