soontobered84

I bought my GTS with @ 200K miles on it for about what you should have to pay. It was a 1 owner car with very extensive maintenance records and a fresh repaint due to rock chips and door dings. I drove it to Greg Brown's place to have some "stuff" done before the great drive across the desert. (I waited until he pronounced me ready to go before I left Cali)

Would I buy the car again? ....IN A HEART BEAT!!!!

Get a PPI first.

heinrich

I tend to disagree about mileage. A car with a million miles, but new suspension; shocks; wheels; brakes; tyres; gearbox; torque tube; seats; engine, can be a great car. As long as it has been well cared-for.

Aditionally, a scrappy GTS like this but running well, can be taken and for not a lot, DRIVEN while gradually cleaning it up. This is a great platform in my opinion.

heinrich

If you pass on this car, please give me dibs

karl ruiter

Its probably the case that the maximum life of these cars is mostly set by how the cylinder walls wear, and I think that is very slowly. Is it possible you could get 300K or 500K miles before you had to bore/lap out to the first oversize piston. I suspect so...Greg could say for sure.

But on a more practical note, I am the proud owner of a ~100K mile S4. Here is some stuff I know it needs or will need soon or has recently needed.

-Wheel bearing on all four corners.
-Brake rotors on all four corners, and pads.
-Parking brake shoes.
-CV joint boots, neglected CVs replaced.
-Power steering rack.
-Power steering reservor.
-Tranny service, including B2 piston, filter, seal, etc.
-Upper A arm boots.
-Starter rebuild: bearing and brushes (in my case the brush plate actually went out)
-Alternator rebuild: bearings and regulator (not yet, but gotta be soon)
-Timing belt, water pump, porkensioner, rollers. (not yet, but soon)
-Fuel pump (not yet, but gonna go out soon)
-Complete intake refresh: cam cover gaskets, intake seals, engine sensors.
-All belts.
-Misc. electrical clean up.
-A few things I have decided to just let go. Don't care for ABS, personally, and the connectors must have been made out of HDPE or something. In any case they are totally gone so the system would need new connectors or perhaps a whole new harness. I just disabled is so the warning light is off. The louvers in front of radiator started going crazy, so I just disabled it in the open position. Might remove completely.

For the most part, I think that stuff will take me another 50 to 100K miles. During this next interval I expect to need:
-AC compression rebuild (It is hot here and so this runs most of the time)
-Radiator and all cooling hoses.
-HVAC fan.
-Caliper rebuilds.
-Head gaskets. I would also do a valve grind, guides and seals at this time.
-Shocks? They are fine now, but I know they don't last forever.
-Power steering pump rebuild.

Somewhere in the 250 to 300K range or so I would expect the motor lower ends to actually need to be gone through. To me this means: main and rod bearing, rings, oil pump, and seals. I'm not sure what would trigger this.

None of the above stuff scares me, other than the fact that I might not have time or want to do it. At some point, though, there will be serious issues with the AT that cannot be managed by replacing the vacume control or the B2 piston or anything like that. Not sure what happens then. I don't think I will want to do it myself, and I think it would be quite expesive to have someone else do it.

So, is there an issue with a higher mileage car? Some things like wheel bearings, starters, alternators, etc absolutly do wear with use and will have to be replaced. Other things like timing belt, intake sensors, seals, shocks, hoses, radiator are more keyed on age, I think and you will be looking at these issues on all but a very few 928s.

The motor does indeed wear with mileage, but I think you probably have another 100K or so there at least, before it will take a major going through. DIY is not super expensive or difficult. Expensive, but not super expensive. If you want someone else to do it and assume the liability for it, it does become pretty expensive.

For me I think the final answer would be to have someone you can trust take a look at the thrust bearing end play and if good, and if you can live with the condition of the paint and interior for the next 10 years, just go for it. As you can see there will be lots of things that need service, but my feeling is that this will be the case on almost any 928 just because of age. So if you are going to be putting work and time and money into a car, it is much better if it is a special car. And a GTS is just more special than a S4.

blown 87

I have done far more than that on mine, except the boots on the control arms, mine seem fine.
Not that it needed all of that, but I was there, and the car was in the shop, so why not.