Stevey Y

Hi, its most likely the EGR valve is staying open it only opens when the engine is warm but i think its opening and staying open when warm, if the turbo shaft that runs the vanes has no real sloppy up/down movement I think you can forget that one. Steve.

Hi Clifford, ref 2 when fitting a new emissions part you have to do a re adaption of the part so the ECU knows the part is new and will let it relearn its values when it should open and close, if you don't do this the ECU will reject the new part as the only values it has stored are for the the old redundant valve, you used to be able to not relearn on Fords and after a week it would sort itself out but I have found with VAG models they won't have any of it. Steve.

Hi Dennis I would not bother unless you are not worried about money, the dealers over here have developed fangs and once they have bitten your bank account will drain it, if you are that keen try eBay. Steve.

Hi Gents finally got to the bottom of the oil in the clutch problem there is in fact another seal which fits in the back of the slave cylinder but they don't tell you about that one, so we hauled the box out for the this time and fitted the seal, the save cylinder does not come with any seals despite being £1462.00 for the clutch kit why wouldn't you throw in the seals, oh no much better to not say anything and then charge them out as extra, I thought Ford were masters of taking the p..s but these people are a whole new level. I managed to get an updated version of the same parts system they use which is where I found the missing seal and have posted the diagrams for any other poor soul who might not want to fall down the same hole.

Hi had my new clutch fitted last Tuesday, the car drove great for a couple of days then I get this sinking feeling as the car stinks of gear oil and when you floor it the clutch slipped briefly at around 2000 rpm back to the garage, my mate pulled the box out again to find the bell housing had plenty of gear oil in it, despite buying the clutch from TPS and explaining that I needed to buy the full monty clutch kit including any bolts or seals I might need it seems they forgot to tell me about the seal between the diff and nearside driveshaft that you also have to change. You have to take the diff out to get at it as the drive shaft runs through the bell housing into the diff, the new seal is not available until tomorrow as they reckon the car is to new and not many people have had to change the clutch so they don't carry the spare seals, so thanks to youtube we saw a video on how to whip the diff out on a DSG box, they are the same, eight bolts and a pry bar and out it comes a million curses and five days out of work over a lousy five quid seal, well pixxed off still I know for next time. Steve.

Hi you get to the switch unit by removing the trim inside the boot, once open its simple matter of removing the two mounting bolts and one wiring plug take your unit out get the part number off of it and go fishing on eBay loads on there. Steve.

Hi Gareth, I think dealer/servicing all comes under the same sub heading, if you view the symbiotic relationship between the two its hard to see where one begins and the other ends, I think its highly unlikely that the last service centre had an air filter that was not only second hand but had the right build date that was the same as the car, having spoken to the guy I know at BMW service he reckon the dates are peculiar to when the part was fitted as built and would not appear on any subsequent part even if purchased from a main dealer. Steve,

Hi Thomas, just a thought do the sensors need coding, just about everything else on these cars needs it. Steve.

Hi if your thermostat is actually one of those plastic units the sensor is built in and is held in with a clip, if the other sensor on the old unit was working it might be worth swapping it on to the new housing, the only other sensors for water temp are the cylinder head sensor and one on the block but I am pretty certain the one on the thermostat housing works the gauge. Steve.

Hi Gareth, I have a morbid mistrust of dealers apart from the ones I know to be honest to a point, prime example being my daughters Q3 we recently purchased, although it was bought from a private vendor it had always been serviced by Audi with the last service being done at a Bosch service centre, I don't trust the bits of paper supplied so after I had sorted the brakes out I went on to do a full service myself all Febi filters which cost £42.00 the oil came in at £25.00 for VAG oil 504/507 fully synthetic, its not worth posting pictures of the oil and fuel filters as there is no readable print visible through the crud considering the car had been serviced in January this year they were in pretty poor shape as was the oil, the most interesting filter was the air filter please observe the date on the filter which is the same as when the car was built, the car has only done 62k so can someone please explain what these thieving b@£tards for the £350.00 charged for a service, not a lot apparently, as I said they all prey on those that know nothing about the mechanical side of cars, they only want the maximum profit for the least effort. Steve.

I like that turn of phrase, unsuspecting dealer, they know exactly what they are buying which is why they buy dirt cheap, the majority of what I would class as reasonably straight dealers I know would run the vehicle for a couple of weeks before selling and see what cropped up and then get it fixed, my mechanic is often tasked by the two dealers who use him to give the cars they sell a good going over and service fixing whatever comes to light. A few years ago my missus went and bought a Alfa 156 from a rather large and palatial dealer near us the guy had put a fresh MOT on it in his own MOT bay, a couple of days later she went back complaining of a clonking on the back end his Mot man said he couldn't find anything wrong and it was probably something the car did when going over large bumps, thats when she decided to get me involved, I found the cause in five minuets, the cotton reel bushes on the rear trailing arms had more moves than a dancer at a rave, I phoned him and he stood by what his MOT man had said, plan B bought two new trailing arms and fitted them and then went down to the dealer boiler suit and grime included, then displaying the old arms with knackered bushes I asked him if he would reimburse me for the new arms, at first he refused as he said how would he know if they were from the vehicle he sold, I invited him to come outside and have a look underneath the back which he did with the MOT tester, while I was there I mentioned the fact that I was able to appeal their MOT as fraudulent with VOSA, guess what, ten minuets later I walked out with the cash for my parts and a strong warning not to return EVER and that my wife six month warranty now no longer existed. Steve.

Hi having had a word with those that do these things my informant says its most likely the seal behind the torque convertor if its a DSG set up. either way its one hell of a strip down. Steve,

Hi Thomas I doubt the sensors from Audi are any different from the sensors you bought, sounds more like a wiring fault. Steve.

Hi is it where the gearbox connects to the engine if so thats the crank rear seal which would probably mean a new clutch while they were in there, but I definitely would not be going to Audi for that job, find a good independent garage with some minerals to do the job, or if its just weeping slightly leave it until the clutch packs up. Steve.

Hi have a look on youtube thats where I go for a dummy run, if you are halfway decent with a spanner and have a good selection of tools it looks fairly simple just observe the correct torque settings when bolting it back together and any special tools you might need. I helped my neighbour do an oil change on his TT Quattro's Haldex unit apparently they are supposed to be very difficult but he had bought an O.E. service kit, god they are cheap, and the filter removal spanner, I came away a bit underwhelmed, yes it was fiddly but the hardest bit was getting the filler plug in before the new oil spilled out, I aint as flexible as I used to be lol. Steve.

Hi he has basically sold you a vehicle which under the letter of the law is not fit for purpose, therefore I don't think there is room for argument, be calm and if possible without being obvious record your discussion on your phone this will stand you at a good first base if it won't go your way and gets gritty, personally I hope he just rolls over and fixes it. It makes me sad when things like this happen as I have a customer who buys and sells cars privately but with the better makes of vehicle even with higher milage he won't budge on the price as this allows him a margin to do any repairs that despite careful inspection may occur in the first six months of new ownership and still leave a modest profit. Steve.

Hi seek advice from your local trading standards office they will advise you to get into dialogue written or email with the dealer, as a last resort start a small claims petition [Details at local Crown Court] to recover your expenses this normally works as a CCJ won't look good on there record and will hinder their ability to work with finance companies. Steve.

Hi, the recommended service interval is every 30k, there was a guy Don G who posted the same problem a few months ago and was advised that it might well be a mechatronics unit so he went for the cheaper option of a gearbox service, that cured it, BTW there are companies out there on the net that sell recon units and will also recon your own mechatronics unit on a three day turn round, there are a couple of drivers on my cab circuit that have Skodas with what is the same type of gearbox these have achieved over 200k without a rebuild so I seriously doubt you need a full rebuild as the mechanical parts of these gearboxes are very robust also google DSG gearbox specialists in your area and get a few informed opinions, you may even have to look a bit further to achieve what you require. Steve.

Hi if the CV joint is clicking its normally caused by lack of grease and means the interior components are worn which manifests itself as a clicking noise when turning, this does not exclude vibration when travelling in a straight line the inertia on the CV is less when not at an acute angle but the wear is still there which is why the vibration sets in under acceleration, its basically dry spheres metal on metal with not enough good grease to accommodate the wear, it may appear to have plenty of grease when the boot is removed but have you seen the size of the grease sachet they supply with a new joint, believe me the joints need it all even the excess in the boot. Steve.

Hi when was the transmission last serviced, could be the oil and filters are knackered, quite a common problem apparently. Steve.

Hi wipe it all off with a wet cloth and then you will see exactly where its come from, my guess is the diffuser is partially blocked and the back pressure is blowing past the seal where the pipe connects to the diffuser. Steve.

Hi looks like something to do with the seat adjuster. Steve.

Hi Arron what is the model and what engine is it fitted with, then you may have some suggestions. Steve.

Hi Febi supply the mounts and a shed load of other parts as O.E., I found that out when I bought my oil level sensor, Audi wanted nearly £200 with the VAT so I bought a Febi sensor from my local spares shop for £67 and guess what the Febi item was exactly the same except someone had ground the VAG/Audi logos off of the casing, the only thing left was all the casting numbers which matched perfectly, the guy at the spares place told me they do it all the time as they are not allowed to sell O.E. marked parts in their packaging, so if you want to buy a badge engineered part in the right box for twice the price +, knock yourself out. Steve.

Hi Richard you are on top form with this one, well done its info I have looked at before but after a twelve hour shift had no motivation to go back to, 10/10. Steve.