Stevey Y

Hi the bulbs in your car are probably 55W D3s or D1s either way the ballast is separate it is most likely at the bottom of the headlight there is no ballast attached to the bulb, the only bulb with the ballast incorporated are 25-35W D5s that is found on much later models. Steve.

Hi again as Steve said don't buy cheap, the guy in the van is not a good shout and the mapping will lead to future problems, alternatively leave it alone as the accelerated insurance premium will add extra cost, and both the modifications this and a previous post could land you in a world of pain if you haven't declared them to the insurance company, they will be pleased to tell you where to go if you had an accident and neither mods were declared as it wouldn't take a rocket scientist to work out that no AUDI as standard is fitted with coilover suspension therefore their next port of call would be to check the ECU, its like a paper trail to a disaster, in essence anything fitted to a road vehicle that is not standard is a get out for the insurance if not declared with the exception of aftermarket where the supplier can prove they have supplied this part at some point to the manufacturer, then its legal. Steve.

Hi have you or a friend not got an old android phone laying about, just get any old battered phone you can get as long as its android it should work a treat, I bought one as a bat phone, [urgent contact for those who I want to speak to] as I turn my work phone off otherwise they drive me nuts, its an old Samsung and came in at £20 IOS won't work with a lot of things reliably as most are running Android that includes taxi booking apps. Steve.

Hi Max you won't regret it I faffed about on my previous Ford taxis with a generic Delphi software it was ok for some things but not for others I then graduated to Forscan and it was a Ford specific software which allowed me to replace and adapt just about anything on the car and on the later models to do DPF regenerations at two in the morning when the light came on for the DPF blocked, it also told me why the thing was blocking and what had caused it, thats why I bought VCDS when I bought the Audi and before that OBD eleven was just out otherwise in view of the cost I would have bought OBD Eleven instead. Steve.

Hi if you buy really cheap and universal it won't do what you require, old formula, if you buy cheap and it won't do the job you have wasted both time and money, spend a little extra and it works the only loss is the extra money. Steve.

Hi good solid software platform that is manufacturer specific, a lot better than generic code readers as they often miss problems because they can't connect with certain modules on the car, it also has the advantage of different software stages from basic to garage level. Steve.

Hi have a look at OBD Eleven its cheap to buy and very effective, you might baulk at spending money on it but it will pay for itself in a very short period of time and the amount of tasks you can perform is outstanding, I.E. battery and new parts coding, there is a guy on here Thomas G he has had it for a while and reckons its the best thing he has ever bought and if you consider the average garage will charge £40 for a scan for about an extra £30 you can have your own scanner and use it when you like. My VCDS was about £350 so you can see what I am aiming at when you can get a lot of the same features for less than a third of the price, have a look on eBay and youtube. Steve.

Hi, wise words from the garage I think, did they also mention air suspension problems as well as gearbox problems, normally people sell high milage models of that year designation for a reason, you might be better going for a Q5 or similar as they have the hight etc and you have more chance of getting a lower milage example for just a bit more money, Steve.

Hi Max have you had it scanned for DTCs I will bet money on it that the answer is in the system somewhere. Steve.

Hi Jonno the Mini has a Peugeot SPA derived engine and believe me they drink oil as they get older, I have serviced my nieces Mini for the last five years and even though the milage is very mild less than 3k a year whenever I get it there is always less than half the sump capacity left in it, the mechanic I use reckons they should have been a diesel the amount of oil they use, Yes the Focus and the C30 use the same engine but it is originally a Volvo engine anyway, the difference being Volvo lent Ford the engine design years ago but Ford have gone for broke by developing it in to the Ecoboost which according to my contact in Dunton is living on the edge and if you inadvertently loose coolant you are guaranteed head gasket failure and most likely a redundant engine. The Golf GTI engine is a different animal but this to will burn oil if the previous owner has used rubbish fuel which will blow holes and cracks in pistons as well as cracking rings through pre detonation you can only use 98 super unleaded in them, as for the Mazda the serving and parts are outrageous if you use a main dealer but with regard to the torque steer I would put that down to bring style especially in wet weather, I can get my A6 to torque steer if I give it enough with the lead divers boot in the wet its a penchant of front wheel drive cars I am afraid. Steve.

Hi as an alternative its a no brainer and has to be the Volvo, it won't set the road alight but its good solid engineering, the Ford and Mazda engines are in the top five of engines to avoid the Vauxhall and Renult I would avoid personally as they are quick but costly to repair and normally ragged within an inch of their lives by the previous owners, unless you can find either of the above that have been previously owned by a vicar or a district nurse. Steve.

HI Jonno, you live in the same area as me so what about Gosnays,Regal,Robertsons all good companies within spitting distance of us, the problems with these engines are the bores and piston rings as they made them to cut down on friction and reduce emissions, the bores were made slightly bigger but the main problem is the rings which are thinner in width and become coked into the ring channel so they don't seal as well as the milage creeps up, one of my colleagues had his Transit Minibus engine done at Regals and believe me that wasn't even running when it went in and needed a hell of a lot of work including a new head, it all came in at three grand, when you consider that a genuine Ford unit was over five grand The bit that makes me die is this roll over and give up attitude with some people, if you look at the facts why would they be offering an oil consumption test if the end result was going to be a firm NO, thats classed as gaining money by deception, the Americans were the first to flush out Audi on this problem and do you think they have thrown in the towel, absolutely not, the other thing I find distasteful is most dealers main or otherwise knew of this problem so when buying for stock why would you not have a list of the affected engines so that you were not going to sell some poor sod a lemon that will most definitely fail in the not to distant future, I suppose that comes under the subheading of [ poor unsuspecting dealer], Audi are very slippery when it comes to addressing customer problems due to bad build quality and even more so since Brexit because their mum told them they can't play any more, my example is I own a eleven year old Alfa Mito which last year I received a recall notice for a piece of wiring and its associated module, all fitted for free, their attitude is if you look after the customer they might buy another Alfa, Audi won't do this because they consider that we will all be queuing to buy their over priced electric models so all the owners of the fossil fuelled vehicles can go find a sharp stick to sit on and swivel. Steve.

Hi the seized calliper is a common problem but that won't cause the wheel to buckle thats a good old fashioned pothole or side swiping a kerb, I think the AA solved the previous problem as thats another common problem due to the fact that people don't change the plugs as often as they used to. Steve.

Hi every manufacturer of components builds in obsolescence on that component the idea is the car producer makes money out of changing it at a later date, ECU testing identify the problematic chips on the control PCB and replace them with upgraded chips so they are more robust, the manufacturers ignore the weakness of such things as it generates money by them supplying the dealers with new units £££££. The clever bit is they replace the offending items on your unit whilst preserving its coding value, the main dealer won't do that as they can earn more money by re coding a new unit, anyone can code new units provided they have the correct software/diagnostic program to do it VCDS or OBD ELEVEN, please watch the video on youtube the engineers stations where the repairs are carried out are kitted out like the bridge of a starship, the units on our cars are a revolution in so much as they have a mechanical boost system built in to them as a failsafe if the electronic unit lets go, the units are solid state in so much as you can't separate the valve block from the control module, on older modules you could separate the two and just get a second hand control unit and just change it and recode, no where near enough profit from the dealers perspective. Steve.

Hi if you get the car diagnostically scanned that will tell you what is playing up as it will have thrown a code or two up, other than that it would be like playing pin the donkeys tail. Steve.

Hi the job itself is an absolute bar steward its a major strip down which involves dropping the subframe driveshaft and exhaust but if thats the fitting price only and does not include the valve I reckon he is trying to price himself out of that job, they put the EGR half way down the back of the block so its under the cat at the top and behind the exhaust and subframe at the bottom, even the safer option of mapping the EGR out will cause problems with the turbo life and engine bay temps as the engine runs hotter and the exhaust side of the turbo gets to work in a couple of hundred degrees higher gas temp which shortens its life, I would shop about for some other quotes before diving in. Steve.

Hi apparently looking on the website they remanufacture your old unit and make sure it retains its coding, even better just plug in and play after clearing the codes.

Hi thats better therefore I think you are in the right ballpark labour wise just add the price of the seal and any gaskets say around an extra £40. Steve.

Hi just had a gander on youtube ECU testing have a video about your problem with the same dtc apparently its a common problem and their solution is to remanufacture your own unit which would suggest that if you save the long coding for your unit once fitted it would be a case of using the original coding to activate it.

Hi which rear seal are we talking about. Steve.

Hi my best advice is send it to ECU testing, you can try to reflash it but if you get it wrong it will cause a lot of other problems, no one wants to spend £300 but at least you get back a working unit and reinstalled use VCDS to purge the unit and re adapt it there are plenty of youtube how to videos. Steve.

Hi, there lies the problem, most of these mobile people, Techs shall we call them, arrive and plug in take your money and clear off, normally they are considered cheaper than say a static remap company, which they are they have no premises to pay for and often as not have just a basic software program and not the same tailored software platform as for example Blufin, if you buy from them they will go through extensive questioning of what you expect and then give you realtime options of what you can realistically achieve as per the milage on the vehicle, you then get a loading device and its normally a ten minute job to load it via the OBD port, all of their software programs are checked for quality before they get to the end user and the advantage of their system is that you can upload the mapping back out, yes these types of companies are more expensive but what you get is bullet proof technology. If the mapping is working ok just buy another EGR valve and fit it and leave it there, if you block it in another few months you will probably start getting some more codes/lights as the ECU will have worked out there is no gas flow and thats why the EGR is not sending it any data to tell it when the valves open/closed because the valve is jammed in a ton of soot where its backed up past the blanking, mapping out changes the command protocol and tells it to stay shut, the other down side is my mate did it on his transit and over miles the red hot gass melted the blanking plate and allowed the super heated gas into the engine bay which in turn melted the fan housing at the front, remapping is a multi faceted industry and if you go mad with it power wise it causes horrendous and expensive problems which I have personally witnessed on some occasions, it comes down to the old saying, IF YOU WANT FAST,BUY FAST, believe me its cheaper in the long run. Steve.

Hi would suggest it won't affect the original remap but it raises the question why they did not offer to map out the EGR while they were at it, blocking it can be done but that will give you problems at a later date, much better to have the EGR told that its too cold for it to be open then you won't have the problems associated with blanking. Steve.

Hi from your diagnostic info I would say cleaning is not an option, replacement is the only cure after which the new unit will need re adapting, DO NOT ATTEMPT replacement yourself unless you have a very comprehensive tool facility and access to a four poster ramp as there is the worlds supply of stripping down both top and bottom furthermore I would replace the throttle body as I think thats probably shot if the vehicle has high milage its not worth cleaning as the control box is probably on its way out, this to will need re adapting otherwise they run like a bag of nails, I did my daughters one last year and its fairly easy with the right tools. Steve. PS THIS IS THE EGR.

Hi it is not dead by a long way but they would love you to believe that and go buy another, if you look at it logically most of the stuff management wise is a 130k old but with limited expense and willpower there is no real reason why it won't do another 130k thats what pixxes them off, one of my Mondeos did 360k before it got terminated by an Astra van and even the guy who took it away said how well it drove and that was only a quarter of a mile to the recovery truck, its all about keeping the internals as clean as possible, shopping trips will kill your wallet faster than the car, LOL. Steve.