Stevey Y

Hi your bulbs are probably on their way out, age related wear inevitable, I always used the 6000k bulbs from a company called valley lighting on eBay they normally lasted about three years on my car and on a cab on nights thats pretty good going, LEDs are a waste of time and money as I have seen them used on the A4s some other cabbies have, fail quickly and keep throwing lighting faults, converting to LED headlamps your looking at £800 a side second hand or £2000 a side from Audi and then you have to get a different lighting control module and have the whole lot coded in, therefore at around £140 the pair the valley units are good value, try them you wont be disappointed. Steve.

Hi Cliff that will be a king Canute type of thing it wont ever stop the tide coming in, probably because as Gareth said they seem to want us to give them a solution and research the forum for them, such are the benefits of a non subscription site. Steve.

Hi Cliff good spot, most of these bulbs come out of China and according to the seller will fit your car, if it was fitted with H7/H11 bulbs of course it will but what they dont tell you is what to do with the fan cooler that pokes out about 10mm from the light rear cover, if you use them in a standard reflector headlight there is no beam cut off, MOT failure, you might get away with it with a projector lens but the tester wont be happy as there is no definitive cut off line for the beam. Steve.

Oh yes, fine on early vehicles anything after 2000 watch out, I have used them on a couple of old Fords and some early vauxhalls anything after that if you are lucky they might even last couple of years, they are cheap for a reason, the garage I use for cam belts and clutches have a big pile of them as the bottom has fallen out of the scrap value for batteries, so think he is waiting for it to come back, a car of your year needs voltage continuity and it wont get that from a Lion battery, as for the coding I had a look at my OBDeleven and that supports the coding of batteries up to 2024 so think the Odis thing is a bit of a crock but in saying that if you have to go that route at least get something worth coding. Steve.

Hi it wont need to go to Audi any half decent independent will have the scanner to do this at a fraction of the cost that the stealers will want. Steve.

Hi the new belt will need coding to inform the airbag module its had a new belt, it would be different with a seat as is all you do is put your original airbags in the new seat, the whole thing is daisy chained wiring wise therefore any change has to be reported to the ECU via the airbag control. Steve.

Happy New year to one and all, wonder what next year brings us, more remap requests?, I thank the posters that worked with us giving as much information as possible, you have no idea how difficult it is to remotely diagnose some problems without sight of the car, and to all those we gave answers to that they did not want to hear, I wish you luck with your endeavours in 2026. Steve.

Hi not necessarily thats the idea of getting it scanned as often a light wont appear until the item concerned has totalled itself, get your local garage to give it a scan as if they have half decent equipment it will flush any codes out and probably cost you a drink. Steve.

Hi it sounds like the DRL ballast has gone up the wall. Steve.

Hi all, looks like the fabulous mapping out strikes again which makes you wonder how many others there are out there that have been modified and the unsuspecting buyer wont know, one of my daughters boyfriends once told her, your dad don't like me because I know how to modify cars, his most famous modification being a catch tank he fitted to his rather asthmatic Fiesta diesel, she phoned me on their way back from a weekend away asking where I thought the smokescreen behind the car was coming from, I waited until they got home and found the catch tank was ventilating via a tube down by the bottom of the rear bulkhead and was spraying oil vapour all over the exhaust, good skills thought I. Steve.

Hi could be a number of variables from engine mounts to a dodgy injector, best get the car scanned for faults as thats the best place to start. Steve.

Hi Richard, Darkside are nothing if not truthful I recently put in a request for the possibility of getting the low pressure EGR system deleted on the Passat, but like most of these companies they seem biased towards total removal and the fitting of a DPF removal pipe system and then tell you its only for off road use, where does that leave you with an MOT, no disrespect to those that want to indulge but I have over a life time seen more than my share of mapping go wrong when you suddenly get a fault with no visible code because whatever it is related to has been mapped sideways. Steve.

Hi check for movement side to side and backward and forward on the transfer box shafts and prop joints. Steve.

Hi if both fronts are clunking if its when going over bumps it will be the top mount cushions, if its when you are moving backwards or forwards its the rear lower control arms both are common problems, as for the rear it can be either drop links ARB bushes or even a shock absorber top mount, I hate to tell you this but the C7 is nowhere near as well built as the C6. Steve.

Hi depending on the milage it is possibly a rear engine mount. Steve.

Hi try eBay thats about your best option, you can peruse either second hand or new aftermarket which are a sight cheaper than the dealers, recently had to buy a lower grille for my Passat that was a fox, £90 odd quid from the dealer £49 off eBay got to wait to fit it as its a bumper skin off job [summer] job. Steve.

Hi I am pretty sure it will be the battery if its never been changed as they suffer when old with voltage drops, the system is designed to shut itself down when it feels its being tampered with and a large voltage drop in cold weather will cause that, twelve volts as it is now proves not a lot, twelve volts running with everything turned on will prove an ailing battery or alternator as it should be twelve point five or over. Steve.

Happy Christmas Steve and family, this year might be yours Steve and you will get the car on the road again!!!. Steve.

Hi yes I had it on my one a couple of times, you knew when it was going in the end because first and reverse would become difficult engage quickly, both items are not a drama to replace and the parts are not expensive so the last time I replaced both the ball joint kit on the side of the box and the tail mount, Audi do a repair kit for the linkage so they must know about the problem and the tail mount for the gearbox is made by FEBI so dont buy the Audi one as its three times the price, what happens is the rear mount goes soft and allows the rear part of the box to float about so selecting gears is nigh impossible at the end, if you do it yourself have some sort of support under the gearbox to take the weight off of the mount take off the metal cross brace ant then the alloy mount itself which contains the rubber bit, the gearbox kit is easy as its just a spring clip the nylon cup both ends and pull it off the cup is the only part that wears, top tip is give the cups a coating of silicone grease as that stops them wearing as quickly. Steve.

Hi mounts and subframe fixings as well as engine and gearbox mounts as they are hydro bushes. Steve.

Hi could be the linkage on the side of the box but is most likely the rear gearbox mounting has collapsed. Steve.

Hi just about everything, seized wheel bearings, seized brakes does the engine run/turn by hand, rust on the suspension springs, deteriorated rubber suspension bushes, rust on the floor pan, water on the inside under the carpets as nothing terminates modules faster than moisture, perished boot/window rubbers, fuel pumps working, the list is endless on a vehicle of that age especially if its been stored. Steve.

Hi you could try looking at the original when you take the hub off that should tell you straight away. Steve.

Hi dont go near that particular pile of manure, glow plugs are normally changed when they throw a code, as for the life of the plugs that is indeterminate I have had to replace them at 130k but my A6 had done over 270k and I only ever changed the third plug as that has the knock sensor on it which had gone up the wall. Steve.

Hi Billy dont go within a hundred miles of a tuning box, I have TDI tuning up the road from me and even they admit how they work, they fit in between the fuel rail temperature sensor and its plug, their function is to tell the ECU that the engine temperature is still low therefore the ECU will keep the fuelling high to achieve operating temperature, yes it goes better with the extra fuel but the bit they dont want to tell is that physically when the engine is fully warmed the excess fuel is not all burnt and will hang around the sides of the swirl bowl on the piston, these larger droplets are dragged down the bore and in to your oil causing dilution and worse case scenario bore wash with added piston slap, thats why they recommend 5k oil changes but that wont stop the end result. Steve.