Stevey Y

Hi the only difference between the S-Line and the Sport is the springs on the S-Line are shorter and stiffer except in the case of my daughters Q3 S-Line where the spring and shocks are the same as the standard Q3 its just the interior and badging on the outside are different, the shock absorbers nowadays are designed to operate with standard and factory lowered suspension, its all smoke and mirrors. Steve.

The code you have is for an air intake leak behind the MAF sensor so the the engine is getting unmeasured air into it, this would cause the DPF to start blocking as the ECU will start an overfueling strategy to cope with the extra air but once the leak is cured a good forced regeneration should sort that out. Steve.

Hi have the car read for codes that will tell you most of what you need to know, the smoke is with out doubt a bad injector that has lost its spray pattern, the overboots is caused by the MAP sensor not correlating the information from the MAF, best practise is change them both, the leak sounds as if its between the lift pump and the high pressure pump, some codes would be nice. Steve.

Hi Ahmed if they changed the water pump there is no real reason to be playing with oil seals as they are a separate entity to the cooling system, they changed the seal free of charge which suggests they knew what they had done, my advice would be to take the car to another garage and get another opinion as you are in for another fan belt, the one in the picture is shot also if the oil ingression has gotten in to the cam belt you are on very thin ice as if the oil degrades the belt the timing will slip, very expensive. Steve.

Hi it won't matter if the EGR is blanked and mapped out, if you removed the thing completely and blanked the feed you wold get an engine light up as although it no longer functions as it should it is almost a placebo effect as on a lot of the deletes that is part of the process of fooling the ECU into thinking its still there and working as it should, easy way to test the remap quality is unplug the valve and see if you get a light up, from experience a complete delete with the unit removed is very expensive and normally reserved for track cars, I watched one being done on a 330 BMW once and it took nearly three hours to do which involved removing the ECU and changing the chips inside. Steve.

Hi the seats are only heated if it was specified as a build option when the car was build specked, very few manufacturers have a true heated screen as Ford own the patent for the quick clear screen, I have seen a couple of Merc models with it but Ford charge a fortune to issue a limited licence for other manufacturers vehicles. Steve.

Hi you won't get that on a petrol vehicle as its as you say a different set up, what you describe as turbo flutter sounds very much like the EGR doing its repositioning cycle my car does it and has done since the day I got it 62k ago, I think you are possibly over reacting to a noise that has probably been there all along I seriously don't think your vehicle has any major problem. Steve.

Hi are you using cheap fuel this will cause that sort of problem as it won't burn properly and causes larger soot particles, have a look on the net for a DPF cleaner that you can add to the fuel if you do a lot of city driving. Steve.

Hi wrong, the ASV closes to eliminate any further air going in when the engine stops once stopped the butterfly valve promptly goes back to its vertical position [wide open] until the ECU tells it to assume its starting position when the ignition key/button is at position two, as for the fluttering all turbos run on a couple of second after the engine shuts down, on the old turbines back in the eighties the advice was to sit there idling for at least five minuets after a run to allow the turbo to slow down, the bearing shafts on these old units ran in a small bath of oil but anything after that was pressure fed with oil so the bearing chamber is fed until the bearings stop moving, removing the pipe just dissipates the last of the air more quickly. Steve.

Hi what engine does you car have if its the same as my 16 plate a CNHA unit the boost pressure sensor sits at the back of the engine on the right hand side just above the inlet manifold on its own little bracket and a pipe which runs down to the inlet manifold, its easy to change and is about £60, if you can post a picture of your engine bay without the plastic cover then I can confirm. Steve.

Hi get VCDS then you can set the inspection due to rows of zeros so it never comes on again, I have done it with my car and the process is applied to all Audi models. Steve.

Hi I felt really sorry for your unsuspecting dealer for about two milliseconds, he was probably used to saying NO and the victim going away to pay for it themselves but he came well and truly unstuck with you, 10/10 for effort well done. Steve.

Hi not sure about Tourque Pro but I know you can use OBD11 that works, I must admit what your wife said about this site made me smile, thats why your mobile mechanic has not appeared as with the right tools its a simple job but the thing that scares him is the relearn, I suspect its a bit above his pay grade, this site has helped many people and we have given you the correct information to complete the task which begs the question, why ask the site. Steve.

Hi did you relearn the new values on the replacement throttle body if you don't do this they run like a bag of nails, also did you have a code for the EGR. Steve.

Hi like you said Gareth the car could have come from a PX arrangement from an Audi dealer and I am sure it would have been driven so the fault may have presented itself then, which proves my point, they lie to each other let alone the end user. Good skills Karl it just shows what a bit of persistence and your own flame thrower will produce, would love to have been a fly on the wall for that one. Steve.

Hi, sounds like a faulty thermostat or temp sensor or still has air in system or cylinder head temp sensor giving monkey. readings. Steve.

Hi, its most likely the EGR valve is staying open it only opens when the engine is warm but i think its opening and staying open when warm, if the turbo shaft that runs the vanes has no real sloppy up/down movement I think you can forget that one. Steve.

Hi Clifford, ref 2 when fitting a new emissions part you have to do a re adaption of the part so the ECU knows the part is new and will let it relearn its values when it should open and close, if you don't do this the ECU will reject the new part as the only values it has stored are for the the old redundant valve, you used to be able to not relearn on Fords and after a week it would sort itself out but I have found with VAG models they won't have any of it. Steve.

Hi Dennis I would not bother unless you are not worried about money, the dealers over here have developed fangs and once they have bitten your bank account will drain it, if you are that keen try eBay. Steve.

Hi Gents finally got to the bottom of the oil in the clutch problem there is in fact another seal which fits in the back of the slave cylinder but they don't tell you about that one, so we hauled the box out for the this time and fitted the seal, the save cylinder does not come with any seals despite being £1462.00 for the clutch kit why wouldn't you throw in the seals, oh no much better to not say anything and then charge them out as extra, I thought Ford were masters of taking the p..s but these people are a whole new level. I managed to get an updated version of the same parts system they use which is where I found the missing seal and have posted the diagrams for any other poor soul who might not want to fall down the same hole.

Hi had my new clutch fitted last Tuesday, the car drove great for a couple of days then I get this sinking feeling as the car stinks of gear oil and when you floor it the clutch slipped briefly at around 2000 rpm back to the garage, my mate pulled the box out again to find the bell housing had plenty of gear oil in it, despite buying the clutch from TPS and explaining that I needed to buy the full monty clutch kit including any bolts or seals I might need it seems they forgot to tell me about the seal between the diff and nearside driveshaft that you also have to change. You have to take the diff out to get at it as the drive shaft runs through the bell housing into the diff, the new seal is not available until tomorrow as they reckon the car is to new and not many people have had to change the clutch so they don't carry the spare seals, so thanks to youtube we saw a video on how to whip the diff out on a DSG box, they are the same, eight bolts and a pry bar and out it comes a million curses and five days out of work over a lousy five quid seal, well pixxed off still I know for next time. Steve.

Hi you get to the switch unit by removing the trim inside the boot, once open its simple matter of removing the two mounting bolts and one wiring plug take your unit out get the part number off of it and go fishing on eBay loads on there. Steve.

Hi Gareth, I think dealer/servicing all comes under the same sub heading, if you view the symbiotic relationship between the two its hard to see where one begins and the other ends, I think its highly unlikely that the last service centre had an air filter that was not only second hand but had the right build date that was the same as the car, having spoken to the guy I know at BMW service he reckon the dates are peculiar to when the part was fitted as built and would not appear on any subsequent part even if purchased from a main dealer. Steve,

Hi Thomas, just a thought do the sensors need coding, just about everything else on these cars needs it. Steve.

Hi if your thermostat is actually one of those plastic units the sensor is built in and is held in with a clip, if the other sensor on the old unit was working it might be worth swapping it on to the new housing, the only other sensors for water temp are the cylinder head sensor and one on the block but I am pretty certain the one on the thermostat housing works the gauge. Steve.