Hi.

Back in December my car decided to kick out some strange and wonderful errors.

EST fault

Stop start disabled

Cruise control disabled

On and on

The ecu has been replaced (cloned)

o2 sensor (at cat) been replaced.

All four glow plugs replaced

3 months on and still no joy.

I don’t dare to go Audi they like a good bill.

I have attached some photos of the errors.

I hope someone on here could shed some light on this issue.

Thanks

Edited March 24Mar 24 by Philnbex

Welcome Phil,

If this had been mine, I wouldn’t have spent a penny on it until I had had the battery efficiency checked on a professional tester.

Do you know how old the battery is?

Regards,

Gareth.

Hi cheers for replying. Yeah forgot to say the battery has been checked on a professional checker.

It checked out okay.

I do have my doubts though as I’m sure the battery is about 3 or 4 years old.

Did you get a print out of the test results for the battery’s various perimeters, and what brand is it?

Was the alternator output checked at the same time?

Is the car in regular daily use, and what is its normal journey pattern?

Regards,

Gareth.

7 hours ago, Magnet said:

Did you get a print out of the test results for the battery’s various perimeters, and what brand is it?

Was the alternator output checked at the same time?

Is the car in regular daily use, and what is its normal journey pattern?

Regards,

Gareth.

No unfortunately I didn’t get any sort of print out. Just the machanic that tested it saying it all checked okay. And stated that it was the proper equipment for testing these sorts of batteries? (Hindsight is a great thing)

The brand is Varta

the car isn’t used regularly. Maybe 6000 per year at the most. And only about 50 miles at a time

I have read on various sites that the battery is a big cause of these errors. I’m now starting to be inclined to think it could be that. And possible got a false reading. (Maybe).

I also found on here (but now can’t find it) an old post about various relays and fuses that cause this issue?

Again I really appreciate your help.

Edited March 25Mar 25 by Philnbex

Pleasure Phil,

Worth nipping over to your Halfords store and asking them to check the battery for you, (and the alternator output). If the battery is found to be substandard then I wouldn’t be buying a replacement there. Just come back to us and we will probably be able to point you to better deals.

If it tests good, then at least you know the answer lies elsewhere.

Varta/Bosch should be OK, but with disappointment with two different vehicles a couple or so years ago, I no longer treat them as my go-to brands. Having said that, I might just have been unlucky.

Please let us know how you get on Phil.

Regards,

Gareth.

2 hours ago, Magnet said:

Pleasure Phil,

Worth nipping over to your Halfords store and asking them to check the battery for you, (and the alternator output). If the battery is found to be substandard then I wouldn’t be buying a replacement there. Just come back to us and we will probably be able to point you to better deals.

If it tests good, then at least you know the answer lies elsewhere.

Varta/Bosch should be OK, but with disappointment with two different vehicles a couple or so years ago, I no longer treat them as my go-to brands. Having said that, I might just have been unlucky.

Please let us know how you get on Phil.

Regards,

Gareth.

Cheers.

Yeah I will keep the group informed.

Hopefully it won’t be do much to get sorted.

Just an update. After 3 months of having no joy with the garage. I think my 14 yr old may have fixed the car. Well came up with idea what could be wrong with it.

so he’d noticed every time the garage had said it’s working and they’d not had any issues for a few days. We’d bring it home. Park it on our drive the next day we’d start it up go for a little drive and it would all happen again.

so he’d noticed something and said. There garage is flat. Our drive way is in a slope. And everywhere we drive near our house is either down hill or up hill. Could it not be some sort of oil that’s low.

This got me thinking. So I checked the engine oil. ( on flat ). All fine.

Can’t check the gear box oil and that metatronic thing. So just topped the gear box oil with half a litre of dsg oil.

And would you believe it. It’s been running fine since. I’m going to run it as is for a week and if all is good. Going to drop the gear box oil and fill it properly.

I will continue to keep this group posted.

cheers

2 hours ago, Philnbex said:

I will continue to keep this group posted.

Please do Phil, because I can not believe adding extra oil to the gearbox can solve what is clearly an electronic problem. To my mind the battery and the ECU are still the most likely culprits.

1 hour ago, cliffcoggin said:

Please do Phil, because I can not believe adding extra oil to the gearbox can solve what is clearly an electronic problem. To my mind the battery and the ECU are still the most likely culprits.

I would be more than inclined to believe you. But after 3 auto electricians couldn’t solve it (one of which used to be an Audi technician) the only solution would be to just try it. And if you think about it. If there was too little oil in the gear box. That would kick out errors. And the cars systems would want the car not to move so cutting it out etc would be the go to response for a computer. But we shall see.

What’s the latest on this Phil, and did you get the battery checked after?

12 hours ago, Magnet said:

What’s the latest on this Phil, and did you get the battery checked after?

Well. I have now been running the car everyday since I posted on here about adding a bit of gearbox oil. It has been working great and if not smoother than before all the issues started.

And since I’m inclined to follow the old adage. If it ain’t broke don’t fix it.

I will be running it for a couple more weeks and then I will be doing a full service so the oil and gear box oil’s will changed.

I must admit. I am still confused about this myself. But it does show that the computers can’t always be trusted.

‘……l have now been running the car every day..’ , maybe significant here in terms of getting the best service out of a substandard battery.

I notice you don’t respond to the question asking if you have yet had a cost free test of the battery’s efficiency, but I can only suggest reasonable eliminations - I cannot, and don’t want to, control them.

Regards,

Gareth.