DavidTdi

One thing kept coming to mind. On the passenger side which was easily fixed with a used lock assy the only code was for the lock... but on the driver's side it showed an additional code for the door module which apparently can happen but caused me to wonder if that module had failed. When doing the loom swap I'd had the plugs out of the door module and all looked OK but I decided to double check. With a bright torch and very close look I noticed three of the pins on the top right socket of the module were more grey than the bright shiny silver of the rest. Scraping these pins with a tiny sharp screwdriver produced fine grey deposits and then switch cleaner brought the pins back to shiny. Plugged in the replacement used lock and it worked straight away... as did the original one I'd overhauled. Cleared the codes and they remained gone. Good result in the end but it was amazing how such a tiny film of discolouration could mess things up so badly. Image of door module.

Annoyingly the new loom didn't make the lock work so I guessed my lock repair hadn't worked well and ordered a 2011 lock from a breakers... but that displayed exactly the same faults and codes. So I wasted ages stripping the two locks I now had... cleaning up the motor commutators... greasing the moving parts and even re-assembling them in various combinations of parts from the two locks mixed together... but still no luck. Images of the locks in various stages of stripdown.

This turned out to be a challenging repair. On the passenger side with not too bad condition wiring in the door shut area I tried the lock motor repair as in the first post video but no improvement so probably either the potted electronics or one of the potted micro switches had failed. A £25 breaker's yard replacement lock of the same part number but from a 2012 car worked immediately it was fitted and I just added extra insulation to the loom in the door shut. On the drivers side the motor repair as in the video worked... for about 10 test lock/unlock cycles then stopped when I found the wiring in the door shut had actually parted. Thought long and hard but wanting this to be a "once and done" repair I forked out the £145 for a new Audi door loom that side. It was very fiddly to feed inside the door around the window slide as I was really wary of straining it. When I pulled the loom plug from the door pillar socket the socket came loose and fell down in the door pillar. So I had to remove the inside footwell trim to push it back in place and the work out exactly how the purple clip worked to hold it back in place. Turned out you pull the purple clip backwards to release the socket from the pillar... which I'd done by accident... and then while holding the socket in place from inside the car slide the purple clip forward to lock it in place again. Images below of the new loom, the purple clip and of the small hole to use a long screwdriver through to hold the socket in place while you re-engage the purple clip. Note the purple clip shouldn't be moved to release the plug from the socket... there is a hidden tab on the front of the socket... you can just reach a finger round and spring that in.

One point worth mentioning. The first time I put the top back as I was easing it down something felt wrong... on taking it back off I saw the central top seal in the filter had been displaced inside such that unfiltered fuel could be drawn up. Next time I watched that the pickup stub had engaged with the seal properly before pushing the top fully home.

Well sorted it. In case it helps anyone in the future... I was a bit worried by the mention in Haynes of driving the pump to bleed with VCDS... and of various places online mentioning the car refusing to start after a filter change and possible pump damage if full of air. My car handbook said to leave the ign on for at least 30sec if you'd run out of fuel and refilled so I decided it was good enough to pre-fill the filter cannister after replacing the element so that as you pushed the top on a little fuel was displaced to be caught by an old cloth driving out 99.9% of the air. Then I did the 30 sec ign on a couple of times and it started immediately after that.

Great decision to have. On a gut feeling I'd lean to the CLA Brake,,, styling hints at the old CLS which I loved.

By chance I have my door card off at the moment so just looked... it's 100% glued. You can see that if you take the silver metal trim off.

Had a look back in the forum but couldn't find the answer. When changing the 2.0Tdi fuel filter element is there a procedure to bleed through or do you just crank in bursts until it fires? Haynes mentions leaving the filter body full of fuel then just starting up... and if you can't do that using VCDS to drive the fuel pump to pressure through and bleed??

Dan I'm new to the forum but have decades of car experience. I agree no point in winding up a seller trying to pre-deal before viewing. If selling I refuse to discuss money until you are in front of me. Also agree re garage servicing... you can't guarantee any... village garage... main dealer.... indy... will do 100%. For example the 130k miles A3 we've just bough has a fully history in the book to 90k yet the pollen filter was choked and the one the car was made with. It's best to ignore any seller's word of mouth claims that this and that has been done... just plan to check and probably do those items. To be honest it's not ideal the guy... as far as I can work out... has had the car well under 6mths and 5k miles. Also his multiple reasons for selling are sounding like typical made up stuff. Magnet is right... never buy a car to try and make a profit after using for a year. Regarding price it's personal to you. There's the car's value which is what it's worth compared to others about at the same time... and then there's its value to you. For example I'll pay a bit more to get a car at right place/right time rather than travelling many miles.... better than losing it for a few pounds to start the hunt again. 113k isn't high mileage really. Our cars have covered 110k, 105k, 130k and 152k. All running perfectly mechanics wise.

Thanks Steve. Yep a bit of work but I'm early retired so looking after the 4 family cars is a bit of a hobby. I enjoy keeping older cars in great condition... my own Mondeo 12yrs old, wife's Mercedes 13yrs, this Audi 12yrs and other daughter 18yrs old Honda.

Will do. I'm fighting the door lock internals at the moment... if that repair works both sides I'll regard it as a saving over replacing with new ones enough to almost justify a new harness.

Yep agreed only needs to be a bit poorly made and it will create even more problems some time down the line. It's £40 too which is about a third of a new OE loom which will be fit and forget for the rest of the life of the car.

On the 2008 125k miles A3 I've just bought for my daughter it has the not uncommon (I've learned from reading past threads) front door locks which don't open with the plip. Also the wiring has several wires in the drivers door shut area with broken insulatIion and a couple where the copper is just starting to break.... plus the passenger side has just two with insulation cracked but copper inside still unbroken. I'm taking the door cards off today to see if the fault is the same as this guy mentions and if his repair would work for me. If not I'll get new locks. Regarding the wiring I wonder if anyone has used this or any other loom repair kits as I would prefer to get any joins away from the area of bending in the door shut?? https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/274077641017?ssPageName=STRK:MESINDXX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1436.l2649 All ideas appreciated.

Hello to the forum, I've maintained our own cars for a lifetime and now also look after my twentysomething daughter's cars. By chance we've not owned an Audi since a really nice 1988 80 saloon many years ago. A few days ago I bought my daughter a 2-owner 125k miles 2008 Tdi Sportback 8P privately at a price to allow me to go through it and do everything to make it tip top so it's as nice to drive and as reliable as possible for her. This A3 has a dent/ding free body, immaculate interior, engine/clutch/gearbox all good, cold aircon, full history to 90k and partial since, never failed an MOT and no advisorys for the last two. But of course at the mileage, age and value quite a few service items outstanding and several faults of the A3 are/were present. It immediately needed a full set of tyres as it had three different Chinese budget brands, one with a nasty near sidewall jagged metal embedded slow puncture and two on the front out of round making anything over 60mph unpleasant. It has the usual cracking wiring in the front door pillars plus both front doors don't unlock on the plip (going to start a thread on that next). The front armrest lid has a broken catch and hinge. The rear wiper motor was u/s (rusted badly internally) and I had to break the arm to get it off the car... new motor/arm fitted yesterday. Needs a full all filters service and due timing belt/water pump. Done the oil and filter but rest of parts not here yet from Eurocarparts. As a matter of interest the pollen filter was choked and had the same date code as the cars build... so much for dealer servicing eh? Front brakes recent but rear pads needed. Battery was a bit sluggish turning over and despite car being in daily use with previous owner only read 12.3v plus it was under sized so fitted a new max capacity Varta. Code read... front door locks came up obviously plus Can Gateway 00470.... Databus in single wire mode. Understand that might be cleared when the door pillar wiring is sorted? Might seem a big list but happy to get it all done now so she takes the car away as good as possible.