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Hi guys. I wonder if there's a wizard out here who could help me work out what to do. For about a year I've had an intermittent fault on my A3. It started with the EML coming on but was driving fine. Then the light would go off again for weeks sometimes. When the light stayed on long enough to get it into the garage and checked, I got these error codes: P0172 - fuel trim bank 1 system too rich P301 P130. My local garage changed sparks and coil pack, it went off for a while. Then it came back and it started noticeably misfiring, running rough especially when idling, but again, only intermittently. It would do it for one journey, or one day, or a few days, then stop for weeks. Our thinking was that this was likely an electronic problem rather than mechanical as it was so intermittent. Since then, the garage have changed the following parts: All 4 injectors Evap canister and valve Airflow meter Crank shaft position sensor Cam shaft position sensor Pre CAT 02 sensor Post CAT 02 sensor PCV Valve It cost me a pretty penny 😕 I picked the car up, it ran great for a week. Then one day I drove it for an hour, parked an hour, restarted and it was losing revs again, misfiring etc.. and then after I've driven it for 5 minutes it runs fine again. This time the EML is staying off. My garage, also at their wits' end, told me to take it to a specialist German car garage (it's already been into Audi dealership btw who said they wanted £800 to test which injector was faulty, so we just changed all 4 for less than £800! and it wasn't even the injectors...) There's no other symptoms that would suggest head gasket failure. The specialist garage is saying it passed the compression test but they'll try it again when the engine is hot. If it passes again, they want to replace the timing chain, and said it's going to cost about £1500 for parts and labour. Would it be intermittent like this if it was the timing chain? If it is the timing chain 100%, I'd go for the replacement... but how can they be certain? Could it be the ECM? Could it be failing fuel pump? I just don't know how much more money I can put into resolving this, when no-one seems to be certain what the fault is, and I've spent £2k already. It's done 82k miles btw. Any advice much appreciated.

Hi All, I am new to posting I usually just lurk and soak up knowledge from others... but today I am so dissapointed about my latest Audi A3 from The Carshop in Swindon I need reassurance I am still safe to drive it. I bought my A3 as a returning customer to Carshop, I had a 2009 Audi in grey previously from them which I PX'd for a 2010 in Red. It is a lovely car just like my 2009 model but has 6 gears instead of 5. It has jumped out of gear on but only on seven or so occasions and only in low gears probably 1st pulling away or 2nd turning right over the past 3 months. I assumed initially it was my inexperience of having 6 instead of 5 gears but as it continued to randomly pop out of gear into the second month of owning it, and when I actually saw the gear knob jump from the corner of my eye I reported it to Carshop within their 3 month warranty period. My problem is that it will not replicate the fault to order and they have 'looked' at it twice now and say it is afe to drive and no apparant fault. I am not happy and despite them saying wait till it develops a more serious fault we cannot do anything. I have also had my time wasted driving miles from Abingdon to Swindon twice now to have them look at it. I did ring and ask a gearbox mechanic his advice and he said it was most probably something inside the gearbox and looking at it externally would not show anything. I have complained to them but this is their response.car shop reply Miss Woodward.doc