Stevey Y

Hi Gareth, I have a morbid mistrust of dealers apart from the ones I know to be honest to a point, prime example being my daughters Q3 we recently purchased, although it was bought from a private vendor it had always been serviced by Audi with the last service being done at a Bosch service centre, I don't trust the bits of paper supplied so after I had sorted the brakes out I went on to do a full service myself all Febi filters which cost £42.00 the oil came in at £25.00 for VAG oil 504/507 fully synthetic, its not worth posting pictures of the oil and fuel filters as there is no readable print visible through the crud considering the car had been serviced in January this year they were in pretty poor shape as was the oil, the most interesting filter was the air filter please observe the date on the filter which is the same as when the car was built, the car has only done 62k so can someone please explain what these thieving b@£tards for the £350.00 charged for a service, not a lot apparently, as I said they all prey on those that know nothing about the mechanical side of cars, they only want the maximum profit for the least effort. Steve.

I like that turn of phrase, unsuspecting dealer, they know exactly what they are buying which is why they buy dirt cheap, the majority of what I would class as reasonably straight dealers I know would run the vehicle for a couple of weeks before selling and see what cropped up and then get it fixed, my mechanic is often tasked by the two dealers who use him to give the cars they sell a good going over and service fixing whatever comes to light. A few years ago my missus went and bought a Alfa 156 from a rather large and palatial dealer near us the guy had put a fresh MOT on it in his own MOT bay, a couple of days later she went back complaining of a clonking on the back end his Mot man said he couldn't find anything wrong and it was probably something the car did when going over large bumps, thats when she decided to get me involved, I found the cause in five minuets, the cotton reel bushes on the rear trailing arms had more moves than a dancer at a rave, I phoned him and he stood by what his MOT man had said, plan B bought two new trailing arms and fitted them and then went down to the dealer boiler suit and grime included, then displaying the old arms with knackered bushes I asked him if he would reimburse me for the new arms, at first he refused as he said how would he know if they were from the vehicle he sold, I invited him to come outside and have a look underneath the back which he did with the MOT tester, while I was there I mentioned the fact that I was able to appeal their MOT as fraudulent with VOSA, guess what, ten minuets later I walked out with the cash for my parts and a strong warning not to return EVER and that my wife six month warranty now no longer existed. Steve.

Hi having had a word with those that do these things my informant says its most likely the seal behind the torque convertor if its a DSG set up. either way its one hell of a strip down. Steve,

Hi Thomas I doubt the sensors from Audi are any different from the sensors you bought, sounds more like a wiring fault. Steve.

Hi is it where the gearbox connects to the engine if so thats the crank rear seal which would probably mean a new clutch while they were in there, but I definitely would not be going to Audi for that job, find a good independent garage with some minerals to do the job, or if its just weeping slightly leave it until the clutch packs up. Steve.

Hi have a look on youtube thats where I go for a dummy run, if you are halfway decent with a spanner and have a good selection of tools it looks fairly simple just observe the correct torque settings when bolting it back together and any special tools you might need. I helped my neighbour do an oil change on his TT Quattro's Haldex unit apparently they are supposed to be very difficult but he had bought an O.E. service kit, god they are cheap, and the filter removal spanner, I came away a bit underwhelmed, yes it was fiddly but the hardest bit was getting the filler plug in before the new oil spilled out, I aint as flexible as I used to be lol. Steve.

Hi he has basically sold you a vehicle which under the letter of the law is not fit for purpose, therefore I don't think there is room for argument, be calm and if possible without being obvious record your discussion on your phone this will stand you at a good first base if it won't go your way and gets gritty, personally I hope he just rolls over and fixes it. It makes me sad when things like this happen as I have a customer who buys and sells cars privately but with the better makes of vehicle even with higher milage he won't budge on the price as this allows him a margin to do any repairs that despite careful inspection may occur in the first six months of new ownership and still leave a modest profit. Steve.

Hi seek advice from your local trading standards office they will advise you to get into dialogue written or email with the dealer, as a last resort start a small claims petition [Details at local Crown Court] to recover your expenses this normally works as a CCJ won't look good on there record and will hinder their ability to work with finance companies. Steve.

Hi, the recommended service interval is every 30k, there was a guy Don G who posted the same problem a few months ago and was advised that it might well be a mechatronics unit so he went for the cheaper option of a gearbox service, that cured it, BTW there are companies out there on the net that sell recon units and will also recon your own mechatronics unit on a three day turn round, there are a couple of drivers on my cab circuit that have Skodas with what is the same type of gearbox these have achieved over 200k without a rebuild so I seriously doubt you need a full rebuild as the mechanical parts of these gearboxes are very robust also google DSG gearbox specialists in your area and get a few informed opinions, you may even have to look a bit further to achieve what you require. Steve.

Hi if the CV joint is clicking its normally caused by lack of grease and means the interior components are worn which manifests itself as a clicking noise when turning, this does not exclude vibration when travelling in a straight line the inertia on the CV is less when not at an acute angle but the wear is still there which is why the vibration sets in under acceleration, its basically dry spheres metal on metal with not enough good grease to accommodate the wear, it may appear to have plenty of grease when the boot is removed but have you seen the size of the grease sachet they supply with a new joint, believe me the joints need it all even the excess in the boot. Steve.

Hi when was the transmission last serviced, could be the oil and filters are knackered, quite a common problem apparently. Steve.

Hi wipe it all off with a wet cloth and then you will see exactly where its come from, my guess is the diffuser is partially blocked and the back pressure is blowing past the seal where the pipe connects to the diffuser. Steve.

Hi looks like something to do with the seat adjuster. Steve.

Hi Arron what is the model and what engine is it fitted with, then you may have some suggestions. Steve.

Hi Febi supply the mounts and a shed load of other parts as O.E., I found that out when I bought my oil level sensor, Audi wanted nearly £200 with the VAT so I bought a Febi sensor from my local spares shop for £67 and guess what the Febi item was exactly the same except someone had ground the VAG/Audi logos off of the casing, the only thing left was all the casting numbers which matched perfectly, the guy at the spares place told me they do it all the time as they are not allowed to sell O.E. marked parts in their packaging, so if you want to buy a badge engineered part in the right box for twice the price +, knock yourself out. Steve.

Hi Richard you are on top form with this one, well done its info I have looked at before but after a twelve hour shift had no motivation to go back to, 10/10. Steve.

No worries just sorry I can't be of more help I think this problem is going to need a ton of research to peel away the layers to get at the root of the problem, I blame CARB they started this rollercoaster, Lol. Steve.

Hi I don't know what designation your engine is but the one thing I do know is between 2009 and 2012 they had a problem with what was loosely termed low friction petrol engines they had used thinner piston rings and slightly larger bores to defeat friction within the engines and cut emissions, this worked until the engines had more milage on them and the burning of oil caused the rings to stick in and burn even more oil, the only reason that I know of this is my friends wife had an 09 cabriolet which was getting through a litre of oil every week, they had such a problem in the USA with this suffering multiple law suits the government got involved and Audi had to admit to the problem and retrofit different blocks to the offending engines at their expense to rectify the problem, this started an avalanche of litigation in Europe which is how my friends wife got her engine fixed after several monitoring sessions with Audi who kept telling her the oil consumption was normal and her threatening legal action they finally rebuilt the engine, this problem is extensively catalogued on the internet with loads of info on which engines were affected, if you look on the archives of this site its probably received more than a mention. Steve.

Hi the difference between the 30-40 is the upper operating temperature, in hot countries 40 is recommended over 30 as 40 denotes the degrees at which the oil will protect the engine, the 05w is the winter grading meaning it will happily allow the engine to crank and raise oil pressure at minus 5 degrees in very cold countries they use 0 as the winter benchmark as this denotes that it will allow cranking and a subsequent oil pressure up to minus 15 degrees. I think your problem is its burning oil which won't manifest itself as blue smoke as the oil is low saps [ash] and is designed to burn clean. Steve.

Hi as quoted before the letter on the end denotes the year of the batch commission, have a look on eBay and as long as the first bit of the part number is the same just put in a request with your VIN and a will this fit my car, furthermore I would suspect the fan motor more, an easy way to test it is disconnect the plug from the module and bridge the two terminals with a piece of wire then turn on ignition and see if it works, if it does its the module if not you may be in for a new fan pack which comes with a module, I can thoroughly recommend a company on the net called Auto Air, Steve.

Hi Any wear in the anti roll bar bushes can cause a noise I sort of doubted the top mount unit unit I had a look at one and the bearing is integral so it is possible thats it but they normally clunk or grind when turning the steering in view of the very low cost and fitting time I would try the ARB bushes first and as for the bearings they are made by Febi so unless you went for the real cheap option I can't see that being the problem, so if you buy O.E. Mounts you would be paying more for the same item in an Audi box. Steve.

Hi Henry sorry for the late reply, I think from the last post that the can gateway 19 is the cause of most of your troubles if thats out of kilter its a pandoras box there is information on the Ross tech forum its via some American guy who has the same list virtually as your self it involves reprogramming the offending modules using a binary formula for the codes to get the can gateway back on side it may well be worth a read, I did try to understand it more but over lengthy perusal I realised it was a little over my pay grade, if your VCDS is genuine it may well be worth flying the question on the Ross Tech forum, they cited 07 as being the electric seat module failure. Steve.

Hi it sounds a bit like a DMF problem my car is doing the same until warmed up assuming its a manual, if its DSG it could well be the same thing and that oily smell is knackered gearbox oil vapour exiting the breather which should have a green/black plastic cap on it that sits just behind the engine on top of the gearbox its a rubbish design as the plastic deteriorates and it falls off, replaced mine twice now, Audi want £6.00 a unit Vs two for £5.00 off of eBay. Steve.

Hi, I think it could well be the roll bar bar bushes as the ride height for the bushes is set at the factory in the centre of where the up and down movement, arc occurs, by lowering the car you change the dynamics of the arc and if you consider that the bushes are clamped so the bar is gripped at the optimum point to allow the bush to flex within given movement parameters whilst still gripping the bar without moving on the bar, try giving the bush that side a liberal hosing down with WD40 or similar if it stops squeaking new bushes it is. Steve.

Hi yep any miss behaving component on the power supply will cause weird and Wonderfull problems with anything electrical, you say you have replaced the regulator and it did not work, I am thinking that this may be due to the new one needing re coding, think the old unit is at fault possibly, can you scan the old unit and retrieve the coding and make a record of that coding as that would give you a failsafe to fall back on, to be honest the electronics are very complex on these vehicles which started back in the nineties in an effort to curb home repairs as lets face it no one except Audi had access to the software required to perform any tasks. With the advent of VCDS/VAGCOM being available to the public they then had to find ways of still making repairs that much more difficult for the average DIY enthusiast, there have been posts on the net about people who have bypassed the energy monitor with great success until a couple of weeks later the alternator stops charging and the airbag light comes on because the Body control module can't read the pulse signals from the airbag module because the battery energy module has been bypassed, the whole thing is daisy chained together to stop anyone from removing components from the chain, sorry if this is not a very helpful reply but this is how they drag you to the nearest dealer kicking and screaming. Steve.