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It's inevitable that the more complex one makes a machine, and modern cars are extremely complex, the more prone it is to failure unless built and maintained with levels of quality assurance that are unaffordable to individuals. That is why airliners cost many millions of pounds to buy and to maintain. There's a lot to be said for simplicity when it comes to reliability. Like Richard, I stopped going to Audi dealers for maintenance and repairs years ago because they were too expensive and too incompetant. Their electronic diagnoses are all very well when they work, but the technicians do not seem to have the practical experience and rational thought processes to fall back on when the computers don't work. Independant VAG specialists were my choice. They combined the intimate knowledge of a specialist with a level of service long lost by the large corporate dealers. If you can find one make him your best friend.

Added a genuine S3 Lip Spoiler to the boot lid. I love it. Such a small, subtle mod but makes so much difference. Next will be rear window tints. Just to smoke them out a little.

I agree Richard and Clifford. Unfortunately in today’s society so many people rely upon technology that they can’t think outside the box. Take for instance, buying shopping. The shop assistant puts through your shopping, tells you a price, for example £14.89 and you hand them £20. But then you find the 89p in the back of your purse and offer that. Many people can’t figure out the change without the machine telling them! However, this luxury SUV has every warning lights and sensor you could imagine so you think it would flag something on the dash. I’ve asked for a breakdown of the work and what’s been eliminated so far. I will not be authorising stripping out carpets, seats and pipes until I’m satisfied that they have checked the common leak points and the self levelling system first. The car 5 is years old and 28k miles. I don’t drive like a racer and it’s been serviced and maintained every year. So I don’t imagine there is anything major and it’s purely down to wear and tear. I just hope that I get to the bottom of it, without having to shell out more money for the incompetence of the franchises IMG_0080.mov

Could be anything, turbo, fuel pump, etc. Scan with VCDS, that will reveal the error, if it’s existed before plus any other anomalies.

The fact that there is a dashboard warning means an electronic problem. Get it scanned as a first step to diagnosis.

You’re in a bit of a predicament Nicola. The trouble with main franchise dealers, and this isn’t exclusive to Audi, is that their technicians aren’t experienced enough. As mentioned earlier, if anything like BMW, then they will log onto a computer terminal and follow as prescribed route to fix and don’t use old fashioned intuition. That’s fine if they actually fix it, but as a customer you take the hit with exorbitant labour and parts. Personally, I’d take the car back from Audi dealer and continue with your route to Audi UK to see if they can address it. This is a luxury SUV, 5 years old, and shouldn’t have something that’s unfixable. There must be some sort of monitoring system for air suspension that provides live data. The fact the car self levels on start up tells you the compressor is doing its job. I’d want all the self levelling height sensors checked. That should have been done as a matter of course, and with live feed to VCDS to see functionality. Airbags, as mentioned by John, inspected properly. Whether it’s the airbag, ‘o’ ring or line feed union. Audi won’t repair, I will tell you that now. If there’s a fault then they’ll opt to replace. The air lines traced to see if there’s a break along the length of the car from the compressor. That’s why they want the seats out. I think at that point, then this repair should be goodwill, as stripping out interiors is time intensive. I gave up on main dealers years ago and do my own work. VCDS is useful, but Audi will use systems such as ODIS with component security protection which is dealer level software that your average mechanic won’t have access to. On the latest Golf MK8, you can’t even change the rear pads without ODIS is my understanding. Anyway I hope you get a resolution to this.

Welcome Sean, and thanks for joining. I think you need to be realistic in your requirements when buying a 26 year old car. If it has some service history you will be lucky, if it has anything like a comprehensive history that would be exceptional. How mechanically minded and experienced are you? Have you actually seen the car. Have you conducted an MOT history on the car? Are you buying from the current owner, and if so, how long have they owned it? I’f buying from a dealer or classic car specialist, are you expecting to have a guarantee on the car? Have you considered having the car inspected by a local-to-the-car Audi specialist? Perhaps you can come back to us Sean. Kind regards, Gareth.

Quickest solution is to pop the tailgate trims off the inside, torx screw driver is only tool required and abit of gentle pulling of the trims. Ask a mate to use a hose on the rear roof/ tailgate while sitting inside with a torch, the leak usually becomes obvious very quickly but pin pointing the exact entry point can take abit of trial and error, we don’t use power washers for finding water ingress as the pressure forces water past seals that function perfectly good in the real world