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Hi Gareth, Please accept my apologies. Mileage about 65500. Yes to stop start.

Welcome Pat, Just do a forum search on here for Timing belt or Cambelt, and you will find the topic has been discussed to death, and should allow you to make a decision on whether you wish to follow VAG’s advice - at your peril ( personal opinion) or take a more sensible approach. Perhaps you could let us know what you decide to do, once all the comments have been digested. Regards, Gareth. p.s. What is your current mileage, and is the stop/start always deployed.

LOL, I know what you are saying bro. Just want the first one done from them for peace of mind. I have found a very good independent Audi Specialist so will use him going forward.

Thanks Dev, Still blinking heck in relation to an oil change at any main dealer.

Hi, I'm Pat and I own a Q3 - I have joined today. What is the required period for replacement of the timing belt. In the last 6 months I have become aware of belt failures in Ford Escorts, Volvo XC60 and an Audi A3. I have spoken with many people and been given ranges from 40k to 186k. Being totally confused, I went into my local Audi Dealer (Farnborough) to get a definitive answer. Having explained my confusion to the representative there, I was shown a document entitled Service Related Items. The document consisted of 1 page only and it did not specify what models the inspections applied to. I was allowed to take a photo of the document. Regarding the timing belt - it listed the replacement frequency as 186,500 miles or 15 years. I'm even more confused now. Thoughts please.

Audi are doing a co.plimentary check for me while doing the oil change. Let's see what the report says. Thanks

I don't believe you will have the the luxury of selecting a "good home" for a 27 year old car that has not been used for a couple of years. It will be a case of accepting what anyone will offer.

Apologies for the delay Karl, Yes, generally the old 18k oil change interval. Fine for the first few years, but from there on….? Has the stop/start been used during your ownership? If so, this can be a serious aggravator. I fear your only realistic way forward would be to try to find an engine from an accident damaged vehicle. Listing your want on one of the on-line car breaker link sights maybe a starting point. Partsfinder is one of many. Regards, Gareth.

Blinking heck Dev - you must have got money to throw away - taking an 11 year old car to a main dealer at a cost of c£200/hr. Why not return it to the place where the damage was repaired ? Regards, Gareth.

Welcome Dave, This is a little confusing since ‘…..I am reluctant to sell it….’ Yet ‘…..grateful for advice of where to sell it….’. OK, you could advertise it on here with photos, description, and price, or list it on EBay to a wider audience. Please let us know what best suits you. Regards, Gareth.

It seems Alan would rather end his forum membership than reply publicly, so I can now reveal he tried to engage me in private correspondence about his wheel shake problem, and did not like being directed back to the forum.

Thats for your response. The car is booked in at my local audi dealer so will get tjis looked into. Appreciate the help.

You don't seem entirely certain what has been repaired. I mention that because unless the headlight mounting has been straightened correctly there may not be enough adjustment in the screws to align the beam. Headlight alignment is normally part of front end crash repair so it strikes as odd that yours was not done.

I have a green Audi A4 T reg, which has been in my garage for a couple of years. A couple of things need attention like the drivers seat spring, exhaust is rattling a bit and the odd scratch outside. I disconnected the battery when I put in the garage and now all it is doing is collecting dust. I am reluctant to sell because it has been used as a family car until grandchildren came along and because it has no isofix for child seats, we had to SORN it. I would be grateful for any advice of where to sell it to a good home Thanks for reading Dave

Restrict use of the car until Monday and get OEM part from Audi, otherwise you’ll brick your ABS system is my advice.

Have had all three. Projector halogen in B5 A4 2.5TDI Quattro, no headlight washers. Bi-xenon in B8 A4 Allroad with headlight washers and LED rear, and now B9 A4 Allroad with LED front and rear, that ironically has headlight washers (in bumper) but was never fitted from factory. I’m planning to retrofit. Halogen and xenon generate heat, LED doesn’t, hence requirement for washers. Suspect the headlight washer bumper flap is for those that request it as extra or LED Matrix which I think is available on top of range Vorsprung. Upgrading lights is never straight forward. Minimum is you will need VCDS for coding, and parts need to be new as usually have security protection.

Do you have to use their app? My wife has a BMW i3 that has onboard computer that can delay charging. We recently switched electricity providers (don’t ask me who) as we have solar and battery storage. The 7kWh wall charger is currently out of action until an electrician tests the cable. It’s been on from 2018 but I suspect it needs a new tethered cable as works intermittently. In the meantime she can use 13A granny charger or a public charger. Cheap tariff is midnight to 6.00am. The new electricity provider wants us to use their custom app. However the car has its own software to delay charging, so we use that. It’s also intelligent enough to start charging earlier if need be as 13A will take longer compared to 7kWh. Granted, some of this power is outwith low tariff but that’s fine as we have battery storage. My point is, does Audi have this interface, rather than use the app which has to work across multiple car platforms?

I can offer some insight. This from Amazon gave me the error in my post above yours: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B09C64N4PP This one also gave the same error: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0CH8MFSL1 This cheapest of the three, from eBay, for which I had little faith, worked: https://ebay.io/m/hXJB3E YMMV and this is not an endorsement of the above. I’ve decided this is a stop gap till next pay check when I’ll suck it up and get an OEM.

Old topic But something is bugging me, Cars with projector headlights that have OEM xenon bulbs must have washers, Ok. Modern LEDs are blinding compared to xenon and they do not require washers What's the deal? But you can fit LEDs to projector type headlight units.

Thanks for the clarification Mike. Having established that the system did work as expected for a considerable time under Octopus's control via its app, and then stopped working after a 12 volt fault and subsequent battery change, two possibilities occur to me. Firstly the cars charging circuits may have been affected by the 12 volt fault. That can be tested by using another granny charger at another location and without any involvement of an app. Is that possible by visiting another EV owner with working equipment? Do you have another granny charger of your own you can take elsewhere? The other possibility is the internet connection in the car has been affected by the 12 volt fault. I don't really know how you can test that unfortunately. Sorry I can not be more precise. I believe the way to isolate the source of the problem is to change just one part of the system at a time i.e. charger, location, app involvement, wifi signal. Alternatively take the car to Audi for diagnosis though you don't need me to tell you that is going to be expensive. It is not widely appreciated that EVs are surprisingly prone to 12 volt problems. Some manufacturers even recommend a new battery every three years.

Hey My 04' 3.2 A3 decided to shed it's clutches in the DSG, 113k miles or so done well for 3 years. I decided to call it a day, I spent enough time and money on it. I have replaced it with a 2008 SE 3.0tdi, what difference, so much better than the 16plate Passat I had to scrap, and about 50bsteps better than the A3, Had a few issues but that's why I managed to get it so cheap. I know but cheap buy twice but this isn't the case. I do have a couple of issues that need resolved First is the rear brakes, needs disc's and pads, needs an under tray, which I've purchased a metal Scut Protection replacement, the inner rear tail lights which were bought refurbished from China. The last thing to do is a oil and filter service.

The charging is supposed to be controlled by Octopus under their intelligent go tariff that gives good rate between 11.30 pm and 05.30am. I have turned off the charge timers in the car and am using the 3 pin granny charger that has no timer function. When I plug in and switch on the charger starts charging as indicated by the pulsing light on both charger and car. After a short time Octopus recognises that I want to charge, presumably a signal from the car, and they tell the car to stop the charge and send me their proposed schedule, on their app of charging through the cheap rate period. I have been doing this for the two years or so that I have owned the car. The problems started about 3 months ago after I started getting messages that the 12v battery was low. After replacing the battery, including telling the car that it had been changed, the first charge worked fine, but since then nothing but trouble. I have noticed that after a failed attempt to charge one of the car timers that I have turned off is showing that it as set up for a charge some days in the future and has mysteriously turned itself on, definitely not by me! The only settings I have made are in the Octopus app - Level of charge required and by what time

Alan. Do you intend to publicly respond to the replies you have received on both these topics? I know you have seen them.

Hi Cliff, yes it did have a front knock and new light and bumper i believe. Can the headlight be adjusted?

Hi ok I appreciate this where would I get the kit from? Also where is it located on the transmission? Thanks Gary