spartacus 68

More likely to be sticking caliper causing grief. Is the brake disc sitting on a very clean hub? Any corrosion on the hub will manifest itself through the brake disc to the pedal. Also rule out worn wheel bearing. Drive the car for a few miles and coast to a stop. If the disc is getting hot, you’ll smell it and feel the heat. Tell-tale heat spots on the disc will confirm. Worn wheel bearing will have constant audible rumble in the background around 40-50mph, rather that tell-tale wheel wobble if you lift car and hold wheel at 10 to 2 position. You can raise car, grip the coil spring and rotate the wheel. Any vibration could inducate goosed bearing. A full brake dismantle is probably required. Are pads able to move in carrier, etc. Are brake sliders seized? Yes, okay to keep driving, but avoid heavy braking. Depending on the eventual outcome, you may be swapping out pads again.

Personally I’d swop out the battery. On 2017 car that’s now 8 years old and these cars are very picky about voltage drop or you get into all sorts of issues. Go AGM and get it coded to car, clear fault codes and go from there.

Nice car, cracking colour and I rate CrossClimate tyres for grip and are hard wearing if this is going to be mile muncher. The B7 forum on AudiSport channel is very active for specialised stuff.

Jack up the car at the front, on both sides, drop the engine under tray, and you can access bolts to ARB. Wire brush first and spray with penetrating release, buzz the bolts off if you have a power driver. You will also need to remove the drop links too. If the drop links have play at balljoints, replace with Meyle HD. On fitting new bushes, use red rubber grease. Don’t use any other grease.

Potentially if the balljoints are goosed. My money is on ARB bushes. Wouldn’t expect top mounts to have gone on 2017 car unless high mileage.

Audi service desks don’t listen to hearsay or talk of forums however well intended. Minimum is they will scan car with VCDS, then perform repair. Their labour charges are horrific.

Worn drop links or ARB bushes. Both inexpensive.

Don’t under-estimate the task at hand. Luckily this is a 2WD version, but you’re looking at 13 year old car, and everything will be seized on. Hat off to you for attempting. Look at parts here: https://www.lllparts.co.uk/catalogs/audi/RDW/A6/717/5 If it were me, then absolute minimum tools would be air compressor with air hammer, axle stands, full socket set with 1/2” extension breaker bar, heat (blow-torch), plus gas penetrating fluid, impact driver, battery or power torque wrench, ceramic anti seize grease, coil spring compressors, scissor jack, 2-tonne jack, wire brush, preferable on drill attachment for exposed bolt threads. Put money on rear coil spring rubber seats. being corroded. Given the work you’re going to, this had better not be your daily driver. Allow yourself a few days, ideally under cover. Brake lines, then flexible hoses, clamp where possible, you’ll need to bleed brakes afterwards. Suspension parts, Meyle HD or Lemforder, and only torque with full vehicle laden weight. Prior to dropping subframe, mark position. At the end, you’re still going to need to do alignment. Also use new subframe bolts from Audi. You will likely need VCDS for rear electro mechanical brake, or chance it just leaving handbrake off and refit pads. Put the car battery on trickle charge, during refit. Given you’re going to hassle of replacing, then swap out rear bearings too. F.A.G., nothing else. Once done, spray everything with Lanoguard every year.

Scan the car with VCDS. Normally when the dash lights up like a Christmas tree it’s a wheel speed sensor.

Could be anything, turbo, fuel pump, etc. Scan with VCDS, that will reveal the error, if it’s existed before plus any other anomalies.

In respect of original question to Colin, If brand new hardware, especially Audi, then I would look at the brake lines and put on genuine VAG. In addition, use VCDS to open the electronic parking brake and close. They are a funny old set up, but that’s my experience. I’ve also seen rear brake pads sticking on the carrier. The carrier will corrode and the shims force the pads to tighten and they don’t move. You can use a metal file on the carrier and wire brush, if it’s original stock. Had a similar issue with new Zimmermann discs and pads in an Audi Allroad B8. I also stripped the EPB. On rebuilding, use a smear of ceramic brake grease on pad shoulders, on carrier shims and piston face.

I don’t recognise the code. When you say you fixed the mechatronics, what exactly did you do? A scan with VCDS will reveal more than generic OBD scan.

Unfortunately this is a bit of a laborious fix. Water can only gain access through the light fixings, rear washer pipe connection, wiper aperture, or electrics grommet near the hinge. Others have potentially fixed by stripping out and reinstalling, possibly even use a little mastic on reinstalling. I’ve used Teroson MS930 made by Henkel before on a leaking panoramic which I can recommend. Alcohol wipe first. Before you get to that stage, interior trim out and run constant supply of water over tailgate to observe. You’ll need a decent light source.

You’re in a bit of a predicament Nicola. The trouble with main franchise dealers, and this isn’t exclusive to Audi, is that their technicians aren’t experienced enough. As mentioned earlier, if anything like BMW, then they will log onto a computer terminal and follow as prescribed route to fix and don’t use old fashioned intuition. That’s fine if they actually fix it, but as a customer you take the hit with exorbitant labour and parts. Personally, I’d take the car back from Audi dealer and continue with your route to Audi UK to see if they can address it. This is a luxury SUV, 5 years old, and shouldn’t have something that’s unfixable. There must be some sort of monitoring system for air suspension that provides live data. The fact the car self levels on start up tells you the compressor is doing its job. I’d want all the self levelling height sensors checked. That should have been done as a matter of course, and with live feed to VCDS to see functionality. Airbags, as mentioned by John, inspected properly. Whether it’s the airbag, ‘o’ ring or line feed union. Audi won’t repair, I will tell you that now. If there’s a fault then they’ll opt to replace. The air lines traced to see if there’s a break along the length of the car from the compressor. That’s why they want the seats out. I think at that point, then this repair should be goodwill, as stripping out interiors is time intensive. I gave up on main dealers years ago and do my own work. VCDS is useful, but Audi will use systems such as ODIS with component security protection which is dealer level software that your average mechanic won’t have access to. On the latest Golf MK8, you can’t even change the rear pads without ODIS is my understanding. Anyway I hope you get a resolution to this.

Interesting John, and fix. Just been listening to someone on YouTube with a Q7. They had sagging suspension overnight and replaced airbag suspension up front and the fault continued. According to them this was traced to insufficient tyre inflation. Now this got me thinking, hold on, this is a Q7, TMPS has been in place since 2012, so surely a incorrectly inflated tyre would have flagged an issue? Apparently there was an update to the story and it was in fact one of the self levelling sensors that was corroded. Would be worth checking them out that there’s no corrosion or damage before condemning the airbag.

That's unfortunate. Did you verify the mileage with a additional check through Car Vertical or such like. That might be worth doing, just to see if there's been accident damage in the past. Seems unusual for prop shaft bearing to go at just 60k, unless this car has been subjected to some abuse. There's also VAG Technic - they are based in Dudley and know Audi inside out, so you could get second opinion there before you start stripping out gearboxes.

Might be leaking rocker cover. Assume 2.0TDI? Check the rubber seal on the oil filler cap. Clean up the oil misting with brake cleaner and watch for any further signs. Hasn't been serviced recently - as in oil spill on refilling?

No reason t go to Audi, you're looking at £200 a hour plus they will probably run a diagnostic scan, so you're probably best part of £350 and they won't have lifted a screwdriver. Search out a Bosch electrical technician or fit a new relay. Double check part: https://www.lllparts.co.uk/product/4H0951253A/skoda-4h0951253a-relay

In my experience, using bushes is only cost effective if you're doing the work yourself. As you mentioned, labour is the killer. For convenience, replacing the entire arm is the way to go. The suspension arm needs to be completely removed, the old bush pressed out and the new one pressed in. On lower arms, some vehicles may have hydra bushes fitted (filled with a liquid). Once it's all done, the vehicle tracking geometry should be checked. Personally, I'd have chosen a random MOT centre and put it through. You might get some disparity between the two checks, but it should be minimal, as the garage's MOT certification is at stake, so it's in their interests to be honest and impartial. Visual inspection is only part of it, the tester should put a pry bar on those joints to check for flex.

Long shot, but check out LLL parts and look at parts diagrams for your particular model based on the work done, or register with erWIN and pay to view. You can download relevant information, so its not wasted.

Avoid the roof lining. Having had the roof lining down on my old B8 A4, I know my way around. The interior as Matt mentions is easily marked. You need a special tool for the interior grab handles, assuming you don’t break the clips or they ping off. If you do go down this route, disconnect battery at least 30 mins before attempting. There’s airbags behind A pillar and curtain airbags. The B Pillar trim is straight forward, but it’s things like rubber door seals.

Could be anything. Not all OBD readers are the same. Needs a full VCDS scan. Could even be battery related.

Speak to Audi parts and just order via them. Oil is the most expensive item, but you know will be correct specification. Autodoc are hit or miss once it gets this specialised.

Not related to A3, but B9 A4. This is a great video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4u2n1RIkcY I’m planning to do this later this year on my A4 Allroad over a weekend. Have genuine camera, access to VCDS and know my way around trim removal after coming from a B8 where the panoramic sunroof was normally in bits. The other option, and something to consider is to consider buying access to ErWin. If specialised coding still required, and I’m hoping you don’t need it, then main dealer will have access to ODIS software. From memory, Audi main dealer wanted 8 hours labour to do this job. Good luck.

Modern cars are very susceptible to energy fluctuation, so a battery on the way out will throw up all sorts of errors, never mind cold cranking amps to turn the engine over. Sometimes it’s not just starting the car, but the battery under load. As mentioned, it does need coded. Get the best you can afford, likely to be AGM.