Magnet

Hello Dennis, Wondered how you were getting along with sorting out your problem. Kind regards, Gareth.

Hello Chunks ( I'm confused with two Craigs!) As you say, it seems you are going to have to change the tyres in the near future, so it might be well worth while just living with this until you do fit a new set. Wheel alignment?? If they were mine, I would not have the alignment fiddled with at this stage if the across- tyre wear is reasonably even. Some may, and do, recommend that you have the alignment checked/adjusted on this car when you have the tyre renewed. For me, I would not go down that path, since you will never know whether it was the tyres that were the issue or the alignment, so I simply do one thing at a time and then test. Current wheel alignment equipment is state of the art, but the potential problem with using it is not the capabilities of the equipment, but sometimes the capabilities of the operator. My thinking in this is that if the tyre wear is even and the car handling is not an issue, then do not fiddle with it! Exception would be if you have a trusted person who you have complete confidence in using the equipment then obviously go for it, but..... Most of us buy the brand of tyre we want from the outlet that gives us the best deal, so the capabilities of using this equipment at the tyre at that particular retailer may be an unknown, so beware. Kind regards, Gareth.

Hello Liam, Sorry to be pedantic, but is the starter motor turning the engine over now or not, when you attach your jump leads to a good battery? Have you charged your battery? If the starter motor is turning the engine over with jump leads, will it now start even if it runs unevenly or cuts out? Is there any change in the symptoms now the outside temperature is a lot warmer? I think we need a clear updated understanding of exactly what the problems are, since it is possible there are two issues here, and one might have to be solved before the other. Kind regards, Gareth.

Hello Liam, Sorry to hear of your problem. Could you clarify whether you have failed to connect jump leads to it, or whether you were able to and the starter still doesn't turn the engine. If the latter, could you just confirm the jump leads are not the cheap 'toy' ones. Kind regards, Gareth.

Hello Edgaras, It sounds as if everything is now spot on, and my feeling is that this was simply a dirty connection onto the coolant level switch. If the light comes on it may well be worth actually disconnecting the connector and contact cleaning the terminals, but that would be more easily done by removing the header tank retainers. In effect , if it does come on again it would probably be advisable to change the switch anyway. Coolant temperature is obviously fine at a running 90, and no doubt you keep a regular eye on this anyway - and more so if the warning light comes on again. Coolant level - nothing wrong there. I tend to keep my cold (should be in capitals) level about half way between the Min and Max. marks, and as it gets hot, it may well rise above the max mark. All is well - let's hope the light stays out. Kind regards, Gareth.

Hello Edgaras, I take it the car has a coolant temperature gauge - what temperature does/did it read when the light came on? Did you try the connector wiggling? Kind regards, Gareth.

Just check what the handbook describes it as, but I'm pretty sure it's the coolant level warning.

Hello Craig, Welcome to the forum. Can we take it that the tyre pressures have been checked against those specified - normally shown inside the fuel cap? If so, it would be useful to know what make/s of tyres the car is running on, if they are matching side to side in the same axle and what the approx. remaining tread is, and whether the tyre wear is even across the width of the tyres. Kind regards, Gareth.

Hello Edgaras, Welcome to the forum and Audi ownership. Apologies for asking questions, but I take it you talking about the coolant level warning light and not a temperature warning light? If so, you should be able to feel an electrical connector under the coolant tank. Give it a wiggle and a squirt of WD40 and another wiggle, and see if that cures it. If not, it is likely that the level switch itself is at fault and will need replacing - not a big job. Perhaps you could let us know how you get on. Kind regards, Gareth.

Hello Dennis, Having re-read your original post, I feel I did miss your point that you were indeed simply advising buyers not to buy a car with a heater problem, and as such the post did not require any further input from members on here, but just to follow your advice. Please accept my apologies for pointing out the surrounding detail of the deal with this purchase, but perhaps some of this detail as well, may avoid others falling into the trap that you did by buying a car cheaply. What I'm not sure about Dennis is if your garage has put a new quality thermostat in this car, bled the system, and road tested the car. I still repeat that I genuinely hope that things work out for you. Perhaps you could let us know how you get on. Kind regards, Gareth.

Hello Dennis, Well, the plot unfortunately thickens, and you say you bought this cheap because it didn't have any service history , but it's also a beyond-economical - repair insurance total loss (write off) car. I guess the seller stated this in the advert and you therefore knew what you were buying into. If I'm reading it righIt, it seems as if you knew there was a heater problem yet you went ahead and bought it, so I wonder if you now have to accept whatever the cause of that issue is and the potential of that problem to influence other problems. How long had the seller owned this car? Not long? There are all sorts of issues here which may hamper any claim you think you may have against a private seller. If he is agreeing to settle a repair bill then personally I'm surprised, since he does not have any legal commitment to do so unless he grossly mis described this 12 year old car, and it would not surprise me that even then you might have to prove he knew of these faults - that's why I asked you if he had had it long enough to know of the faults. Involving the Police? I could be wrong, but I doubt if they would be at all interested unless this was considered to be a deliberate fraud. Citizens Advice may be your only hope. Let's hope this gets settled, and if it were me, I would be a bit wary of getting this car repaired by your garage before you have the promised funds from the seller. If you don't, you might find your only route is via the Small Claims Court and the court may well declare that you went into this deal for a car which was an insurance total loss, didn't have any history of service, had a fault which you knew about and accepted and the car was bought cheaply. Don't know Dennis, but all I can do is to wish you good luck in the outcome of this. Kind regards, Gareth.

Hello Dennis, Congratulations on your english. Sorry to hear of your problem, but I wonder if you could let us have the wording of the advert for this car. I think this would be helpful to be able to give you the best advice. Kind regards, Gareth.

Hello Sean, Thanks for filling in the useful extra detail. I sense you are hesitant, and to some extent that is a good 'fault'. At the other end, too much hesitation and the game is lost. I too don't gamble, but I just used the analogy to try to question what you views were on the bottom line of being out of pocket. OK, so you want a long term keeper car - great. If it were me, I would look at the running costs of this model will be and decide if this is what you are prepared to incur. If they are within your expectations then great. If not, forget it, even if was gifted to you. If the running costs etc. are acceptable then you just have to work out what your total budget is to buy such a vehicle. You know what you expected to pay to buy the car as is, so pardon the simplicity, but you simply subtract this away from you final budget and you have the 'repair fund' budget. To some extent, the final value of the car doesn't matter too much, since you are going to run this until it's scrap, so the economics here is simple. It might help to look at it like this Sean - what similar vehicle are you going to buy for your final budget which is better, and better known, as this? If you miss it , are you going to be disappointed? My guess is yes. Senario:- You've worked out your final budget, you can afford it?? - you are in an auction hall and you have about 3 minutes to decide. It's jump in or stay out time - decide - all the rest will fit into the plan. I genuinely wish you good luck with this, but can only suggest not to worry too much about detail. Kind regards, Gareth. p.s. Missing MOT year? My guess - just forgot to get it done between services - happens. I would not be surprised if the MOTs were carried out by the main dealer. They are more inclined to fail a car on a bulb rather than simply changing the bulb during the test or before it leaves the station.

Hello Bernie, Used to use Kurust when I had hair. Now use Vatcan ( or similar name) - available off the auction site, much cheaper, and I think just as effective. Kind regards, Gareth.

Hello Sean, You and everyone else now has a fuller picture of this. My only comments would be:- If you are concerned about how much it's going to cost you to get the injectors checked, then this may be another good reason not to buy it. It's likely to be a fraction of what it will cost to recondition the injector if it/they are found to be in need of servicing. In a nutshell, if it were me and you want such a car, my positive thinking would be how much cheaper-in-the -end are you going to to find one with a known history/fixable fault? Next thought, if you cannot fix it, how much are you going to lose? That's the gamble! Would I be far off the mark in wondering whether this is being looked upon as a short term route to a little profit rather than a longer term car to be retained? Kind regards, Gareth.

I guess you are gambling with around £1000 here Sean. If you can't afford to lose that then it might be worth walking away. WBAC will no doubt have made their offer based on the car being sound, and this may well be subject to a decrease if they notice it is smoking. If you want one of these and are good at spannering then it might be a profitable buy. If you have to pay for the spannering then.........?? Kind regards, Gareth.

Hello Davey, Manual or electric handbrake? Whichever, it seems to be affected by the -6C I had a sort of similar problem with our 1.6 A3 this morning, with the handbrake frozen on (silly me forgot I had a similar problem last year during a brief sub zero day and forget to leave it off last night) This car started but strangely cut out at the bottom of the lane and was reluctant to restart with the ESP light etc on. Did eventually, and got it back home and have it parked with the (manual) handbrake off. Still frozen on with our Red alert in these parts! If the engine is turning over strongly as you say, then it sounds as if the battery is serviceable. Let us know on the handbrake, and if manual it's worth leaving the leaver released. Kind regards, Gareth.

Hello Piotr, So that I can update what bit of knowledge I have, are you really saying all diesels ( including ones correctly maintained and set up) always smoked before the introduction of DPFs then? My thinking was that a DPF was what it it says on the can - if filters particles out of the exhaust gas but not necessarily smoke. You are probably more familiar than I am regarding the pitfalls of removing diesel injectors than I am, but I have worked on the basis of do not attempt to remove them unless you have to. I'm sure your VID check would be great and perhaps better than a leak-back test (done with the injectors in place), so I would have thought that removing them to simply bench test them would not be necessary - either of the above should give a good indication if anything is wrong. Kind regards, Gareth.

Hello Sean, I guess this will boil down to what the attractive price is that you can by this at. Injectors can be checked via a leak-back test, ( not difficult) but you will need someone to do this for you. You will need to check on the cost of injectors but I would guess you will be talking around £150 each to have these reconditioned - so you will be well on you way to half your £2k without labour. If you want this cheap, then you will have to budget for a £2000 additional expenditure or least get someone to estimate the cost of repair before you buy. Another point Sean- tighter smoke restrictions from May on? Kind regards, Gareth.

Hello Gary, Sorry to hear of your problem, and I guess it's now resolved, but incase anyone follows this in the future, I think it would be useful/essential to know what circuit has a short to ground/earth. This short circuit should result in blowing the fuse which protects that circuit. It is unlike a poor earth where the circuit is not completed because of that poor earth - that sort of problem is know as an open circuit. Kind regards, Gareth.

Many thanks for the helpful photo Bernie. Not sure how long you have had the car to know its history, but i would say someone has already had a go at this before. Others will have more knowledge of this in terms of it being a problem area for rust on this model, but this sort of issue is normally associated with road muck being held behind the wheel arch lip and the the rust starts from there and the edge. Mercedes had this wheel arch issue on mid 90s/early 2000 cars, and it was common to see such cars being fitted with "chrome" wheel arch over covers which hid the rust. Jaguars of the same period were also problematic, so if you want to investigate this as a cheap way out then try searching on these for those makes and see if the suppliers cover Audi as well. Back to the Mercedes - you could go on the Continent and see the same models without rusty arches - even in countries where you had snow! Here, you were lucky to see one without! This leads me to wonder weather it might be worth investigating the supply of sound secondhand wings from the Continent rather than fitting new. I would have thought that the estimate you have had for doing this job is reasonable if it for fitting new rather than repairing yours. Kind regards, Gareth.

Hello Debbie, Being from the school of worth giving it a try, It could be worth trying this:- Put the key in the ignition and turn the key to the position where the warning lights show, but it does not attempt to start the engine. Leave on for a few seconds then switch off. Repeat this 5 times and on the last time, press the lock and unlock buttons on the fob before switching off. Try to start the car. If its still the same then i would suggest a half day out with an auto electrician as Steve says. There are more in-depth key fob reprogramming suggestions for VAG cars if you Google it, but being pessimistic, I've yet to have luck with any of them. But always worth a try. Kind regards, Gareth.

Hello Will, I'm with Steve"s idea of checking the wiring first. Problems often arise ( particularly in the cold weather) with the flexible harness into the boot/tailgate getting brittle and wires can actually fracture. Of course, water and electrics should not be on the same recipe sheet, and the first port of call should be to try to find out where this is geting in. New bits?? Well always worth cleaning and checking before opening the wallet! Kind regards, Gareth.

Hello Mat, It's always wise to be concerned, and then to clear or confirm those concerns. If it were mine, this is what i would do:- Check the coolant level with the engine cold and top up to the max. mark. If it's only about 1/2in. down it would be fine to top it up to the mark with water. If it happens to be above the max when cold then put a mark where it is. Worth just checking the oil level when you are at it. Take the car on a run of at least 10 miles- ideally on a dry day. The "at least 10mls" bit is essential. At the end of this run, get an assistant to rev. the car to 2000rpm and hold those revs. for about 3 minutes. During this time you stand at the back of the car and look for any smoke from the exhaust. If things are not as they should be, you might see white smoke which might just come in bursts, also look for any blue or black smoke if you don't have white smoke. If there isn't any significant smoke, then you can stop worrying. If there is, video it and the rev. counter and temperature gauge. Smoke or no smoke, run the car for a few days and recheck the coolant level when cold. It should be still at the same level. If it's not, measure how much you have to add and note the mileage covered since you last topped it up. Let us know how you get on Mat. Kind regards, Gareth.

Hello folks, Many thanks for the helpful recommendations. Not wanting to go with a pay and reclaim cover, I tried Green Flag, and a nice lady sorted out roadside assistance and recovery for the good lady and myself for any car we are in - for just over £80. That is less than half the price the AA wanted for the same level of cover. AA?? Well after hanging on the phone over more than 10mins. trying to get through to their renewals department I gave up - there is only so much of "Swing low sweet chariot" you can put up with! Alternative number dealing with 'making sure you do not have dupliate cover' which I do because the bank gives me 'free' roadside , but the AA now recharge me for if I want the previously added-on recovery. 'Sorry about your wait, I'll put you through to Renewals' - well he did, but I gave up again after another 10mins. plus. Piano music this time! Well done AA! Many thanks again and kind regards, Gareth.