Looking to buy a 1.8T ph1 or ph2??

[alfaexowner!]

Hi guys, after a disastrously unreliable ownership of an alfa romeo 156!! (obviously):Blush2: I'm looking for something a bit more reliable, and have settled on an A3 1.8T... I prefer the look of the 2001 facelift model (interior and exterior) and have around £2000 to spend.

I have seen a few examples on auto trader, one of which i'm hoping to view this week is a 2000 plate facelift model for £2200 (i'm assuming late 2000) with 110k and FSH. Just wanted a few opinions on if i should be looking more at a phase 1 for this kind of money and what to look out for other than the usual checks.

Is it ok to post up a link to the cars i'm considering?

Cheers
Joe

[NickPicks]

Apart from the usual checks, the model specific things I can think of are:

Front anti roll bar bushes tend to wear. They're about £5 to buy, plus about £20 for the brackets, and can be replaced without removing the ARB, but it's recommended to replace the ARB as it tends to corrode which wears out the new bushes quickly. This means dropping the subframe - not particularly difficult, but time consuming.

The centre exhaust support tends to break - can usually be welded back on.

Rear axle beam bushes prone to wear (no more than any other vag car with the same design, but at 10 years old, they're likely to need doing soon) - Expect a couple of hours labour plus £30 parts.

Check everything electrical.

Check the temperature needle is steady at 90 degrees. The thermostat isn't too difficult to replace on this engine.

If you have access to a laptop with vag-com installed, run a fault code scan to see if there's anything ominous stored. You can do this with the shareware version, so all you'd need is an ODB cable (about £20 from gendan). It's easier with the registered version, which costs $99 to register.

I think that's about it.

It's OK to post links to cars you're considering.

[alfaexowner!]

Hi Nick, Thanks for the reply. I wont have time to order a cable for vagcom, but will definitely order one for future use as I plan to view these two cars tomorrow:

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201103377437921/sort/priceasc/usedcars/model/a3/make/audi/page/18/radius/1500/postcode/cf243fn/quicksearch/true?logcode=p

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201103377474335/sort/priceasc/usedcars/model/a3/make/audi/radius/1500/quicksearch/true/page/13/postcode/cf243fn?logcode=p

Im more inclined to buy the silver a3, my gut feeling is that this has been better looked after (not sure why), however, although it does have full service history, according to the owner it is not all audi/specialist history. Is this something i should worry about? i understand it is very important to use the correct oil and would assume an audi dealership would scan the ecu for faults at a service??

Once again thanks for the advice
Joe