cliffcoggin

It sounds like a loose connection. Check the plug connection and bolb contacts for looseness. Clean them with contact cleaner as well.

There's your answer: 8 quarts in the UK is 9.1 litres, not 7.6 litres, so you have added 1.5 litres too much. An odd thing to do because oil is sold here in litres, not quarts or pints or gallons, so you must have done some conversion when buying it.

Fingers crossed that the rusty brackets don't break off.

No great loss then.

It doesn't look good. Might as well change all four while you are at it.

Search the recent history of this forum and you will find several reports of the heater matrix becoming blocked. As far as I recall they involved disintegrating bags of silica gel. Stevey Y knows more of this than I do.

I don't know how much oil the engine is supposed to contain, but 8 quarts, which is two gallons or 9 litres, sounds far too much. Where did you get the specification of 8 quarts? Quarts is a measure only used the USA which has a smaller gallon than we do.

I imagine that AC specialists would be more knowlegable, though any competant garage, if you can find such a place nowadays, should be able to sort it out. If there is a possibility of contamination by a foreign substance you can try flushing it out with water.

Lisa. I think your expectations of finding a buyer who will both treat the car well and give what you consider to be a good price are unrealistic. We all believe our cars are worth more than buyers will offer, so it is a shock to discover how little even a six year old car will fetch.

Mark. As Gareth said, your choices are to sell the car in its present condition or to investigate repair by removing the head. At one time there were companys who would rebuild blocks, heads and even whole engines, but I get the impression they are now rare. That is something you would need to research. A secondhand head from a breaker's yard is a possibility if it comes with a cast iron guarantee. I would not worry about the bore scope report of a little oil on the pistons, that is to be expected as some of the valves are not closing, as long as no damage was visible on the piston crowns. Damaged pistons would add greatly to the cost. I still feel the garage that changed the belt bears some responsibilty providing it did the job properly, including any recommended change of water pump and belt tensioner etc. If short cuts were taken to reduce the cost by not carrying out all those tasks then its liability is reduced or eliminated.

O dear, that is very bad news but not unexpected. I believe you have the potential for a claim against the garage which fitted the cambelt 15 months ago. Can we assume the belt tensioner was renewed at the same time? If not, why not? Was other work done at the same time? Has the belt cover been removed at any since the belt was fitted? I am trying to get an idea of how well the work was done, and whether it has since been interfered with.

Well if retiming the cambelt does not give decent compression on all cylinders it's likely the valves are damaged. A new head will be very expensive, but a secondhand head might be a viable option if you can find somebody to overhaul it.

I have never heard of a dry clutch automatic Audi. Can you provide a reference? As far as I know the choice is between a manual box with dry clutch, and an automatic box with two wet clutches i.e. a DSG. As for the reliabilty of DSG, if neglected it's true they will fail, but that is no different from any other part of the car or any other brand of car come to that.

Steven. You need to specify which particular model in your profile, and then ask your question in the appropriate category. This category relates to forum etiquette, not repair.

Any progress on this Dion?

Any progress on the problem Michael?

Chris. Your trust is misplaced. Time to find a new garage because the fellow you go to at the moment is lying to you. Diesel cars do not run cold; they run at 90 degrees. No ifs buts or maybes about it. It's true the thermostat will have a small bypass, but it is not large enough to prevent the engine reach its correct operating temperature in the coldest British weather.

Thanks for the information Josh. That's the level of detail often missing from simple guides.

Glad to hear it Charlie. Some thanks would have been welcome.

It could be a thousand things Jessica, all of them electrical, so it makes sense to ensure the battery, (which you have thrown doubt on,) is in good condition before embarking on some diagnosis. Don't be tempted to renew components at random, or have the ECU remapped unnecessarily, else you will throw thousands of pounds down the drain. You have not, or maybe can not, answer my question about whether the battery was coded to the car when it was renewed, hence my suggestion to get it tested as a first step. Once that has been established, get the car tested with a decent code scanner, not a cheap home tool.

Perhaps, but never having had it happen to me I don't know.

Mark. It certainly sounds like there is no compression. Given that the camshaft is turning, the crankshaft must also be turning. My guess is the belt has jumped a few teeth so that the camshaft is out of phase with the crankshaft. If that is so there is the possibility of damage to the valves so it would be unwise to turn the engine again. I suggest you get the car towed or lifted to a garage for a deeper investigation. Do you have any form of guarantee on the cambelt?

I could not open the logs Syed, but I don't really need to if your words accurately reflect the data. Whether it is worthwhile to pursue a claim is debatable. You appear to have a valid claim but the time, effort and expense of doing so is going to be considerable. Only you can decide if you are prepared for that.

The temperature should remain rock steady at 90 once the engine has warmed up, so Audi are lying to you with their claim that it normally varies from 50 to 90 degrees. Take the car to an independant VAG specialist who should be able to diagnose the idling problem as well.

There is a chance that the instrument cluster is faulty. It's a common problem on A3s, which can be repaired for less than £300. If you want to be certain of the diagnosis you are going to need a better diagnostic tool than that. The usual recommendations are for OBD11 or VCDS I think they are called. Stevey Y will be able to confirm if he reads this.