cliffcoggin

Good detective work. It's hard to beat old fashioned testing as opposed to reading a meaningless code on a computer.

I'd guess you've got water inside the door and shorted out some switches.

As Steve said, if the panels you can see are rusty, the bits you can't see are going to be worse. As you have no plans to sell the car its value does not really matter, so the decision to treat it or not is a matter of personal choice. Do you want to maintain the best appearance or do you want to spend as little as possible?

I'd say that is a fair assumption. The edges of the hole are clearly fractured.

Glad to hear it. The simplest solutions are easily over looked.

Possibly a bad earth at one of the light fittings.

A faulty pressure switch is the most likely cause, but have you considered that it might be a genuine warning?

Mine is just the same, feeling as if the clutch is snatching. It only happens occasionally for me but it makes me nervous at junctions and the like. An Audi dealer I used to take it to for servicing looked a bit sheepish and said there was nothing wrong. Ha! A classic case of "the computer says no." Needless to say I don't go there any more.

There's a powerful aroma of something familiar coming from your diesel place that I am trying to identify. Ah, I remember now. It's BS. Do the job yourself Sam, or find somebody trustworthy.

It sounds to me that your specialist is guessing, or to put it another way, they are taking you for a ride. If they are incapable of testing the existing pump I have to regard them as incompetent. Unfortunately I have no further suggestions to add those already presented on this forum. Have you tried all of those? As for a fitting a secondhand pump, that would only be adding another unknown factor into the problem. Test the one you have.

If the damping is inadequate then by all means fit new shock absorbers, (poor damping would in any case be an MOT failure,) but they will do nothing for the ride height or wheel spacing. The only solutions that occur to me are longer springs, removal of wheel spacers, or extended wheel arches.

Like Dan, I still believe the problem is lack of fuel at the injectors during starter cranking. Unfortunately I don't have the practical experience of working on a A3 fuel system so all I can offer is logical deductive reasoning. [1] We have all assumed the primary pump is now working because you changed it, but is that true? Have you tested it to ensure it actually delivers fuel? Even if you can hear it buzzing or whining or whatever noise it is supposed to make, it doesn't necessarily mean it is pumping fuel. I hate to say this but the only way to be certain is to remove it and test it with a bucket of fuel and some short pieces of hose. (There is a distinct fire risk to this operation but I believe you to be competent enough to set it up safely. You eliminate the risk by testing with water but then you have the problem of getting rid of the water from the pump before re-installing it.) [2] Is there a second fuel filter that has not been changed? Some cars have more than one. [3] Is the tank vent clear? If it isn't, a partial vacuum can be generated in the tank which will actively try to pull fuel backwards. You can test this immediately after a long run by opening the cap and listening for the inrush of air. (Some cars used to vent through a valve in the cap; many now have a separate vent hose running from the tank to a level above the filler.) I wish you luck. I'll add more suggestions if any occur to me.

Chris. You clearly realise that to safeguard your wheels you need higher profile tyres, and to do that you need smaller wheels, so it's going to be expensive. And that's before you restore any suspension components. Perhaps your best bet is to sell the car to a boy racer, and get yourself something more practical. If it's any comfort to you my A3 has 225/45/17 tyres and I burst four of them in 18 months on potholes. For a while I considered smaller wheels and higher tyres to cope with the roads around here, and I may yet be forced to do so as the roads are being allowed to deteriorate even further.

Given that you are wiping the oil filler spout I'd guess that is where it is coming from. Why it's there is another matter. Assuming it wasn't a simple spillage the last time you topped up the oil level, one possibility is crankcase pressure blowing it out of the top. Is there oil spayed anywhere else nearby? Perhaps on the underside of the bonnet above that filler spout? Is the filler cap loose or have a defective seal?

Good point Gareth. If the boots have perished then dirt will have got into the joint, even if it has not yet caused any perceptible wear.

A clutch fault is the most likely possibility for the noise. Whether repair should be done by the dealer depends what guarantee he gave you and what it covered. 12 months? Three months? None?

That's most unhelpful of them. They could at least have asked if you need x, y, or z millimetres so that you could measure the hole. Sorry I can't help any better.

Do you actually need to know the size? Most motor factors only ask what model and year the car is to select the right part.

I'm not a diesel specialist, in fact I have had no formal training of any sort in car maintenance; I just learned the hard way over several decades of caring for my cars so make of my opinion what you will. The evidence to my mind points to the non-return valve in the primary pump not holding. I don't know how easy it is to replace yourself, (it depends on whether there is a access hatch in the boot floor or the fuel tank has to be dropped out,) but at £50 for a new pump I would take the chance rather than rely on the dubious opinion of specialists who are incapable finding the fault.

Well if the fuel system is OK, (and I'm not entirely convinced it is,) perhaps it's time to look at other faults such as engine compression, air filter, electronic control unit etc.

I've never heard of a hydraulic clutch becoming solid, so I suggest some diagnostic tests to find out where the problem is. [1] Open the bleed valve and push the pedal. If it goes down then the master cylinder is probably OK. If it does not you have found the problem. [2] Close the bleed valve, top up the reservoir, then disconnect the push rod from the slave cylinder. Push the pedal again. If it goes down then the slave cylinder is probably OK. If it does not you have found the problem. [3] If 1 and 2 are OK the problem must be the clutch itself, and it will have to be removed for examination.

It seems to be a common problem, though not one I have suffered. Why not fit a secondhand part? Many car breakers nowadays are on line and will post from anywhere in the country. It's how I got a replacement head rest.

The pipe is blocked and the seals damaged in the motor. See this recent topic: https://www.audiownersclub.com/forums/topic/12159-rear-wiper-motor-failure/

From a purely theoretical aspect, (having worked a bit in chemical engineering,) I would expect the pump to have non-return valves integral to its design. I would have a look while the pump is off the car.

I didn't know there was a time limit on the electric pump. Thanks for that information Dan.