Stevey Y

Hi its probably a built in function as most oils only give maximum protection when at optimum temp, some of the new Bentlys, Alfa Romeos and Feraris have stickers in the car telling you to warm the engine at idle for at least ten mins before driving, I would get that drive system light checked its yellow so not urgent but the gearbox has nothing to do with the engine temp, in saying that the oldest saying in the car world is NEVER REV A COLD ENGINE, thats because of the damage it causes to internal revolving surfaces which have yet to heat up to operating tollerences, cold oil at high rpm is as bad as no oil only in reverse, I found that out a few years ago in the eighties when at massive cost I built a go faster Mini engine, billet steel crank lightened con rods, super Hepolite pistons the works, my only downfall was jacking the oil pressure relief valve so it ran at 95psi when warm, two months later I had big end knock where the oil cold ran at over 100psi and had washed the coating off of the end shells, moral of the story most cars are quite happy with oil pressure of around 40psi as long as the oil temp is at optimum. Steve.

Hi thank you for that information, I did not know of that situation, just shows you you can learn something new every day,WELL DONE that man.

Hi you should never put a kink in any part of the washer pipe as this will cause all sorts of problems the pipes are routed with gentle bends and you will never lose pressure because both circuits from the pump have anti drain-back valves so when the pump is not being used the valves shut to maintain the pressure, example, last summer one of my cab colleagues could only get his washers to work at the front with the bonnet up, turns out he had replaced all the feed tubes with silicone hoses but forgotten to do each section against the old pipe so the one that went to the tank was about 10mm to short and kinked when he closed the bonnet, thats how critical it is.

Hi the part number will be on the control box thats attached to the fan pack down between the fans, some you can change just the box others have the box built in to the fan pack so you have to buy the whole thing.

Hi sorry we only got half of the posts

Hi if it aint broke don't fix it, just treat it with a bottle of EGR cleaner every so often or buy a litre of Dipetane and use that in the fuel that will clean the whole system, with regard to the inlet valves don't go anywhere near them as if you dislodge any crud any small particle can stick to the valve seat and kill your engine, if you do get problems with the EGR just replace it in view of the cost they work out pretty cheap as if its the same as the engine in the picture they are a Valeo unit and its the control box that fails. Steve.

Hi if you contact a silicone hose manufacturer they can make you another hose, I had this back last summer with the tiny cooling hoses that run between the manifold and throttle body, Audi actually had these but one hose was£38 the other four were similar prices so found a place locally wheeled them up there and they produced the whole set with the correct bends and new clips for £60, all armoured, very happy. Steve

Hi the Haldex system works on viscous couplings in the rear differential that react by transferring the power to the wheels that are gripping its a complex system that can even transfer the power split between the front and rear wheels or engage a form of four wheel drive so when the car is cornering say left sharp bend it will transfer more power to the off side to maintain the stability based on information from the yaw sensor mounted on the transmission tunnel at the front, thats the basics, if the coupling plates deteriorate/fail it throws the whole system out, filings in the oil would confirm failure which is normally caused by non existent oil changes every 25k the filter inside the unit ruptures and throws all the bits it has collected in to the oil damaging the viscous plates, this is a high maintenance system, in my honest opinion the BMW X Drive system is superior but wears tyres at an alarming rate but on the plus side is not prone to maintenance failure, think the replacement will solve your problems but just be aware of the oil change intervals also factoring in driving style. Steve.

Hi I thought you might have one you made earlier hidden somewhere, I totally endorse your sentiments, but I can honestly say that the myth of premium brand will not bear close scrutiny, yes the paint and leather seats first class but as for the rest of it, the same as any other manufacturers they go wrong and are very complex to diagnose and fix and unless Audi get their customer service act together they will lose many customers, allied to their starship parts prices it is not good, just as an exercise I priced a new engine for mine on ETKA £12000 +vat for a bare engine, thats over half the price of a good late A6 second hand as for the legendary full service history its not worth the paper its printed on, look at the guys that have posted about 2-3 year old cars serviced by Audi and found the air filters have never been changed since new and when asked they reply thats extra or thats not part of that service, thats when you discover that oil and filter change alone is £150 +vat, I buy quantum spec oil on eBay along with a Bosch filter for sub £40, an hour of my time job done, I must be doing something right as the car is now at over 180k and as I said before Audi genuine is someone else's quality part in a badge engineered box at twice the price. Steve.

Hi Southend Audi are robbing gits, I have used them when desperate as they are near to me, get the part number off the sticker and go on eBay they have loads ranging from s/h £25 to new £95, its only about three bolts and a plug about an hour if you take your time and drink lots of tea between bolts. Steve.

Hi it may well be an idea to clear the faults as the system often hangs on to them and it may not realise the fault has gone,

Hi its Volkswagen Audi Group which also encompasses Skoda and Seat.

Hi thats a rubbish quote the parts from TPS O.E. are about £180 and the garages are probably still thinking you have to remove the whole front bumper and radiator as was on older models, you don't, if you just remove the plastic cover above the rad and remove the top rad bolts with the correct timing pins its tight but doable. Steve.

Hi I don't think its the blower, I would be more inclined to replace the thermostat and have the cooling system flushed. Steve.

Hi you would be better off investing your money elsewhere buy buying your own diagnostic set up as is all AUDI want is your money on the drip, you wont get anything from it other than massive repair bills, find a decent independent as anything to do with main dealers is TOXIC. Steve.

Hi depending on when you purchased the car you can go to trading standards and they may pick up the flag and petition them under the fit for purpose act, Audi wont care but if you also email VAG customer service they may well help you as they are not fans of this type of thing, I did the same last year when one of their approved franchise TPS were running me ragged over a part, the car was suspended on a four poster ramp for four days waiting for the part which was already paid for and was suddenly on back order three weeks so I emailed VAG customer services and explained my problem and dissatisfaction, the next day the part arrived with a red faced area manager who demanded to know who Steve was, the guy that put in the complaint, I stepped straight up and explained why, he went for the sympathy vote saying how much trouble I caused him, my heart bled for him not, VAG take things like this seriously its bad PR for them. Steve.

Hi do you have the old cluster working, if not and its the replacement it will need re coding with VCDS.

Hi I think the red is power the brown is earth and the purple its the signal wire, easiest way is check the feed plug with a multimeter to see which one has power when you hit the switch, the colours on the feed should match the wires the other side.

Hi buy the eBay version, the part number you gave is for the whole arm which apparently fits the A3,Q3,A4,A6 for that year its good old globalisation, one part fits all and depending on what model you have the price is higher between A3-A6 the A6 part will cost more, I bought my Audi in 2019 and its been a constant battle with the parts but as soon as you rip the only way is Audi theory to shreds its like Ray bans on a sunny day you can see it for what it is, it took me a while to work it out that they the same as all manufacturers buy their parts off the peg from people like Lemforder,Febi,ATE and have their name stuck on the unit but if you look carefully at the unit it normally has the real manufacturers part number and hey presto using that number its a hell of a lot cheaper, Audi are a mixture of Jabba the Hut with the greed and and Gary Glitter with molesting your wallet, my rear wiper motors of which I have had three are made by Valeo they all do the same thing and allow water to run back down the spindle and past the rubber seal and rot the control box out rendering it useless, Audi wanted £300 for the motor and £30 for the grommet seal, end result Ebay £125 the motor and £12 for the grommet, a good place to look for part numbers is LLL car parts they have all the diagrams for your model and when you have the number go fishing on eBay or contact Parts in motion they have just about everything in O.E.grade parts, so it wont be as expensive as you think. I bet your motor is the same as mine. Steve.

Hi just go in the dealers throw it at the parts guy and say got one of these, no sense in paying £90 to talk to an idiot, become a cab driver like me and the idiots pay you. Steve.

Hi the nozzle that is under the cap is probably sold as a repair section as the nozzle would have to unplug from the top of the wiper spindle to facilitate removal of the wiper arm, try the dealers. Steve.

Hi this could be a bit tricky as most of these are mechanical faults there are several technical service bulletins for these faults, Audi are obviously aware of this problem as it applies to two other models Q5/A4 and on some occasions has been solved with a software update, what diagnostics platform are you using as if its VCDS you can test the function of each components operation to nail down which one is not working for example B11AF07 is the fresh air flap under the front scuttle where the air comes in and is mechanical,B109207 is the regulator motor for air recirculation which is at its end stop which is also adjustable on VCDS.

Hi can you give the codes and I may be able to fish out what is relevant the flap control unit will have nothing to do with the blower not working that just aims the air at the vents you select, have you got power at the blower motor, were the units tried new or second hand? Steve.

This is what you have to remove to replace the whole thing. The other picture is the new pipe unit minus the thermostat but please note the three screw holes on the right for the screws, and last but not least the rubbish silicate bag, what soon thought that was a good idea is anybodies guess.

Hi gents, in the recent cold snap the heater would not really warm up for a couple of hours even after driving for most of that time, finally ran it down to a lazy thermostat which was just staying open more than desired so consequently it only got what I would class as really warm about an hour before I booked off for the day, a good quality replacement stat core is about £60 but Audi only sell it as the whole pipe with a new core about £90 so I went for that considering my existing unit had done 180k so therefore I could expect at least that again, now begins the horror of replacement you have to take the inlet manifold off to get at it so I opted for the cheat and unbolted the old thermostat housing its only three torx screws and an extension bar all 1/4 drive, I recently purchased some magnetic torx bits, the best thing since sliced bread, took the new housing apart and and cannibalised the the new core with seal and cap, job done, then discovered the Silicate bag in the expansion tank had ruptured so ended up having to back flush the heater matrix with a jet wash.