Stevey Y

Hi it could well be gear oil as the box is struggling to maintain enough pressure to drive the car. Steve.

Hi TBH that is not a bad finish, I would not stick my nose up at that considering the age of the vehicle the stove blacking is obviously doing a sterling job of keeping the corrosion at bay, its got a sort of retro gothic look. Steve.

Hi if there is nothing wrong with the old callipers I would of given them a good going over with some 120 grit oxide paper then a good clean with rubbing alcohol before painting, and yes just use the existing servo units. Nice job with the painting. Steve.

Hi guys got an EML up today so I dodged home and got me code reader which hurled up P13D600 internal pressure sensor cylinder 3 implausible signal, new one on me but it turns out cylinder three glow plug is a bit special as it has a cylinder pressure sensor built in to it, the rest of the plugs are about twelve quid a go but not number three thats so special on its own its between £100-120, only putting this out as an accelerated milage model like mine 122,400 miles these things are beginning to occur. Steve.

Hi thats correct but you gave no clue as to whats wrong with the old ones so I was working on the assumption that one or both sides had some sort of failure electronically, if you don't have to replace the actuators all good but whatever you do put the rear brakes into service/pad change mode before fitting new units and above all do not unplug the drive motors or you will loose the existing coding, then you will have real problems. Steve.

Hi various car designs are only the tip of the iceberg, what about all the badge engineered spare parts including VAG brake pads a few years ago, real value for money they were as when tested at MIRA they only took an extra sixty feet to slow down from 50mph and the sad gits at Eurocarparts had sold loads of them, but I think theirs came with a set of rosary beads for the impromptu prayer meeting when braking. Steve.

My word chaps its handbags at dawn

Hi Kev if you think about it logically, ECU Testing is the better bet, worse case scenario is it is scrap for which they only charge a small fee, if its repairable !Removed! marvellous as this comes with a guarantee which you can beat them with if it fails in short order, if you DIY the job and it still won't work you will never know why because us mere mortals don't possess the test rigs they have. Steve.

Hi if the part numbers are the same it should be a straight swap but save the long coding from your old unit just in case. Steve.

Hi they will need recoding and adaptation but if you have Vagcom its doable just make sure you save the original long coding as that will get you out of the cr@p if it starts going sideways. Steve

Hi yes plenty of retrofit units but they are expensive and the LEDs used normally fail quickly. Steve.

Hi there are lots of companies that repair these, ECU Testing are about the best if they can't fix it its genuinely had it and they are always capable of offering an alternative solution. Steve.

Hi yes down the road when you are buying new Turbos every two years because they are burnt up and perhaps the occasional valve because they are burnt, the advent of EGR gave the manufacturer an outage on metal components for engines as they are now running 40% cooler therefore the components inside the engine don't have to withstand the thermal stresses that the older engines suffered as the old rule of thumb was the hotter they run the more efficient the burn and more power, trouble is the hotter they run the more Nox 1 they produce, everything is now designed to run cooler so the metallurgy changed with it. Steve.

Hi why are you replacing the module? Steve.

Hi the bar stewards at Audi have not yet released the patent for the clutches in the UK but my garage managed to get all in from TPS for 1450.00 plus about another £30 quid for the seals driveshaft/slave cylinder, the clutch driven plate and pressure plate have recently appeared on eBay circa £280-320 from Lithuania, the flywheel at sub £500 all genuine parts, the slave cylinders anything between 90-150 pounds, its worth looking at European sites as you are still in it judging by the euro quotes, I found my clutch £400.00 cheaper on a German site but was excluded as the UK is now out and they won't ship to Essex. On another note I have recently found out from my new friend that most of the manual versions of our car suffered with a problem which was designated DEW, in other words a build up of moisture in the bell housing which would cause random slippage, the cure apparently was take it for a long drive sixty miles plus and get it nice and hot, so before you start throwing money at it try that, the Dew build up is caused by short journeys and lots of town driving, if it works its cheaper than a new clutch. Steve.

Hi my fault forgot to put the 1 in front of the 21,500, I will let you know as soon as I come up with a suitable catch tank as some I have viewed have an immediate design flaw as there is a vent on top to relieve pressure/fumes but are a primitive design and will also allow air in after the MAF which will cause no end of problems as its just like having a built in air leak which will promote excessive regenerations thus knackering the DPF in record time, I wish both our engines were as simple as the A4 but unfortunately the SCR system is a whole new ball game, you have to do the research before indulging in any mods to the existing system, just been looking for them on the net. My engine is a CNHA but believe me they are very similar with only subtle differences. Steve. Steve.

Hi, sticky electric motors which can be cured by stripping the rear brake linings out and replacing pads and pad carriers, remember you will have to put the rear callipers in to service mode before working on them and take it out of service mode when finished. Steve.

Hi it sounds like there might be a problem with the clutch master cylinder travel sensor these are attached to the master cylinder to monitor when the clutch pedal is up or down, get it scanned and it normally comes up with a code for pedal sensor implausible signal, the unit is made of plastic which is guaranteed to fail dismally at some point due to age/milage. Steve.

Hi I personally would be more interested in having the diagnostics and sorting out whatever comes up from that before finding new and diverse ways of making a good car in to a wreck. Steve.

Hi there is normally a transponder pick up ring around the ignition barrel under the barrel shroud this says hi to the key when inserted in to the barrel if it is failing it may well be your problem as it sounds like its not always recognising the key and its code and on that year of car I don't think its monitored by the ECU hence no fault codes. Steve.

Hi I am up to 21,500 and no sign yet although I am considering changing it as I have heard good reports of extra power and drivability, got a seven hundred and fifty mile round trip in mid June so I will be making my assessment from there, yes we have gone from Euro 4 to 6 in about fifteen years and in saying that the EGR technology has improved in leaps and bounds but we still live with the problem of the sticky tar that is produced by the crankcase ventilation system I am currently researching the benefits of a Catch Tank system which apparently removes 90% of the water vapour and a lot of the engine oil solids, the only pain is draining it every week. Steve.

Hi the term Audi use is reducing agent, it is actually adblue and the term is derived from the system our cars use which is Selective Catalytic Reduction, the system works thus, you will have three sensors before the cat one is an exhaust gas temp sensor the other is an oxygen sensor the last one is a Nox sensor of which there are two, the correct designation are upstream for before cat and downstream post cat, before all of these is what is basically a small captive shower head which when commanded by the ECU will spray adblue into the exhaust stream pre the first bank of sensors, the first NOX sensor registers the amount of Nox in the stream and the second registers the particles after the adblue spray and depending on its in formation log may request more adblue, the whole mixture is then fed into the DPF which does its thing with the soot particle entrapment, here lies the problem to make the exhaust cleaner still there is an EGR cooler at the back of the DPF which is attached to another EGR valve which when opened by the ECU at low speeds sucks the already treated exhaust gas through the cooler with drastically cools the gas to so when it is reintroduced in to the engine to be re burnt by the combustion cycle it won't be to hot which reduces combustion temps and burns any Nox 1 that escaped the first time, as I said the main culprit for the blockages is the PCV system as this adds extra engine oil vapour and water vapour neither of which burn very efficiently if at all. thats why Audi recommend longer faster journeys as at higher speeds both EGR valves are shut as the engine needs as much oxygen rich air as it can get to maintain the speed therefore it burns slightly hotter and burns off a lot of the accumulation from town/city driving. Steve.

Hi bad starting when very cold ambient temps out side then possible regeneration problems when the rest start to fail, for what a new set costs just change the lot, job done. Steve.

Hi your regeneration intervals are spot on, with regard to the adblue its not made of pigs urine which would require vast amounts of purification before use, its made of a component in the fertiliser industry which when mixed with de ionised water creates a synthetic ammonia, when subjected to extreme temperature the greater water element turns to steam and along with the ammonia turns the nitrogen oxide particles, Nox 1 into a inert particle Nox 2 which degrades rapidly in normal atmospheric conditions. Almost all the branded adblue sold in todays market are the same and unlike fuel do not suffer with blending differences, the consumption of adblue is very dependent on fuel/oil quality I.E. if you use supermarket fuel and cheap engine oil the regeneration factor will be increased as the amount of soot produced by both is accelerated and the DPF blocks more rapidly as the soot particles will be larger and physically more dense, therefore if you use good fuel and any Quantum spec low SAPS oil you are safe, with the additive going into the fuel as long as it has a Cetane booster that raises the burn quality this promotes much smaller soot particles which burn of more comprehensively from the core filters on the DPF. Steve.

Hi just one as they are normally large enough to cope and the fitting of a second filter is not necessary. Steve.