greysquirrel

It's strange, because I got the garage to drive it the next day, he heard it the first time he slowed down, wasn't sure what it was, but then it stopped doing it. 500 miles later its not made any more odd noises at all! Still no idea what caused it.

My 2.0Tdi started making an odd noise yesterday. It's a grinding rattle sort of sound, very noticeable that happens when slowing down in gear at low revs. As soon as the clutch is pressed, it stops. The car feels fine at normal driving speeds, and there is no noise under acceleration or cruising speeds. I've parked it up until I can get a garage to look at it, but can anyone suggest what it might be?

On 12/22/2021 at 8:19 PM, M4rkL said:

Hi can someone help , my 2013 A3 2.0tdi has started to blow luke warm air when blowers on. Just had cooling system and heater matrix flushed at my local garage i use all the time only 4 days ago worked fine, now its back to blowing luke warm air. Temp gauge normal, matrix pipes hot, rad pipes ok and doesn't use any coolant. Never used any coolant even before flush. 

Any help 

Have you had this sorted? Just my heater has never blown hot, and the temp never goes above 75, I'm suspecting my thermostat too.

Mine's the same, I just thought that's how they are, had it nearly 3 years and never used any coolant, but heater never gets hot, just warm.

I noticed today, after nearly 3 years of ownership, that if I drive with my DRLs switched off, the numbers on the speedo and rev counter don't get backlit, and remain grey.

With DRLs on, or headlights on, the numbers light up white. I assumed they lit up all the time!

Can anyone else confirm if theirs does this?

A3 8P, Adaptive headlights, not auto, with led DRLs.

18 minutes ago, Stevey Y said:

Hi, could be the glow plugs are beginning to fail this won't throw up any codes when they are weak but will let you have a light or a code when not operating.

Steve.

That sort of makes sense, but where is the rubbing noise coming from?

I have a 2.0 Tdi (CFFB engine) and recently it has started stuttering or missing slightly form cold. It's like a cough, it feels low on power and happens at about 1/4 to 1/2 throttle. Once it has warmed up and I've put my foot down a bit, it seems to go away.

The stutter is accompanied by a rhythmic sound, not loud, but it almost sounds like something rubbing.

Car has done 89k, full service history. I've had it from 65k. Recently had a new fuel filter (it was doing it before this was changed). No fault codes, and none pending.

Anyone with similiar problems or suggestions as to where to start looking. It's by no-means undriveable, but it's annoying and clearly something is not right.

I've used Fabsil, but had better results with Renovo Ultra Proofer. And FWIW I use a Lint roller to get the particles and fluff off the soft top.

Hi Phil, yes, I used rattle cans, Hycote Wheel Silver was the colour, came out much darker than I expected, but it's grown on me. I took a lot of time prepping the wheels, loads of time rubbing down and filling the kerbing and scuffs. There are still a few areas where you can see minor imperfections, but you have to look very closely to see them. I used a proper alloy wheel filler, and deflated the tyres so I could do the edge of the rim. I used playing cards tucked inside the bead to mask the tyres off.

It was a lot of work and I sometimes wish I'd paid £300 to have them done properly, but when I kerbed one a month later, at least I could repair it myself!

Hi, I did mine myself, went for a darker grey as I don't like black (it hides the wheel design imo). Don't think I did a bad job, took about 6 hours per wheel, and used about a can of lacquer per wheel. However, I'm still not entirely happy with them (perfectionist), but that said, they do look just as good 12 months later!

Just now, greysquirrel said:

I had this issue years ago when I put washing up liquid in my screenwash. It appears it went off, and started to smell.

FIxed by flushing through with water, then using quality screenwash. Took a while to clear though.

 

 

Also nice to see another Keith on here!

I had this issue years ago when I put washing up liquid in my screenwash. It appears it went off, and started to smell.

FIxed by flushing through with water, then using quality screenwash. Took a while to clear though.

😁

Wheels off, Wire brush, Smooth Hammerite, Job done!

With regards to the lights, I have an A3, and have no lights on the dash to tell me if have my lights on, other than the blue high beam. It seems that only the light switch lights to show what is switched on, but I can't see this because it's behind my right hand/windscreen wiper control.

My stop start system was intermittent at best when I bought my car. the garage agreed to replace the battery under warranty (£299 at retail)

Since then, it has been better, but bear in mind that it only works if everything is meets certain criteria:

It checks things like:

Battery voltage, Outside versus inside temperature, current draw, engine temperature etc.

It will only activate if all conditions are met. Mine can go for a week without activating once, then will work 6 times in a 4 mile drive. Most of the time I find myself turning it off, because there is nothing worse than rolling up to a red light, having the engine switch off, only for the lights to go green 2 seconds later.

In fact, i've just looked cos I'm bored, and the highest mileage TT on Autotrader is a red 2008 2.0TDI at 243000 miles with FSH for £3800. Reg numer hidden so can't check the MOT history, but looks tidy, and still running, so 90K is a spring chicken!

Hi, welcome to the group. I've not get a TT, but do have a 2.0TDI A3. It's a 2010, and has covered 82k. It runs really well and I love it. Have a look on Autotrader at TTs and change the filters to display higest mileage first. With the A3, there are many, many 2.0 TDI engines out there on 160k plus, even some into the mid 200 thousands. I would expect the TT to be the same. So can't be all that bad.

I love the TTs, but I like a convertible and have a family, so had to settle for the A3 for now, but one day........

Good luck in your search!

I thought so, but I guess they may not. Mine is to the right of the handbrake, under a small flip up cover. I just plugged the 3.5mm jack plug into it. I know there were lots of different specs though, some trims apparently only got front speakers as standard, some had amplified subs in the boot or back side trim panels, and some had Bose amplified speaker systems, so lots of variation.

If you have the non-Bose system, then only your back speakers and amp are amplified. To get sound out of them, you need to step down the high level signal to the rear speakers, to a low level signal, using a high to low converter. It's just a small box, and you need to cut and rewire the rear speaker wires to this and plug the rear RCA wires into it. It's quite easy if you've done any DIY car stereo stuff before. I used a Fixapart AX03 from amazon, and it works a treat! (there are loads of others available) Full sound to all speakers, and the sub works too! Without this box you will get very quiet sound from the rear speakers, some people just adjust the fader to the rear, but it sounds awful that way. I'll see if I can find out the diagram I used. I picked my stereo up for about £170, it was a recon unit, but looked and smelt new in it's box, the same one on the Xtrons site is £299. It's certainly not High End equipment from the point of view of sound quaility, but it's certainly as good as the original unit, looks factory fitted, and is full of features. Here's a photo of it fitted in my car.

A cheaper option, that I used before I bought this headunit, was a Kinivo BTC480 bluetooth unit that I wired to an ignition live, then plugged in to the aux socket to play music from my phone and use for handsfree calling. That worked well and only cost about £35. Brilliant sound quality too.

Sorry to keep rambling......

I put in an XTRONS 7" touchscreen one. It's a custom fit one and works with all the dash and steering controls. It's great, runs on Android, does all I want it to. It's got Sat nav, radio, cd, sd slots but I use it linked to my phone's hotspot with Spotify and google voice search, so I can instantly ask it to play any song, album or playlist. My only criticism of it is it seems to lack midrange sound, being all bass and treble. Adjusting the equaliser helps though. I can even browse the internet and watch videos and youtube on it!

As with all (if not most) aftermarket stereos you do have to modify some of the wiring to get the rear speakers to work on our Audis

I've done the oil change now, I did it the conventional way with the drain plug. My main reason for considering the syphoning route was ease of access and reluctance to use axle stands. I sorted out those issues, but the job was still a faff, as the convertible has a metal undertray held in with 20 ish bolts! I didn't run the ford oil through it, just went with the Mobil 1 esp.

Glad I did it the right way.

It's oil change time, and I have bought Mobil 1 5w30 ESP 507 spec for my A3 2.0TDI.

The oil that's already in the car is filthy, despite only having been in there for 8k.

I also have 5 litres of fresh oil (5w30) that was destined for my Ford Focus before I sold it.

My question is, would it make sense to drain the old oil, put the Ford spec oil in for a day or two to dilute the crud thats left, then drain that, change the filter, and put the Mobil 1 507 in?

I'm planing on extracting the oil from the top, so may leave some in the sump. Would the wrong spec ford oil cause any problems if left in the engine in small quantity?

i just think it's better to have some wrong spec clean oil, than some right spec filthy oil.

Wondering about your thoughts on this....

Thanks! (the bottom one is not done in the photo but only has light kerbing anyway). I'm happy with the finish, just think the colour needs to grow on me for a while.

Yes, the back is darker, here a a couple of photos, one showing how bad it was before I started, and the other two are the refurbed back wheel, and the original front showing the colour difference. It is pure coincidence that both tyres are in the same position! I think the rear is too dark, but anyone who has seen it can't see what I'm on about, so am now refurbing the front to match. Maybe I'm just too fussy? Let me know what you think. And I guess the poll was a waste of time!

I've spent the past 3 days refurbing one of my wheels, the plan is to do one at a time. I've filled and painted the back one, but not sure on the colour. Which do you think looks best, front, or back?