Magnet

Hello Scott, I know this isn’t going to be of any use to you in your current plight, but you should not (in caps) coast an automatic in N. Yes, I have heard of someone having a habit of doing that (why we don’t know!) but he got away with it by changing his new car every three years! With regard to your current plight, if it were mine, I would be seeking a localish automatic gearbox specialist and see if they can offer advice, ahead of getting the car transported to them. Kind regards, Gareth.

Hello Yusaf, ‘Bodyshops and only scuffs’. Absolutely not. Bodyshops, or accident repairers, or whatever you like to call them, are the specialists in all forms of damage to vehicle bodywork, from repairing a small scratch to complete rebuilds of car bodywork. Really not worth bothering with any other establishments for advice and estimates, but worth going to at least two. Main dealer? Just not worth bothering unless they have an on site body repair section - which few do. Kind regards, Gareth.

Hello Norton, It comes over load and clear that you just dislike (hate) the car, rather than a dissatisfaction with the dealer being able to reasonably fix the issues under complaint - which he must be given opportunity to do, before being able to reject the car. As I see it, your dislike of the car outweighs its problems, so having good grounds to reject the car may not be completely justified. Of course I could be wrong on this, but if not, the wallet-offending alternative may be the only way out if the hatred is that serious. Just a personal opinion of course. Kind regards, Gareth.

Hello Dave, I don’t know about the possible effects, if any, of all your ‘deleted’ bits, but your description of blue smoke on acceleration after overrun is text book valve guide/stem seals wear. Connection with turning?? Kind regards, Gareth.

Hello Akim, Welcome to the forum. Buying a 7 to 10 year old car is always going to be a risky business, and you are right in seeking advice, and I’m sure others on here will offer you that. Some will say full service history is a must-have, and that opinion is generally worthy of consideration, but it’s no guarantee of ongoing serviceability, or that the car has been well cared for between its half day service visits to a dealer. Again, oil consumption is a known issue with some engines, and hopefully others on here will be specific on which ones. This can be a serious consideration, since it might not be apparent on inspecting/ testing. While we wait for more comprehensive opinion, please allow me to pass on comments from a long time acquaintance who has been selling ‘bread and butter’ end secondhand cars since the days when I had hair! ‘If I could always select the makes of secondhand cars I have to sell, Kia and Hyundai would be the top of my list. In comparison, they cause me very little problems’. So parting with a Kia?? Good luck and kind regards, Gareth,

Hello Yusuf, Sorry to hear of your issue. From what I can see, the damage appears to look worse than it actually is, but it’s always difficult to form opinions without inspecting the vehicle. I don’t think the answers you seek will be found here, and certainly not estimated costs to sort out. I think you are adopting the right route by getting it inspected, but at a (main?) dealer?? Personally, I wouldn’t, since the necessary expertise will not be there. I would be taking it to a trusted local bodyshop - that is where the experience will lie. Kind regards, Gareth. p.s. Worth getting your tyres checked for damage too, since you may have driven over the offending metal.

Hello Stuart, As I’ve mentioned on here with similar requests for secondhand parts:- Register you ‘wants’ with on line car breaker link systems such as Partsfinder - there are more. Kind regards, Gareth. p.s. To Admin. - unlike other forums, this one doesn’t have a ‘Stickies’ (or whatever they are called) section, where common questions and answers are listed for easy reference. Worth looking into Trev?

Thanks Iain, You are unlikely to get the correct replacement bolts from any other source than a main dealer. Certainly worth trying Cardiff for your timing belt kits and water pump. Bought a couple of kits recently at discount, and delivered free to the door. Kind regards, Gareth.

Hello Steve, Belt or chain? If you just ring up the Parts Dept. of your local Audi dealer and ask them for availability and cost of the timing belt, the answer will clarify belt or chain! Kind regards, Gareth.

Hello Julz, Thanks for coming back. Probably pessimistic, but it sounds like your ‘Audi guy’ really means it could be any of the micro switches etc., so that diagnosis doesn’t do you much good. Also garage doesn’t really want to do any work to sort it. Sounds like you need to consult someone in your area who deals with replacing convertible roofs. Try Googling it. Even try car trimmers. We have someone down here in Swansea, but obviously no good to you, but I would be surprised if there isn’t someone in your neck of the woods. Kind regards, Gareth.

Hello Steve (S4). Pardon my ignorance, but does this engine have belt driven camshafts rather than chain driven? If indeed belt, then I wouldn’t even start it, leave along drive it, before the belt/s are changed. Of course, the noise maybe from the auxiliary belt, but in view of your earlier experiences, it would be a daft suggestion to believe it could be, and to ignore the vital cambelt. Kind regards, Gareth.

Hello Julie, I think some good advice has been offered so far, and of course, no one on here is going to know exactly what parts are needed, since (understandably?) you don’t tell us. You really need to go back to whoever identified the offending parts, and get them to take photos and write the part names down for you. You will then be in a better position to move forward to obtain the parts. I sense your frustration, and I sense ‘your garage’ isn’t too interested in doing this job, so you would benefit from finding someone actually interested in sorting it out, otherwise you could end up with buying parts which no one really wants to fit. Perhaps you should start by Googling cabriolet root specialists around your area and take advice there first, rather than trying to find parts which you are not familiar with. The car sounds to have been ‘bought for nothing’ so only you can decide if it’s worth spending money on. ‘What’s the point of a convertible if the roof won’t go down’? I think your answer may rest with ‘It will, but manually’. In the final analysis, how much of a hardship is doing it manually? These cabriolets normally have a manual ‘rotary key’ mechanism which can be turned to raise and lower the roof if it fails on automatic. If it does, it should be possible to modify that turn ‘key’ to operate by a cordless drill. Much quicker and easier. Maybe some helpful points here? Kind regards, Gareth.

Hello Iain, These would be main dealer parts, but I wonder why you would want to replace them. You can try Audi Parts Direct at Cardiff (mail order). They are part of Mon Motors (were Cardiff Audi). Contact is Phil. They do genuine Audi parts at discount. Your cambelt kit (and water pump?). Wondered if you were using genuine dealer parts, and where you were buying the kit. Kind regards, Gareth.

Thanks Alex, Sounds like you did what was good pre mapping preparations. Looking at it logically, the only thing which has changed is the mapping, so.... Kind regards, Gareth.

That’s the type we failed to do anything with Cristian. Take it it’s only the one you have then? Kind regards, Gareth.

Hello Alex, Sorry to hear of your issues. Can we take it you renewed the plugs, air filter etc. before getting the car remapped? Kind regards, Gareth.

Hello Cristian, Can we take it you have the normal two fobs for the car? If so, does the other one work? This is my similar experience:- One of our original pair stopped working a couple of years ago, and I tried all the listed DIY methods of reprogramming it without success. I guess you’ve tried most of them too then? The other fob works, so I believe it’s a matter of getting my other one professionally (Audi?) reprogrammed. Kind regards, Gareth.

Hello Aaron, It’s great that you are enquiring before purchasing, and that the forum has been of help. One, second thought, thing I would ask is how any intending purchaser is going to know if the actual car of interest suffers from high oil consumption? Not sure how easy it is nowadays, but if it were me, I would be making all possible efforts to contact the last owner to discuss this side of things. Failure to do so may be regretted. Sounds to be a very important requirement - more so than service history even?? Kind regards, Gareth.

Hello Keith, Personally, I wouldn’t get too concerned about it, or really trying to working it out. Not opting for their service plan will give you a greater flexibility to negotiate prices for not-covered wearing parts when they are required, and of course, allows you to use another Audi dealer to do your servicing, should you have any dissatisfaction with the supplying dealer, or the alternative Audi dealer offers you a more competitive service price at the time. Any potential savings will be very, very minor in comparison with the outlay to purchase, and as I said, probably just not worth troubling the mind with one way or the other. Kind regards, Gareth.

Hello Keith, The new Q3 sounds great. Enjoy. Re. the service plan:- As I understood it, servicing was carried out on either a Longlife schedule which is ’type of usage’ based, if the car is used frequently and covers average mileages of say c12K + per annum, or on a timed basis ( say annually) if the mileage is rather lower than that. With the Longlife schedule, the car’s usage is continuously monitored and services generally come around at about 18K miles or 18 months - and you will be alerted of this on the display - with some notice. The timed schedule intervals is just that. You should be able to gauge which one of these best fits your usage. Whether to pay for a service plan or not? This could be influenced by whether you are buying on PCP etc. and how long you intend keeping the car. With PCPs they usually want to sell you all sorts of add-ons from polishes to wheel insurance! If I was going to consider entering into a service plan, I would want to know what is not (in caps) included - this is much more important that what is. It’s likely that brake components won’t be for example. Apologies if this is a long winded reply which doesn’t answer the question, but you will need to work out how much you will be paying Audi over say 18 months, and compare with the cost of say the Longlife service - which you should be able to find out. If it were mine, I would do my homework and perhaps consider putting their costs one side, and saving that against your servicing costs when due. One other point:- If the Longlife service plan is still in operation, you will need to let them know what your anticipated annual mileage is, since they might have been pretty good in the past at setting the the car’s servicing monitoring to short service intervals - whichnof course means more services ! Perhaps some points to investigate and bring up to date if necessary. Good luck with the new car. Kind regards, Gareth.

Hello Madpanfan, Thanks for the additional information. Sounds like the clutch biting point has been near the floor for some time - which is not good news. Putting that, and the juddering and grabbing issues suggests -no confirms - it is in need of urgent attention, before it decides to disintegrate. The good news is I would think you don’t have gearbox troubles, the bad news is you really should be getting the clutch changed as soon as possible, after yesterday! Audi clutch parts are daftly priced, so if it were mine, I would be shopping around for a LUK 3 part clutch kit (the only - in caps - aftermarket kit I would buy). I would not be tempted to buy any other aftermarket make clutch kit, even if a certain on line supplier has what would appear to be an attractive discount code at the time. EBay, should come up with competitive prices for LUK from a variety of sellers. Kind regards, Gareth.

Was this information any help to you Madpanfan - particularly Cliff’s point about the longer term affects on your gearbox? Kind regards, Gareth,

Hello Madpanfan, To me, the symptoms you describe would be typical of what would arise if you had clutch issues. It would be unlikely that difficult gear selection across all gears would be mainly due to gearbox problems. Kind regards, Gareth.

Thanks for the important additional information Harris. Within reasonable limits, the bulk of the trapped air should expel itself over a couple of days, so great volumes of trapped air in your case, should not really account for your ‘new’ overheating issue. My procedure for draining/ replacing coolant is to always ensure the heater control remains set on max. before draining and when filling. Back to your overheating, where you didn’t have overheating before:- The only component you have changed is the radiator, so logic points to that component being the suspect, if correctly fitted. Yes, I know it’s new, but it can be surprising how many new parts made east of the Thames estuary, can be substandard, out of the box. I would not assume new equals serviceable any more. Kind regards, Gareth.

Hello Daniel, The first port of call has to be to get the alternator output checked, and equally importantly, the battery’s efficiency. It would be understandable that a six year old battery (if still on original) will be nearing the end of its serviceable stop/start life. Kind regards, Gareth.