chrisbutnosurname

Yeah it all tainted my view of Audi too. Each time you post something else it reminds me of other things that were checked, the specialist I went to apparently had an auto electrician all over the wiring, he didn't find any faults but he did find that some electrical work had been done before and I think that was on or around the water bottle, something to do with the colours of the wires, if i remember correctly, he suggested the wiring had been repaired as there were some yellow wires where they should have been white or something like that, this apparently signifies that changes have been made, I think that's designed in to enable an easy spot if any work has been done, or so he told me anyway. he did claim that the work had been done well and suggested it had been carried out by a main dealer, which would sound about right as i bought mine just after the warranty had run out. This all feels like a story for Holmes and Watson, it's becoming that deep an investigation, you would hope Audi are watching these forums and would offer some help, but that would be like admitting they have a poor design or inadequate parts used, come on Audi, man up and take responsibility for your actions! Have you checked the service history with Audi yet, there is a number you can ring direct to Audi which can give you the run down of your cars history including any work carried out under warranty, I think it largely depends on who you get on the phone, some aren't quite as helpful as others, for instance the first person i got basically spilled everything to me, but when I called back about something else, the next wouldn't break at all and said i would need to contact a dealer to get info, so it's probably about how you sweet talk them. If you get a good one, they should be able to help at least with the cars background and if that shows there has been work done before similar to whats happening now,there might be a claim, I'm stretching a little, but anything is worth a try. Here are some contact details i found: How do I contact Audi UK? Audi (UK) complaints contacts Visit Customer Services. Email Andrew Doyle (Director of Audi UK) on andrew.doyle@audi.co.uk. Call Customer Services on 0800 699 888. Email Customer Services on customer.services@audi.co.uk. Tweet Audi (UK) Customer Services. Tweet Audi (UK) I'd try the Andrew Doyle one, but it probably doesn't actually get to him. Have fun.

haha you sound like me, I also live in a bit of a half finished house, bought a fixerupper a while back then realised i'm not a fixerupper kinda guy, I need a builtforlazygits house, but the missus isnt for moving now. You also sound much more adept at fixing your car on the driveway, much more confident than I am, I'm the sort who thinks its good when I put something back together and have some spares left over for next time. The only other thing that was a little different for me was the temp gauge on the car mostly read between zero and fifty degrees (more towards the zero), but the garage told me it was running fine and the temp was spot on, they even said leave it and everything will be fine as it's running perfectly, but I couldn't live with a warning light on all the time and no temp warning. As for speaking to Audi, there is the theory that he who shouts loudest gets attention, think about when a 5 year old keep saying "can I have, can I have" eventually we give up and give them what they want just to shut them up. A 6 year old German engineered high quality vehicle should perform much better than they do so some guilt trip might work if you get the right person on the other end of the phone, then again it's easy for me to say as I gave up and went to sulk in the corner of the garage. Its a sad fact that German engineering isn't quite as good as they make out, but the same can be said for all German cars I suppose, a lot of guys in my office complain about post warranty BM's and Mercs too. Good luck with the fight. Chris.

This is another stupid idea, but how long have you had the car, is it red, was the registration number BL63CSF, just checking you didn't buy my old A5 from the same dealer, as crazy as that might be, if you did, you could probably get the repair funded as you would have bought the car with a pre-existing fault and I'd be more than happy to return the favour they did to me by selling me a knacker (this is just wishful thinking on my part). Anyway, like I said, bonkers idea but stranger things have happened. Chris.

Hi Again, Sounds like you have tried everything the garage I originally took mine too, they actually changed the coolant bottle and back again when that didn't fix it, that was a VW/Audi specialist and it stumped them, well to be honest, they didn't want to do any more work on my car without charging me, which I couldn't really blame them for as they had spent a few hours changing parts without charge, it was then they asked me to get it diagnosed at an Audi dealership and bring it back once I knew what it was, that was when I got a little suspicious that I might end up chasing cost, the specialist did suggest the next thing would be a thermostat, but they told me on my model it is under the manifold so would be around 4 to 5 hours work, I think I was looking at around £700 for that job and no guarantee it would fix it, all in all its what lead to my decision, it cost me around £3k of lost car value, but there we are. Stupid question, but I presume you have a code reader and have cleared the code only to find it return? I suppose you may need to try to get an Audi dealer to diagnose as they apparently have a larger database of issues, but you're possibly looking at a couple of hundred quid just for the fault finding. Alternatively its one of the car purchase companies, I took mine back to the dealer I bought it from and they gave me a better price than webuyanycar by around £400 but did reduce the offer by £700 when I told them the fault code. By the way, during my issue, the cruise control also stopped working, I wasn't sure if this was related, a symptom of a poorly car that would clear if I fixed the fault, but it never started working again when I cleared the code so I was concerned that would be another cost, I read that cruise is a common fault and costs £250 to fix, so that was another nail in the coffin. If you chase the fault, I truly hope you find it and fix it quick, I never expected this from an Audi, it's one of the reasons I bought one in the first place, but you live and learn I suppose, give the dealership some grief and quote this forum to show there are similar issues elsewhere, I'd be happy to rant along with you if you need that. Cheers. Chris

Hi Damion, I'm sorry to say I never fixed the problem or got to the bottom of it, the signs pointed towards thermostat but the chance of replacing that only to find I'd be chasing a problem with the main dealer draining my bank account put me off, so I cut my losses, sold the car back to the national dealership that rhymes with heavens gal shore and have now leased a vw arteon which I have to say is a great car, not as much fun as the audi but a lot cheaper to run and full of toys. None of this answers your question so sorry I can't help more, good luck, there is a service audi offer, which includes funding all or part of a repair if your car is out of warranty, presuming it is as you're on here, but it felt like I'd have to go crawling to the dealer as its their decision if to offer and how much, might be worth a try tho.

Thanks Gareth, some good info there. It's a bit of a long story, I bought the car from a national company that has many dealerships, the one I bought from was not Audi. At the time there were not many models like mine on the market, some were much more expensive, some cheaper, I thought I had picked the right one for me, particularly as it could be moved to my location, but unfortunately it didn't work out that well, I think I have been sold a car that had problems that the dealer knew about and hid well, the ones I could prove were eventually sorted, but only after I flexed my brain and found out what my rights are, basically I threatened to take the car back for a full refund, even after six months, which I found was my right based on what they had done (not repairing the car in a timely manner), but my mistake was trusting them and allowing them to repair what I knew at the time was wrong. Anyway, pointless crying over spilt milk, it is what it is and I have learnt a lot. I have to admit, I am torn between trying to fix the issue and enjoying the car and just getting rid via webuyanycar and leasing something new, but I can't really afford a new audi on lease and I love the A5 (minus the faults). Just worried I might be repairing a sick car for ages. The car does have a main dealer service history, apart form the one I have just had, which was at an Audi specialist, they did update the Audi service database, but I have a feeling that Audi may not make any contribution due to not using their network for the recent service. Not too bothered about that if the problem can be sorted, just don't want to pay for repairs that don't exist, but I think you're probably right about the thermostat and might be the best option. So apparently the thermostat is under the manifold on my model, so 4 hours labour was quoted, the specialist isnt as expensive as a main dealer on hourly rate so I think thats where the estimate of £500 came from, was only a stab at a price by the way. One thing I did find out for those of you struggling with other car issues after buying form a dealer, if you have issues with a car, you have 30 days from the date of purchase in which you can return the car and request a full refund for any reason, got that from citizens advice. Thanks again, I'll keep you posted. Cheers. Chris.

Gareth, Thanks for your reply, I'll try to expand on your questions. During the diagnosis, the specialist changed what I believe to be the temperature sensor with a genuine part, this failed to solve the issue, but I'm not sure if he put the original back on and sent the new part back or not, but I can check. He then changed the coolant bottle, again with a genuine part, apparently there was some evidence of a leak as the plug at the base of the bottle was showing some discolouration to the copper contacts, this was cleaned up. I did notice a low coolant level prior to taking the car for service but topped up with distilled water just to get the level up before I took for service, I asked if this could be the signs of a leak, but as the level did not change at all in the time between my topping it up and the service (which was a couple of weeks) they thought it wasn't an issue, especially as the discolouration of the contacts was minor. Apparently they have checked the coolant temperature and the car doesn't get above 65 degrees. They then had an auto electrician spend apparently 4 hours checking the wiring, he stated that the wiring was not faulty, but that a repair had been carried out previously in one area, but it seemed to be a good repair to dealer standards, not really sure what that was. To be fair to the garage, they have not charged me for any of the work that didn't solve the issue. but I think they don't want to keep doing work they cannot charge me for, which I can't really blame them for. That being said, they have had £380 for the service so it's not altogether free. We did discuss the thermostat, whilst discussing the water pump housing (a possible issue which I had seen on the net somewhere), but apparently, to replace it is a 4 hour job with a quite expensive part (circa £500 all in), I'm not opposed to having that done, but I have to admit I don't really want to have that done if its not the answer, but that's the price of owning a second hand car I suppose. This is the job the garage doesn't want to do in case that doesn't fix the issue, so maybe I need to bite the bullet and just get it done. I will indeed keep you posted with hope this issue unfolds. By the way, I've not had much luck with this one, the turbo needed replacing, but luckily that did surface the day after I picked it up, took me 6 months to get the dealer to fix that though. Hope you have a great new year. Chris.

Hi all, sorry for the long post, but please help if you can. My car is an A5 2.0 TFSI 2014 quattro 225 Code I get is P2556 - Engine coolant level sensor/switch circuit. Car runs ok Coolant level ok Temperature gauge seems to not operate, but under faster driving goes upto ~60 degrees. Heater not functioning well, dribbles warm air on hi/auto, upon manual operation, goes cold. I have noticed that the heater works quite well if I use the windscreen clear button, heat comes through much better. air con works radiator fan is constantly running VW/Audi specialist failed to diagnose and repair, they have serviced the car and carried out the following repairs to try and fix this issue, none of which have sorted it: temperature sensor valve replaced coolant bottle replaced Auto electrician, 4 hours but not repaired, everything is okay right now from a wiring perspective. The specialist said take the car to a main dealer for diagnosis which was a little frustrating. During the repairs, on a day I had the car back in between, another dash warning appeared, looked like a temp guage in water, red in colour and stated to stop the car and check the coolant level, which was ok. After auto leccy work, warning has stopped but the P2556 remains and symptoms the same. Specialist told me car is ok to drive. A friend of mine suggested might be a radiator sensor problem, based on a similar fault on a merc, but not sure about that. If you have any ideas, I would appreciate the help.

Hi, I'm new to this forum but hopefully can help with your question as I bought my first Audi this year in a similar situation. I bought an A5 2.0 TFSI Quattro 5 door after wanting one for ages, luckily I had heard of the engine oil issue from a mate at work who had an 11 plate model which did suffer from the issue, he was quite lucky and did get a new replacement engine through Audi fitted completely free whilst out of warranty, but his car had been a lease through our company and had bee looked after by the local dealer since new. My understanding is that Audi will sort this problem if you go directly through them and if the car has been serviced regularly on time and has full service updates (so has been serviced by them), but that's only based on what some dealers have told me. Before I bought my car, I checked directly with Audi and was told that the model I was buying was not affected as the problem had been solved by 2012. If you are worried, you can check directly with Audi for the service history, they can tell you everything that has been logged by an Audi dealer, so if the engine repair or replacement has already been done, then they can tell you, but if it has not been handled by a dealer then you might not get that level of information. It's a tough decision to make, but I would say, be very careful, my car has not been without it's problems, I haven't had the best Audi experience (and I did a load of research), my biggest mistake was buying from what i thought was a trustworthy dealer, lets just say it is a very large company that has hundreds of dealerships throughout the UK, but they sold me a car that needed a new turbo charger, a new windscreen, needed the gearbox oil change carrying out and some other minor issues, it took me 6 months to get them to sort out the issues, since then I now have another issue with the temperature sensor that a specialist can't diagnose, but under the bonnet there were some surprises including a broken superglued air pipe covered in insulation tape. Not something I would say is normal, but troubling as it is now costing me a lot of money to sort out and I am considering getting rid of the car, which is a shame because I love driving it. I hope this helps, check the car well and consider getting a professional to help. All the best.