DavidTdi

Are these intervals from a stamped service book? Main dealer stamps? If so a main dealer may be able to get more information from their computer records as it's not unknown for a book to go unstamped in error even if the service was done. One 17,000ml gap wouldn't normally worry me but the time period is a bit long at over 3.5yrs. Have a look online to see the MOT history and see if that gives any clue to its past repair history. Overall though if the vehicle otherwise looks good and checks out I'd happily buy it with one proviso... check out their reputation for timing chain/pulley problems leading to engine failure and make sure yours isn't in the affected age range or if it is are there records of a recall repair etc.

Compared to decades of experience on standard cars the long term effects of hybrid use on their engines is as yet less well known. There are opposing schools of thought re oil changes... some folks say as the engines are only running or producing power part time there is less wear so they should go greater mileages between oil changes. But the other view is with their engines starting up for short periods now and again through some journey profiles they need more frequent oil changes previously associated with short journey cars. There are special oils for Hybrids being developed to account for this use. But the deciding factor should be the information given in your handbook together with an Audi dealer's current advice... as long as you trust the receptionist is giving good advice.

It's not a competition! Just offering real life experience of trying to get that that loom back even without any extra bulk of a dozen joins which you can't risk straining. At the other end of the scale many folks have happily DIY repaired just by letting in sections of wire. It's a personal choice. Re the code reader again just offering real life experience that a basic unit usually will not look into the Audi specifics so if the OP had used such a device he may not have seen flagged codes that could help him. £150 wasn't offered as a minimum just that's what mine cost at the time... a Foxwell model just above yours in the range with broadly similar abilities... I see mine is on offer at the moment for £125 and yours for £100 so we are in the same ball park. For me whether £100 or £150 these code readers are a godsend for diagnosing problems if DIY repairing older cars.

I am still doing oil changes on our cars despite the low Covid miles. Oil and a filter are cheap items.

To expand on my reply/question above. I had similar problems with locking and it turned out to be a combination of broken wiring through the door shut, faulty locks and poor contacts on the lock module attached to the window motor. I asked what sort of scanner as the generic or cheap ones may not give any codes or help re locking, you need a specific VW/Audi one either laptop/tablet based or handheld. I have a handheld which costs about £150 and that gave codes to assist with diagnosis. I thought long and hard about the door wiring repair kit. I'm not saying don't use it but you need to be confident of making about a dozen perfect joins that don't bulk the cable thickness too much and are 100% reliable... even the complete new cable is tight to get through the location just inside the door and there is not much spare give in the cable/routing or it could get caught by the window going up and down if not correctly positioned. See my thread with pics... Front door wiring loom replacement and locks. - Audi A3 (8P) Forum - Audi Owners Club (UK)

Was that a generic scanner or VW/Audi specific?

If I search Autotrader on your 1.8 3dr model and year it brings up 6 cars. Knock out the daft dealer one at £5,995 and the cheapy at £2,495 and you are left with 4 cars between £3,995 and £4,995. That puts your payout offer of £4500 bang in the middle and in truth I think pretty generous. But... I guess you are expecting more as it's a "Black Edition"?? To be honest the extra value of that is a very personal thing and going to be hard to value over a standard car. However as well as the (to me) over priced £5-6000 ones of your year on Gumtree there is one under £4000 and one under £3000 of that spec. So there is actually loads of data to start negotiating price. Bear in mind you should not expect to get a retail value, nearer a trade or private sale price. A possible second option could be to buy your car back and have it properly repaired depending if it was a total... or just an economic decision to write off which is pretty common.

First call is to code read for faults and clear any related ones found and go from there.

Have you code read the car?

You need to be able to code read the car to diagnose locking issues otherwise it's guesswork.

I agree with Cliff for the middle to southern part of the UK.... perhaps different right up north or Scotland. In my experience and opinion there are grip downsides to many winter and all weather types in dry and wet conditions when it isn't icy or snowing so if there is no good reason to fit them you could have worse overall grip for most of the year. They often cost more than a top quality "summer" tyre too. If I really needed them I'd only fit the best compromise type which seems to the the Michelin Cross Climate.

As far as I understand the pump and solenoids are static until the ABS ECU decides it needs to intervene then they get working frantically. There are two fuse sizes for the ABS... a 10A and and two 30A under the bonnet. I couldn't find the perfect system demo but this shows it from 13min 5secs on... Great stripdown of the pump/solenoid unit here...

Something that happened to daughters A3 Tdi brakes this week might help someone who searches on a similar problem. She reported having to do a hard stop in town on a greasy road and after the ABS had cut in and she was almost stopped the ABS failed and dash lights came on for main warning, ABS, handbrake and traction/stability control. She pulled over when safe and on an engine stop/restart the lights went out and the brakes felt normal. So she brought it here yesterday for a look over. Taking it out on a wet road to test every time I braked enough to bring the ABS on it only worked for a few seconds then the braking/stability lights all came on and it slewed to a halt without ABS. And every time an engine switch off and restart put the lights out. Braking felt totally normal until the next attempt at an ABS stop when the cycle was repeated. My Foxwell VW/Audi specific code reader initially didn't show any codes even after a second test trip and rescan. What I then thought was bringing it home without doing the light clearing restart might show codes and it did on a rescan... see image below at the bottom with codes 1130 (Sporadic implausible signal) & 1276 (Hydraulic pump sporadic defective). Searching Google hinted at a new ABS pump or controller and I rather wished I had the full VCDS to get more detail.... until I dropped across this guy on Youtube... I followed his advice and replaced all the fuses related to the ABS system as he shows at 2min17 and 3min51 plus tightened all the heavy duty terminal nuts as seen at 2min40. My fuses didn't look bad by normal standards but had the same dark marks he shows where they fitted into their contacts. A restart cleared the lights and off to test... damn just the same fault. Resigned myself to putting it into a local specialist and bracing for £600 or more for a new pump. Then I had a thought that although the dash lights were out it might be holding a troublesome code and sure enough a scan found just the 1130 code remained. Deleted that... restarted no dash warning lights and through several braking cycles full ABS with no faulting and no warning lights. A right result. I'm going to pull a theory out of the air that.... Under normal "resting" circumstances the system saw everything as OK. However when the ABS was triggered the extra current draw of the pump could not be met through the imperfect fuse contacts and so forced the system into fault mode. As an aside the car's owner, my daughter, has never driven a car without ABS and I pondered just how she'd have reacted in a higher speed serious situation with the car slewing all over the place. Similarly with stability and traction control locked out. Don't know if anyone has driven their modern car to the limits of these systems in a safe test scenario but they are a staggering addition to safety compared to "the old days"!

I would echo the comments above... straight back to the person who carried out that expensive mirror repair. Just to add though... with recent experience of electrics/electronics on my daughter's A3 there is no point in even speculating on what might be wrong without getting a code reader on the car to see what it reports. Hopefully it will be something as simple as a blown fuse to replace and codes to clear but the electrical systems on these cars are complex and it could be more serious.

I'd bought the large can Halfords clear but it spat tiny bits onto the surface (I tried all the ones I'd bought and they were the same) so I returned for refund and bought a different brand which was fine... but forget what that was.

Thanks for your comments. The spray was Halfords BMW Titan/Titanium Silver. Just happened I had tha colour BMW four years ago when I decided to refurb daughters Honda alloys and used that paint as a test on one wheel as I had a can to hand. Personally I like its slightly muted look compared with some of the bright alloy finishes in cans sold as Wheel Silver.

Really sorry it broke. The method is correct it's just that it's a stupidly fiddly clip system that is prone to break unless everything is spot on aligned.

Perhaps it's not your thing to DIY but I've done a couple of sets and the results have been great. Need to get the tyres off... make good the scuffs with the least sanding possible... prep the paint... etch prime... grey undercoat... top coat... clearcoat. I heated up a small garden shed with a fan heater to aid paint drying between coats. Been a year since I did these on my Mondeo and despite giving them no extra care and occasional car wash use they still look perfect.

I was new to the A3 foibles when I bought a 2008 for my daughter in June. I soon found there are commonly found faults in the door locks themselves and with breaks in the wiring where it goes across the door pillar gap in that rubber boot. To be honest it was a bit of a devil to resolve with a new drivers door loom needed plus door locks from a breakers. You also need diagnostics that will flag up where the issue lies. My fault was slightly different to yours but they can play up in a variety of ways.

Yes. See this thread of mine about six posts down it when I changed the whole door loom. The lack of logic as to how to lock that connector back in drove me mad for ages until I worked it out. Images help show what to do.

The A3 TDi I bought and overhauled for my daughter in June suffered similar. Didn't test drive as it was bought privately during full lockdown and was in the middle of the city so wouldn't have got it above 30mph. Bought with leeway to do work but I was shocked once up to speed on the motorway driving home to feel a dreadful vibration from 60mph. Felt more through floor than steering wheel... as if the driveshafts were bent or the gearbox was about to fall out! Worse I've known in decades of driving and not a typical wheel balance feeling. Tyres were first check and were actually due for replacement as mixture of Chinese brands and I always fit premium. Both front tyres showed a degree of out of round/tread distortion when jacked up and spun with a fixed point just touching the tread to judge the distortion amount. So I swapped front to rear as a test and 90% of the vibration went. Then fitted a new set of tyres and smooth as silk. The amount of tyre distortion seen wasn't as great as the feeling of vibration indicated and you could easily have just balanced the wheels...still had the vibration... and moved onto wheel bearings, driveshafts etc... thinking the tyres OK. I've seen this quite a bit over the decades and tyre fitters often swear blind they can balance anything out but if it ain't round it might show as balanced in free air on the machine but once back on the road still no good.. Fingers crossed a front to rear swap will prove the point for you... assuming the rears are running true!

Yep water was my first thought but no the door is bone dry inside as I'd expect as the car has been garaged and its only ten days since I cleaned the pins. It's a bit frustrating as this car was bought for my daughter with two weeks to fettle it but she's collected now and taken it back to her area 100mls away. She is aware the fault may return but I hope it works for at least the month or two before we see her and the car again when I may fit a new module.

>>> remarkable how little corrosion is needed to spoil the operation of some electronic systems And so it has proved. I had a mobile locksmith out the other day to supply and program a new second key which is a story in itself. However when going multiple times to lock/unlock as well as the new remote being erratic the fault as detailed above returned whereby the drivers door needed the key to unlock when the rest of the doors worked OK on remote. I took the door panel off assuming it would be the lock failed mechanically again but turned out to be the pins I'd scraped clean on the door module were again giving a high resistance. Seems once they corrode and you scrape them back you get to an imperfect surface that re-corrodes?? Anyway cleaned the pins again and it's back working. Will price up a new module against a used one that may or may not have pin corrosion.

You need a code reader to see what it flags up... you really can't do much to these cars without a code reader.

The door cards are actually really easy to take off and despite being a tight space the lock assy comes out OK... apart from one thing that I couldn't work out for a while and didn't want to break... the yellow and black plastic clip that holds the door handle rod to the lock assy. Image below for detail. When in place in the door you need to push the yellow tab away from you with a screwdriver and at the same time hook the black bit to rotate towards you. The rod is still slightly gripped but can be flicked out.