cliffcoggin

Test the valves by rolling the stems on a dead flat surface with the heads overhanging the edge. Any bend will show up as a reluctance to roll smoothly and the head will gyrate or orbit rather than rotate.

Minus 273 is absolute zero so I guess there is no output from the DPF.

Well there are the fuses which should have been taken out beforehand. Check them first.

If I remember correctly both washers are supplied by the same pump, so I suspect the pipe to the rear has not been plugged and pressure is being lost that way.

I doubt that you will. Chain breakage is something I have never heard of. Chains stretch enough to jump their sprockets or sometimes chew through the casings, but they do not break.

Steve, I could see all of Piotr's message by scrolling left. Not that it matters because Kelly has not bothered to respond to the thread.

By my arithmetic that would take the car to about 67000 miles in 12 months time which does not sound unreasonable. If that cost of £615 includes VAT I would bite his arm off to get the job done at that price. Mine was a shade over £700 about five years ago. Many modern cars will remind you by a dashboard message to get the service done shortly before the appropriate mileage. Whether yours has that capability I do not know.

Glad to hear it Deborah. Regarding the cam belt change, I don't know what the Audi recommendation for your model is. My 2007 model needed to be changed every 70000 miles. Note that it will be an expensive job, but should not be postponed because the consequences of a belt failure would cost very much more, i.e. many thousands of pounds.

Why would you want the the time and expense of repairing it yourself when you are entitled to get the vendor to do it free?

In my opinion the valve stems are undoubtedly bent, in which case the pistons and conrods may well be damaged also. Take the head off and inspect the pistons crowns closely. If there is any sign of contact between valves and crowns you will then need to remove the sump and pull the pistons out to inspect the rods.

Darryl's point about a dual mass flywheel is not one that had occurred to me. I agree that if you have a DMF it would be worth changing; if it isn't just clean the old one.

Who can say? The company seems to have a good reputation and accepts returns, however £23 is remarkably cheap for a piece of complex machining.

I think you mean wary, though weary would be very apt. Loosen the bolts in stages and in the correct sequence i.e. the reverse of what you do when fitting the head.

Your choice of course Lance, but if the flywheel is only contaminated with fluid it is 30 second job to clean it. If it is worn that would be a different matter, though wear seems unlikely at 64000 miles unless you have been driving a slipping clutch for a long time.

I can understand renewing the clutch, release bearing, and cylinder, but I don't understand why they want to renew the flywheel. It's only a lump of flat steel which is easily cleaned of any hydraulic fluid.

I would expect 20 miles of motorway driving without full coolant flow to get it boiling, yet you say the coolant was only warm and there was no excessive pressure. That, together with the odd temperature reading, suggests to me there is still an airlock, probably in the heater matrix. A3s are prone to them and can be difficult to get rid of after opening the cooling system. I know of no certain way to eliminate the air as I have never needed to do mine, but I suspect that moderate vacuum would expand the air enough for it to bubble up to the reservoir.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/285098951418?fits=Car+Make%3AAudi|Model%3AA3&hash=item426138c2fa:g:LM8AAOSwP8djtoa0 I have never done it, but for seven quid it might be worth trying.

It is most likely a CV joint. You can test it by putting it in a gear with the engine off, then crawling under the car and clamping the drive shaft with self-locking grips (e.g. Mole grips). Rock the shaft to and fro to detect any play, which you will hear and see if the joint is worn.

I put up with the fault for the whole time I had the car, which would have been perhaps five years. My wife refused to drive the car because of it, whereas I tolerated the problem by adapting my driving. At the time it was too good a car in other respects to get rid of, yet not worth spending a lot of money to repair. Nevertheless it was a constant irritation and I am glad I no longer have to concern myself with clutches and gearboxes. Eventually it was the imminent need of gearbox repair and the price of diesel that prompted me to sell it.

Ah, I missed the fact it is automatic, which does not have the dual mass flywheel. My own automatic A3 suffered what I describe as clutch snatching when starting from rest. Audi would not even admit the problem existed, claiming the take off to be normal when they tested it, and could only suggest a new gearbox, an expense I was not prepared to even consider. My own internet research indicated the fault lies in the Mechatronic unit which controls the gear changing and which would have to be overhauled or renewed at great expense, so I tolerated the fault until I got rid of the car some years later. The general suspicion is that it is a design or manufacturing fault by Audi in early DSGs, hence their reluctance admit the problem's existence. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but your options are limited. The best I can suggest is you consult a gearbox specialist who might know how to deal with the Mechatronic and only charge a small fortune, rather than the large fortune that Audi will want.

A little searching would have revealed this topic from just yesterday.

The judder certainly sounds like the DMF problem, though it could also be a defective clutch. I don't know your engine, so are you sure it has a timing chain not a belt?

Fair enough, but let's start with the basics before moving on to the electronics and other ancillaries. That means a more complete description of the symptoms than you have revealed until now. You said the engine "doesn’t feel strong on cranking". If by that you mean it cranks too quickly and does not sound as if the starter is working hard, then I suspect you have little or no compression. Is that correct?

How many times do we need to repeat "Forget about ECU, warning lights and diagnostics until you have established whether the engine is sound."