cliffcoggin

Please do, as this question crops up from time to time.

I agree with you Brian, but it is proving difficult to persuade people away from the old argument that if the battery has 12 volts and cranks the engine then it must be OK. That was indeed true before the advent of electronic controls a few decades ago, but it is no longer a good enough criteria to judge the condition of a battery, as you and I and many others have discovered the hard way.

There's no doubt it is leaking oil from somewhere. That will be expensive repair, so unless you need to top up frequently I suggest you ignore it for now.

Yellow equals dim where tungsten lamps are concerned, so I am confident new bolbs would be whiter. Can I assume the lens is not cloudy and any reflector untarnished.

Mark. A musty smell is always caused by damp, and as you have found those air freshener bombs (which are only perfume) merely cover the stink for a short time. You are right about the condensate drain from the AC being blocked if there is no water on the ground beneath it. Unfortunately I don't know where the drain is on your model, or how to access it. Have you cleared the AC air intakes of dead leaves etc. below the windscreen as a start? Can you remove the scuttle cover for a better view?

Aleksa. Is there a noise when the car jerks? A bang or knock for example.

Please let us know the outcome. Note that this is a forum in which information is supposed to flow two ways, so we do expect some sort of acknowledgement or response from members to those who having taken the time to answer without us having to nag.

Take it back to the dealer with your mechanic's report. The dealer will undoubtedly try to dismiss your problems with all sorts of excuses, but stand your ground and insist on either a refund or a full repair. It's your legal right.

Martin. Is it only the washers that do not work, or are the wipers also not working? I know that some Audis have a switch on the bonnet that interlocks the wipers to prevent damage?

Glad to hear it.

What progress on this Michael?

If that was really true don't you think Audi would have supplied their cars filled with a high viscosity oil at the factory? There are very good reasons for a specific quality of oil being chosen for a particular application, so it would be foolish for a novice to even consider changing to something different if it does not match the original specification.

Just because the casing or outer box is identical from one model to the next, does not mean the gear ratios inside are also identical.

I can't help on that score, except to say you need to find a way to test the output of the LT pulse generator (the Jetronic unit) before worrying about the coil.

Springs simply do not break when motionless, so it must be air suspension which is known to have problems with leaking bags, compressor failure and height sensor faults. If the car is undriveable it will have to picked up and taken away for repair.

Get it tested promptly in case it is related to this topic: https://www.audiownersclub.com/forums/topic/24906-alternator-failure-related-to-mild-hybrid-system/

So what did they tell you? As I mentioned before, don't make a decision on the cars future until you have a firm diagnosis of the fault. We can only go so far in doing that in a forum, it really needs somebody with access to the car in order to touch and feel and smell and test. If it comes to the crunch and the engine is "beyond economic repair", to use insurers phrasing, would you consider Magnet's suggestion of throwing lots of cheap oil at it as a way of keeping it running? You'd have to tolerate an oily driveway and ignore the environmental consequences, and of course even the cheapest oil is not really cheap.

Tony. We have not established whether you have contact breakers (points) running against a four or six lobed cam in the distributor, or one of the early electronic systems that had some sort of sensor to generate the LT impulses. Naturally diagnosis of the fault depends on which system you have. As for testing the coil, I only did it the old fashioned way by holding the HT lead in my hand and cranking the engine. It was immediately obvious if the coil was making the expected 14000 volts!

The LT current flows from the contact breakers to the coil where it is transformed to HT. That HT current goes from the coil to the centre of the rotor arm in the distributor and thence to the spark plugs.

No, it can knock in the straight ahead position, though it is always worse when turning.

Well done.

So do you trust Mr. Google or do you trust your mechanic? In your position I would go elswhere.

2 litres of oil in 1100 miles is truly extraordinary, and indicates significant wear of the pistons and/or bores. This is confirmed by your new revelation of excessive crankcase pressure, which is likely the cause of the oil loss. A crankcase gasket will not solve this problem. It's just possible that a new crankcase pressure control valve will help, but it's more likely that the engine has reached the end of its life. That will cost many thousands of pounds to sort out so it makes sense to get a firm diagnosis before making a decision on what to do. I suggest you find an independent VAG specialist rather than travelling to an Audi dealer. Here are two I found on an internet search. There are bound to be others. https://www.autohausedinburgh.co.uk/ https://www.hrmotors.co.uk/

Is it old fashioned enough to have points? If so, check the gap and ensure the contact faces are unburnt. The condensers in such systems were also prone to failure.

I admire both your dedication and the size of your wallet Federico.