Stevey Y

Hi they look like redundant connectors for an old disc driven sat nav or a disc changer, check the history of the car as if the MOD owned it or police it could have been linked to a coms system, either way its nothing to be alarmed about its just a bit of a mystery. Steve.

I wish you luck with it Moog and Lemforder are both excellent brands with a reputation for durability as they only use high shore rubber, with regard to the ban I can see where you are coming from, I have not been banned by the missus yet but my body is doing it for her as after changing my front brakes disc/pads last week I was as stiff as a skinheads boot for about two days after. Steve.

Hi if the new doors are different electrically the one thing you can be sure of is its very, very rare for them to change the fixing points for the modules etc as that would create a massive re tooling cost, so in theory the originals should fit even if the connectors different, anyway 10/10 for effort and persistence. Steve.

Hi Don to be totally honest if it was an old Euro4 engine I would say buy a blanking plate but with the amount of gas flow monitoring going on with the system on the Euro6 engines you may well end up with lots of lights up, the VAG replacement valves are not that pricey compared with most other car manufacturers such as Ford or Vauxhall, last one I bought for my old Ford was £450.00 and that was cheap compared with the dealer price. Yes they are a pain but when you consider the valve is only open a fraction when going slowly around town and shut when accelerating and cruising at speed you wonder what the point actually is, the biggest villain is the crank case ventilation as this feeds engine oil vapour into the system which when it mixes with the gas from the EGR forms that black tar like crud that blocks everything up, worse still because of direct injection the crud sticks on the back of the valves where as the old system injecting via the inlet manifold would always keep the inlet valves cleaner as they were always in a cloud of hot diesel vapour. Steve.

Hi Don as long as you substitute all the components from the original doors you should be fine the main thing is that it all seems original to the body control module, a bit like a re shell but on a far smaller scale. Steve.

There you go Clifford, just shows you that you are never to old to learn, it helps if you know a bit about what you are fixing, you should treat yourself to a youtube video of the last national Alfa day some of the cars on show are some of the cars are seventy years old and still in fine running order. Steve.

Hi all the existing door modules are coded to the car therefore if you reinstall the original looms the body control module won't know the doors have been changed. Steve.

Hi the transition from metal to cast arms was bourne of a need to reduce weight and gain economy as far as I know they are not interchangeable, therefore if I was in your position I would and wanted something more bullet proof I would keep the existing arms and buy a power flex kit or similar, get the arms rubbed down and painted then fit them the bushes are in two halves with a stainless steel spigot that pushes down the centre and are easy to fit. I fitted these to my wife Alfa 147 years ago and they outlasted the car, I also fitted them to my last Mondeo on the rear trailing arms which are notorious for splitting the bushes my old car before that had four sets in 300,000 miles so the last one got power flex the first time they need changing and 200,000 miles later they were still like new. Yes they are expensive but they are the sort of thing you only buy once, fit and forget I think is the term used and the benefits are sharper handling and very much reduced tyre wear as the neoprene they are made of deforms more progressively than high shore rubber and the bushes are impervious to any chemical you throw at them. Steve.

Hi Don I am really pleased for you with a bit of persistence and using the right equipment you have saved yourself ££££££ and not had the discomfort of listening to the teeth sucking build up of a dealership technician winding the bill up. It makes me laugh when I am told that diagnostics can be the route to buying unnecessary parts, not if you know A how it works B why it works in this case you removed the dodgy sensors which dug up the root cause the DPF, I can thoroughly recommend an additive to use every fill up which not only gives better MPG and power, its called Hydra Maximus I get through about a litre every two months but as a private car owner one litre will probably last a year or so, it keeps everything clean and makes the soot particles smaller therefore less regeneration. Keep up the good work and save yourself money these vehicles are the same as any other diesel but much better built. Steve.

Hi Don, I had a look on my system but dear Audi only list the sensor as one part which includes the bracket and the pipe they don't list them separately, the pipe only has clips on either end so logic says measure the inside diameter of the pipe and if need be replace it with the same gauge silicon pipe, thats what I did on the boost sensor pipes on my last Ford, the only place you could get the pipes from was Ford for £104.00 the pair so I used aftermarket silicon pipe £13.00 they outlasted my ownership of the car and 160,000 miles. Steve.

Hi Don, also check that the rubber hose between the MAP and the manifold is not blocked as I am informed that it is wise to change the hose with the MAP I will try and get you the part number for the hose. Steve.

Hi Arron, after owning three diesel cabs equipped with DPFs and having covered 750k between them I have got a pretty fair idea of what goes on, they are all different the worst one being my 2.2 Titanium x sport Mondeo, one night I was late going to Gatwick for a pick up so I had become stuck on one of our local B roads, so the car had just started a regeneration I threw a left up a side road, there was some poor soul on the grass verge on the corner letting his dog take a leak, as I looked back he was completely engulfed in a large cloud of whitish grey smoke, basically three days worth of ash, the car normally did this on the motorway in small puffs when accelerating it was quite spectacular in slower motion, the exhaust pressure is high on the motorway which evacuates the ash, same pressure when booting it up a side road. Steve.

Hi if you can get the original AUDI part number and plumb that in to eBay or similar that will probably throw up a lot of branded parts made by other manufacturers, your garage is correct in what they say the EGR is supposed to shut off under hard acceleration as the engine needs as much fresh air as it can get but the cheap valves leak exhaust gas in to the system at higher revs which pollutes the air fuel mixture thus you have a contaminated compressed charge which won't burn well hence no power, the by product of this is you will eventually kill the cat and turbo as they were never designed to run like that. Steve.

Hi its quite normal its the DPF clearing its ash load, the smell is quite normal as well they all do it, its less spectacular on the euro six engines but noticeable all the same. Steve.

Hi Don if you can give me your milage and the codes that came up this time, I suspect that where the MAP/MAF situation was ongoing the car probably needed a regeneration which would be declined as the MAP/MAF not communicating would be classed as a major fault so the whole lot goes into default until the problem is cured I personally would give the car a forced regeneration after first clearing the codes [otherwise it won't do it] and see what occurs after that, did you do the adaption of the new MAF, I don't know what diagnostics platform you are using so am flying a bit blind. Regards Steve.

Hi you won't need vagcom to bleed them its as you say start at the furthest but I can highly recommend bleeding both at once as they will be on separate diagonal circuits so if you bleed them as a pair there is less chance of air swapping from one circuit to another. Steve.

Well done and you went for the pro pack, that will expand your capabilities as well as the facility to check once a month to head off any up and coming problems all at a fraction of the cost of VCDS. Its probably the best entry level set up I have seen for a long time and they are constantly updating the system, I have often thought recently of buying it but my phone is just about banged out with work APPS but I am rapidly thinking it might be worth an extra phone just to run that. Steve.

Hi Ann anything to do with a pressure washer and electrically operated things is bad news, the labour charge is reasonable, and as for the boot is it not opening from the outside/inside button or the key fob ? the clicking could be a dry C.V.joint or just a stone wedged in the tyre tread. Regards Steve. ps the new all electric cars are impressive until they go wrong and you are forced to use dealers to fix them I don't think anyone on here including me would have a clue about repairs.

Hi you can just buy the piston part of the calliper without the motor which is removable and it works out cheaper, yes Stark is a well respected parts manufacturer in Europe. Steve

Hi, no worries but once you have fitted the new MAP I would recommend doing the relearn on the MAF so they get to know each other again, wish you luck and success. Steve.

Its confusing, I see what you mean, my old Mondeo Titx sport diesel had twin exhaust one either side and they were BIG as the idea of that is to clear the gas quicker as diesels require virtually no back pressure, the petrol version had the same set up but the tailpipes looked like peashooters to maintain the back pressure required, therefore why cant you have a four pipe set up as it really wouldn't matter as its all about rapid gas evacuation. Perhaps it might be worth researching a custom made conversion if you already have the hole for the dummy pipes.

Hi sounds like a combination of DMF and release bearing noise but being as it gets louder when the clutch is depressed my money would be on the release bearing preparing to let go, either way I would change the whole lot before it goes terminal. Steve.

Hi sorry just hazarding a guess I didn't realise that Audi were going the same way as the Blue Oval cheap theatrical props to imitate a sporting heritage revisited, I can now see why you are so pixxed off with it, if I had paid what you have for that car I would expect the full Monty exhaust as well, sorry for the misunderstanding. Regards. Steve

Hi, when you say fake do you mean one side has visible silver plates in the tail pipes, if so I think you might find these open up when the car is being revved at high speed say on a motorway this is to allow the gas to escape more quickly and they shut down around town to channel the exhaust and the noise through the other side only more quietly in urban areas, I cant see Audi or any other manufacturer fitting a high quality steel baffle box that does nothing. Steve.

Cheers mate, I hope it pans out for you, the problem is its armchair diagnostic that has come from experience and sometimes I can get it wrong but can only advise on the info given I wish you luck.