greysquirrel

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?

I have a 2010 2.0 TDi, and mine only has the blue full beam symbol too. The only notification I have of lights being on, is the light switch itself lighting up where it is pointing, but you can't see it, because your right hand is in the way! Same goes for the front and rear foglights, no visible sign on the dashboard. Seems to be a bit of an oversight really.

I have since ended up dropping £670 on a new headlight. Thankfully I fitted it myself, saving 2 hours labour charge. It didn't come with bulbs, controller or ballast unit, so they had to be swapped over. Adaptive cornering Bi-Zenons are great, but are they really worth this sort of money over Halogen? That said, I'm happy now that they are fixed! Trying to forget the other things I could have spent the cash on.....

My A3 Cabriolet apparently has adaptive lights that turn, not that i'd ever noticed. Recently I had a message appear saying "Adaptive light defective". My front left light has clearly turned left and stayed there, it can be seen pointing left from the front of the car. I understand that these have a habit of snapping wires, is this something that anyone on here has successfully sorted out with a bit of solder and some patience, or are there any other things I should be checking before I contact the stealers?

Well the A3 S-line wears 225/40/18s on lower springs, and isn't close to rubbing, so I would have thought so. Can you try them on first?

I use this, and its brilliant. - Kinivo BTC480 Bluetooth Hands-Free Car Kit

So I recently bought an A3 Convertible without giving too much thought to how I would carry mine and my sons bikes, assuming that I would be spending too much time driving around in the sun to really care. I have since looked at my options, clearly a roof-rack is out, no bike rack seems to fit the 8p vert, and fitting a towbar requires cutting of the bumper, so that's not an option. This weekend I fancied a nice long bike ride across Dartmoor. Lets just say that 2 bikes will fit in the boot of the A3 convertible! Seats down, wheels off (the bikes!), plenty of wiggling, and in they went! So that's a full size 29er and a 24" kids bike, and we could still put the roof down to drive there! This car just keeps getting better!

I bought a 2.0tdi S Line Convertible in March, and am loving it so far! It feels very well put together and hasn't given me any cause for concern so far. Good luck in the search!

The driver information centre in the dash can tell you how many keys have been and are currently registered to the car. With only one key, I'd be concerned as the the location of any other ones, and potential security issues if they fell into the wrong hands. I'm not sure of cost of a new one though.

Hi, Picked up my first Audi, an A3 S Line Convertible. It's in great condition, brilliant colour (Monza Silver) and goes well! So far I'm loving it, coming from a 2008 Focus it's a different world!