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So sorry to hear of your frustrations, expense and troubles. These cars nowadays are just too complex, once upon a time if your car was draining battery and failing they would either replace battery, alternator, or find what is causing the drain. Now it is just whatever the computer tells them. I mean what if the generator / alternator is faulty and doesn't log any fault code ever, do you just have a £50k plus (or more) car you simply can never drive more than 20 miles or so. Madness. Hope you get sorted one way or another, ideally without any more cost to you!

Hi Rybrook. Thanks for your interest. Hub knuckle was on car at the time. Your suggestion to use heat is valid however do not possess a blow torch ( yet) Have resorted to leaving car with a mechanic who sympathetically acknowledged my plight. He intends to weld the 16 mm spline socket to the offending bolt.

Heat is your friend for this job, Just a question though, Did you have the hub knuckle on or off the car at the time? With the knuckle on the ground held between the knees, also only using 750mm breaker bar (one hand forcing the socket into the bolt and the other levering the bar. With heat applied a bolt at a time (rapidlycoolingwith wd40) , you will find they aren't actually that tight. 70nm and 180°

Hi, yes this is pretty much where we’ve got to. The AA diagnosed the alternator, Sytner Leicester Audi can’t get the same fault. We’re told that the data of the diagnostics is now with “the factory”, which is VW. Not had a response for nearly a week now… nearly 7 weeks in, £2,800 for a battery that didn’t need replacing paid which they won’t give back, and a car in pieces. We’re about to gamble and just pay for the alternator to be replaced. Risky, as if it doesn’t fix it then I’m sure Audi will abandon any further help and mean no chance of any goodwill.. Ruled out the battery and voltage converter, so what else could be the issue…. Beggars belief that they can’t work out what’s wrong within 7 weeks! by the way, many of the faults listed above came up on ours, the rear door child locks are one that stuck in the memory, as Audi Leicester quoted to replace them!!! Before the battery was fitted and the code cleared for a while.

Cheers Steve I will try this and let you know

The two earliest signs that my alternator was about to fail was the start/stop function becoming unavailable followed by the central locking locking me out then locking me in. I had to keep clicking the key fob as fast as I could whilst repeatedly pulling on the door handle. There was a good 24 hours and over 10 miles before everything else rapidly failed in succession. With that many fault codes Allan the alternator must surely be close to the end. The car park idea actually sounds sensible. What do they expect you to do?