Used 2016 S3 overseas dealer offer pre purchase vetting

   #1  

Moxnix

Verified VCDS User
Verified
Joined
Apr 13, 2014
Messages
127
Reaction score
22
Location
USA
VCDS Serial number
C?ID=212386
Opportunity to purchase used 2016 S3 from dealer overseas and driven in NL. Aside from the obvious does anyone have any thoughts or advice about vetting a factory S3 with approx 5k miles and solely used by Audi personnel? Is there anything to be gleaned about what the car has been through using the software? Car has remainder of 5 year factory warranty and only one owner which is Audi itself. The car of course is a beast and most likely been put through its paces. Driven by a few executives and so on but if anyone knows if there is something else to look for input would be much appreciated. They are offering a scan of the car but what if they just clear all the codes? I guess the question is is there anything using the rosstech software that could shed any light on the car's history? Thanks in advance
 
   #2  

Uwe

Benevolent Dictator
Administrator
Joined
Jan 29, 2014
Messages
48,902
Reaction score
33,624
Location
USA
VCDS Serial number
HC100001
I don't have any real advice, but I'm curious: Is this a US-spec car?

-Uwe-
 
   #3  

Moxnix

Verified VCDS User
Verified
Joined
Apr 13, 2014
Messages
127
Reaction score
22
Location
USA
VCDS Serial number
C?ID=212386
No its a Euro model being sold through an Audi dealership in Holland, thanks for checking in though
 
   #4  

Eric

Active Member
Staff member
Ross-Tech Employee
Joined
Jan 29, 2014
Messages
3,892
Reaction score
5,780
Location
Lansdale, PA, USA
VCDS Serial number
HC800000
This could be a potential nightmare registering it in the US, however from a diagnostics point of view, if you could have a teamviewer session, or video of first checking OBD2 pid 0x31, which gives you distance since DTCs cleared, followed in the same session, or video, by checking engine and trans (if installed) on the VAG side, you could be reasonably certain that the DTCs you see there (hopefully none!) reflect what happened during the distance you saw with PID 0x31. This will only work for engine and trans, however, since you can clear DTCs in other systems without resetting the OBD2 PID 0x31.
If PID 0x31 isn't more than say 1000 miles, that should arise your suspicion.
3.0T smug disclaimer: have you test driven a mk7 Golf R or S3? If not, you might be surprised by the turbo lag.
 
   #5  

DV52

Verified VCDS User
Verified
Joined
May 16, 2014
Messages
5,469
Reaction score
5,934
Location
Melbourne, Australia
VCDS Serial number
C?ID=194404
This could be a potential nightmare registering it in the US, however from a diagnostics point of view, if you could have a teamviewer session, or video of first checking OBD2 pid 0x31, which gives you distance since DTCs cleared, followed in the same session, or video, by checking engine and trans (if installed) on the VAG side, you could be reasonably certain that the DTCs you see there (hopefully none!) reflect what happened during the distance you saw with PID 0x31. This will only work for engine and trans, however, since you can clear DTCs in other systems without resetting the OBD2 PID 0x31.
If PID 0x31 isn't more than say 1000 miles, that should arise your suspicion.
3.0T smug disclaimer: have you test driven a mk7 Golf R or S3? If not, you might be surprised by the turbo lag.

Eric: One of my very rare pleasures is learning new stuff from Ross-Tech - OBD2 PID 0x31?

Don
 
   #6  

Moxnix

Verified VCDS User
Verified
Joined
Apr 13, 2014
Messages
127
Reaction score
22
Location
USA
VCDS Serial number
C?ID=212386
Hi Eric, appreciate all the extra info but not bringing that car here. Its going to live life in the Netherlands. Someone I know is looking into buying it there and we were trying to see if there are anything out of the ordinary purchasing a used dealer car there that differs from the states. I am definitely going to pass along the turbo lag issue before he tests drives, 310 HP and lag would not be acceptable. Thanks for the advice.
 
   #7  

Uwe

Benevolent Dictator
Administrator
Joined
Jan 29, 2014
Messages
48,902
Reaction score
33,624
Location
USA
VCDS Serial number
HC100001
Eric: One of my very rare pleasures is learning new stuff from Ross-Tech - OBD2 PID 0x31?
"Distance traveled since codes cleared"

There's also 0x30: "Warm-ups since codes cleared" and 0x4E "Time since trouble codes cleared".

Which (if any) of these are supported by a particular ECU is not something I'd care to predict.

-Uwe-
 
   #8  

Eric

Active Member
Staff member
Ross-Tech Employee
Joined
Jan 29, 2014
Messages
3,892
Reaction score
5,780
Location
Lansdale, PA, USA
VCDS Serial number
HC800000
Eric: One of my very rare pleasures is learning new stuff from Ross-Tech - OBD2 PID 0x31?

Yup. We usually look down on generic OBD2, and there's probably a "VAG" measuring value in the engine that queries the same data, but the fact is, it's easier to find and we know it's implemented for sure on the OBD2 side.
0x31 means 31 in hexadecimal, that would be 49 in decimal. We used to display the OBD2 PID numbers in decimal in VCDS to try and be customer-friendly, but since most everyone uses the hex value, that just ended up confusing people. So we switched to the more commonly used hexadecimal representation.

Moxnix said:
appreciate all the extra info but not bringing that car here
Moxnix said:
Is there anything to be gleaned about what the car has been through using the software?
The info I gave still fully applies to your original question ;)
 
   #9  

Moxnix

Verified VCDS User
Verified
Joined
Apr 13, 2014
Messages
127
Reaction score
22
Location
USA
VCDS Serial number
C?ID=212386
Okay guys sounds like a plan. The dealership says he can do anything he wants so I am going to suggest he bring his laptop and cable there and ask if he can interface with the car himself? He can then look for the "distance traveled" and the other information Eric has supplied and maybe post it up on the forum. Either way they said they will offer a scan of it so I will get him to post it. Apparently its not so easy buying and getting cars repaired there even though he's only maybe 50 miles from Germany. NL dealerships for VW and Audi don't appear to be very customer friendly. This is the first place he's come across that's willing to cooperate in any way. Right now he has a GTI with all of the soft misfires and terrible idle issues and been to 2 shops and they ask how much do you want to spend? They just throw parts at it.
 
   #10  

Moxnix

Verified VCDS User
Verified
Joined
Apr 13, 2014
Messages
127
Reaction score
22
Location
USA
VCDS Serial number
C?ID=212386
Hi Eric,
Well they scanned the car in front of him and basically did what you called a "team scan" I guess. No codes and he looked for distance traveled since cleared and it was 2k kilometers earlier. They wont email him a copy because they say it's proprietary and showed him the rule for it according to Audi factory protocol so that part is apparently accurate. He drove it and there's no lag and apparently drives as advertised. Surprise surprise they threw in a bunch of extras N/C and gave him an extra 1K euros towards the GTI he is trading in towards it so he put down a deposit. They are replacing rear rotors because they got rusted up from it sitting for for a long enough period. They are also swapping out summer tires which are a no go in the winter there also N/C. Don't think it was used during winter driving. Thanks for your help as well as Uwe and he will scan it himself and post it up when he takes delivery in 2 weeks. Thanks for the input much appreciated.
 
Back
Top