56Doc

Mine doesn’t have an infra red camera, just the standard one. So needs lots of light to work, currently switch my rear fogs on if the street lighting is no good (or not there!) to give me some light but the reversing lights the car came with are pathetic!

IVe already uprated the lamps to LEDs but it’s such a small aperture, they just dont put out much light LED strip, thought about it, found 1 that attaches below the number plate, which I might give a go but it’s £45 & needs a hole drilling in the door. Others need 2 holes for each lamp & only surface mount, so wouldn’t look too good i was hoping someone else had tried adding something so I could pick their brain!

If you can do it yourself that makes more sense, but while the cam chains are expensive, (there’s 4 of them apparently at the back of the engine). I’m not sure if they took the engine out. But I can check. Think the cost was around £4k (not sure as I had the water leak in the V addressed at the same time, plus service & gearbox oil change. Total was around £7k!) manufacturers always recommend an annual service if mileage is below the service interval, although they’ve never been able to justify it in conversations, I was an engineer before I retired. One of the roles I had was to validate & update maintenance schedules for the RN’s submarines. So we spoke to a lot of manufacturers, including oil companies to check the oils, change intervals etc we were specifying were still available & correct. But those conversations often digressed, especially if they were also a car nut. One of those conversations got onto oil & oil change intervals Forrest cars. They told me :- In a petrol car, synthetic oil simply will not break down unless something else drastic happens to the engine, massive overheat, fire, impact, material breakdown from faulty manufacture etc. under normal conditions the oil will outlast the engine, which was quite a revelation. in diesels though, its slightly different, due to the higher combustion pressures, vastly more combustion products get past the rings into the oil, which, while it doesn’t do the oil any harm, means you slowly build up crud being pushed around, so diesels do need routine oil changes. The specialist I use for servicing uses top quality oil but it’s around £12 a litre to me on top of the labour charges. but, as I can’t easily do it myself (old age and old injuries catching up with me!), I just have to grin & bear it😏. However, something I’ve always done since the early 80’s is to use some ‘Slick 50’ oil additive to the oil when I buy a car. bought some originally as a ‘let’s give it a try’ basis n my Mk 2 Fwd Cavalier (1800 transverse engine in that) About a year later the car developed an oil leak, but it wasn’t obvious, so I missed it, this happened when I’d mostly use the car for long trips at weekends & it would sit in the base car park from Sunday night to Friday midday, apart from the usual Thursday trip to refuel etc. I’d normally check the fluid levels too but for some reason missed doing that for about a month, when I did remember to check it, the dipstick didn’t reach the oil! But, there were no other signs, engine hadn’t been running hot, no pinking, nothing. When I got it somewhere we could look at it, there was a fine jet of oil from the head gasket at the back of the engine. I’d got lucky in that it hadn’t caused a fire. New head gasket needed & all was fine, garage said no signs of overheating anywhere (they had the sump off to look at the crank too.) we put it down to the slick 50, I’ve also had a car dump it’s coolant over a 4 hour trip too, (split hose), again no engine issues and only realised something was wrong when I heard ‘bubbling’ noises after we’d stopped. (What was left of the coolant boiling). refilled with boiling water, vented off and all was well. Had to get it drained & refilled with antifreeze but small price. I can thoroughly recommend adding a bottle or 2, it only needs doing every 50k and at around £30 a bottle, I’m happy to spend that to help protect the engine.

I was advised to use wood quality fuel, (shell BP etc) rather than supermarket stuff but lots of short journeys winter do the dpf any favours, I was buying dpf fuel additives as well, not sure if they did anything but thought it worth it. But if you’re only doing 5k ish a year, then buying the premium fuel may be worth it. I haven’t tried that but might start as my mikes in the Audi has dropped to around 2k. i stopped doing frequent long journeys a year ago and thought long & hard about using the Audi for the, almost daily, short trips. I decided to cash in some pension money (I’m 68 now, it doesn’t have to last as long!) & buy a 2nd hand small ev, that’s working out ok as it turns out I’m doing about 5.5k a yr just locally! but it means I don’t get to drive the Audi as much, which is bugging me🙄. like you I’m not convinced EVs are that useful, cheap or convenient for long trips (especially with my 17’ kayaks on the roof!), so I’m thinking one of the new to market, long range PHEVs may be a possible option to replace both cars if I ever decide to sell the Audi on. that’s a dilemma that keeps going round in my head just now. Do I upgrade the headlights to LED with a 360 camera etc & keep it for another 3, 4, 5 years, or sell it and buy almost new to get the updated tech? Upgrades I’d like to do will cost around £4k all told, is it worth it? Haven’t figured that one out yet!

That stuff can crystallise in the pipes at low (Adblue) fluid levels, it may need the pipework stripping out and flushing, possibly pump & injectors too if it’s done that. however, I’d get it to specialist, or if no other choice, get Audi to look at it.

Just wondering how others have the reversing lights on the Avant/Allroad? Ive had real problems reverse parking or manouvring in the dark in this car as the thin strip that are the reversing lights simply doesn’t put much light out at all. im thinking of adding additional lights, anyone else had problems or added extra reversing lights? If you did add some, what & how please? Looking for ideas. cheers all!

Think servicing every 5k is a tadge OTT. Audis schedule is 12 or 18k depending on its use & designated maintenance cycle. if the oil isn’t getting badly contaminated, then it shouldn’t need changing earlier than Audi specify. Do you know something I dont? I’d like to know out of curiosity as 5k just seems far too often.

Mike261265, Interesting bit about engine mounts. I’ll get them checked at its next service. Thanks

I’ve had mine for 4 years now (2015 model), I love it! It was the lower power version but having found a local specialist, he explained that the 3 engine versions were identical apart from the software, so one software update later and it became a different car. Uses less fuel than it used to as well. my previous Allroad has taken me through 2 foot of flood water & a foot of snow, the height adjustable air suspension is just so good . (you can alter the base setting I’m told if you want the lower setting to be really low!). OK, issues, I’ve had no issues with the air suspension, on this model, the pump is inside the car, so little to no damp or debris gets in. Theres a reported issue of a water leak from inside the V of the engine. I had mine done when I had the timing chains changed. (Shouldn’t need them unless the cars been abused or not looked after at some point), I just got unlucky and bought one! So if there was any hint of chain rattle, I’d walk away, it’s expensive! check the air suspension works over its full range. I’m sure someone else on here can explain how to check for air leaks. There are known issues (& fixes) for a leaky sunroof on here in other threads. (It happened to me, I fixed it after watching one of the videos). Adblue, if you don’t drive high miles or it’s left empty for any time, the residue in the pipes can crystallise & eventually block up. Adblue systems were fitted to some early cars before it was a legal requirement sometime in late 2015, so can be disabled in the software without any MoT issues. Those built or registered (not sure which it is) after that date, then it has to be working. The S-Tronic gearbox needs routine oil changes, every 40k miles apparently, both hydraulic & lube oil. Some of the gearboxes have a filter inside, so get that changed at the same time. Other than that I can’t think of anything else. Others may have some more. mines recently developed a little rattle from the rear door, it’s been ‘listened’ to and we both think it’s some wiring come loose, (probably held by a sticky pad that’s lost its stick over 10 years). Good luck, Personally think they’re one of the best cars on the road., but then I’m biased!

Good luck whatever you decide.

Not sure there is such a thing available. and getting at the wiring to splice it in is likely to be a bit of a challenge.

No, got home late & found a post that looked like a draft, so sent it! 🤦🏻‍♂️ Must have left it open before we left this morning!

Good alternative!

William, there is an alternative route as most dashcam power cables are many metres long. it should be fairly easy to release the edge of the headlining above the dash and above the door, to tuck the lead behind it, then run the lead down the B pillar and along behind the carpet at the bottom of the door, then up behind the footwell/door frame trim to the fuse box. if the cables not long enough, it’s say enough to solder or crimp a join (2, so you can use both existing end connections) to extend it, there are solder & crimp connectors that you can get that come with a seal sealing heat shrink wrap. Just use a wire the same size & colour.

Cliff, he’s planning on hard wiring into the fuse box on the end of the dash,so it goes off with the ignition/start ccts, so it shouldn’t be an issue. BUT, if anyone does have an issue with the battery draining for any reason; because I don’t use my Allroad every day (sometimes not even every week), I bought a £20 12v DC solar panel, it’s about foolscap paper size (about 2-3” longer than A4 if you haven't heard of it before), it plugs into the OBD port & trickle charges the battery. It works really well.

Hi Magnet, he’s not exactly planning to fiddle with his cars electrics, he just wants to tap into a fuse way. It’s far less risky than home electrics, which is allowed in law yet ve seen horrendous diy jobs that made me pale when I found them (ceiling rise broken apart & un insulated brass connector block just pushed up through the ceiling is one. Wall lights with mounting screws through the live wire, so the unearthed metal casing became live when the lights were on. (This is in house we’re in now), I’ve had worse, cottage in Cornwall had one power Junction box under the unearthed metal bath, another JB was buried in the wall with 3 wire + earth one side & 2x twin & earth the other. I found by ear when the loose connections inside starting arcing & causing lights to flicker ! But putting a piggy back fuse into a cars fuse way isn’t making any changes to the vehicle electrics. So to my engineers eye, is perfectly reasonable.

Hi Magnet, he’s not exactly planning to fiddle with his cars electrics, he just wants to tap into a fuse way. It’s far less risky than home electrics, which is allowed in law yet ve seen horrendous diy jobs that made me pale when I found them (ceiling rise broken apart & un insulated brass connector block just pushed up through the ceiling is one. Wall lights with mounting screws through the live wire, so the unearthed metal casing became live when the lights were on. (This is in house we’re in now), I’ve had worse, cottage in Cornwall had one power Junction box under the unearthed metal bath, another JB was buried in the wall with 3 wire + earth one side & 2x twin & earth the other. I found by ear when the loose connections inside starting arcing & causing lights to flicker ! But putting a piggy back fuse into a cars fuse way isn’t making any changes to the vehicle electrics. So to my engineers eye, is perfectly reasonable.

My cars a 2015 model, I think that model run was 2011-2018, so yours should be the same. I had to move the A pillar trims to fix the compulsory sunroof leak. they unclip at the top but then you have to slide it up to release the lower hook. (Very difficult with headline in place) I managed 1, but the other was just too stiff and getting the one I’d removed back in was an absolute nightmare. The sunvisors need to come off too to move the headlining enough to lift the trim piece. If I was wiring a dashcam, I’ve seen fitters wrap some double sided sticky tape round the wire every foot or so and simply stuff it into the gap (with a trim removal tool), it’s how my wife’s Yaris’s dashcam went in! The tape then stops it vibrating loose/free. given the choice, I wouldn’t touch the A pillar trims again. Long shot but another possibility is to release the headlining from the front door rubber trim /seal just enough to feed a wire down behind the A pillar trim? It’s pretty crowded behind the A pillar with clips etc to hold the airbag in but it might work, especially if you can unclip the top end of that trim piece and move it towards the centre a bit (1” possibly! ) just to create a bit of an opening. NB, the top of the A pillar trim on mine needed to be pulled inwards towards the centre of the car, before I tried to lift to unhook the bottom end. A set of plastic trim removal tools helped enormously (my son had bought a set luckily). For info - Theres an online parts catalogue (for multiple manufacturers ) at LLLParts.co.uk that might give you an exploded view of the trim and their fixings. Takes a bit of browsing thru their website but maybe worth it. good luck.

William, be very, very careful if you remove the A pillar trim if your car has the curtain airbags. As they sit very tight behind it and they’re a pig to get out and put back! best option is NOT to remove them, just tuck the dashcam wires under the edges.

It’s a single wire with a piggy back fuse, the difficult bit is getting the trim off without damaging anything. its his car after all and I learnt a lot during my engineering apprenticeship by taking duff bits out of cars, fixing them & refitting, or installing extras, lights, gauges, stereos etc. So why not let him learn? No I wouldn’t want someone who’s never done it before experimenting on my car. But that’s not the case here is it. As we said before, as long as he’s careful, physically & follows the instructions that came with the dashcam or online There’s no big issue here. we all had to learn by doing it the 1st time at some point!

William, they used the 2nd fuseway up on the left side on mine.

C’mon Gareth, if the non-technical staff at Halfords can wire in a dashcam, then it should be well within the capabilities of anyone with basic tech knowledge. as long as their careful & not touch or alter anything they don’t understand of course!

Hi William, yes it is.

I don’t see why there should any differences, However, we all know Audi likes to keep some secrets! my dashcam is wired into the fuse panel on the drivers side of the dash, if I remember, I’ll look at it later & see which fuseway it’s piggybacked from

I’d strongly recommend you give ‘Audi Retrofits’ in London a call. they have a website, he’ll tell you what you need.