Magnet

Hello Bill, You could be right about your engine running on a chain rather than a toothed belt. However, I had a feeling that when I checked some time ago, there was conflicting references to chains and belts. Definitive answer? Take a trip into your local main dealer ( armed with your V5 - with the VIN) and ask for the Parts Dept. -not Service Reception - and enquire about the cost of the belt and tensioner assembly. You will then be informed it has a chain, or a belt. I wouldn’t attempt to do this over the phone. If it does indeed have a chain, then I would still get the auxiliary belt renewed on your 12 year old car, unless you have evidence that it’s been changed in recent times. Back to cambelts (if fitted ) and scheduled changes. Choices:- Follow Audi’s current guidance and forget about changing it until 130K miles with no time limit - by which time the belt is likely to have snapped, and all you have to then worry about is scrapping the car. Renew it every 5 years or say 75K miles, with the all important caveat -‘Whichever comes first’. My choice is obviously the latter. Perhaps you could let us know how you get on Bill. Kind regards, Gareth.

How long have you owned this Pete?

Thanks David, Would you like to share your solution with other forum members? Many thanks, Gareth.

Not a lot to go with there Matt. Oil level light? Oil pressure light?

Thanks for being in touch Linds. When you say your small garage tightened the belt, and it now makes a noise - concerns. I’m also intrigued to work out how you actually know the belt is tighter than it was. If (in caps) the belt is tighter than it should be, are you happy to entrust the fitting of a new belt and assembly to them? Water pump? - if cambelt driven on your engine. Wondered what you propose to do about that. Kind regards, Gareth.

Hello again Jim, Saying it as it appears to me - Im getting a little twitchy about your posts - 4 year gap in responding ‘….’Getting back to topic…..’, ignoring sound and progressive advice with regard to your initial enquiry (and of course that is your prerogative), but more importantly your emphasis on promoting your You Tube Channels. I can’t see me needing to respond further to the initial reason for your contact, and I’ll leave it to Admin to decide the way forward if necessary. Kind regards, Gareth.

I feel for you Shaun. You have indeed learned the expensive way - treat any claim of service history made by any seller, as if not never existed, until you have sight positive that it does exist. Kind regards, Gareth.

Welcome Fi, and thanks for joining. First things first:- Can we take it you have studied copy of the on-line MOT history for this car? Also, have you seen evidence of its service history? Have you done an on-line DVLA Vehicle Check to see when the last V5 was issued? This will give you some idea of how long the last owner has owned it? Short ownership - possibly not good. Down to specifics:- Water leaks- search the forum for issues and possible solutions. Panoramic roof - potentially a problem area due to generally non solvable leaks. Personal view ( pardon the pun!) I wouldn’t be interested. Hopefully owner members will fill in the remaining answers for you. Hope some of this helps, Kind regards, Gareth.

Hello Francis, Welcome to the world of ‘Modern’ classic car ownership. This hobby is one of ‘make do and mend’, and has always been so, and to my mind, things will become even more difficult in the future, to discourage retention of aged vehicles. I don’t have any reason to support Audi’s spares stocking logic, but the car is 30 years old, and it would be unrealistic to expect them to manufacture and retain spares for your model - no more than you would expect to be able to buy parts for a 30 year old washing machine! I think what you are doing is what you need/ will have to do, and the only additional advice I can offer is to do searches for companies who are prepared to recondition pieces of electronics, so that failing parts can be repaired as needed. Good luck, but don’t give up. Kind regards, Gareth.

That’s fine Jim, although 4 years to respond! No offence taken, infact I’m still trying to locate my late father’s car, which appears to have been SORN for a decade, so know full well the difficulties. Having said that, worth trying to come up with a better excuse, which is far too transparent! I take it you haven’t had any luck from any source yet. Not tried this, but if you are on good terms with your local MOT station, try taking an MOT printout along, and see if they can tap into the last MOT location - I know you can’t, without the V5 reference number, but they might be able to. Another avenue :- if you know the area into which you sold the car, then you could try to see if the local press would run a short article on this ‘Rare car’. Longshot- but might be worth a try. Let us know if you have any success, but don’t leave it for 4 years - stretching it a bit for me! Kind regards, Gareth.

Thanks Colin - now amended. ‘…my FiL…’ ? Apologies Colin, I’m sadly lacking in my understanding of these abbreviations. Kind regards, Gareth.

Thanks Cameron, Take it you have searched EBay, and registered your ‘Want’ on on-line breaker link systems such as Partsfinder - there are more. Good luck and kind regards, Gareth.

Thanks for all the details Colin. Price? - as opposed to ‘Offers’. Kind regards, Gareth.

Sorry to hear you are not getting a free-of-charge answer to your question within 19hrs Brian. It would possibly have helped if you had offered more detail of where this LED is on your driver door - not the one which indicates the door are locked, I don’t suppose-? Anyway, good luck with finding a quick answer on your alternative forum. Perhaps you could try adding a ‘please’ on the post to them - as I thought was common place in our neck of the woods. Kind regards, Gareth.

That’s a lot of money to remove a cylinder head. Any reason why you can’t complete your profile Siman?

Would certainly expect them to have access to that information - as probably would the Parts Dept. of your local dealership - as said. I would be visiting the latter, rather than ringing, and be armed with your V5. Perhaps you could let us know how you get on. Kind regards, Gareth.

What are you doing with our Welsh cars up there Kev!? Probably originally supplied by Trainers BMW at Swansea. Kind regards, Gareth.

Oil level sensor Paul?

Thanks, What bothers me more, is why is a two year old car is being sold out of a car supermarket? Could be worrying. PCPs normally run to 3 years, main dealers usually hang onto and retail, good incoming vehicles still under warranty - unless they have proved to have issues that they no long wish to deal with. Car supermarkets source their vehicles from auction - which might have been this vehicle’s origins, stock which dealers don’t want to the responsibility of retailing, etc. The above query, together with ‘incorrect colour’ side skirts, would definitely be a ‘don’t get involved with that’ vehicle, for me. Is it the colour that attracts you to this car? Kind regards, Gareth.

Hello Lewis, This is indeed rather daft, particularly since motorway driving usually gives you less tyre wear that driving on A and B roads. Not that this will explain your situation, but I’ve haven’t been impressed with the longevity of Continental or Hankook used on A and B road motoring, but…. Are these front tyres wearing evenly across the tread width, and are you getting the same rapid wear rate on the rear tyres. When you say you’ve had the car checked, have you has a 4 wheel alignment carried out? Have you had the shock absorbers checked? Kind regards, Gareth.

Hello Jay, The definitive answer lies in the build record, and you should be able to obtain this from Audi Cust. services, or possibly through a dealer - both through the VIN. Possible theory:- delayed release due to the chip crisis?? Kind regards, Gareth.

Hello Spoonsy, I can’t see any reason why the skirt colour should be vastly different from the main body (slight shade variations on plastic bumpers etc. would not be unexpected), but…. Is this a one owner 2 year old car, and is it for sale at a main dealer? Perhaps we can offer some further advice once we have the answers. Kind regards, Gareth.

Welcome Lee, Not sure on the convertible, but such rear end electrical issues can be associated with fractured wires in flexible harness section twixt body and boot/tailgate. Not sure if the convertible has a similar set up, so might be worth a look, but I would have thought the car may not be old enough to suffer from this yet. Other possibility:- water ingress somewhere-? Kind regards, Gareth.

Hello Lynne, Audi seem to have changed their recommendations on cambelt changes, and now maintain they don’t need changing until the mileage reaches c125k ( that’s from memory) - but more importantly - without any time limit. Quite a bit has been written on here, so well worth a read before making your decision. For what it’s worth, I’m sticking with my previous regime of renewing every 5 years, even though I do low annual mileages. Low annual mileages and more frequent stops and starts place higher strains on belts. By that logic, your car is now slightly overdue for its second cambelt change. Kind regards, Gareth.

Hello Charlie, Yes, the new battery has to be coded to the car. Kind regards, Gareth.