Andy33

I already said I'd give feedback on my success or failure! I thought this dedicated forum would have knowledgeable people like some American forums. I was expecting technical knowledge. For example, I joined a Honda forum with very detailed questions about the innards of the carbs on my son's CB600 F3. I got incredibly helpful replies from people that obviously got their hands dirty. I've a lifelong interest in bikes and cars and was doing all my own servicing including some engine rebuilds of both bikes and cars until I got too old. I don't think a reply saying "you shouldn't have bought it" is of any use to man nor beast. I do, of course, understand and to some extent sympathise with the context but it was best left unsaid. That's the sort of useless and indeed harmful comment you should be moderating in my view.

Steve Q: I'd already covered these in my post: no smoke, no smell, no leaks. Steve Q and cliffcoggin. I appreciate your concerns to save me wasting my money on snake oil products but there is a world of difference to risk spending tens of pounds for trying out gum-loosening additives and knowing there will be thousands of pounds to rebuild the engine. My view is simply that it sounds logical and it's worth a try. I've seen many photos of the gummed up oil pasages in Audi piston rings of that particular 2 year period. The drain holes were simply too fine and, in fact, an English manufacturer supplies a better design of rings compatible with those pistons. In an effort to reduce engine friction and hence increase fuel efficiency, Audi had also reduced the spring strength. Ie the pistons were simply easier to slide up and down but at what later cost! My post was simply asking whether others in UK had similar experience and could help me. Neither of your answers was of any help. I don't know if either of you are aware but the internet is full of accounts of successes (and some failures) with these methods of un-gumming oil control rings on a variety of engines. It's not just the Audi tfsi that suffers: Kia, Toyota and Volvo 5 cylinder turbo have also been mentioned. There are dozens of YouTube videos. Maybe Americans are more open minded or are they all liars? I've pasted in just one comment that I found on an American Audi forum: "I now have 82,000 miles, I tried the Liqi Moly flush 2 times as well as running some marvel mystery oil but nothing slowed down the oil burn, it got as bad as 1 quart in 550 miles. I finally tried the piston soak method with Berryman B12 last week and it worked!!! 700 miles so far and only a small change on the dipstick level." I'll keep you posted on my success or failure.

Thank you for your comment Cliffcoggin. I'm a chartered engineer and I think I understand the situation. I fully realise that a proper solution is an engine rebuild with the later piston design but yours is an extra-ordinarily unhelpful comment for a £2000 2009 car. What I am looking for is merely to mitigate the situation, not a proper cure. I remain optimistic despite your gloomy comment and hope that others out there are more knowledgeable and helpful.

2009 Audi A3 Convertible 1.8 tfsi Sport with 125,000 miles. I recently bought this on a summertime whim knowing it had high oil consumption but it's even worse than the seller claimed. It's only about 200 miles per litre. The car runs beautifully and seems to be about as powerful as it should be. Fuel consumption about 38 mpg. It doesn't leak, doesn't smell and I've not seen any smoke even though I've driven mostly with it open so I'm at a total loss about where the oil goes to! I've looked at dozens of posts and videos on the net and it seems to be an incredibly common occurrence with all sorts of car engines and, for the Audi TFSI engine, it's most likely either a duff PCV or gummed up oil control rings. Receipts show the seller had spent a lot the last few years on repairing leaking seals and, in particular had the 'oil breather valve' replaced by a new one at enormous cost a year ago. PCV When I take off the oil filler cap with engine idling there's no blowout of fumes and the engine pitch changes very slightly. I THINK this means the PCV is OK but if anyone can suggest a better test other than trial and error replacement I'd like to know. Oil control rings Otherwise I'd appreciate any advice out there about oil treatments. I've just learnt about Forte Oil Fortifier which you just top up with for about £15. It's the simplest and cheapest but does it really do anything? At present I'm planning to carry out a long cylinder soak for 2-3 days using Berryman B12 - I've ordered two x 440 ml containers intending really to only use one. I'll follow this with an oil/filter change using Liqui Moly Proline engine flush and refilling with Mannol Elite 5-40 high ester oil. Any suggestions, advice and comments on this plan would be very gratefully received! BTW I recently posted about my passenger door lock problem and this is now all sorted thanks partly to the help from this forum.

Thank you for your help, Daveyboy. I've taken careful note of those sources for locks that you gave me but I THINK I've solved it without a new lock! I noticed yesterday that the lock was ticking when both the 'lock' and 'unlock' were pressed on the fob so this made me think (hope) that it was a mechanical problem rather than an electrical one. So I cleaned the mechanisms all out with one of those modern degreasers - actually WD40 degreaser. I put it all back together this morning after re-oiling and it works. My 79 year old eyesight and fingers aren't ideal for this sort of thing but I managed to re-connect the door handle operating rod in the correct place after a couple of false starts. I'll keep my fingers crossed. There are eight pins in the socket but only six in the plug but I'd still dearly like to know why six wires are needed for a simple open/close mechanism! I believe there are two, maybe three micro-switches in the electrics and the usual problem is that the connections to one or more of these become 'dry' or a little cracked. Very often simply resoldering the connections works apparently. They are simply (and cheaply) soldered in to the board and it's easy to imagine that they flex a little every time the switch is operated and eventually something gives. The micro-switches are, I believe, something to do with sending signals back to ECU about the status of the door: locked/ unlocked/ shut/ open etc. Thanks again.

That looks identical! Thank you. I've sent the seller the Reg and VIN number to check. It's much cheaper than the German one (that didn't fit) too!

Thanks for your reply daveyboy. One of the locks I bought already was from Amazon but not that particular supplier. It's plasticy and probably also a cheap import but, like many people, I chose Amazon because it's so easy to return things that don't work. The other was from a far more serious setup in Germany and it did look a far better lock but it simply didn't fit so it, too, goes back. The basic problem about wires and voltages still exists, however. I have spent hours with YouTube and other sites trying to get this simple info but have drawn a complete blank. This is my first exposure to Audi and I must say I'm astonished at how hard it is to get decent info off the web. This negative attitude might carry through to dealers as well: I asked a local Audi specialist garage for help on where I could reliably source a lock that worked but he was very cagey and would only offer me a garage booking. He says you need the chassis number (which I have of course) but wouldn't offer any suggestions about retail sources. I had VWs (many) years ago and found them very easy to work on and get bits for but I'm taken aback by this experience with Audi. It's a complete contrast to my recent experience getting help and info about my son's Honda CBR600 F3. I had really detailed requirements about carb settings, jets and so on and the Honda Forum was incredibly helpful, as was a local motorbike specialist who cleaned them and set them up for me.

2009 Audi A3 cabriolet sports 1.8 tfsi. I just bought this knowing it had an 'intermittent' passenger door unlocking problem. It was actually permanent and manifests itself as being unable to open the passenger door (ie left) from outside after unlocking with the fob. Once opened from inside, it can be opened from outside. I've found VAG door lock problems are common so I've looked at loads of stuff online. I first checked the door pillar wiring and it all seems intact so I bought a new lock (actually I bought two from different sources) and was willing to try swapping the lock. I removed the lock yesterday and found that neither replacement would fit! One fitted electrically but not the meachanical linkage, the other fitted mechanically but had a slightly different plug! I'm returning them. I also found it's not that easy to check the wiring continuity because the loom into the lock plug is heavily braided so you can't easily see the wire colours or even how many there are without cutting the braiding. Having got this far, it seems sensible to check the wires and the voltages so I'd like advice on how to do this. Should I carefully cut throught the braiding? How many wires are in the plug, what colours are they and what voltages are they meant to be please? If it makes a difference, mine has that auto-locking as you gain speed. I'm assuming there should be three wires: an earth and a signal wire for operating the locking motor and another for unlocking the motor? But why are there so many pins? My second question is where can I get a replacement lock that will actually fit if the wiring all checks out and I still need to replace the lock? I have found it incredibly difficult to find the correct lock and there doesn't seem to be any markng on the lock itself to indicate the OEM number which would have helped. In the pictures, the dirty white one is mine!

My 'new' secondhand A3 cabriolet had a passenger door problem: it will lock with the fob but not unlock so the passenger can open it from outside. Otherwise everything fine. I examined door frame wiring and it's all good so I bought a new lock having watched many Youtube videos where I learn it's a pretty common VAG problem. However, before changing the lock I discovered by chance that unclipping the yellow wiring connector in the lower left corner of the (RHD car) passenger door appears to solve the problem (see image). As far as I can tell without any repercussions. Door locks and unlocks properly now and the window works. I can't imagine this location is anything to do with the wing mirror or speaker. So what is it for? It has two thin wires, white and brown and there is continuity of both to the door pillar plug. Basically, is it safe to drive the car without plugging this back in?