Stevey Y

Hi the problems you will encounter are oil degradation [Dilution] due to the fuel getting in and a possible blocked DPF, at the milage you have the DPF is still young enough to survive if treated now and as Karl pointed out if you use a good fuel additive that helps no end, my pet love is Hydra Maximus which I have used on all my cabs to good effect and never had a new DPF which leads me to your comment about the previous diesels you have had, the key term being all day, this is the same as my current car which might regen every other day, but I am doing between 70-140 miles a day, big difference, five miles a day mostly won't hack it as the engine will get up to temp and initiate a regeneration which is promptly stopped, the car will seem a lot quicker when its doing a regeneration as the EGR is shut because the fuel/air mixture is a lot richer and won't need any polluting gasses from the EGR otherwise it won't cause the combustion in the DPF, I suppose in essence, use a fuel additive and give it a good kicking once a week for twenty miles. Steve.

Hi are you sure they are the right springs for your model as a lot of the aftermarket interpretations of spring lengths can be very different also if you didn't change the damper units as well the damping piston throw could be way off especially with twin tube dampers its not unknown for the piston to hydraulically lock on the feed side where the relief valve in the unit can't do what its supposed to, thats why Bilstein shocks and springs are popular because they work with either lowered or standard ride heights. Steve.

The fans work after a regeneration even an aborted one its easy to spot the onset of regeneration as the revs are higher at idle and the engine sounds a bit harsh, it sounds like yours is constantly trying to regenerate but can't because of the short milage, aborted regeneration causes a wealth of problems as the extra fuel injected in this process has no where else to go except past the rings and into the sump oil ,if you notice a regeneration start just carry on driving for 15mins to allow to finish, the fan will still be working for about 10mins after this is to cool the engine bay and stop you lighting up the drive, when you consider that to regenerate the fuel ratio is upped which brings the start temp in the DPF to about 650c to burn the soot away. Steve.

Hi well done thanks for publishing the part number although truth be known they are probably the same parts for a multitude of vehicles that have badge engineered part numbers so you pay the price according to what you own. Steve.

Hi you would be amazed at the amount of CR@P people will believe when some are told the gearbox is filled for life and won't need servicing by the dealers especially when they can sell them a new one at five grand further down the line, it creates further wealth for them and people happily take it on board as it gives them a feeling of well being as they haven't had to fork out, the dealers now acknowledge a service is available otherwise they loose trade to the independents who knew it was possible years ago, one of my cabbie mates has a Skoda Superb with a DSG box and with the help of regular servicing has achieved over 250k with the only mechanical gearbox replacement being the clutch. Steve.

At last another member of the timely maintenance club, regular DSG servicing saves a world of trouble down the line, the horn will be a cake walk. Steve.

Hi Kev, I wouldn't have thought so as any specific code would flag up that failure, the best bit of advice I ever had from the guy who taught me the basics of diagnostics on my first Ford Eighteen years ago was, you never replace anything on the basis of a U code as it is sort of generic and covers a communication issue between two or many parts, P codes are specific but still may lead to multiple parts as most systems are daisy chained and one sensors failure can lead to other sensors registering as failed, example, on the codes given for a MAP and MAF failure its normally the MAP thats gone sideways as it lives in a hot grotty environment which is my point with diagnostic platforms the generic platform may throw codes for the two sensors but manufacturer specific software will tell you there is no correlation between the MAP/MAF which narrows it down and more digging will reveal which sensors not working on the live data.

Hi sounds like a bad connection on the back of the horn unit or water in diaphragm chamber inside a cheapie new one off eBay will probably cure it. Steve.

Have a look at the woes continue on the A6 part of the forum he has had the same problem but seems to be pretty close to cracking it. Steve.

Hi Kev, good find and judging by the corrosion/water ingression that would have given problems sooner than later, think because the databus is a single wire its just had a problem with communication and won't have blown the mechatronic unit as that would be a different code, the reason for the water is probably after ten years the plug seal is a bit tired, you can usually help it out with a good coating of silicone grease, with the software you have it should clear the code but if it won't after the fix try driving it a few times if it was the plug it will cycle the fault out. Steve.

Hi the eight speed tiptronic is as you describe but the seven speed S Tronic has two clutches and a DMF and being as he didn't mention if the eight or seven speed box was fitted to his vehicle, like I said educated guess as most A6s around that year were fitted with the seven speed to further cut down on emissions due to faster gear shifts through the rev range.

Hi sorry to hear this as whenever I have used them I have never had a problem, maybe just luck or the parts sent have been easier to diagnose, either way a little extra time will be substantially less cost wise than going for a new unit from Audi, let us know how you get on. Steve.

Hi educated guess is it might be the DMF.

Hi if you look at the facts no one could offer the magic cheap diagnosis based on the information you have given, no codes, no map information, whatever problems you have they don't sound like the sort of engine problems that one would normally encounter, no one is acusing you of having a bad map downloaded but its difficult to quantify your problems without the milage and as I said any codes that might be present, from my perspective if I was buying a car like that and it had robust milage and had been remapped I would have walked away as the previous owner may not have been kind when driving it, the health check was six months ago thats a long time in the life of an engine and as Cliff pointed out are you using any water or oil, these are not random irrelevant questions but are based on experience gained by asking other users of this forum often with a favourable outcome, without any usable information the question you are asking is how long is a piece of string, I don't think anyone on here knows the answer to that. Steve.

Hi sounds like the impact has put a flat spot in the bearing outer race, a good depth pothole will kill most bearings. Steve.

Hi not to put to finer point to this, why would anyone buy a fifteen year old car thats been mapped, I can only assume that it must have been an attractive proposition to you at the time, have you any idea how much extra power that map produced, do you know the original mapping agent as most companies that do this process properly cost a lot of money because they do things like delete the original map but back it up in case of future problems and use one of the other map paths in the ECU, I have even seen case in point one of my neighbours sons with a year old Vauxhall Corsa that his dad had bought him so he could commute back and forth to university, tops up one of his computer sciences mates had lifted a remap off the internet and installed that, junior mentioned none of this until a rather irate engineer who had diagnosed the vehicle came out and informed his dad that they can't fix the car under warranty because it had been interfered with which voided the warranty, end result was a new ECU £2000 plus fitting, there are so many John Wayne mappers out there it makes me cry, why do you think most automotive software writers are on about two hundred grand a year, anything outside that and the people are just playing at it as they don't get two years testing and a Dyno set up to fine tune what they have written. Steve.

Hi do you get the sneaking suspicion they are beginning to hedge their bets. Steve.

Hi they did three sizes of wheel on your model, if you are looking for a more comfortable ride go for 205x55x16 or a good compromise between comfort and retaining all the handling go 205x50x17, either should be good but if you get the 17inch with a 7J rim that will give you the option of going for a 215 width tyre, have a look on wheel size .com Steve.

Hi Paul thats a bit of savage luck, I have come across a few new wrong-un EGRs in my time mostly from Eurocarparts and some Valeo units known as the French revenge, I hope the new one has solved the problem. Steve.

Hi did you readapt the new EGR and sensor as this would cause the fault to re surface as the ECU only has the old adaptation values stored, when readapting is in place the ECU learns the new values as it goes along the drive cycles and absorbed those as the new operating parameters. Steve.

Hi you really need to post the codes for a near ball park diagnosis, what is the milage on the vehicle?, most of the spray down the inlet cleaners only work when the engine is nice and hot anything like very warm won't work as the EGR won't be open, steer well clear of Mr Muscle as this contains caustic and the sensors down the line will loose their coating and malfunction, sensible idea the potential for more damage, if in doubt leave it out, any chance of the garage giving you a print out of the codes they unearthed. Steve.

Hi you ought to see the testing equipment they have theres a video on youtube for the ABS renovation service the testing machinery alone looks like something out of a Star Trek film. Steve.

Hi thanks for the reply because I was looking at the generic diagrams what I saw was the later pump and believe me when you clock on the part number on google they are massive units, any way I wish you well with tomorrow and a happy outcome. Steve.

Hi Kev I wish you all the best with the filter and oil change, and I don't blame you for your shyness in forking out all that money its different for me as my car is my business and shelling out stupid sums of money are a way of life, no car no money, your vehicle is private transport so its different, as I said take your time if you did the Yank you are more than capable. Steve.

Hi if you don't recode the battery after installing the new one you will kill the new unit in record time as the BEM still thinks its the old battery and carries on charging the new unit at the same rate as the failing unit, the BEM has no way of self rationalising the fact that the battery is new and has to be told it has a new unit and then it will modify the charge rate against the charge resistance from the new battery, plenty of explanatory blogs on the net, all this coding malarkey started back in the early noughties as they were developing multi CCM modules which don't like voltage spikes. Steve.