cliffcoggin

Sorry to be late to the discussion but as an ex professional chemist and one time home car maintainer I have always been sceptical of any "cleaner" that is squirted into the intake manifold or mixed into the fuel. To be safe for sale to the public they have to be pretty weak to start with, but then they get vastly diluted in use to the point that their activity can only be feeble. Has anybody seen conclusive evidence that they really work? As to Mr. Muscle, the only oven cleaners that really shift soot deposits contain caustic soda, a known corrosive of aluminium, and therefore not something I would put into a turbo if it is made of aluminium.

It's easy to find out one is a dummy. Crawl under the car and see if both pipes are connected to the engine.

Hello Bradley. I am happy to use secondhand parts for non-safety related items like the headrest I bought a few months ago, but for brakes I want new parts.

Thanks Gareth. It looks like I am out of luck with eBay. Not only can I not find your seller, but I can't find an ABS unit for my particular model. New units for other models range from £35, (the seller is clearly a liar,) to £906, so I must decide whether to bite the bullet and pay Audi, or just ignore the warning light.

I was agreeing with you Gareth in that if his current brakes used non standard parts, a change to the genuine articles should make them more than adequate and therefore an "upgrade" would be unnecessary.

Thanks Magnet. Any information you can provide will be appreciated, particularly ease of fitting. The car has only done 74000 miles.

The ESP warning light came on a few weeks ago which an Audi dealer has diagnosed as a faulty brake pressure sensor. To repair it requires a new ABS control unit at a cost of nearly £1500 including tax and fitting. My Haynes manual suggests this is a dealer only repair, but I wonder if this is really true. Does anybody have experience of doing the job?

Purely out of curiosity, why would you want to remove the rear wiper?

The single long bleep I believe is just to confirm reverse gear has been selected.

Phil. You are referring to an A4 so my experience with A3 brakes may not be relevant, however my brakes are stupidly fierce (even after fitting new pukka Audi discs and pads all round,) and I would love to downgrade them for gentler more refined control.

Do you have air re-circulation switched on? That would cause condensation problems.

Here's another option I found when I was considering such a change. In the end I was too lazy to do anything.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/AUDI-A3-RNSE-PU-S3-RS3-car-gps-sat-nav-dvd-head-unit-usb-3G-DVR-DVB-T-IN-7047-GB-/251656541025?hash=item3a97e61361:g:J3UAAOSwQTVV~-Er

Sally. What were the faults and what were the solutions? The details should be on your invoice.

Ormie. I wonder if you have a fault with your brakes because mine are stupidly fierce even after fitting new discs and pads. In fact I would like to downgrade the servo assistance for gentler braking.

Dion. I investigated an integrated radio/satnav recently. These two looked good

 http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/AUDI-A3-RNSE-PU-S3-RS3-car-gps-sat-nav-dvd-head-unit-usb-3G-DVR-DVB-T-IN-7047-GB-/251656541025?hash=item3a97e61361:g:J3UAAOSwQTVV~-Er

and http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/7-Audi-A3-S3-Head-Unit-Car-Stereo-DVD-Player-RDS-Radio-GPS-Sat-Nav-iPod-WiFi-3G-/121715034169?hash=item1c56c80839:g:lIMAAOSw3ydVtzHd

but in the end I couldn't justify the expense and bought a cheap Garmin from Halfords.

Look at car breakers web sites, there are some specialising in Audi parts. I got a headrest for mine costing just £35 including postage that was in perfect condition.

It depends if you like, and can afford, to gamble. The problem may be a cheap sensor or it may be an expensive rebuild. Do you feel lucky?

It won't spray if the union is only cracked (loosened), but if spraying is really a concern it only needs an absorbent rag wrapped around the thread.

Wouldn't the pressure be released by simply cracking the pipe union?

Hello Luke. Don't expect too many replies as this forum has few contributors. I can't comment on your questions as I am new to Audi myself. I am pleased with mine so far, though a complete change from the three Granadas I previously owned. (There was also briefly a BMW 525 that I did not like - too noisy and too uncomfortable.)

llello Chaney. It does not look particularly high to me. It may appear that way if the wheels have been changed.

Not knowing what a DSG gearbox was I had to look it up, and I am still not sure. It is an Stronic and has gear change paddles at the steering wheel which, according to www.carwow.co.uk/guides/glossary/DSG-gearbox-explained, suggest that is DSG and therefore does not have a torque converter. However the Haynes manual tells me it has a VAG type 09G box which does have a torque converter. Are you implying a clutch fault or something else?

My recently acquired A3 SE TDI auto sometimes suffers erratic tick over when Drive is engaged causing jerky take off. The Audi dealer could find no errors showing on the diagnostic tester, and even suggested it was inherent in the model. Anybody else had the same problem? Could it be a faulty torque converter, even though gear changes are imperceptible? Is there an anti-stall control or idle valve that might be faulty?

After a couple of false starts the sat nav is now permanently wired to a key switched circuit. Thanks for the tip James about piggy back fuse taps. An added benefit to the job is having less than a foot of wire on show above the dash, so it looks far tidier.

I haven't seen those until now. I must investigate further.