A2 1.6 FSI Sport purchased for my dad

[Alexf]

Hi everyone

I picked up this 86k mile Crystal blue 1.6 FSI a couple of weeks ago for my dad to replace his ageing Ford Ka. I work for Audi so was very keen to get him in a car wearing the Four Rings!

First impressions are so far so good. I’d never driven an A2 before so didn’t know what to expect, but it’s brilliant fun to drive and performance feels quite impressive, especially at the top end.

We paid just under £1k for it which I think was fair. It came with a year’s MOT, two keys and full service history. Cambelt was done 10,000 miles ago too.

Cosmetically, it needs work. Lots of work! It looks very shabby as you can see from the photos.

The car was pretty grubby inside and out too. It’s missing some trim (seat height adjuster plastic casing, a rear mud flap, floor mats) and both rear light clusters were cracked (new items purchased). It also needs a decent service. We now have all the genuine parts so that will be done as a priority.

But what it needs desperately is a wheel refurb. Not only do they look awful in black, but the job is terrible. I think it was done with rattle cans as the paint blows when pressure washed. Again, they’ll be done soon when we can find a quote under £300...! One of the centre caps was missing, so has been replaced with a genuine part and the others I’ve stripped with thinners.

Other than that, I’m getting quite attached to it! I’ll start a separate thread to chart its progress and hopefully in the next few weeks it will have a new lease of life.

Already it’s proved its worth as a decent tip car. And that’s before we found out the back seats can be removed completely

Thanks for looking.

Alex

 

[Vorsprung durch Technik]

Welcome aboard, your comments on how you feel about your FSI are very encouraging especially when you have all that exotic stuff at work to drive. I'll be looking forward to your thread with interest being an fsi owner myself. Congrats on your purchase!

 

[Andrew]

Welcome, I think buying your own A2 is on the cards!

A few points.

You have done well, a good buy at that price and mileage with FSH, okay cosmetically needs smartening up but it is 15 years old to some extent to be expected.

Are you aware that for a £2 upgrade fee will give you access to the clubs Marketplace where many parts can be bought at quite reasonable prices? I winced when I read you had bought new tail lights!, but maybe the staff discount is generous.

Why not keep this as your project thread.

Probably too far for you but there is a wheel refurbishment place in Birmingham that is very cheap, as low as £80 for four wheels. Information here

There is an amazing amount of helpful A2 information on here if you can find it. The forum Search is poor, it ignores 3 letter words, such as ABS, PAS, PDC, ECU etc. not helpful on a car forum. You often have more joy with a Google search 'a2oc "your interest"'.

Any questions just ask however simple.

Andy[/POST]

 

[Alexf]

Welcome aboard, your comments on how you feel about your FSI are very encouraging especially when you have all that exotic stuff at work to drive. I'll be looking forward to your thread with interest being an fsi owner myself. Congrats on your purchase!

Thank you!

Slowly starting to get everything together to make it a nice example now, which is quite exciting

 

[Alexf]

Welcome, I think buying your own A2 is on the cards!

A few points.

You have done well, a good buy at that price and mileage with FSH, okay cosmetically needs smartening up but it is 15 years old to some extent to be expected.

Are you aware that for a £2 upgrade fee will give you access to the clubs Marketplace where many parts can be bought at quite reasonable prices? I winced when I read you had bought new tail lights!, but maybe the staff discount is generous.

Why not keep this as your project thread.

Probably too far for you but there is a wheel refurbishment place in Birmingham that is very cheap, as low as £80 for four wheels. Information here

There is an amazing amount of helpful A2 information on here if you can find it. The forum Search is poor, it ignores 3 letter words, such as ABS, PAS, PDC, ECU etc. not helpful on a car forum. You often have more joy with a Google search 'a2oc "your interest"'.

Any questions just ask however simple.

Andy[/POST]

Thank you Andy. That’s much more like it re pricing for the wheels.

Yes, I signed up to the Marketplace straight away. Looks very useful indeed.

You’re right, I do get a healthy discount which is one of the reasons I think my dad went for a Group car. The lights were secondhand from eBay, so pretty cheap and luckily VGC.

And yes, I’ve already found the site very useful for wiper arm info and also bulb changes (and confirming that it doesn’t need a washer fluid cap - almost bought one on eBay before checking!).

 

[Alexf]

Managed to pick up this headlight restoration kit by chance in Aldi earlier, so will give it a whirl tomorrow. Should make a difference to its cataracts!

Also, I’m guessing these stickers are just to act as a deterrent? I can’t see it having a tracker, especially as it has a fairly tame options list.

 

[Dave M]

Surprisingly quite a few of our A2,s do have trackers fitted...usually next to or near to the ECU under the front passenger footwell. They are generally the ex demonstrators and fitted by the dealers possibly to reduce insurance costs.

 

[Alexf]

Ah, interesting! Thanks - will check ?

 

[A2 Louis]

Surprisingly quite a few of our A2,s do have trackers fitted...usually next to or near to the ECU under the front passenger footwell. They are generally the ex demonstrators and fitted by the dealers possibly to reduce insurance costs.

Ah I wonder if mine has a tracker. my A2 (Boris) was an ex demo car

 

[Dave M]

Worth a check Louis...mine was taped in with silver gaffer tape.

 

[A2 Louis]

Worth a check Louis...mine was taped in with silver gaffer tape.

Are they still active? I wouldn’t of thought so after 17 years ?

 

[Dave M]

Probably not...two of my A2,s had them fitted and Tom removed them both.

 

[A2 Louis]

I wouldn't have thought so.

Do you have a picture of what they look like ?

 

[Dave M]

Sorry I don't but it's quite apparant once you remove the silver aluminium cover.

 

[Alexf]

Very pleased I joined the forum.

Thought this was a fuel filter that desperately needed replacing (I have a Mk1 Golf which has one in exactly the same place) until I just did a search on here and found out it’s a charcoal filter. Phew! Was panicking the fuel system was absolutely filthy ? Other fuel filter now ordered ?

 

[A2 Louis]

Managed to pick up this headlight restoration kit by chance in Aldi earlier, so will give it a whirl tomorrow. Should make a difference to its cataracts!

Also, I’m guessing these stickers are just to act as a deterrent? I can’t see it having a tracker, especially as it has a fairly tame options list.

Would you let us know please how you get on with the headlight kit as mine are slightly misty just want to know if it is any good because I’ll run by later and pick some up ?

Thanks

 

[Kleynie]

Be careful with the cheap wheel refurb companies, all they do is simply strip and recoat the wheels. The sport alloys are made from cheese and bend easily, what you probably need is a company that will check and straighten them, not just paint the existing dents and buckles.
I just paid £107 to have ONE done last week in the proper Audi silver chrome. The price includes a full strip/straighten, powder coat and two part paint.

 

[A2 Louis]

Be careful with the cheap wheel refurb companies, all they do is simply strip and recoat the wheels. The sport alloys are made from cheese and bend easily, what you probably need is a company that will check and straighten them, not just paint the existing dents and buckles.
I just paid £107 to have ONE done last week in the proper Audi silver chrome. The price includes a full strip/straighten, powder coat and two part paint.

Thanks for the advice

 

[Alexf]

Would you let us know please how you get on with the headlight kit as mine are slightly misty just want to know if it is any good because I’ll run by later and pick some up ?

Thanks

Hi Louis.

Ok, so gave them a going over at lunch today. In summary, for £6 it’s pretty good. Don’t expect brilliant results unless your lights are only starting to yellow (the 2000 grit paper was a bit too soft for these) and I’m definitely going to give them a final polish with my DA when I get in. But it’s done a good job as you can see from the photos! There’s still some hazing present, but that’s more to do with the fact that I was hand polishing and not machining. I recommend it at the price anyway (if your lights aren’t too bad that is). The kit comes with 4x 2000 grit sandpaper, 4x 3000, 4x 5000, some polish, polishing cloths and a UV sealant spray.

 

[A2 Louis]

Hi Louis.

Ok, so gave them a going over at lunch today. In summary, for £6 it’s pretty good. Don’t expect brilliant results unless your lights are only starting to yellow (the 2000 grit paper was a bit too soft for these) and I’m definitely going to give them a final polish with my DA when I get in. But it’s done a good job as you can see from the photos! There’s still some hazing present, but that’s more to do with the fact that I was hand polishing and not machining. I recommend it at the price anyway (if your lights aren’t too bad that is). The kit comes with 4x 2000 grit sandpaper, 4x 3000, 4x 5000, some polish, polishing cloths and a UV sealant spray.

Thanks for getting back to me I may give it a try tomorrow then

Thanks