cliffcoggin

Martin. Blue smoke is a good indicator that the engine is burning oil. Intermittent smoke in combination with difficult starting suggests the most likely problem is worn valves and seals, though at 200000 miles it is likely the bores and rings are also very worn. If you can get a compression test done and it confirms low compression I reckon you are facing an expensive repair or replacement of the engine.

My guess is that they have a common earth connection. Have you checked it?

Mark. The fault could be many things: injectors, rings, valves, ECU, cam position sensor. Grey smoke alone is not enough of a diagnostic tool to identify which with any certainty. A full diagnostic check at a garage is my best suggestion, unless you feel like stripping the engine.

Carley. You would be better off starting a new topic. I'm not saying you will get an answer but some folk may be ignoring this unrelated topic.

I hope the clutch is working properly after all that expense.

That's unfortunate. I suppose it shows the DMF is essential for smooth running.

Have you dipped the oil level?

I didn't know such conversions to solid flywheels were available. Incidentally I see it comes with a clutch included which makes the price of £365 very attractive.

Well as you have only 4.3 miles fuel left I'd say it was a low fuel level lamp.

Ouch! That's going to hurt the wallet. Thanks for letting us know.

What makes you so sure the heating pads are defective, rather than the controls, the switches, the fuses, or the connecting plugs? Have you checked any of them? It would be a shame to throw good money after bad by renewing pads that may be perfectly good, but if you happy to pay for the job to be done there are plenty of people in your area willing to do it. Hint: they all have Audi in their company names.

Being unhappy with a car isn't usually sufficient cause for a claim on the warranty unless you can show that it is defective. Given that you didn't test the seat heating, despite it being so important to you, I think you will have a hard time getting your money back. Nevertheless I wish you luck. PS. How long did you test the seat heating for? The only car I ever owned with electric seat heating (a Ford Granada from the last century,) took at least five minutes for some heat to permeate through the upholstery, and another ten to fifteen minutes for maximum temperature to be reached.

I reckon the problem is more to do with acceleration after a period of over-run, than it is to do with the turning, so valve seals are going to be a prime candidate for the cause.

Frankly I don't see what red lining the engine in that test achieves that can't be achieved at idle speed, but that's by the by. If it was my car I would now get the clutch out as the only way to be certain of its condition, and if the clutch proves to be OK I would at least be half way to getting at the gearbox.

Well halfway up is right, and if there is no problem at idle there must something else going on, though it's hard to imagine why clutch opening should be speed or load dependent. I wonder if the splines of the driven plate or the input shaft are damaged so that the driven plate can not slide when under load. That's pure speculation of course, and I've never heard of it happening, but I can't think of anything else at the moment. Perhaps Gareth will have an idea.

10:1 the clutch needs either adjustment or renewal. Your clutch may not be slipping, but neither is it opening. Where is the bite point of the clutch pedal when it starts to engage?

It would be a heck of a co-incidence if the airbag sensor failed just when you removed the door panel. It's more likely I suggest that you have dislodged a plug connector or broken a wire.

It's common in such situations for pins to be plated, sometimes even with gold, to resist corrosion. Once the plating is removed corrosion can return much faster, though a few weeks seems unusually rapid in this case. Are you sure water isn't getting in or condensing there?

Thanks for the update. That was remarkably cheap for Audi. Kudos to them. Very odd about the manual cable. I assumed its function was an alternate opening method in case of solenoid failure.

Mad. Your problem is simple: the clutch is clapped out. If you don't change it soon, your gearbox will be too.

In hindsight I didn't phrase my reply very clearly, so as Gareth said test for looseness with the wheel bolted on and let us know the outcome. Do the test with the wheel off the ground, rocking it left & right and top & bottom. Listen and feel for any movement as well as looking, your ears and hands can give valuable information.

Rob. Even if the single screw that holds the disc in place is loose, the wheel studs provide the main securing force, so the main question is whether the disc is moving independently of the hub or is the hub moving with the disc. If the hub is moving with the disc then the bearing is worn or loose.

Fair enough Gareth. It's been forty years since I used a sealant like that, and I have no doubt technology has moved on since then.

As a short term measure until you get a new radiator plain water is perfectly fine and will do not the slightest harm to your cooling system. The coloured coolant you refer to is a mixture of water, anti-freeze (ethylene glycol), dye, and a corrosion inhibitor. The anti-freeze component is in it for obvious reasons; the corrosion inhibitor is essential for long term use to prevent the electrolytic corrosion which occurs between the different metals in the cooling system, (aluminium, copper, steel, zinc.) Whether the repair will survive a 400 mile round trip is unknown. It really depends what sort of sealant was used, how big the hole was, and whether that part of the radiator is under enough stress to open up the repair. What concerns me equally is the thought of all that sealant circulating round the cooling system. I don't know if modern sealants are any better, but at one time there was a fear of it clogging up the narrower water passages in the system. In your position I would certainly not trust the car for anything more than a few miles at a time on non-essential journeys. Get the train instead.

It's remarkable how little corrosion is needed to spoil the operation of some electronic systems, and how much effort is needed to overcome it. I admire your perseverance David.