New member looking for advice about restoration of 1997 A3

[Greybikeman]

I have just joined the owners club on behalf of my wife.

Her former pride and joy, a 1997 A3 1600 has become a semi-permanent feature of our drive over the last 18 months due to a broken spring, faulty speedometer cable and dodgy battery. Although I have started the car about every fortnight it has not moved under its own power during that time. Our local garage has promised to come and collect it and change the spring but these are strange times and nothing has been done.

We would really like some advice about how and where to go about getting the car moving again and also checking and restoring it so that she can use it again when our other car is unavailable. So if you know of anyone is who is willing and able to help (paid) in the Shrewsbury area then please get in touch and hopefully “Murphy” get back on the road.

Thank you for reading this and any advice welcome

AJMB

[Steve Q]

Welcome to the forum you'll find the members on here are a friendly and helpful bunch ☺️ if you need a car shipped I can recommend you use Shiply. As it slows companies to bid on the transport job. 

Regarding a restoration it shoulds like the car has been well cared for prior to being off the road. Besides changing both springs on the axel which has the snapped spring and battery my other advice would be to give it a full service including oil flush, filters, spark plugs etc. The braking system will also need to be inspected as the handbrake or calipers could have seized in that time. 

My a6 is used as my back up car abd it's invaluable for this. It's also very sentimental to me too. 

[Greybikeman]

Thank you for your kind words Steve and I shall certainly look at Shiply for transport. I posted a possible journey and was amazed at the number of possible carriers and prices. Food for thought.

 

Thank you too for your advice about the systems to look at - I have managed to keep the engine turning over but hadn’t thought about brakes etc.

I shall post an update once we have had the work done.

Alistair (Greybikeman)

[Steve Q]

You're welcome. Since your original post I've used Shiply again without issue. Definitely worth considering. 

No probs at all glad I could help 😊 please keep us posted on how you get on