Stevey Y

Hi I had the same problem on my car, it didn't ever work because it was never fitted as an option when built and the clue is if there is the camera fitted above the driver mirror. Steve.

Hi they print millions of owners manuals up front therefore what might have been their recommendation five years ago is still current until they have them reprinted, their new engine will come as a bare block which they will bolt on all the old ancillaries with new gaskets, from a personal point of view I would try and source a second hand engine, fully dressed with the ancillaries it should be about three grand for a good guaranteed unit and probably about a thousand to fit, alternatively sell it as low milage salvage. Steve.

Hi mister engineer I hate to point out that had you done this research before buying you would have walked away, from the top it had nothing to do with fashion or less springy rings, it was done to decrease friction thus decreasing emissions via the engines pistons not having to be dragged more aggressively up and down the bores, it was a cheap and nasty idea which is why they eventually offered a recall which involved the fitting of a short block assembly with the normal type of pistons and rings, that was the only way to eradicate the problem, later they found that the required emission reductions could be obtained by changing to electronic steering racks as the drag factor is 80% less, go again the advent of the freewheeling alternator pulley which only comes in when the battery requests more charge [Smart Charging], I think we have discussed this particular problem on this forum more times than I can remember which is why your earlier replies were not what you wanted to hear, we as a forum are not without any informed knowledge just a non biased opinion that the only real cure is renewal, thats why no one recommended chucking a can of Doctor Feelgood in the oil every so often it wont cure the root cause of the problem it just masks it, just like if you have a tooth infection they give you pain killers, if you are happy with a self found partial cure, knock yourself out. Steve.

Hi my bad with the confusion about oil changes vs cam belt, but I can't believe anyone in their right mind would take the advice of a dealership in good faith, they are just telling you what they think you want to hear especially with Audi who now build overpriced cars that frequently and expensively break just like the rest of the manufacturers, but people blindly follow the myth of bullet proof, what I am saying is if you do your research and take at least some of the advice given on forums like this you may well make your car last longer than most. Steve.

Hi LUK/SACHS not much choice really as LUK own SACHS but SACHS are a little bit cheaper. Steve.

Hi I have lived in the world of high milage for twenty years and believe me I have never met anyone who changed a cam belt every 3-5k thats not practical, as you previously quoted you have not heard of cam belt breakages in Europe, thats because we rarely get anyone from Germany posting about this problem, it does happen as frequently over there if you look at their car sites they tend to keep things in house as do we, a prime example when I first bought my Passat the engine of which is fitted to Audis but under a different code, I wanted to find out about the oil pump drive as its a wet belt, absolutely nothing on any British web site, but go on the German sites and we have multiple wrecking around 100k + due to the belt letting go, VAGs official line is its a belt for life, I had mine changed with the cam belt at 80k and whilst my mechanic grumbled about doing it as you have to drop the sump to get at it the first words out of his mouth when I walked in was, you were right and he then produced the old belt that had a couple of teeth missing and was pretty crispy due to being boiled in oil all its life, why not believe Audis information?, because its based on cell testing data which will never replicate real life, the reason the older engines never suffered this was because they used Gates belts which were thicker and better made, they then went over to INA probably because they were cheaper but definitely not as well built, if you look at other OE brands they have used such as Dayco which is now regarded as aftermarket Dayco would still be one of my choices as its built under a Gates patent for their Gator Grip belt which was awesome. Steve

Hi sorry to hear of your trouble, for what its worth I have been a cab driver for over twenty years and owned many vehicles and I hate to say it but they are all the same, they all quote starship milage before changing a belt which is absolute cr@p, when I had my first Mondeo one of my passengers a Ford engine development engineer was admiring it as we bowled down the road, he asked how many miles I had done and I told him 75k, he immediately said get the cam belt done at 80k, [this is an 18month old car we are talking about], he then explained that with the type of driving I do stop/start the cam belt is under most strain when starting and idling for extended periods and in his opinion should be changed every 80k or three years which ever occurs sooner, I have done just under a million miles in cambelt equipped engines and never had one fail, if you factor in stop/start systems this will drastically reduce belt life, clutch life and the starter ring gear life, you wont get a lot of change out of VAG as they are bound by E.U. rulings that say legally they have to build cars with this system and their attitude is NOT OUR PROBLEM. Steve.

Hi the connector is probably an earth, its safe to drive even if the light is on it just means if you have a crash the airbags wont deploy but looking at it I think it might be an earth for the horn, possible bodge would be to strip back the wire and solder the bare end to the broken bit of the tab, if you get another bag it will probably need coding in. Steve.

Hi as suggested its probably the alarm module, not sure where it is on your car but on the C7s its under the front Scuttle where it can get nice and damp and the connections can corrode done a couple of them and C7 modules are expensive circa £500 but I have had some success with second hand units from my local VAG breakers £70.00. Steve.

Hi this is the usual line they feed a lot of customers so when your box fails they will say NO we said it was filled for life, either way no such thing and any local garage should be able to service it for you. Steve.

Hi if you replaced the pressure sensor chances are all the gas has escaped. Steve.

Hi not quite sure but I believe there are two fuel units under the back seat one has the pump in it on the O/S and the N/S has a sender attached to it that bit is fed by the lift pump, ask him to live data the lift pump at idle the readings should be around 400 anything above that it means the main lift pump is struggling especially if when revved the readings go sky high, my theory is your lift pump is probably worn and the level compartment is starved of fuel when it goes over a bump and registers as empty which will cause it to cut out, never had this problem with my car but a few other later Audis I have worked on have had this set up and you have to remove the rear seat cushion to get at the pump etc. Steve.

BINGO!!!!

Oh you will love Brembo, I run them on my Passat that I use as a cab and by nature they get a hard time so if its a bench mark I get 40k out of the front pads and about 50k out of the rears, just had to buy some rears and got them off partsinmotion with wear indicator wire £25.80. Steve.

Hi you are a brave man considering the year of your car which is definitely fitted with the SFD+ protection system, this was fitted to stop people from doing this type of thing the only chance you have of doing this is to run in new fused feeds to each item from the battery terminals, any tampering with the main loom will cause the circuit protection system to kick in and close the can gateway down because it thinks its being stolen, very expensive trip to the dealers and not a warranty covered item, I also have OBDEleven and the only one click options that work are on pre 2019 cars after that it says its done it, takes the credits and nothing happens, example trying to reset the service/inspection intervals after service on OBD it took twenty credits for two tries and nothing happened, go again on the latest VCDS it tells you to open the bonnet to disable the SFD for this function press SRI rest twenty seconds later its done with no credits plus any other in depth adjustments it gives you the security code to access the thing you want like injector coding etc. Steve.

Hi Brembo are excellent, but I would try partsinmotion on eBay and you will definitely get better prices as they always give good discount. Steve.

Hi if you get the battery properly checked under load and it proves to be ok the next port of call would be the alarm module as these are often prone to failure due to the fact they site them in stupid places and the connectors corrode and cause shorts in the unit, I dont know where yours is fitted but it might well be worth researching it and check the connector plug. Steve.

Hi if you get the car test driven whilst plugged in they should in theory drive over a ramp and if all the ignition and injection feeds are on graph and logging, you should then be able to watch it when its returned to see which circuits bumped when you crossed the ramp. Steve.

Hi Cliff, bang on but how do you educate people, you can't and we are just a miserable tribe of old Duffers until it all goes horribly wrong, then they are back demanding answers to problems of their own making. Steve.

Hi simply couldn't comment on your situation as I seem to remember you quoting it had a remap therefore the the variables problem wise are immense as it has been taken out of the manufacturers as built scope of fault register unless you have someone who understands live data you are stuck the only clue I can give you is that if this occurred after a cam belt change, the cam timing could well be out or the crank position sensor is shot which could be checked on live data but the belt is mechanical which would involve stripping it back and checking the timing marks are spot on.

Hi if you phone a dealer they probably would be only too happy to tell you, other than that go on LLL carports site put your vin in and it will tell you what type of box you have. Steve.

Hi I can appreciate a thinking mans point of view, not because it is an agreement but because its based on sound thinking and knowledge of the pitfalls of this practice, I started to learn years ago when I got into tuning Minis, I was advised that cutting the inlet manifold from the exhaust manifold and fitting a go faster alloy inlet manifold was the way to go, smoother gas flow less heat, fine until the ambient air temp dropped and the fuel vapour was so dense is all you got was loads of white smoke, turns out the manifolds were joined to create a hot spot in the plenum chamber on the inlet manifold to vaporise the fuel on cold days, so I ended up paying a fortune for a water heated inlet manifold, new thermostat housing and about a couple of yards of heat proof hose to plumb it in, my point being that even with that sort of primitive technology you could still run aground throwing away parts the car was built with, they dont fit these systems for fun, go forward a couple of decades and you really are dancing with the Devil trying to alter it, a very wise Ford technician once said, if you can reasonably gain another forty break horsepower from a simple remap do you honestly think the manufacturer would leave those gains on the table for someone else to make money out of, NO, they would be producing the remaps themselves and selling them at a premium, [Manufacturer Approved], the reason they dont is because these things cause problems of which they already have plenty. Steve.

Hi folks we seem to have a rash of later A6s and other models that have had remaps and a couple of years down the line get running problems, the later technology software for Euro 6 is far more sophisticated than Euro 4-5 ever was, the sensors it controls are very sensitive and run between very narrow thresholds to maintain minimum emission levels to satisfy European standards, if you add to the mix that they were developing the software up to ten years before Euro 6 it then begs the question how can a bloke with a van or a download off the internet best about two million Euros worth off research and god knows how many more millions in refining these systems, yeah it is easier on the old models as the software has been cracked and is available for public consumption, allied to the fact the manufacturers dont care about older software as its past technology and can be re written to suit the writers purpose, then we have the fallout from newer maps such as increased temperatures throughout the engine which causes premature Turbo wear as well as injector wear as the ECU struggles to maintain its as built peramiters, then add the coding issues to make sure the average DIY mechanic and garages are constantly buying new and more sophisticated diagnostic machines to be able to affect repairs, the coding of major engine emissions components is to maintain a seamless repair protocol, therefore most of these cheaper maps will upset that balance. A few years ago a neighbour bought his son a brand new Vauxhall Corsa so he could commute to university and back, six months in it just made it home, I read the car and could not find any running faults so we called it a day, four days later it went back to the dealer who after four hours called the dad and told him the cars ECU was knackered as it had been interfered with, finally JNR admits one of his uni friends had done a remap on the car three months before, two days later and a new ECU at £1700 plus fitting and coding, the car was back to as built and running like a dream, all that for an alleged extra twenty BHP, if you want fast, buy fast, one of the wires friends works as a software tech for an MOD manufacturer for guided missile navigation systems, I asked her if she could write a remap for modern cars and she said yes as long as she had access to the current software profile, [not available] and at least three years to get it trialed and a certificate of compliance. Steve.

Cannot see the point in using an A3 petrol throttle body as a bench mark against an A6 diesel ultra, your throttle body is on the inlet manifold at the end right next to the EGR and both are water cooled, his vehicle on the other hand has a throttle boy under the inlet manifold which has no water cooling and runs on a completely different system, ergo the chances of you having a cheap aftermarket unit fitted are non existent as all the throttle bodies for the Ultra system whatever make have been used as O.E. at some point and my one only failed at around 200k. Steve.

Hi YouTube always looks easy when you have a fully equipped garage and you dont show the sweaty bits cos they are boring for the viewer, I swear they are funded by the people who make spare clutches etc so once you have failed the kit decorates your garage for the next year, I wish you luck, I really do. Steve.