About three hours after the sun had set, I hitched a ride back to the lot where I left the steaming Audi. I popped the hood to examine how low the radiator fluid was. Indeed it was low, but there was no puddle underneath the car. If there was a puddle it could not have dried up that quickly as it wasn’t a hot day. Confused but too tired to care, I filled it up with distilled water, capped it off, and drove home carefully without trying to question what mechanical failure it might be this time.

Now at this point I had spent a little over $790 on top of the $800 value of the car. What killed me was the wheel bearing repair job but I really couldn’t avoid that. Any more shop related repair was going seriously to eat into my profits. By then, I desperately just wanted to get the car running flawlessly. I even called up local mechanics for a quote before looking up the problem. Desperate. One mechanic gave me a quote of $350 to ‘fix it’ although he described it as a “Mickey Mouse” fix, perplexed I asked him how much it would cost to fix it correctly, he told me he would need to remove the dash and quoted me at about $900. What the fuck, and what the shit is a Mickey Mouse fix.

From there I decided to use the power of Google to figure out what exactly was going on. Although the car was overheating, I can rule out that it had nothing to do with the engine bay itself since the steam was coming from the interior. After scouring through the interwebs and forums, I eventually found out that any white smoke coming from the dash vents point to a faulty heater core. Indeed there were two ways to fix. The proper way is to drop the steering column, remove the dashboard, center console, and radio to fully expose the heater core, which you can then replace. The Mickey Mouse method is to completely bypass the heater core and connect the two hoses together. Granted, this method means I will no longer have a working heater, but I live in Southern California. There is never a need for a heater.

Within thirty minutes of looking up how-to remove the dashboard videos, I decided to just go with the half assed bypass method and made my way to Home Depot. I found the elbow pipe that I needed in the sink department for less than $5. With the pipe installed and the heater core successfully bypassed, I let the car idle for about 15 minutes. No smoke was coming out of the dashboard. There was no more coolant smell anywhere. Is everything finally fixed? Although I wasn’t sure, I felt adventurous, so I took the car around for about an hour worth of errands. During the time I drove, it didn’t overheat, it didn’t sputter to a stop, the check engine light never came back on, and most importantly no smoke was arising from anywhere and it didn’t blow up. Instead it was running smoothly. I even hit redline twice, on second and third gear. Both times the turbo spooled up releasing enough power to push me back into my beige leather seat. The car felt great, I felt great. Not to mention I saved $345 from that bypass job. Suck it mechanic shop. Talk about finally coming out on top.

Since the heater core bypass was technically a temporary fix, I went ahead and bought a new one as it only cost about $25. I figured if even if I don’t find time to install it myself, it would be nice to have the new owner know what exactly needs to be replaced, because nothing beats a honest and transparent seller on Craigslist. Besides, I believe in karma.

Now I actually skipped writing about the very first fix I did, that was the rear driver side passenger window. When I bought it, that window had permanently fallen and no amount of tape or fluffing would keep it up. With removal of the door panel the problem was apparent, the cable that runs through the motor was as broken as an unraveled cassette tape. The previous owner attempted a sad half-assed fix of sticking a block of wood to hold it up which had fallen down the door panel. I threw away the wood block but you can see the wood shavings still on the door panel below. I half-assed fixed it with a few zipties but it properly did the job. I additionally unplugged the harness to prevent any more damage to the unit. Now if this car gets sold for an amount that satisfies me, and if the new owner decides they really want the window fixed, I will gladly replace it for them for free considering they provide a working motor. Fair enough right?

Well that’s it! Hood strut, valve cover gasket, spark plugs, coil packs, mass airflow sensor, rear coolant flange, coolant temperature sensor, center wheel cap, and wheel bearing all replaced and fixed. As of now there are only three very minor issues with the car: the temporary rear window fix, the heater core bypass, and a small crack on the windshield that was there since initial purchase. I’m not going to count the minor cosmetic damage since this is a ten year old car that was daily driven to just about 130k miles. None of these issues affect the performance, legality, or drivability of the car.

Since the release of Part III, I have actually been daily driving this car for the past four weeks with no issues. The check engine light hasn’t been on since the coil pack swap, it hasn’t overheated or stalled, and three weeks ago it California Smog legally with flying colors. Despite that all of these fixes, the cost of purchase and maintenance totaled just a little over $1600. I highly believe that there is potential for profit or even a trade up. This car has came a long way since its state of despair. Destined to have its parts stripped and shipped to the junkyard, it is now a fine running and reliable automobile that is serving my temporary needs as well as teaching how how to flip a car.

This week I will be prepping to post it up for sale. Will It Flip!? Check back here soon for the final installment of this saga where we learn how to flip a car.

The post Will It Flip!? 2001 Audi A4 Quattro – Part IV appeared first on FactoryTwoFour.

Hearing Kayla laugh at the fact that I searched up my old car only inspired me to actually find one. I did not end up searching very long, because a deal jumped out at me immediately. “400 OBO BMW 318ic 5 speed m42 engine” I sat there thinking, “Oh, a nice engine for sale. Woohoo!” and moved on accordingly. We searched through several other high-priced BMWs ranging from Miami to North Carolina before finding ourselves back at this one in Jacksonville. I opened the post this time and noticed, near the bottom, three interesting catches:
1. “It needs a trailer. ”
2. “It’s not running, but I drove it into the garage. ”
3. “All parts included. ”

Having rebuilt an E30, E24, and an old E12, I was immediately ready to buy this car. The only real catch was that my wallet was empty (isn’t it always?). I looked over, laughing, and asked Kayla “Hey, you want to buy my PS4?” She looked back seriously and said a nice, stern “Yes.” The kind of “Yes.” that makes it clear that the idiotic words that just left my lips could not be taken back. Well, less gaming time meant more wrenching time. My deal with Kayla seemingly struck in blood, and my visions of Halo glory already fading I typed a to-the-point email stating:, “I can come up today. Tell me what’s wrong with the car, I’m ready to buy it.” We waited fifteen minutes to hear back from this guy, worried because it was an “email only” post. Guh. “He may never respond..” we both started thinking. BOOM. To our surprise, his response came: “what time?”

Kayla and I were amazed that he responded. I told him to send his phone number and sent him mine. We then waited another grueling forty-five minutes. A little let down, we set out to the adult candy store “Total Wine” and wandered the spirit filled isles in hopes to lift ours. My phone then vibrated and I jumped up to answer. It was the car.

“Yeah the oil pan busted. I bought it because it had a hard top. I sold the hard top and made my money back, so this convertible’s been sitting in my garage for two months. I don’t want to fix it!” Kayla and I immediately left the store and grabbed my trailer, her truck, my straps, and set course for Jacksonville. Five hours, a wayward trailer that fell off on the way, and one PlayStation exchange later, I had another baby in my driveway. I knew I would miss my dear and very regularly used gaming console; but alas, I was ready to start my next project, After all, the new oil pan was already in the trunk…

The post How I Traded a Playstation for a Car appeared first on FactoryTwoFour.