I wanted a lude and new exactly what I wanted, UK car blue A8; at the time the only one I could find was in Northern Ireland and I'm in Wakefield :/
I considered going over and driving it back, with hindsight I'm glad I didn't. I did however take a punt on it and found someone with an empty car trailer coming back from Northern Ireland to transport it over for me. It arrived late in the evening a few days later and I got chance to take it for a short drive before parking it up til the weekend when I had time to look over any issues. It ran flat, lumpy idle, brakes warped. Engine oil looked like chocolate spread. I was starting to curse my haste, but I was still optimistic.
That weekend I did an engine flush and changed the oil, started it up and bang. The drama started. To cut a long story short it turned out to be bad distributor/coil wiring that caused a misfire and bent a rod. Quite a headache for a while though. I dragged my feet but eventually got another engine, an H22A5, which I was sold as an H22A but nevertheless I got most of my money back on it so it was nearly free.
A year after buying it I had it up and running with the engine swap, new calipers, disks, exhaust and a fresh MOT.
So it's a 1999 ex H22A8 with a H22A5 and the H22A8 gearbox (M2P4) A8 intake with a K&N panel filter, A8 throttle body, A8 cams and A8 ECU.
