CHIPPO

Thor , good luck , the complete shower known as Audi refuse to do anything about it , they are in total denial . Because there next to useless diagnostic system fails to log events only faults it see no problem , Audi have zero ability to do any old fashioned fault finding and are not willing to change parts on spec . So I am left as an extremely dissatisfied customer who will never darken their doors again . They have virtually called me a liar , and also said they would firmly resist any attempt to reject the car , they refuse to accept there is even a safety issue with the problem . They will not fit a data logger to the OBD slot as they do not use them , they will not accept video evidence of the problem , they will not accept evidence of passengers , the only evidence they are prepared to accept is one of their minions is a witness ! Their only offer to date was to pick up the tab from and AA or RAC inspection if they were able to trace the fault , but it was to be at my risk in the first instance . This place is like a morgue and I suspect full of Audi employees and acolytes who do not like any criticism of the Audi brand or products , you can see this from the dates on this post , piston heads Audi forum is marginally better . I am and will continue to be the worst advert ever for Audi , although watchdog on the BBC tried and failed it seems. But do look at the various reliability surveys out there , very interesting and poor reading for Audi , the warranty is poor as well by current standards , which says it all really !

Maybe not, but the very people that frequent this place all clealry have necks like sticks of rock with "Audi" written through. So that's the impression one gets , very biased comments generally , I seem to a be loan voice that dares to critise ! And also it not exactly a hive of activity is it

Just been checking reliability of a cars following a discussion about which cars are good at the moment , Warranty direct , Honda Jazz No1 , Audi do not feature in the top 100!! not very good is it Also not considered to be very good in Sweden ! Went through Dartford Tunnel yesterday , found anothe egonomic error , coin slots to small for a £1 coin , and I therefore presume a 1 euro , how basic an error is that ! The MMI controls are in totally the wrong place

They need to sort dash ergonomics out ,not user friendly to name but one area the headlight adjuster is out of view behind the steering wheel.

I get the sneaking suspicion that this forum is actually run by Audi !

Christ , I forgot some forgot to turn the lights of in this forum when they went home , Or has Audi been found out as its really thier forum! they run it ! I just get sneaky feeling that thats the case

How did you find out the measurements ? I presume the cr was on a Hunter Lazer aligment machine or some such, or was it bits of string ? If a machine then the machine will have all off the OEM settings and the methods of adjustment in the machime memory.

Still no answer Audi cannot find a problem ! So its onwards and upwards with the complaint Not much happens in this forum , does it , its like a morgue

Audi have had the car for about 8 days now not cure ! Its a never ending story ! Not much happens here does it !!!

The problem persists despite Audi playing with the car for 8 days , so I am talking to Audi Uk now

Tech That was my thought that maybe it was an engine problem rather directly to do with the SS system. My fault reallly I reported this idea via a recptionist in the first instance and forogt to suggest it to the technician. Will send an e-mail later, stictly on the QT of course. As you say the SS system is attempting to start the engine and its the engine that fails to start. Yes sods law did come to pass it wouldnt do it once when out on a test drive ( did it 4 or 5 times this evening on way home during the first 4 miles prior to M-way. But yes it is always very tricky to sort problems that are intermitant I know only to well from my own industry.

I agree with you regarding pad choice, the Ferrodo pad can be a bit lifeless when cold , but excellent when hot. The HOnda OEM pads are I presume made by Nissin as they supply the braking system, but of course that may not be the case as a fair bit of development was done on race tracks including Susuka and Nurburgring. They are a good balance, and many have no problems on track days with them. They are certianly ok for me as I do not do track days or am particulary hard on brakes. The Mintex pads I used once just seemed to fall to peices after relativly few miles of normal use. I have managed to get the OEM pads to smoke on a few occasions but still with no appreciable fade. The biggest problem with the OEM Nissin brakes is the rear calipers seizing up, usually as a result of rust on the pistons and or the handbrake mechanism, The slider pins can seize too. Most of the problems can be prevented with good maintenence. The brakes themselves are efficient and only need to be upgraded for serious racing, and even then only the fronts. The stop start issues i have fall into 3 distinct areas , with to my mind no particular set of circumtnaces building up to failures. I am told the investigation is ongoing with no previous problems reported to Audi. It has happend within a couple of miles from a cold start and earlier when fuly hot, but I would think these time scales are more to do with the parameters that the SS system monitors before it is allowed to work rather than any preliminary to the subsequent failures. They seem in general to be totally random. It has been suggested that it was my driving style, but i drive another car on a regular basis from another manufacturer that has SS with no issues, the dealer tech has also driven with me and has stated that i do not drive unusually in any way. The three stages are as follows:- 1) Engine fails to attempt to start when clutch is depressed no attempt at all, retry and it will start. I would estimate this happens maybe 1 in 15 stop start cycles 2) Engine fails to start when clutch depressed, but does turn over, with tacho reading approx 700rpm but the engine fails to start 2nd atempt or 3rd engine fires up, This happens approx 1 in 20 SS sycles 3) As in 2, but the engine will not restart on subsequent attemts, and the stop start failure message appears on the display behind steering wheel advising that a manual start be carried out, the engine starts. When the engine trys to start and turns over to my ears it does not sound like an engine turning over and failing to fire, its sounds very rough with quite serious vibration almost like it is attempting to run on one pot! There have been no faults recorded by the cotrol system. I was surpirsed the engine start fails are not recorded as Events, albeit not as faults.

TECH , whats your position in Audi ? I agree "bedding in" is important , agian there seems to be a wide range of opinions about howto go about it, I sort of use 50 mile sof normal driving and try to get few long soft brakig sessios in from relatively high speed. I suppose this is also dependant on how much scoring is evident on the discs. The last time I had discs changed as a result of juddering was about 25 years ago on a Ford Escot Company car , the juddering did disappear , but as you say there could be any number of causes. This was a brand new car with about 5 k miles I had a set of pads on the S that left deposits on a regular basis , Mintex , usually after soem hard braking ,it didnt cause juddering just noise , this would go after a few moderate applications of the brakes. These pads were changed at 5k miles as the friction material was literally breaking up , not very good . Went to Ferrodo DS2500 which were perfect. Currently have OEM Honda as the shims needed changing, also very good pads , some report they give up on track days. Your comment s regarding ESP are interesting and not something I had not consdiered. Interesting lots of actions and reactions that all work to act on the braking system. Driven my car for the last 2 day in and around town, and there is definate drag from the parkig brake when getting away sharpish, or when I manage to get away smoothly I am now slipping the clutch a tad more to allow the brakes time to disengage. So there will be additional wear over what my driving style would have previously imparted to both brakes and clutch. Had numerous SS system failres today and yesterday

Te Jazz does what it says on the tin , without fuss. Its a tool to do a job and does it well , its never going to worry Pininfarina. A five seat scooter thats works and in the real world returns 48 mpg on cheap unleaded. I have no idea what the S does I am sure i can get it down to 12 or 13 mpg but most likley around 260 miles per tank full of 98-99 octane, or about 26 mpg. MX5 is fantastic a loverly rear wheel drive sports car , its what the MGB should have become had some one had some forsight in BL The Fiat is hampered by a front wheel drive chassis, there has only been one front drive car that really worked out to date but that had to be driven hard to appreciate it , in normal tiddling around it was distinctly lack lustre. I believe there is only one other production car that revs to 9000 rpm , its a red one , the F20C in the S2000 has only just been eclipsed as far as horsepower per litre NA is concerned and thats a red car. 120BHP per litre normally aspirated , not so long ago the preserve of a pure racing engine. They do have to nasty habbit of throwing rods through the block if not looked after! Quite harsh and noisy too. So maybe not expect your A3 to get any where near 9000 rpm . The S gets there virtually every drive and often bounces of the rev limiter at 9400rpm , oh boy does it make the hairs on ur neck stand up. Bolt a turbo or super charger on and 450bhp is easy without any internal changes, one guy in the UK is currently expecting to exceed 900bhp from a fully re-built engine still using an OEM block and there are several like this in the US. The Audi is ok , its just this irritating SS system really and the parking brake, sort these and it would be a good car , not exceptional , but good, and certianly would make me happy for work and the mundane driving of necessity. And I suppose I am a bit more pragmatic than the average person found in an Audi forum ! as indeed i can be on SKI from time to time, LOL mention rust over there and its like they have turned the hearing aids off , deathly silence. oh and dont forget the dreaded Suspension adjuster bolts , and the crap brake calipers that seize, and timing chain tensioners that rattle, con rod faiures , dropped valves , and clutch buzz to mention just a few minor niggles!!! I have never actually been in love with the look of the S , its functional but from some angles looks a bit like a dogs breakfast. Engine and gear box are beyound compare. The thing about the S was it used parts designed and made for it and no other car , engine , gear box , chassis, suspension interior ( instrument cluster and steering wheel are parts bin bits ) the diff is apparently used in a Kia 4x4 and the MX5 , you can get crown wheel and pinions from these to change the final drive ratio. Its no parts bin special , I could mention several , but that would set the cat amoung the pidgeons here!

YES they are hear to stay with Audi and every other manufacturer fitting them, and I know of Citroen drivers and LR drivers who hate them too. How do you incorrectly fit discs and cause wharping? If the rear of the new disc is clean and burr free and the hub surfce is clean and burr free the disc should bed down true to the hub. Not sure if this is the case with Audi discs I presume they are secured with a couple of small CSK screws to the hub for assembly, and fully secured by the wheel nuts/bolts. Now unless you check the disc for true with a DTI I cannot see how this can cause warping. Warping is invariably as a result of either poor disc manufacture and anomolies in the cast iron, the cast iron being green and ageing badly or localised heating and cooling. This most likely on the front discs that do all of the work depending on the apportioning valve setting. Then sitting at the lights riding the clutch, foot on brakes. The rears suffer less as they dont get as hot. My S uses the rears so sparingly that the big probem is rusting of the friction surface and pitting. I changed my rear disc's for pitting, not worth having them skimmed as they cost didly squit to replace new, they were well within spec thickness and could easily have been skimmed. But at £25 each not worth doing. I think the arugument form Audi regarding the ergomonics of the interior is a bit lame, the reason they are fitting them is more than likley cost engineering over a conventional cable operated system. I suppose there are limp wrists who have trouble applying sufficent brake force to hold the car on the flat in a stiff wind. Thier other arguments are not exactly pertinent either. All adding to comlexity with no real user gains in the efficency of the system over the convetional , again it just removes driver control and feel. Also I have realised I am already moving off from standstill compensating for the delay in brake release by effectively releasing the clutch in a two stage process slipping it slightly, this will cause preature wear , shame it will be some poor secound owner who picks up the tab for this as with all manufacurers Audi will surely not pay for a new clutch at 50k miles it will be driving style,, not a fault with the clutch. I have never worn out a clutch yet , best to date was 190k miles in a Citroen C15 van that was totally abused being driven through its life fully loaded, it was also still on the riginal rear brake shoes and front discs , i think total of 4 sets of front pads. A recent Fiesta Van I drove for 65k miles was still on only 50% used front pads. So it wil be interesting to see if the rear pads on my A4 last , I suspect they wont as they are dragging virtually every time I Pull away I can get smoke from my front discs on the S if i try hard, around North Weald for instance and on the odd occasion after a spirited drive braking hard into corners repeatedly, with no problems, but then i do allow them to cool with the brakes released. The clutch is at 74k and is fine despite being worked very hard on occasion messing about trying to get quick 0-60 times. Never got any where near those quoted in EVO

Have read the surveys hence my comments. Audi is 31st in 2013 poor to say the least as it is 27 with Warranty Direct , could be worse you could have a landrover ! The car is fine I dont have heated seats , they are leather , and no kids or pets to get them mucky, I can do that all on my own LOL My junk is in the boot Never leave anything vaulable in the car , nothing will stop a naughty boy with an auto center punch Blue tooth is fine, although some times current phone has bluetoth problems not Audi's fault Voice control seems to work ok, especillay seems to like the wifes voice Headlight Auto seems to work ok, although down a lane the other week end they didnt turn on where i normally always turn the lights on, so did it manually other wise ok Auto windcreen wipers bit hit and miss , often over ride manually Sat Nav , its crap in central london , tried it 3 times , but then been in other cars with sat nav none of which have a clue how to nav London. So I am back to A to Z for the occasionaly glance to find a specific location for the last 1/2 mile. It most likely works ok for those unfamilar with London. Other than that had no reason to use it. Radio works ok even DAB which actually works outside our house where even FM struggles normally. Technik does not have any form of adjustable Lumbar Support , but the standard seats are fine for me I would rather have the ability to turn all the displays off easily, I know you can but that is not straight forward, and leave the bare min of info displayed after all there is some concern that Sat Nav for instance is as distracting as a Phone, as indeed a handsfree is. Many of my comments could be directed to 99%percent of new cars on the road There is not a Honda availabe in this country I would currently consider there all crap. Jazz build quality has gone down the tube. A car i do like is the Toyoberu GT86, chassis designed and tuned for the driver , just lacks a tad in the power stakes, but i know a few people with them who find them a real hoot to drive , perfectly balanced . Porker Caymen is good , and the Lotus Avora is a peach by all accounts, but of course its likely to be "Lots of trouble usually serious !" As for the choice of a mundane car for the day job , yes I wish I had had one for 24 hours , both the BMW and Audi , maybe should have considered a MB as well but far more costly to lease and the BIK is higher. I find the exterior of current MB's austentatious and the new A class has been panned for its ride and handling. Mazda 6 is widely prasied, but the BIK is high Didnt find any of the Hybreds partulary atractive in any way I am sure I will get the Audi sorted , in reality its just the stop start that really bugs me, the parking brake I get the feeling is hear to stay and will creap into all cars as the average buyer wants all those nice little gizmos to play with, and sod the pure driving experiance. Try roof down . on a sunny day or chilly evening , changing gear at 9000rpm feelng the rear end squirm as you hit the rev limiter out of a 2nd gear corner feeling the stering alive and responding to the slightest inputs and you will know what i mean. It makes you feel alive !!!!

I wasent specifically concerned about the parking brake and hot spots its about poor driving when some one sits on the brakes at lights. My S has rear discs and the handbrake works directly on these pads. They are made by Nissin and are useless, they will cease up on a regular basis especially if not used on a regular basis, mine lasted 68k mile before a seizure! The other problem with these is that if the discs are hot when the handbrake is applied as the discs cool and shrink you can find your can wandering down the road on its own. Happened once to me , neighbour knocked to adivse my car was across the end of the road. Not likey to be a problem with the Audi system as the brakes are rammed on so hard by the servo motors every time.

These parking brakes are useless , less than useless , god know's why they bother fitting them its a gimmick to over come a non exisitant problem. It removes all driver control from a very important function. The one on my A4 is far to slow to respond leaving the brakes dragging during anything but a very tardy start Great for Audi giving premature brake wear and potentially clutch wear, but most importantly a lack of car control if one lands up juggling clutch and brakes to try and prevent roll back , this is poor driving technique and should be frowned upon, this most likely explains why we sit in traffic staring at brake lights permanently on , but then Audi can sell lot sof replacement lamps to ! Also promotes warped disc's as the with the caliper clamping the disc once stopped this will cause hot spots and warps . oh more spare parts and bills , god it's all win win for Audi.

Reject the car, the PDI wss not propery carried out

I do understand that 99% of the time the car is fine, not wonderful but ok a reasonable place to be, I personally do not need most of the bells and whistles , most are fairly useless in real life. I see the Audi come out pretty poorly in all off the current crop of 2013 Reliabiliy Surveys , certianly the high 20's and 31 in at least one, which is to say the least pretty poor, especially when you consider much of the French crap that creaps in above Audi!!! Mind you their VAG stable mates Skoda do fairly well , Its Honda , Toyota , Subaru and Skoda that seem to do best.

I did North Weald in my S2000, the benifit of these courses are that they teach the limit of your car, the only real down side to your car is the tyre wear! But I just finished of a set of Toyo's. Riped all the square corners of off the tread blocks. Roof down all day landed up with bit of rubber in the car, but was great fun and very useful. I did IAM some years ago, yes for sure road driving is all about perception, anticipation and threat awareness , and certianly then th IAM system was based on on "Roadcraft" the police driving manual. With all of the driver aids and electronics I fail to see how an Audi can be considered a "Drivers Car" any more, indeed i spoke to a chap a few years ago who had had an R8 for 9 months but was fed up with it as it intererred to much!

Thanks its ok , and certianly drives nicely. Dont forget the most improtant part to to consider when making a car go fast is , the driver full stop. On S2ki we get people turn doing all sorts of mods and are still slow , they can't drive and then someone who can drive in a stnadard car runs rings around them, even at the likes of the nordshelf or spa. Depsite even turbos and 400+ horsepower ( I cant drive fast at all ) A good course is run by Car limits at North weald , done this twice , very useful. The best mod to make your car go faster is driver trianing, followed by tyres and geo, if the car has the ability to be adjusted, the S has , camber, caster and toe at the front and camber and toe at the rear with some element of caster at the rear as a resut of the other 2.

Do a search on the net , bound to be sprap yards around who have Audi spares for sale , also try e bay.

Bald Eagle , I still have my S2000 , its my week end toy , I have had it since new so now 13 years old. That S you refer to is a 2008 model so a no no, the 2008-9 years models have suffered a lot of engine problems, some cars having as many as 2 new engines, with no actual reason being reported from Honda UK , although it is thought to be largly crank shaft end float. Some are fine but the failure rate was high when compared to the number sold in the UK at this time. Enitre production run was only about 120,000 virtually hand built on the NSX line. The S is very sensitive to tyres and geometry, mine is currently running on Toyo TIR tyres the problem being soft side walls but good wet weather grip. But Geo is so important, mine is currently fairly OEM but with slight caster variation on the front to enable the car to track fairly straight on the average cambered uk roads. Camber is a tad more negative than OEM due to slighly lower ride height as a result of full poly bush suspension and coil overs with 8kg per mm spring rates all round. The rear toe adjusters are at their limit with 20 mm drop and to get OEM camber requires after market toe adjusters, but a bit more negative camber is so far working for me. The ride quality is certianly better than the Sline A4 I had as a loan car, but similar to my A4, but of course with shed loads of feed back and control. The coil overs are Meister R running at 12 clicks from full soft for normal road use. I reckon maybe 20 clicks or so if one was to drive really hard or on a track day. Their are quite few poeple running S2000 on Goodyear asymmetrics with good reports , but generally for both 16 inch and 17 wheels the most popular tyre is bridgstone RE050 but specific ref , I cant remeber what one, I have never driven a Mondeo, but i think the Journo's still consider it to be the one to beat in overall ride/handling, and BMW 320 the finest driver's car in its class, but strangly I found it diff to drive smoothly or get used to the operation of the car during a test drive , i chose the Audi as it seemed a fairly nice drive in normal use, I drive maybe 100 miles a day , and like today 50 miles aroud the city and westend of London. My S2000 , http://www.s2ki.com/s2000/topic/992986-a-conundrum-why-did-i-start/

The trouble is all the tecnology , its just gettig to much , and Audi are not alone in this. They are not drivers cars , VAG are slowly removing all of the driver feedback and driver inputs Hence the silly hand brake , no feel , its on or its off no driver input, A gimich , A solution to a non-existant problem The more i drive it the more I have realised the steering is dead , with little feedback from the road and wheels All of the silly dashboard info displayed all of the time, its distracting , I only want to know about thngs when they fail or change not all the time, So Fuel Guage , Engine Temp , Rev Counter and speedo is all that required normally. Keep it clean keep it simple I tired a Honda CRZ , the dash has more whistles and bells than a merry go round , never even test drove it ! And god know's what the cost will be to keep it all running in a few years time when wll this stuff starts to fail, or maybe they are good for 5 to 10 years then bin them. Whereas the last of the simple cars lasted too long maybe for the car companies ? I believe there was an A8 for sale on piston heads last year, about 6 years old for £2000 , it was scrap, Audi estimated repair costs £15,000 with no guarantee of sucess , there are reports of BMW cars with similar issues with the on board electronics. SO my Honda S2000 13 years old and fairly simple with just ABS , is in fact a good drivers car , lots of feel , driver control, ( albeit steering via early electronic steering rack is a touch dead to ) But the car speaks through your pants Audi is just taking it all away from the driver , or is it maybe that most people would prefer an electronic chaufer !!!!! and be wafted around in a soft barge , but then Audi need to sort out the ride/handig compromise. The S2000 dash was just voted the best ever in an on line poll. It's clear, precise and simple . Althought the fule gauge is a tad eratic