High Mileage Audi S4 B9 – Longevity, Problems, And Main Features

Audi S4 B9 8W is a vehicle that many people are dreaming about. After the generation was presented in the US, the company has been selling up to 7000 vehicles a month and up to 36 000 vehicles a year (including A4 and S4). The A4 is a perfect sedan car that is an all-purpose vehicle. It may be a good choice for a family or a wonderful car for a young person loving to speed up sometimes.

Nearly all versions of the S4 B9 are wonderful. You may know that it started selling in 2016 in Europe and a year later in the US. But in 2019 the facelift version came out. Basically, they didn’t change much on the technical side, but they made the car more good-looking. It doesn’t matter whether you own a pre-facelift version or a B9 facelift model, everything that is said in this article may be applied to your car.

Today we are going to talk about the following:

• High mileage for American engines – what is considered high?
• Longevity issues – what should you consider?
• Engines and transmissions of new Audi S4 B9 to buy.
• Prices of new and used vehicles in the US.

Let’s get started!

What is the high mileage for Audi S4 B9?

If you are a fan of Audi and you want to buy a new car, this will probably be an S or RS model. These are the sports beasts that are closed in the bodies of simple sedans like A4. If you put an A4 and an S4 near each other, it will take you some time to say what’s different but the rims and the grille shape. But technically these vehicles are absolutely different.

And the difference in engines can be the reason to ask the question about longevity. You know that the A4 is equipped with traditional Audi engines that are quite powerful but also very long-lasting. The S4 is powered by an engine that is extremely powerful, but is it also very reliable?

Here’s what we can say:

1. The 3.0 TFSI engines have been used in many other cars produced by Audi.
2. These engines are still the main concern when talking about the longevity of the car.
3. The estimated lifespan of the 3.0 TFSI engine is around 150 or 170 thousand miles.
4. The transmission can be the reason for concerns with such a powerful engine.
5. The turbocharger is probably the main unit you should consider when talking about longevity.

Well, we’ve been researching specialized forums and we found out that people start panicking about the lifespan of their Audi S4 B9 when they see 50 000 miles on their dashboards. We can say for sure that it’s still a low mileage for this car. But once you cross the 100 000-mile mark, you should keep an eye on some of the units.

Engine longevity and issues

In the US, this car is sold with a 349-horsepower 3-liter gasoline engine that is quite new and has little information about it in forums and blogs. The turbocharged TFSI engine has a TwinScroll turbocharger, a chain in timing mechanism, an aluminum block, and an immense torque of 369 lb-ft.

This engine is a real beast for this car. It can go 0-60 in just 4.5 seconds. The top speed is 155 miles per hour. The fuel consumption is around 24 mpg in the city (of course, you need to drive very carefully to see that), 38 mpg on the highway when you drive 50 miles per hour and don’t accelerate fast. But this car is not about economizing your fuel.

The main issues with the engine are connected with the turbocharger. It’s not the best turbine you could imagine. Its hot part is located so that it heats up very fast and the turbine may fall apart after just 40 or 50 thousand miles. You are lucky enough if your turbine was broken while the car still had warranty coverage.

Another possible issue is the intake system. The intake forms a single unit with a cylinder head, so if you need to repair it for some reason, this will be a big and expensive problem.

In other cases, these engines are very good and don’t create any problems for their owners. Yes, the fuel consumption will be much higher than they say in ads, but you will not care about it. This car is a rocket.

Transmission issues

When we talk about the sports car, we should always consider the transmission. In Audi S4 B9 the company installed a simple automatic transmission with 8 gears manufactured by ZF company. The transmission is specially designed to withstand all the marvelous torque that your engine delivers, but you need to know that it won’t live for 150 000 miles if you love to press that accelerator hard.

Transmissions need proper maintenance. If you don’t change the oil or don’t care about some noise from your transmission, it will probably break very fast. We know cases when ZF transmissions were broken and replaced after just 15 000 miles on S4 B9. Audi offered a good transmission for this car, it’s not the poor DSG or something. But now it’s up to the owners to use it in the right way.

Other possible problems with Audi S4 B9

You probably know that all S4s come with Quattro all-wheel-drive system. It’s a good thing when you think about controlling your car, driving on the ground, speeding on highways. But it’s not so good when you think about maintenance requirements. You have to service the transfer case regularly. And we also know some issues when the transfer cases were replaced under warranty at relatively low mileage.

No other issues were found to happen often, so we can say that all other units on the S4 B9 are very reliable and can easily withstand sporty driving.

How can you kill your Audi S4 B9?

One of the disadvantages of this car is that you will need to buy the original oil. It’s 0w20 German oil that is not easily available in all shops. You are likely to buy only VAG original oil from a dealer rather than experimenting with the longevity of your engine. The expensive oil and oil filter will make your annual service quite a budget-consuming thing. But we don’t recommend any experiments with your 3.0 TFSI engine.

Also, Audi S4 will need some break-in after you buy your vehicle. Although some dealers will say it’s not necessary, we recommend driving carefully for the first 1000 miles and watching the oil level quite often. The proper break-in will prolong the life of your engine. No more than 3500 RPM is guaranteed in this period.

Sport driving is something everyone will understand differently. For someone, it’s just driving over 100 mph on the highway or starting faster than anyone else at the traffic light. But for some S4 buyers, sport driving will mean going to a special track and squeezing every single horsepower the car has in it. In the latter case, you will probably kill your S4 B9 in just 15 or 20 thousand miles. Just be ready for bad repairs.

S4 B9 100 000+ miles issues

Up until now, there aren’t so many drivers who managed to drive their S4 B9 for over 100 000 miles. But some have done it, and we tried hard to gather the statistics.

Here are some issues that you will most likely encounter with your 100 000+ miles Audi S4 B9:

1. Faulty transmission, basically it will need a decent repair or even replacement after that period.
2. Turbocharger issues. Especially, it will be dangerous for people who experiment with oil quality and viscosity.
3. AWD system breakdowns. You have to be ready that the transfer case and other units of the Quattro system will ask for some money.
4. Steering rack. It’s quite reliable in Audi cars, but with high mileage, some problems come and you will need to repair or replace the rack.
5. Cylinder head issues. If you like speeding up, you will probably need to replace the cylinder head sooner or later because the intake is connected with the head and is not replaceable any other way.
6. Cats. Germans from VAG are now super concerned with ecology, so they install more expensive and efficient catalytic converters in their cars. But those are likely to bring some problems after the 80-100 thousand miles mark.
7. Engine flywheel. Any powerful car will have problems with the flywheel after a decent mileage. Replacing this part isn’t a simple task at all.
8. Body paint. You may expect your car body paint problems somewhere near 100 000 miles. Audi cars now get much worse painting than they used to get 5 or 10 years ago.

What about prices?

In 2022, the new Audi S4 costs $52,945 for a Premium trim and up to $61,245 for Prestige trim. But you are most likely to buy the Premium Plus trim which is the most popular in the US and it costs $4000 more expensive than the Premium one.

Used S4 B9 is hard to find. They were sold mainly because they had been damaged and sold through auctions to dealers who then repaired them and are now trying to earn money. But the salvage S4 is a tricky thing and we don’t recommend spending your money on such a vehicle.

The estimated price of a decent S4 2018 with low mileage will be anywhere between $40,000 and $47,000 which is too close to the price of the new car, so it doesn’t make much sense to buy a used vehicle, in this case.

Final words

Well, we love Audi S4 B9 with a 3.0 TFSI engine. It’s a sporty vehicle that can be easily used for your daily driving. This is a cross between a family sedan and a sports car. The vehicle is quite good in terms of quality and it is a reliable car that will bring joy to your driving for years. But it is expensive to maintain and service properly.

The parts and fluids for this car will only be needed VAG original, so the expenses are going to be really painful for your budget. But the one who buys the S4 should be ready to pay more than the one who buys the A4 with 2.0 TFSI.