Stevey Y

Hi Ann, I am not personally a great fan of that type of work but in saying that having looked at some of the prices of the new units I would say in view of the age of the car and its emission levels for that year it sounds like a going proposition as long as they can guarantee that it will go through the Mot which might involve you giving the car a good thrashing before you take it in, my parts system says Audi have discontinued some DPFs for that model but I am sure they would find one for you if they thought you were going to pay around £1300.00 for it, I understand your misery at keep throwing your purse at the sharks with no results, and I would definitely steer clear of the first garage as they patently don't have a clue about what they are doing and a remap would definitely solve your current situation hopefully, as for the old DPF I expect the garage has sent that back to Euros to get the surcharge back, if you decide to go for that option please get them to explain what the emissions are likely to be like after the process and please can you post how you have been doing and if its worked. Regards Steve.

Hi Bren, have a look on eBay or alternatively go to your local spares shop they should be able to get them from the Reg/VIN they are around about £15 quid from memory, it goes without saying the previous owner had the leak and obviously thought over tightening the flange bolt was better than buying a new set of gaskets then all his learned mates wound him up down the boozer about the cost of the repair so he sold the car. Steve.

Hi, larger wheels with low profile tyres will wear tyres more quickly as the rims are much heavier than the smaller rims add to this that the wider the tyre the more rolling resistance will be created thus using more of the engines available power to drive the heavier/wider wheels, one of the basic selling points when I bought my car as it had 225x55x17 wheels which have a somewhat lower rolling coefficient than the 18/19 inch set ups with wider tyres. I to used to run Mondeos as Cabs the 2.2 Titanium x Sport I had was fitted with lunatic 19 inch rims with 245 width tyres these would last about 4k on the front and 9k on the back, allied to the aquaplaning and tram lining on uneven roads it made the whole driving experience in bad weather to say the least entertaining, I finally got fed up with the expense and the ratty handling and changed to a 16 inch wheel with 60 series tyres 225x60x16 which produced a whole lot better ride with none of the above handling problems plus about another 5mpg, as long as you buy the extra load tyres 101 there is virtually no wall flexing on the tyre, 20k wear on the fronts, 30k on the rears with the prices being half for a good mid range as I was paying for a mid range 19inch tyre. If you look at it logically why are economy cars all fitted with skinny tyres with big profiles and 15-16 inch wheels?, because the rolling resistance is less. Steve.

Hi Ann, getting a bit closer I just need to know if its automatic/manual and the engine size, apparently three different types fitted to your model. Regards Steve.

Hi, its definitely as Kev said an EGR feed pipe unless you can see an actual split in the pipe itself I would suspect a faulty gasket on which end of it I would not care to speculate but I seriously doubt its the pipe itself as they are constructed with some sort of stainless steel, and if you remove it best policy is change both gaskets. by the looks of the photo someone has already had a go at stopping the leak on the flange with what looks like exhaust jointing paste, that won't fly. Regards Steve.

Hi Ann, sorry for the late reply, I thought the garage might say that as most of the aftermarket DPFs do give problems, I had it with one of my Cab buddies Mondeos he had fitted an aftermarket unit and done all the right adaptation changes but the car almost continuously regenerated, it was only when he bought a Ford refurbished part and we were fitting it that we realised that the aftermarket unit was a lot smaller in diameter the end result it filled up more quickly and therefore was regenerating more often. It may be worth enquiring if Audi do a reconditioned unit as they are a lot cheaper than new, if not try some of the internet DPF suppliers as there are a lot of them do reconditioned units or O.E. specification units, the only other option is as you say second hand, if you can let me know what your VIN number is I will do a bit of digging as well, I am sorry I cant be of more help, as for the euro unit if you can get a garage to try a forced regeneration after fitting a new pressure sensor its worth a try. Regards Steve.

Hi don't let those thieving Scrotes have it they will give you nothing for it when they spot the light, please let us know the outcome. Steve.

Hi it is that easy just as long as you get the right equivalent LED bulbs that match the original bulbs and that the LED bulbs are Canbus error free. Steve.

Hi I did mine by powering it from one of the spare fuse ports in the drivers side fuse box, from memory it was one that was in the green squared bit, the only other bit of advice is if you plumb in the rear camera run the cable along the plastic trims where the carpet joins the rocker panels on the sill as this will help by keeping the cable away from the DAB amplifier in the headlining, you will still have to buy a pack of ferrite suppression clips to stop the bit that goes from the headlining to the back window otherwise it just wipes out the DAB signal because the cables are cheap Chinese rubbish and get voltage leaks. Steve.

Just enjoy the car as is especially with the summer coming, and when the time is right just get something newer and with more Horses, but make sure you do it before the Mayor demands you own one of the new upmarket golf buggies. Steve.

Hi yes you will get more performance, yes the emissions will go up and in view of the age of the car and possibly high milage its like trying to get an eighty year old to do an assault course. Steve.

Hi the ball park figure for the sensor is £60 ish, adaptation fee should be about an hour of the garages time including the regeneration, make sure the garage has Vagcom or similar that can do the job unless its the latest Snap on kit most generic code readers won't have the required functions to do the job. Regards Steve.

PS they must still have a wheel well as otherwise where are they going to put the battery? I know my space saver is mounted above the battery. Steve.

Hi you have it in one, I think you can ask for a space saver at extra cost, the puncture repair kits are ok if its a small hole but if its a split you are scuppered, the Mondeo Sport I had was originally going to be produced with the repair kit only until one of the Ford big wigs had a pre release demonstrator for the weekend and split one of the forty series tyres and was stuck in the wilds of Surrey for hours waiting for the recovery to turn up, he put in a real snotty report to the CEO of ford UK who then decided the customer would be given the space saver option at extra cost. Steve.

Hi it could well be a pressure sensor but my guess is that the DPF you bought is aftermarket and is therefore probably smaller than the original and will block up quicker if the pressure sensor is not playing the game, the aftermarket units are generally smaller and have a Cordierite filter element which works really well but has a lower core melting point than the SIC cores used by the manufacturer, thats why they are cheap. Try getting a new pressure sensor and have the garage do a forced regeneration and the reset the adaptations for the new DPF if they did not do that after the new one was fitted that causes problems from the start as the adaptations used will be for the old unit, in effect you have to teach the DPF to learn its new functions as it goes along. Steve.

Possibly a worn DMF mine does it sometimes, the only way to find out what the lights about is to get a code reader OBD Eleven or Vcds and plug it in when you end the journey that will tell you what the fault is thats throwing the light on. Regards Steve.

Hi, OBD Eleven for the diagnostic and try youtube for any repair info, Haynes probably haven't got round to that one yet. Steve.

Hi the difference between 5w-30 and 10w-40 are minimal as the flow/viscosity rates are pretty much the same when starting, BTW the w denotes winter, where the 40 scores more highly is in the upper temperature conditions as its viscosity remains constant up to 50 degrees Celsius where the 30 is only good up to 30 degrees celsius. therefore if you do a lot of town or fast driving the 40 is the better option as it gives better protection for the engine components that are under higher thermal stress, where as the 30 will not. Zero 30-40 oils were developed for the high performance market where engineering tolerances between crank journals and pistons are a lot finer than in standard cars therefore instant oil pressure is essential when cranking to prevent bearing knock, its all about the additives that are put in friction modifiers, molecular stabilisers, viscosity stabilisers, each oil has to pass within the modules used to test the quality and the results are passed on to trading standards so if there is ever a problem with the manufacturers oil the manufacturer can rely on those figures to produce the evidence that their product is good enough. Couple of years ago I went to a local oil additives manufacturers open day with a mate of mine who worked for Ford, when we arrived the first demonstration was with two identical engines in test cells, one was filled with oil straight from the refinery with no additives the other engine was filled with Sainsbury's oil, they were both started and within three minutes the engine with no additives seized solid whilst the other was running quite happily, we were shown what happens when oil overheats and by the end of it we were in a lecture theatre being shown all about pass rates on test modules, these are governed by the brands requirements and looking through who had the highest pass rates it made shocking reading the top five pass rates were Mobil, Millers, Fuchs and Sainsbury's who had demanded the highest pass rates in each module, some such as Castrol, Halfords, Asda, and good few others were way down the ratings as they had asked for lower pass rates to keep it cheaper to produce, its the additives that cost the money. 10w-40 is not a lot thicker than 5w-30 its in the temperature ratings at the top end that are the main difference Regards Steve.

Hi its perfectly ok to swap from fully synthetic to semi synthetic as long as its the same spec or you can even use a slightly thicker grade of semi synthetic or in fact mix the two at a push without any detrimental effect on the engine, both semi/fully synthetic start life as the same thing, mineral oil, semi synthetic is processed much the same as fully synthetic its pushed through pressure chambers until it converts into gas where the impurities such as sulphur are removed and friction inhibitors are added as well as flow additives and other molecular thermal stabilisers. Fully synthetic is processed twice hence the higher cost as it has at the end of the process had more additives including detergent to keep the engine clean, if you look at vehicles that are used in countries that always have high daytime temperatures often as not the manufacturers recommend a thicker oil as this prevents the oil ever reaching critical point and cracking which means the oil molecule structures collapse and the oil reverts to its native state, carbon, the flip side of this is Mobil 1 which has so much friction inhibitor in it as well as thermal stabilisers it will never ever reach critical point as whatever the temperature reached it will maintain its molecular structure and not crack, the downside to semi synthetic is that the oil change intervals are reduced due to it degrading more rapidly. Steve.

Hi you mentioned frosty mornings, the higher end models tend to have a more sophisticated set up I.E it turns on automatically to clear the screen etc on the hot side, but be advised if its that cold a lot of aircon systems won't work because the ambient temperature outside is already cold and it does not want the radiator cooling fan running for the cold side of the aircon as this will !Removed! the engines ability to get to running temperature, believe me this year of A6 has a problem getting to running temperature as it is because of the massive radiator. Steve.

Hi it is not that frightening once you get your head round what it is and how it works and if you have Vagcom you are better equipped than most, please let us know how you get on as most people post to try and get advice and then disappear into cyber space, its a bit like watching Pulp Fiction for the first time and there is a power cut half way through. Steve.

Hi could be if its manual handbrake that one of the cables is seizing up, it sounds like the pads one side are binding worse case scenario is that its the calliper that side these normally misbehave as not many people change brake fluid so the water builds up in the calliper and rots the piston so it won't retract properly. Steve.

Hi could be if you buy an aftermarket switch these are normally fitted with whats known as a shunt which would make them plug in and play as they are fitted with a device that conforms to the ECU/BCM expectation strategy, its the same as recon alternators, anything to do with ignition is likely to upset the anti theft system. Steve.

Hi chances are it's the same part but with a different coding, try and see if it will give you the long coding for the new part and then go into the part coding sub section and see if you can recode the new one in to the BCM. Regards,Steve.

Hi OBD Eleven is good its cheaper to buy and as far as I am aware has no subscription if you don't want to go down the VCDS route. Regards Steve.