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I believe Sach do upgraded clutches for stage 1 and 2.

There has been some great collaboration and shared experiences here. It does appear this could be the result of loading and road conditions, however if the car was mine I'd still have it checked.

Hi when was the last time you drove on the M25/M1 at speeds off 70mph, and at no point did I say that it was all cars I explained that different steering set ups behave in a different way on that type of surface also explaining that the Audi set up being finely tuned was susceptible to this type of problem on sub standard surfaces, this opinion is based on thousands of miles of travel on a lot of different roads the aforementioned roads being the worst, as for claiming all VAG vehicles are the same, never said that either, that ranks along side with the old saying for pubs, are you calling my pint a tart, I am glad Keith grasped the point of what I was saying before he rushed off to buy new suspension, tyres, tracking, its a problem with the surface, NOT THE CAR. Steve.

Might be worth asking for pictures from the seller so you can compare it to yours. Also ask for the part number. You might be able to make one good one from both.

It's not the most economical as the q3 is a big car. What ever the official mpg figures are then take 10 off them.

Hello Colin, I don’t think it’s as simple as Audi A4 vs Carrera, I think you may be a victim of a ‘new quotation’ where (so I understand) rates have been hiked across the board, as car parts increase in price along with everything else. I guess you have run this through a /couple of comparison websites, and if so, it would be interesting to know what quote you would get if you had to insure the Carrera from the same point in time. That will give you the current true comparison. Perhaps you could let us know Colin. Kind regards, Gareth.

Thanks for a this information Steve, it is reassuring to have a bit of background on why it happens, I was finding it a bit stressful not understanding the root cause. For others not experiencing it, it is only under particular circumstances, very poor surface and heavy loading. Unless you replicate the situations Steve and I describe then hopefully you won't ever get it.

Thats the one, BUT its caused by the appalling state of our roads especially the M25 concrete sections which five years after its commission by Lady Thatcher started to break up AKA concrete cancer where the individual sections start to move away from each other which is why they are so keen to resurface the whole thing, if you take in to consideration that most heavy luxury cars run wishbone suspension with a 30 degree coilover shock absorber mounted to maintain dead centre pressure on the middle of oversize width tyre to stop this behaviour its no wonder that cars such as Audis fitted with any width tyre 235 + will drag due to the tyre foot print being so wide 225 is about as good as it gets with our roads, I think the generalisation that this applies to all VAG vehicles is a bit silly as most of the lower ranges use different width tyres which rarely exceed a 215 width and won't ever encounter this problem as I explained before when I had a conversation with my neighbour an ex powertrain engineer at Wolfsburg he explained that people think bigger is better so thats what they sell them regardless of the fact that large wheels say 19 inch and low profile tyres are 40% heavier as the rims are reinforced due to the lower tyre profile therefore they are more prone to aquaplane and tramline on deviant surfaces so its not the set up thats wrong its the road surfaces, they are a large contributing factor, if you watch the old rally footage of when the quattros first started you will notice they ran skinny tyres say 195x60 x15 for example as this cut out 75% of steering drag over very rough terrain, if I drive with four passengers and a full boot up to Gatwick on the tarmac sections I only need to make minor adjustments to the steering if I go round to Heathrow from there its like playing chase the ace on the concrete plus you have the infernal clicking from the road except where they have ground about half a mile as an experiment the clicking ceases as does the wandering, I came down from 19inch wheels with 40 profile tyres to 17inch wheels with 55 profile tyres which gave a better ride and no compromise with the handling as well as about 6 miles more to the gallon I always used 101 XL tyres and never had a problem in 240,000 miles and with 200 HP and 420nm of torque it was no shrinking violet, final analysis is if you want this type of thing to calm down go down to 17 inch wheels and a slightly narrower tyre, if not you will have to live with it for the looks, my car does it on 225x55x17 so god knows how much extra noise/dragging you would get with a wider aspect tyre and 19 inch rims. Steve.

Forget about code readers and computer diagnostics. Get the battery tested by a deep discharge method which puts a heavy electrical load on it and will reveal problems that a normal volt meter will not detect.

Hello Graham, OK battery may be only 2 years old, but I wouldn’t ignore Clifford’s experience, and would suggest that you have a ‘sophisticated’ ( or whatever word you choose) test carried out on your battery - if only to eliminate it from the equation. This test would include cold cranking amps and other parameters, and not simply % efficiency. Not sure if your car is too old to be fitted with a battery condition monitor, but…Also worth getting the alternator output checked at the same time. Kind regards, Gareth.

Too true. There's never a cheap fix for an Audi I find. The cars need proper maintenance and proper parts.

Sound advice Steve but I don't think its what he wanted to hear, you know whats going to happen when the term cheap fix is mentioned, there are not any cheap fixes just cheaper. Steve.

Bare in mind if you change the cluster and do t get it coded it'll disable the car as it'll active the immobiliser

Hi it would require a lot of cutting and probably coding to fit, get your existing dash repaired, try ECU Testing, believe me there is no cheap fix for your problem even if you get a second hand unit it will require coding to the car. Steve.