Sid2020

Sometimes you get what you pay for so I wouldn’t think about the part prices but as you say, makes you feel good when you do the job yourself

Glad it’s all sorted

Bumper off, antenna fitted and bumper back on I’d say 1.5hrs max, calibration 30mins. What Audi charge I could only guess

This is where it gets tricky, if you have blind spot assist this comes under a driver assistant system and as Audi states it needs recalibrated they will Resist not doing it for liability reasons which is totally understandable from a dealer point of view. The con is that all it involves is putting the car into calibration mode and a brief 10 min drive

In some Scandinavian countries they have a socket in the front bumpers so they can have them plugged in easily to keep a cabin heater running due to the outside temperatures so always worth investigating

Pretty normal for a smallish car, your car will be on the light side so easily affected by wind and passing traffic

There’s a red/purple antenna behind the rear bumper, fitting new one should be plug and play but if you have blind spot assist the rule Book says this needs to be calibrated if the rear bumper is removed and replaced/refitted, in the real world you will be fine, the system is not very precise like a front radar

Never came across a aftermarket airbag and never want to either, will be Audi or eBay for it I’d say

Hard to tell with out actually having the car and airbag in front, airbags don’t typically need coding in just airbag modules so you should be fine, you get single stage and twin stage airbags so would need to make sure that you get the correct type for your car but likely to be only one, small black plug looks like horn ring

Be interesting to know what they come back with

Sorry I got lost in the conversation and thought you had electro hydraulic

A whine at full lock that was not previously there could either be a drop in fluid level or steering pump nearing the end of it life but you should avoid holding a hydraulic steering system at full lock as it puts a lot of strain on the pump

Did your parking sensors deactivate when you plugged in your caravan as they should if it was coded and wired correctly. No fogs on your car makes me think that someone has made a mess of wiring in the tow socket

I would be inclined to rule out mechanical components and start to think electrical, what components could affect boost to that degree, boost solinoid as would think it has a VNT turbo but this is controlled by the ecu. Is it a Bosch edc16 ecu as these are notoriously crap and used across lots of manufacturers on diesels. Lots of ecu repairer websites offer symptoms that may match what you experience. What if you turn your ignition on for 10 seconds and then back off removing the key and then start, does it run fine or does it physically need to start for a few seconds before the 2nd start

When you say start the car twice how long is it running the first time, a short trip or 10 seconds, need to know for possible component heating