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Years ago, after my warranty ran out on my A6 Avant I decided to do my own oil change, What a chor to have to remove the under tray just to change the oil. I decided to do something about it, so I cut an access hole in the under tray. Oil changes are now so easy.

Who funds what?

Hi over the last eighteen years I have used practically every type of disc/pad combination on the market I have actually used Pagid pads, as nearly all my cars have become a second skin after a year or so you tend to notice when something is not as you would wish I noticed yeah they stop ok but when pressed showed a slight fade tendency, if you bear in mind cab drivers live on their brakes they also wear a lot quicker, when I asked the local ECP why this was happening he suggested that I might want to upgrade to Brembo/Bosch as although they are twice the price would be more suitable for my type of use, any thing to do with ECP is suspect I have had at least two major bad experiences with them, one where they were selling EGR valves for MK4 Mondeos apparently Hella O.E., should have known when I picked the first one up as it wasn't even in a box which I questioned and the guy told me thats why they were cheap, by the time I was into my third valve that didn't work properly [couldn't even get it to code in], ECP refused to refund or give me another so I sent it to Ford at Daventry who came back a day later and said it was a fake, it had all the right casting numbers and the logo had been ground off, Ford were most keen to find out where I sourced the valve so I told them, funny thing is ECP withdrew the valves two days later so there was me £170.00 down so I bought a second hand valve from a low miler at the local breakers coded in first go and never gave a days trouble after that, the second was the HID fiasco my mate bought two Osram Night Breaker D1S that were stupidly cheap from them in the permanent sale they have on, I ran in to him one night as I was dropping his neighbour off, he was putting his car in the garage and stopped to talk, the first thing I said to him was I could smell burning and there was smoke coming out of the headlight, turns out the bulb had overheated and melted his headlamp, two days later Rogue traders did a program on fake bulbs and with trading standards did a bust on a lock up not two miles from my local ECP outlet, beginning to stink, there was every make of HID bulb, Phillips, Osram,Lucas ALL FAKE and if you don't believe me the video is on youtube somewhere. When you consider companies like Car Parts In motion who sell branded real parts with a guarantee exist why would you buy from ECP, like my rear discs and pads Bosch discs and Febi pads which have now done 50k and are still dandy at £130 the lot and the fronts VAG high carbon drilled discs with Don pads [TMG frictions house brand] £150 all in and currently at 80k, I rest my case, if any vehicle will murder brakes it will be a taxi. Steve.

Hi Simon wise decision and to be honest the full Audi service history is really not worth the paper its printed on as I have two Audis to look after, my A6 and my daughters Q3 BOTH HAD FULL HISTORY which didn't bear close scrutiny as in both cases they were both serviced before we bought them, I set about servicing both shortly after buying them and my daughters was the worst, they hadn't changed the air filter since the car was made 62,000 miles later it got changed, I was going to use the piece of paper the service history was printed on in our loo but the wife won't let me. If you ever see another you want to go for get an AA inspection not cheap but they look at everything and pick holes in anything they don't like the look of. Steve.

Hello Simon, Many thanks for coming back on this, with some useful additional information. Not wishing to be critical, but your assumptions are simply that, until you prove it to be fact, and the pre-purchase time is the time to do all your homework - not once you’ve got it. Assumption:- It’s been a company car - explaining the mileage. It may well have initially been, hence high mileage - but it’s a simple assumption. High mileage = motorway driving - again an assumption. Steve Y on here, does similar mileages in his taxis. Companies seldom (never?) retain cars for 9 years, so where has it been since it’s assumed company ownership? If they have indeed retained it that long, then it might ( just might) have spent its latter years with them as a pool car - with a high number of careful/careless drivers. Have you carried out a DVLA Vehicle check on the car? This will tell you when the last V5 was issued - which tells you/ gives a clue into how long the last owner has owned it. Assumption- Full service history (is the be all and end all). It’s good, but the level of workmanship cannot be guaranteed - it should be, but sometimes isn’t. Positive - it’s a really good starting point. Engine -…’ is there a high risk of engine failure…?’ Apologies, but you seem to be hanging your hat-of-concern on this. Yes you are right that after 180k motorway (assumption) miles that the engine will still be fine, and you are probably right, but there are many other expensive components which can wear out and be costly to replace. Manual or automatic for example? Manual - clutch? Auto - gearbox oil services? All of the above is intended to reign you in from a dose of enthusiasm, and allow yourself to carryout all the checks you can before committing. Having said all that, I’ve had a couple of high mileage cars over too many decades to mention, and quite a few worn out low mileage - back and fore to Tesco cars. Good luck with the homework. Kind regards, Gareth. p.s. The main dealer ( from whom your full service history print out will be obtained ) oowill probably be able to tell you from the service history when ownership changed.

Hi Peter, I have, thankfully, not come across this snag yet - but this turned up in my feed a couple of weeks ago and may be of some use? Mike 😎

Be careful of replica wheels the quality can be questionable. There's another member experiencing problems with replica wheels.

I worked at Volkswagen I would strongly advise you not to have the recall done. As it can cause other problems later down the line. Have a look at the similar ea189 recall issues to see what I mean.

Hi SunshineSnoopy, Have you had any luck fixing the problem with your soft top? This appeared in my YouTube feed, so I thought I’d forward it to you… Mike 😎

I am the same. My son works in an accident repair shop and he don't want to do the same thing in his down time.

A few videos here https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Common+rail+switch+LEAK

update to my last comment about headlights. on my mot inspection my car was failed on headlight beam distortion. i had a chat with the MOT inspector about this and was quite surprised to be told the reason. for the failure. it's a simple reason and not to easy to take. the bulbs had been incorrectly fitted, even though they have location tabs they can be forced into the fitting. the proof is in the light output on the beam measuring device. mine showed a full moon due to incorrect fitting. the bulbs are very fiddly to fit as i witnessed , when the bulbs were correctly fitted the beam was more of a crescent moon lying on its back. this car had been passed by a well known MOT station last year i guess they didn't use the beam machine to do the required test. at least i will not be dazzling on coming traffic from now on. Regards Ken

Have you serviced the car? Oil and filter at least? If so, you go to Workshop in the app, you should be able to reset.

Hi in all my years I have never known anyone to use the old belt again thats shocking, its an unwritten rule that if you change anything thats to do with the timing belt, water pump, idler pulleys etc you always put a new belt on REGARDLESS of what you view its condition to be, the belt should be changed along with everything else every 80,000mls or four years max, it has nothing to do with over tensioning those photos are a classic case of age deterioration which causes de lamination, example my old Mondeo taxi had developed a water leak from the water pump, the whole cam belt kit including pump had been changed 20,000 miles before, the pump was a warranty job but I specified a new belt at my own expense as that was not covered as it had not failed, for the sake of £24.00 for a new gates belt it was no major consideration, I covered 340,000 miles in that car and never had anymore problem with the belt. The garage mechanic you bought the car from needs stringing up anyone with half a brain would have looked at that lot and advised changing the whole lot but lame brain decided just to change the idler, its cheaper than paying £200 for a whole new kit and the labour costs as well, please tell me it was not a dealership you bought it from. Steve.

Few videos on it.

Yes! Now we're talking. That's a lovely mk2 Ghia. Plenty of poke. Never owned any of the 3 litres before. To be honest this is my first Injection, I had Lasers before that. You must have really loved that Trans-Am! And a mk1 too. That looks like it was a while back. They can fetch crazy money now, closest I've ever got is the model on the living room bookcase 🤣 Admittedly the injection isn't entirely stock from a cosmetic standpoint, but I think it's still a looker. Not bad for an old Ford pushing 40. I've a bit of bodywork to do to it over the winter, nothing too major. The A6 does all the parts running.

Such a great day at Das Auto show with fellow member Jack Phillips. Some stunning cars on display my favourite being an A6 c5 with only 6000 miles on the clock! The show was definitely better than last year with great levels of conversation between attendees and a larger diversity of cars this year, especially those going down the strip.

I have a sneaky feeling you're not going to approve. I may have told a little white lie, I didn't notice the drain had been stripped when I did the oil change. It was quite a while after, when I looked under the car and noticed a small weep. OK, I dare say I may have been lucky and dodged a bullet there so I put my hands up. My bad. In either case the plug was still tight with no play and I still had to unscrew it with the rachet to get it out and check, so it's not nearly bad enough to be sliding or wiggling. But it is partially stripped. I'm confident it's not my handywork as I was so super paranoid about stripping it in the first place that I just tightened the plug up to the washer, then gave it a slight nip with the rachet. I'd been of the thinking of changing the oil frequently. Lots of theories on whether it be every 5k, 10k or more. I decided to go 5k. It's an old car i bought as a runaround for less than 2 grand and has a high mileage. I don't use it for work, just social excursions. So from that, next oil change is due in roughly 1500 miles. I'll admit I feel 5k is excessive, and it's £60 odd a pop to do a change, so I'll be increasing the interval for the next. Anyway, short term fix was the ptfe tape and copper washer on the plug. It's tight on with no play but not over tightened. I can't move it by hand and the weep has stopped. I check it very regularly. (As well as keeping a close eye on the rear view mirror for the trail should it decide to go). Long term is I'm re-threading it a size up from the current plug. I've already got the kit. And the method is demonstrated in one of the vids RoyC posted. As I see it, if I make a complete hash of it it's a new sump regardless and my go-to garage is a few minutes away. If I don't I potentially save some cash. If it starts weeping again it'll be quiksteel and I'll be doing subsequent changes through the dipstick.

Hello everyone, I had the same problem as you guys. No data transfer at all. No traffic updates, no Google search, 3G logo was there but no internet connection what so ever. Not even able to delete the key user to complete the factory reset. All pointing to an issue with eSIM in the car. Dealer was clueless and less than helpful. Took me 3 days to convince them this is a real issue (you don't really want to know the dirty details). Anyways, after feeding the dealer with lots of forum discussions and proving that 100s of owners having the same issue, they finally contacted Germany tech and within half a day they instructed the dealer to change two components J949 and J533 and everything was back to normal. Not sure what these parts are but seems like related to the eSIM. Attached you can see the repair report. Hope this helps the ones experiencing the same problem as mine. Cheers, Jake (Majid)Hello everyone, I had the same problem as you guys. No data transfer at all. No traffic updates, no Google search, 3G logo was there but no internet connection what so ever. Not even able to delete the key user to complete the factory reset. All pointing to an issue with eSIM in the car. Dealer was clueless and less than helpful. Took me 3 days to convince them this is a real issue (you don't really want to know the dirty details). Anyways, after feeding the dealer with lots of forum discussions and proving that 100s of owners having the same issue, they finally contacted Germany tech and within half a day they instructed the dealer to change two components J949 and J533 and everything was back to normal. Not sure what these parts are but seems like related to the eSIM. Attached you can see the repair report. Hope this helps the ones experiencing the same problem as mine. Cheers, Jake (Majid) Cause C/S HE'S ABLE TO SEE VEHICLE'S STATUS FROM THE PHONE APP SINCE YESTERDAY'S REPAIR, BUT STILL CAN'T LOGIN TO THE MMI FROM THE VEHICLE, THERE'S NO TRAFFIC INFO/GOOGLE SEARCH. PORTAL SHOWS INFOTAINMENT SERVICES NOT CONNECTED, SAFETY & SERVICE IS GOOD IN GREEN. THE 10 CHARACTER AUDI CONNECT CODE IS KEREBHXLBD. CLIENT ASKED TO ADD 3 USERS. 10 DIGIT CAR/RADIO CODE xxxxxxxxxx. Correction CONFIRMED CUSTOMER COMPLAINT. CANNOT LOGIN TO AUDI CONNECT. TRIED MULTIPLE TIMES WITH CUSTOMER CREDENTIALS. CONTACTED TAC LINE. TAC LINE RECCOMENDS TO REMOVE J949 AND J533. REMOVE BATTERY FROM J939 AND LET SIT FOR 4 HOURS. AFTERWARDS CHECK OPERATION. CONTINUNING DIAGNOSIS. AFTER 4 HOURS RE INSTALLED J533 AND J949 MODULES. OPERATION IS BACK ONLINE AND LTE IS UP AND RUNNING. MAPS FUNCTION CORRECTLY. REMOVED ALL KEY USERS AND SUBMITTED ALL INFORMATION VIA AUDI CONNECT ONLINE. VERIFIED INFORMATION AND SAVED. HAVE CUSTOMER LOGIN VIA KEY CODE AND EMAIL. ONLY ONE KEY USER SHOULD BE USED AND THE REST BE INPUTTED AS GUESTS.

Just had the 27J9 campaign recall completed and have taken the car to areas where in the past the MMI would crash repeatedly, so far all seems good now. In addition they have also replaced the battery control unit which was to stop a message indicating insufficient battery charge on the normal battery to start the engine. I had this happen twice when on holiday and hadn’t had any ev charge for several days

Hi Tony, I have, thankfully, not come across this snag yet - but this turned up in my feed a couple of weeks ago and may be of some use? Mike 😎

Just made offer do see how it goes, will have one one way or other 😎

Understand, like all things you get what you pay and I'm more than prepared to pay if its needed but have looked at quite a few from a few hundred to a pretty reasonable 50 quid (obvs if it works) but for the average Joe who wants to read the odd error code and change rear brake pads once or twice thinking could be a bit of a waste to pay more than that's needed.... Just wondered if anyone had bought one of the cheaper ones and used with success 🤞 hopefully 😉

I thought the same as you until last weekend. I was chatting with my son, who is in the motor trade, and I said " I don't know why my Audi went into limp mode when I was driving, after all, glow plugs only work on start up" He told me that these days glow plugs come on any time the engine needs them.

Hello Steve, Sorry to hear of your problem, and about TPS’ reaction. It could just be me, but it seems they may be heading for choppy waters, since it seems they won’t even talk with you if you aren’t an account holder. I now have a couple of main dealer contacts who will offer discounts and do mail order, so for me, TPS or no TPS - it really doesn’t matter at all. But as you say, when branch sales figures start to go the wrong way, they might just realise that it can be a difficult road to go back along. One thing will never change - the buyer will always retain their right to vote with their feet. Kind regards, Gareth.

Hi yes get a Nextbase unit they are not the cheapest but the recording quality is excellent and if you get the bundle with the hardwire kit they are easy to fit, about an hour. Steve.

You might get it for Christmas then, what a present that would be.

I had something similar on my A4 B8 and it was one of the many lower suspension bushes. In my case it wasn't dangerous (just annoying) but definitely best to have it looked at just in case it's something more sinister.

Hi guys Just an update Since I got back to the UK, the French garage has lost all interest in communicating with me despite me getting emails translated do I'm giving up on them. I've hired a Ranger and a trailer and I'm off to pick the car up tonight. I'll fight my case with the car on my doorstep, at least I can see it. I'll be in touch. Lyndon.

Hi its probably the fan control unit on the fanpack at the front by the radiator its 1-2 silver boxes on the cowling with electrical plugs, if you bridge the plugs live and earth and the fan comes on its the control packs but the easiest way is to turn on the airconditiong and watch the fan for movement it could well be that its not getting hot enough for the fan to work, the only other component to look at is the coolant temperature sensor. Steve.

I have had my A6 s-line Avant for 13 years, never any problems with the leather summer or winter.

I let the nice chaps down at Tesco give the old girl a bit of a clean-up today... That's more like it... Job now properly complete. Mike 😎

harmonic balancer

Hi its Trade Parts Services and the reason they won't give you part numbers is in case you go elsewhere and buy discs etc. from a cheaper source, basically any motor parts seller can get the right discs from your VIN or REG as most of them have access to ETKA the VAG parts system just like the one I have. Its got nothing to do with comeback on a dealer. Steve.

Hi guys, New to the club! Picked up my 2011 TT 2.0 tsfi s-line black edition last week. Hopefully I've posted this in the right place, sorry if not! I love the car, but am not sure about the satin grey finish on the 19in le mans alloys. They need repairing as the fronts have been curbed, but I'm wondering if painting them silver is worth it. Was the satin grey a finish specific to the s-line/black edition? I don't think I want to paint over something that was essentially an optional extra from new! I'd be aiming to match the alloys up with the fuel filler cap, or there abouts. I think it'll make the car look much more modern against the blue. (Does anyone know which factory blue that is?) Sorry for the blurry, over saturated pic, it's from the seller's listing. Anyone have any thoughts for me?

Few videos here https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=audi+a4+oil+in+intercooler

Hello Danny, Thanks for joining the forum and posting your plea. Simple things first:- Worth getting a sophisticated battery check. Kind regards, Gareth.

As soon as its done I shall post an update. Thank you

I've had a look and I can't see anything obvious but that's just me, there are a few parts look like a banana 🤭.... wouldve thought it would have a proper name, find out tomorrow.... wondering if its this as its the only thing I can see which is big enough to warrent the cost?

Hello Mike, I’ve always favoured VAG recommended Quantum oil which you will just need to check it meets the spec. - I have used it in our 2006 A3 to good effect since out of warranty. I use their Longlife 3 variant, even though it’s changed annually. Readily available from a number of EBay sellers and almost certain? to be cheaper than anything from Halfords - and delivered to your door. Filters? always only used Mann or Bosch if not using VAG ( which are probably Mann or Bosch anyway). Possibly old school principles, but I never seen any need to deviate from these brands so don’t! Again should be available on EBay from a number of sellers. Kind regards, Gareth.

Yes that's the one I've bought

Hi that spring thingy should lock into the bit on the cover with the arrow on it on the underside. Steve.

Hi are they going to change the drive chain and sprockets as well. Steve.

Hi its either 5 or 7 if they are rubber they are the most likely to fail as they live in a world of cr@p from the unburnt gunge from the PCV valve, good skills with the diagrams. Steve

Hi as its a Q7 I would be looking at what the warranty covers in detail judging by most of the posts on the Q7 forum it may well be the best £2.5 you ever spend. Steve.

Hi you only re adapt the G450 sensor if it is a new one and its a lengthy process as you have to regenerate the DPF a couple of times before fitting to give the new sensor almost zero soot in the DPF to give it a chance to learn its values from scratch, the other sensor with the pipe that hangs out with no home is a G505 sensor which measures soot loading against outside barometric pressures, personally I wouldn't bother with G450 UNLESS ITS NEW as it must be working ok to have picked up the fault in the first place. Steve.

Delighted you found what you were looking for. You’re welcome to hijack this thread anytime. It’s so satisfying to do these upgrades. In my mind, the car seems to run better afterwards

Um!? I certainly wouldn’t try the bodge of thread tape. Self tapping plug? Never seen one. A correctly retapped new thread and oversized sump plug would be one way, but you will first have to go down the route of finding a suitable ‘oversize’ plug, then buying (expensive) the correct thread tap for it. Hellicoil? possible but depends on what wall thickness you have around the current plug socket. Ease of removing the sump pan on your model? Safest bet is to renew the sump. OK, could be expensive, but cheaper than an engine rebuild if the current plug decides to leave home. Kind regards, Gareth.

Nice ride 👌🏻

Nope, definitely not. Also there's different versions of c5 headlights. Allroads had xenon's but they're a wider headlight was the allroad is known as a wider body (s6/rs6 also wide body) compared to narrow body cars. Also facelift and pre-facelift differ too. I've been looking into it myself for my 02 facelift model. But for facelift narrow body cars they're rare. Some final editions has them though.