cliffcoggin

The need for camber adjusting bolts suggests the chassis is twisted. Has the car been in a crash?

I doubt we can expect a peaceful future Gareth, but I join you in wishing for it. Happy Christmas dear readers.

Yes and no, it depends on the competance of the persons involved not the training organisation. I suggest you look for independent VAG specialists to get the best of both worlds i.e, a good knowledge of Audi cars without the corporate greed and indifference of the Audi company.

Yes of course the battery should be disconnected before cutting wires. Are you intending to change the rear lights to a different type, such as tungsten to LED for example?

Please do. You are not the only one in such a position so it would help everyone to know of your progress.

US quarts, yes. Imperial quarts, no. So tell us how much you have added in litres. Are you in the USA?

Fenton is in Staffordshire, hence my puzzlement. What say you James?

I fully agree with Gareth. Reject the car and demand either a replacement or a refund.

In your position I would demand, in writing, a replacement car on the grounds that the car is defective and the dealer has thrice proved himself incapable of fixing it. It could be a long battle so keep records of all communications, which should preferably be written not verbal.

Any news on this Joe?

Any news on this Keith?

More likely he flushed out some sediment or removed some air. I suggest you reverse flush the matrix alone, i.e. not the whole cooling system, with mains pressure water. You may be lucky to dislodge sediment and limescale enough to get the heating working again.

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.