Hi fella,
And no problem at all - yes tyres seemed to go in 4s - the Avant is a heavy old beast and the Contis are soft as sh!t - I didn change to Michellin Pilot sport 3s which were much better - probably 10-11,000 miles out of them - My first set of Contis lasted 6,000 miles!! I do have a heavy foot though :)
Bushes etc. most of the front end showed visible signs of cracking and it just didn't feel like it should have really - the car had very few creaks and knocks - look out for the active suspension (DRC) though as the dampers leak and are expensive to say the least, you will get a wallowy feeling through fast corners and the car may sit low on one of the wheel arches, when it does go you'll get an error code. You'll see a lot of cars our there for sale touting aftermarket suspension - this is usually because the Active stuff has failed and its cheaper to fit a new aftermarket kit.
The Gearbox mount just goes soft and I didn't want the extra play on the drive shaft (i'd had a bad experience with a 350z where it had eventually damaged the diff). You'll see that through the stick when you come on and off the power.
Also just a note on my previous e-mail - I had standard RS (Brembo) brakes not the Carbon ones..as they're £6k a set apparently!!
What else can I tell you..
OK - generally the interior wears very well - my drivers seat looked pretty much new when I sold the car, the RS4 wears off the steering wheel but you can replace the whole of the bottom of the flat bottom wheel, Dash is good, but some people had issues with losing lines on the display (I didn't), Rear wiper is a pain in the butt if you get the avant - the motor doesn't actually fail it just decides where it wants to stop and I saw a few where the blade had been making contact with the paint and worn through the lacquer.
Again if its an Avant you'll probably have a squeak from the back ... in 3 years I never found it.
To be fair other than the Oil cooler line I never had anything fail to the point it couldnt be driven - just the odd error code now and then around the 2ndry air system and flaps -usually brings the "EPC" light on the dash on.
The guy I sold it to still has it and he has put a good few miles on it and still no real problems - I have been pestering him a bit about buying it back
If you are looking for one try and find a Audi FSH, if you can also get one with the Milltek exhaust upgrade option that's a bonus as its sounds lovely
Happy to try and answer any other questions fella - just shout.
Cheers
Paul