1988 Audi 100 review from Finland

The whole of the hydraulic system. First, the power steering rack leaked, which was the condition when I bought the car. However, I did not know that this is a typical fault in these cars. Second, after a half year driving, I had to change the "bomb", i.e. the hydraulic accumulator. Finally, after a year of usage a dummy seal (an o-ring) in the hydraulic pump leaked on a highway. I could not stop immediately. After changing the o-ring twice I eventually had to change the pump. All these three repairs have cost about 1600 euros, since the spare parts are quite expensive. Some leakage in motor oil has occurred recently. Also, one of the wheel bearings have been changed, but no other big problems during 18 months of ownership.

Although the cost of ownership is quite high, I really like this car. It is very roomy and nice to drive on the long distance trips. To me, it has enough power and fuel consumption is quite OK for a car of this size (on highway 8-9 l/100 km).

Because of the damned power steering (see the "gone wrong with this car" section above), the car is also quite easy to drive in a city traffic. A friend, who has lots of experience on Mercedes-Benz and has an old Audi 80, with a diesel engine commented after driving my car about 500 km's: "it is a little bit lazy, but runs like a tank through the blizzard".

On long trips, the drivers seat has caused some aches and problems for my back, but this might be an individual problem.