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Think I found the reason for my erratic voltage - I tested the compressor which works fine so I made a new plug and will be refitting tomorrow - hopefully the end of my suspension head ache

Just as an aside to my recent post on our road trip to Germany, thought I would like to just make a comment on Audi build quality verses other premium German makes. Whilst there,my Missus and I were invited out to a restaurant one evening by a good long standing German mate and his wife. We were staying in a hotel near the small town of Aerzen in Lower Saxony and the restarant chosen was located in the city of Hamelyn about 15 miles away....so a reasonable drive there and back. Our friend works for Britas, the water purifcation and the Company has recently suplied him with a new model C class Mercedes. It was ablack Estate model and I think badged c180D Our friend was rightly proud of it and it had most of the bells and whistles that all recent cars now have. Big tablet type screen in the middle that controls almost all functions, cameras and fancy lights with shutters. And it was pretty quiet too for a diesel engined car and had a reasonable amount of torque. However, the abiding memory for me as I sat in the passenger seat was how poor the build quality was compared to my Audi. And I know the 2 cars are in difeerent price ranges but I truly believe, being in quite a few model Audis from A3's to A6's that the integrity of the build in the entire Audi range is on a much higher level than the stuff Mercedes puts out The Mercedes switch gear was flimsy and made of cheap plastic, the doors must weigh half the weight of the Audi door. They shut with a terrible metallic clang. The door releases were cheap and plastic and the fancy round air vents were flimsy an didnt work with decent precision So, in my opinion.....and it is only a personal opinion, I think the Audi brand build quality far surpasses Mercedes and BMW at the moment. Which is a good job really as all of us here chose Audi eh !!! Oh and I didnt let on to our friend. The car was his choice and he was mightily proud of it and if we all chose the same brand car it would be a pretty boring world out there.

Thank you gareth yes got whole new 3 piece luk clutch kit and dual mass flywheel luk too going in next month on 29th thanks

Hello Beany, Yes they will have some movement - normal. LUK? - very good choice in my book. Kind regards, Gareth.

Don’t know John, so why not top it up with water until you find the leak source.

Hello John, To answer your question on topping up, you need to buy a small quantity of pink OAT (concentrated) coolant and mix it 50/50 with water, and use this to top up when cold. If you are uncertain, you will not do any harm topping up with water, until you establish where the leak is - and it’s important that you find that leak site. Perhaps you could let us know how you get on John. Kind regards, Gareth.

Not sure whether anyone will be interested in this but I just thought I would post my musings on our 4 week tour to Germany in our Q8. We just returned on Wednesday after crossing over on the Shuttle four weeks ago and making our way to Dortmund for our first overnight stop . Then we headed south to the little town of Parsbeg in Bavaria whjre we stayed for several days. Then up into the mountains of Bavaria to stay at Berchtesgaden for 5 days. We then crossed back to Berlin for a few days and then onto the wonderful city of Dresden where we stayed for a week. Finally we headed to a favourite Schlosshotel of ours in Lower Saxony whe re we stayed for 8 days. And then a leisurely drive heading for home for the same overnight in Dortmund before we spent 3 days in the little Belgian town of Ypres. I have a great Uncle who is buried in the Commonwealth War Graves Cemery at Tyne Cot. If anyone wants to visit a site that will take your breath away visit this cemetry. The number of young British Tommies buried here who perished in the mud of Paschendale wil make you weep . I have to say that although my missus and I have been touring Germany in the car for many years the road network of the country has deteriated a little in the last few years. Not so much you understand as the apalling state that the UK roads are in now. Many more speed restrictions and repairs on their Autobahn sytem now. However the overiding opinion was that their autobahns, their A and B roads are still in a superb state compared to our roads. Great signage,billiard smooth surfaces, well engineered cambers etc. Also the standard of driving on the Autobahns is so much higher than here. Precise signalling to either come out in a lane or back in again and an almost 100 % compliance to speed restrictions . The only thing I would say is that if you do get in the big boys outside lane on the unrestricted stuff to overtake slower traffic, even though you are probably doing 120 mph, the fast boys behind doing 140/150 plus will try to bully you to get back inside ! And also just maybe the UK registration and sticker does provoke some just a tad ! The car went well. We ticked over from 8000 miles to over 1000. Comfortable and just about fast enough. We had theusual software gliches that any Audi owber recognises nowadays. Lost the top screen one time as it just got stuck trying to initialsie. Then I lost my user identity " thingy " at start up one time so when I started the car my preference didnt kick in. Nothing too nasty and all sorted by a quick reboot by starting the car up again. The most annoying thing was a repeated loud bong and red warning triangle and exclamation mark in the drivers panel warninf of " limited visibilty " ! This came onquite a few times on the Autobahn when the minimum visibilty was at the very least 300 metres and more. God bless the EU eh in forcing he manufacturers in giving us that. Hope ths is of interest. If not just ignore. Frank