Stevey Y

Hi I think someone is living in a parallel universe, went in to my local garage to book my car in for the engine mounts and ran smack bang into an argument between my mate and a customer who had bought in an Audi Q5 TFSI 2018 for a service at 42k she was told the bill was £350.00 and was acusing them of robbing her as the dealer had quoted £250, my mate rang the dealers who told him that was for the oil service only and a full service with filters was £750, she cleared off and phoned the dealers and then came back full of apologies and a wad of cash, I had a chuckle looking at the old air filter with the date 2018 on it the spark plugs were all burnt up with blow by around the porcelain, moral of the story ask what you actually get for £250.00, do the maths, about £40.00 for the parts and the rest is labour and VAT. Steve.

Hi it is indeed just make sure you follow the instructions on the bottle. Steve.

Hi you had a leak and the only thing you can do is run it as Gareth suggested, this is the only way you will find out which had the trapped air, the car or the mechanic. Steve.

Nope they all need air and the injector cycles are all controlled by that valve, open the butterfly to allow in more air the injector pulse for longer to match the air ratio in coming, shut the valve means less is being injected because of the lower airflow in coming. Steve.

Hi the extra 4-6 mpg is selling point with Hydra and on a run is where it really scores, back in June I did from where I live to St Ives in Cornwall , 750 miles round trip on £72.00 worth of diesel. Steve.

Hi you have just got to love the way the torque comes in, blow the expense. Steve.

Hi Keith is correct, but you can help it all by using a good quality fuel additive take a look on the Hydra fuel additives site, I do a lot of short journeys [Cab] I use the Maximus additive as I find it ups the Cetane rating enough for the car to kick off a regen as soon as I do any run over three miles. Steve.

Hi I believe it should hold pressure, they are not the strongest of set ups and it won't take a hell of a lot to jam the flaps up, I did a manifold on an old Vectra once and GM to their credit had made the flaps and drive assembly from metal but the crud had terminated it, so we cleaned it up and set them to the optimum position with a delete kit fitted, jammed open, it ran like a Swiss Watch, the flaps are only there to make the air intake charge more turbulent as the engine revs increase so when the injection cycle starts the fuel hits the cyclone of air and mixes more efficiently, in saying that some MK4/5 Titanium Sport Mondeos had them and they gave no end of grief, fortunately the one I bought was a later model and was not fitted with them and it still ran like an unmarked missile, those who knew said Ford had got bored with the warranty claims. Steve.

Hi Dale if you follow the pipe for the EGR the throttle body will be just below where the pipe goes into the manifold, the throttle body has a wiring connector on it, just be careful when cleaning as the drive gears are plastic and the teeth are easily damaged they do an upgraded refurb kit for them so it might be worth looking in the control/gearbox to see what yours are like. Steve.

Hi thats why I suggested you get the number off of your old part, the petrol version will have the same plug but the wires may be a different con figuration to the diesel and still use six pins, they should be able to match the part from your registration/VIN but another thought has occurred to me is the throttle body clogged up with carbon as that would cause a code for the TPS my daughters car showed the same code but on closer inspection it turned out to be the throttle body as it was covered inside with carbon and was having trouble moving the butterfly so I changed it did a readapting of the new valve scrubbed the code and its all good. Steve.

Hi sorry it did not work, swirl flaps are as bad as EGR valves for going wrong the actuator is on the inlet manifold and I know because its all plastic they wear or break, I have seen videos about repair/ delete kits, only one other question is did you look at doing an adaptation on the new valve with the vids. Steve.

Hi if you have the same problem a small piece of advice is that if you re time the cams and it works you have probably gotten lucky, what normally happens is when the cam timing moves the valves hit the pistons so something has to give, normally the lobes on the cam spin as they are sweated on to a tube at the factory so worse ways you might be in for a couple of new cams and a belt kit. Steve.

Hi the TPS sensor is attached to the pedal, a bit fiddly to remove but once off go buy another with the same part number as your old unit, diesel TPS are different from petrol as the wiring connector is the same but the wires are pinned in a different sequence. Steve.

Hi buy a plastic trim remover kit for eBay, gently prise the unit out and then change the bulb, I think the bulb is a 501 bayonet type but you can either read the writing on the bulb or visit your local spares shop and let them match it up. Steve.

Hi although I have never seen the vehicle common sense dictates the question do I throw more money at it, if the garage wants to pay the cost by all means, as Clifford suggested fit a reconditioned unit as this won't have the problems you have now, with regard to the car being clapped out it must have looked like a good proposition for you to buy otherwise you would have walked away, the brown emulsion in the oil is a classic example of fuel ingression, if you want to replace big end shells you would have to replace the piston assemblies as well ergo a recon unit would be better its known as a short engine which has had the crank journals reground and oversize shells fitted, new oil pump, pistons and rings, personally as Gareth suggested I would see if I could get an engineers report, get my money back, you may suffer a small financial loss but its better than losing the lot and if you source another vehicle either buy a couple off years later model or buy a diesel as its impossible to buy one with that type of problem as they rely on compression detonation and if the rings are gone will run like a bag of spanners. Steve.

Hi, sorry to be the bearer of bad tidings but I think one of the big end bearings is on the way out, as you mentioned the knocking decreased when you engaged the clutch, this is because engaging the clutch takes the strain off the crank so its movement is less encumbered by the clutch assemblies weight which means less flexing of the crank itself. My guess is you are probably right about the Wynns, the main problem with a lot of the petrol engines built between 2008-2011 was as a result of upcoming emission regs in Europe Audi had to find a way PDQ of reducing the emissions so their answer was to use slight overbore to reduce friction and thinner piston rings to prevent bore drag, the problem is the rings get stuck in the grooves on the piston and are not tight against the cylinder, Cliffords suggestion of a compression test is a good start but I think it might have gone beyond that, personally I would go back at the garage 5 weeks is well within the boundary of rejection under the sale of goods act, it may well have come with a known service history but that won't cure a built in problem. Steve.

Hi thank you, I am pretty sure once the new part is fitted you will be swimming in the sweet smell of success let us know how you get on, I had one of those apart once out of boredom they are basically a diaphragm with a pressure sensitive film running down the middle, good idea in principle but when living in a superheated environment the plastic membrane becomes brittle and won't work, I sincerely hope that fixes it then we can move on the gear box issue. Steve.

Hi you have the correct code but I don't think its the box, it sounds as if it might well be a clutch problem, thrust bearing, flywheel, first motion shaft bearing, drive shafts won't stop rattling if you push the clutch down, especially when you are not moving. Steve.

Hi a top of the range pierburg unit on eBay is only about £40, happy hunting. Steve.

Hi thats cracked it, Just looked and that is your problem if you plumb in to google the part number on your original unit it will come up with loads of them apparently VW use the same unit and its called N75 that is definitely your problem as the solenoid is not holding pressure which is why the actuator is bouncing up and down, just mark the pipes 1-2-3 when you take them off and put a mark diametrically on the old unit for reference, don't go back to Vauxhall otherwise you will be on Valium for the rest of your life Steve.

Hi if the actuator stops moving when the pipes from the sensors are disconnected that would indicate that the sensors are indeed working, but in saying that the MK4 MONDEO had the same set up but the sensors degrade over time and struggle to work, the actuator won't be moving at idle as there is no requirement for boost until the revs rise, easy way to test actuator is to get an assistant to turn the ignition to position two while you watch, it should move to its start position. I am glad you have use of VCDS as some codes may well unravel some of your problems. Steve.

Hi I hope it works for you as its definitely the cheaper option, let us know how you get on. Steve.

Hi there is no manual adjustment, try the cleaner first and if that won't work its the unit itself, from what I remember they look like a one piece unit with the manifold but I know you can buy repair cores and actuators separately to rebuild your unit, the bit I remember in Technicolor is that they are a real mission to remove the old unit. Steve.

Hi Ken I am pretty sure you don't have to recode if your car is an 8P 2003 - 2012 according to my Auto Data system, why I don't know because it recommends it for just about every other model from 2004 I would check this just in case they have been known to be wrong, go wind up Halfords they will confirm /deny. Steve,

Hi its the turbo position sensor which is on top of the turbo this sends messages to the ECU so it can fine tune the amount of boost to the engine at any given time, this sensor gets to control the vanes on the turbo but if the vanes are sticking it will struggle to open and close them and increases its voltage [circuit to high] to try to achieve optimum position, try giving it a can of Lucas EGR and turbo cleaner to free the vanes up. Steve.