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i booked in for a gear box oil change online for my audi a4 tdi 2011.they came back to me as not needed.but at 196k my 1st & 2nd gears are notchy sometimes.(have to double clutch).so ive checked with a garage. £150-£180.not booked in yet.

Hello W. Midlands Steve, To avoid undue dismantling and expense:- consider measuring the outside diameter and buying the appropriate straight connector to re join. If it’s a very low pressure breather, you could even find that a plastic push fit connector may suffice. Should be plenty on EBay. Perhaps you could let us know how you get on. Kind regards, Gareth.

They claim it's sealed for life but It can be serviced and should be at 40k. I'd recommend you look at an independent Audi specialist

Have the very common rear (inner) indicator failure message pop up over the last couple of days. probably due to moisture/all the rain we've had. Intermittent fault, works for 5 or 6 times after turning car on then fault pops up again. Weird thing is the hazards seem to work fine when I put those on. Have taken the light unit out and it was very wet around the gasket so I'm hoping a cheap fix will do it after a good dry and replacing the gasket. Failing that, I'll replace the unit but certainly won't be with a Valeo part £££ Gasket info below on Aliexpress for anyone who's looking for the same....if it works 🤣

Not so long ago the engine management light (EML) was on most of the time on my 2004 2.5 TDI C5 allroad. It would go off occasionally but would very soon come back on again. I tested it with my Launch OBD11 reader and it came up with the following faults PO401 and P0402. P0401 means insufficient exhaust gas recirculation P0402 means excessive exhaust gas recirculation So having some idea of what the problem was I decided to carry out a few tests around and on the EGR valve. First test I did was to check I had a vacuum going to the EGR valve. I did this by getting the car warm and then pulling off the vacuum pipe and putting my finger over the end and it had a good suction. Next test was to disconnect the electric plug to the EGR Solenoid valve (this is controlled by the ECU and tells the Solenoid valve when to open and supply vacuum to the EGR valve) With the plug disconnected no vacuum at the end of the pipe so that proved the solenoid valve was working as it should. Third test was to use a little vacuum tester (20 euro from Amazon) on the EGR valve itself. I found the EGR valve was unable to hold a vacuum at all and rapidly returned the gauge to zero telling me that the diaphragm inside the EGR valve was faulty. The next step was to order a new EGR valve from Autodoc and proceed to change the valve which at first sight looks a bit tricky but it is quite straightforward once you get into it. TOP TIP to remove the two allen headed set screws you will need a six mm allen key on a socket I used a quarter inch square drive allen Key with a very small extension around 2 inches otherwise you will really struggle to get the screws out. You will need to remove the Turbo heat shield first which is only help in place by a couple of screws. Once the allen screws are out you need to remove the inlet manifolds so you can gain access to the two 13mm bolts that hold the EGR valve onto the bypass pipe. They come off very easily again with a socket driven allen key and extension. Now you need a 13mm combination spanner to undo the two 13mm bolts you may need to twist the EGR valve a little to get at them and off it comes. At this point I used my vacuum tester on the new EGR valve which help the pressure perfectly where the old one would just open and then close straight away. To my horror I discovered there was a real filthy mess inside the inlet manifolds and inlet ports on the cylinder heads in some cases restricting the flow by around 40 percent YES 40 percent at least. So I had to clean all this mess out and this is a dirty filthy horrible job. I used brake cleaner and rags in my garage but still made a hell of a mess much better to do it in a parts washer or take it to the car pressure wash YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED. When it is all cleaned up you can reassemble in the reverse order which does not take long and give it a try. My EML light did not go out straight away but after a few minutes before I even got the car out of the garage it was off and has not been back on since so a great result. Incidentally the car has never run better which is unsurprising considering all the gunk that was in the manifolds and the EGR valve being unserviceable. Hope this helps I was just a bit bored today so thought I would post about my EGR valve work. All The Best Capt Dave

Would make sense then Steve. Will pop an update in here when I try the gasket. Just to wait about 6 weeks on delivery off AliExpress 🤣

Keep us posted on how you get on. I believe the hazards run off a different system even though the same indicators flash.

It's an interesting comment. I have just bought the hybrid A3 4.0 and have started charging it with the granny charger. I have not stuck a current monitor on the output while charging, but I believe the maximum charge rate is about 10A from what it states on the charger itself. This is below what house wiring is rated to (13A) but then you have to bear in mind that house wiring comes in all sorts of states, from modern solid core on sockets that have hardly been used, to stuff that is 50 years old and has somewhat (very) worn plug hardware/contacts and maybe questionably rated cable. Believe you me I have seen some horror stories in my time. I think this is why the warnings on charging are given, because manufacturers know that home electric distribution systems are far from standardised, and often far from being maintained in good condition. When you get a hybrid, if you decide to use the granny charger you are going to be running that 10A draw a lot. Some people for many hours per day. My guess is that most people in their houses will have nothing that is not fixed wiring (eg cookers) that will draw that amount of current for that long a time. You also need to consider that you may be running other devices off that same ring/circuit that you are running the granny charger off, which may lead to additional heating/stresses on the wiring. I have checked my electrical charging infrastructure with a thermal imager (sorry geek mode) to check the temperatures in the plug sockets when charging and although I would say they are within reasonable limits it is clear there is a very definite rise in the temperature of both the wiring and the sockets, both of which I consider to be in a good state. You'd expect this of course. My advice would be if in any doubt to get your electrical infrastructure that you intend to use for charging checked out by a qualified electrician to make sure it is ok - hopefully lump it in with a few other jobs you need doing at the same time. I am not necessarily going to get a wall charger, but at some point I will probably get a dedicated spur on its own fuse in the consumer unit for charging purposes.

Hi, yes this is what I'm hoping I can do as I'm pretty sure is a breather. Will update on here once I've sorted within my £0 budget 🙈. Cheers all!

Keep us posted on how you get on

Hi Mohammad, If it's any help to you, I have a a4 allroad with the S Tronic gearbox, oil change is at 38,000. miles. Brian.

My wife has a VW Golf 1.4 TSI 2016 and has been loosing coolant similar to your experience, which was the water pump. It was easy to identify the pooling on top of gearbox. Cost at VAG specialist using OEM part was £466 My A5 B9 looses a small amount of coolant (max to min in a few K miles) and has been pressure tested, but I can now see dried water/coolant at the outlet pipe underneath the reservoir. If I were you I'd get a second opinion before spending £950

Hello Peter, Half a litre (one pint) in 150 miles is significant, and I would have to expected some evidence of where it was going. One simple test you could try:- Pick a dry day - if you can! Take the car on a run or at least 5 miles beyond the point where the coolant has reached operating temperature - longer if you can. Stop the car at a safe point, and without switching off, get an assistant to rev the car to a steady 2000 rpm and hold it there for 2 to 3 mins. while you observe the exhaust smoke - looking for white condensation type smoke. If there is any significant smoke then it could indicate HG issues, which would need further investigation before stripping. Perhaps you could let us know how you get on Peter. Kind regards, Gareth. p.s. I could be worth ‘investing’ in a new ( but only Audi) reservoir cap - can be the source of some coolant losses.