My S3 money pit!

[rich-hill@hotmail.com]

I feel my luck as gone form bad to worse since buying my S3 in February.

I bought my 52 plate S3 with 52,000 miles, the lowest i could find, thinking that this would be trouble free, but th bills just kept on coming, as shown below:

Cambelt and water pump with big service (haldex oil filter spark plugs...everything) £600

4 new tyres because previous had cracked in tread £400
New anti roll bar front, and bushes £210
New front discs and pads £250
EML comes on...Engine coolant sensor £70
Passed MOT (thought the bills would be over) £52
CV Boots split as coil pack goes £200

Been told my MAF will need replacing soon, after that i don't think there is anything left to go wrong?

But it all seems worth it, even though it costs me a furtune

 

[666markyboy]

why have you been told the MAF will need replacing soon ??? is your mechanic Psychic ?? what was wrong with the antiroll bar that it needed changing ??? and also £70 for a coolant sensor ???? that can't be right can it ??

 

[Y83OLK]

eeek..your nearly at my repair costs..(although ive not had mine a month yet)
heres my money pit - http://www.audi-sport.net/vb/showthread.php?t=79373

Watch out for rear bearings..there not very nice to replace lol.

My MAF will need replacing soon, im only hitting 192g/s wheras i would be hoping for 210ish.

 

[Dani_B19]

Why should you be hitting 210 g/s, is your s3 remapped?

 

[<tuffty/>]

Other than normal servicable items such as cambelt, haldex, tyres, etc... the problems you seem to have had are fairly common.

Please don't forget that the S3 would have cost someone around £27k new and just because you can get them for £6/7k nowadays, they are still a £27k car to maintain.

No car is without its 'features' and the S3 by its nature has several of these.

Just think yourself lucky you didn't have the extra £7k odd to buy an RS6!!!

<tuffty/>

 

[S3KO4]

Since 2007, owning my s3, I had replaced brakes, Tyres, fluids and serviceable parts no need to mention.

Also replaced
Steering rack second hand (350) with labour
Clutch pedal snapped (90) to replace master cylinder Audi quoted 370
Haldex pre pump and sensor, fluids and filter (350) second hand
Gearbox mount screw snapped (30) to take out and replace
Will need cam belt and water pump soon, just a bit longer to go I hope...

Modified as pre signature
Cost of 800 pounds

And I still love every second of it, and not once I have wanted another car for better look or performance, very happy.

 

[random101]

in the last 6 weeks
im spending about $1000 a week..


wheels, brakes, coilovers, FMIC, revo chips, clutchs, gezzz you name it i got it lol


well not really i guess next week will be turbos...

 

[rich-hill@hotmail.com]

why have you been told the MAF will need replacing soon ??? is your mechanic Psychic ?? what was wrong with the antiroll bar that it needed changing ??? and also £70 for a coolant sensor ???? that can't be right can it ??

The sensor itself was by memory £30, but diagnostic time to find the fault then fit the new one took just under an hours labour then VAT makes it £70.

And the MAF is a common fault, and with cars that are older, do generally benfit from a new one. Although not appearing to cause any problesm, the power loss through them as they start to go can hardly be noticable until it really goes wrong. He only advised me as a procortion

 

[rich-hill@hotmail.com]

oh and anti roll bar needed to be reaplced due to the plastic sleeving splitting and falling out

 

[Andy_S3]

Im sure when my CV Boot split on the nearside it was only £50 parts and labour to have fixed???

 

[Niffty951]

Ha! Your only at the begining!!! Does anyone have any stories of how they fixed everything and then it was amazing??

Mine has been the most wonderful money pit I've ever owned! Good job its a ****** nice car to drive!

In 3 months of ownership I've done:

Service by audi (oil change)
Haldex Controller (now performence)
Haldex Unit and rear diff (x2 because 1st supplied replacement was no good)
Anti Roll bars (now 26mm amd 24mm uprated)
2 x MAF's (because they keep telling me its the problem)
4 new coil packs
new spark plugs
Water pump (now metal)
Cam belt (x2 because engine mount failed and damaged new belt)
Engine mount (right side)
Track rod end (left side)
DV Valve
All vacuum lines
Oil breather hoses
N75 valve
N249 valve
Intercooler hoses (now SFS silicone)
Air filter (now green unit)

Plus now it needs disks, pads and a clutch! This is all on a car with 100k and a full service history!!! Imagine if it was a dodgy motor! I refuse to ever sell a car if I know there's a problem with it otherwise It'd have gone after all this hassle but I'm hoping now.. finally.. I might be near the end of everything that fails and can enjoy some happy motoring?! Pleease!

 

[Westy]

Once you get the thing to a well maintained level it should hopefully just be service costs. You got to remember that if you went out and bought any car that's 7+ years old you'll be replacing most of the parts mentioned above.

 

[Ian W]

I bought mine on 75k two years ago.

Since then I have had the following

1st 3 Months
Service 1 - Audi Independent - £500
Cambelt / Waterpump etc - £500

1st 12 Months
Clutch + Flywheel - £950
Broken Brake pipe - £120
Window Regulator - £160
Anti-Roll bars - £150 ish

Last 12 Months
1 Service I did myself - £120 for parts.

Eventually you will get to the point where its mostly ok - hopefully, mines on 101k now and feels much better than when I bought it :icon_thumright:

 

[L_How]

That's nothing. In two years of ownership I have done the following:

Audi s4 avus 18" wheels (£185) with 15mm pcd adapters (£85).
Later upgraded to H&R 25/30mm pcd adapters £294
Tyres £450
Refurb wheels £250

£275 (MIJ Exhaust which was removed because the car sounded like a b52 bomber)

Stainless steel resonated cat back exhaust system + Stage 1 re-map
£459.12

De-chromed grill
Restored Headlights
£105

Upgraded car stereo and speakers £665
New S3 steering wheel badge
Fixed door card shelves
Replaced inner door handle
Fixed flap of centre panel shelf
New boot hydraulic arms
£100

Bilstein b12 Pro suspension including bilstein top mounts
Adjustable forge motorsport rear control arms £1462

New Water pump £232.13

New rear disc brakes + 4 pads + brake fluid £220

New cambelt & waterpump
Haldex oil change
£649

All this is approaching £5k .
Plus, I am yet to have the headlining redone on Wednesday which will set me back another £600.

 

[hydro s3]

£600 for the headliner that's crazy money for something you can do urself

 

[L_How]

£600 for the headliner that's crazy money for something you can do urself

I know but I've read the threads on it and it's very labour intensive. Frankly, I don't have the confidence let alone the space to do the work in.

 

[L_How]

I know but I've read the threads on it and it's very labour intensive. Frankly, I don't have the confidence let alone the space to do the work in.

Actually it's £540 all in if that makes any difference. Very very nice now that it's been done too. Gone for a slightly darker shade of grey.

 

[mephisto]

I have an S3 W plate and a TT on 03 plate so much younger & lower mileage (82k v 167k for s3) but last week i discovered the front subframe was disintegrating on the TT, panicked and checked the S3 is solid no rust issues at all. Alot depends on environment storage etc etc. Im guessing this TT lived near the sea or somewhere corrosive for some time perhaps. Replaced it all myself and did all wishbone bushes track rod ends strut bushes etc, all dirt cheap from Autodoc, i would poo my pants if i had to book that into a garage to be done. (Garage did do the tracking after i fitted it all)

Never once had a coilpack issue but had
alternator fail,
rear coil spring snap
ABS sensor fail (Yaw)
Haldex oil pump fail.
MAF sensor fail
Rear caliper seize(my fault for not driving it 2years maybe)
Fuel pump fail
Various vacuum pipes in engine just disintegrate
Electronic water pump start to leak - fail
Selector fork snap in gearbox(new gearbox!) - horrible embarrassing incident attempting to overtake a caravan.

They are an aging car so you just have to accept anything mechanical and or electrical at this age starts to fail.

At that age already id say all bushes are perishing at least.

Lets not think about the Dual mass flywheel.

 

[S3AMJ]

Mine has been fairly trouble free, just a window regulator and an electrical issue with the rear 3rd brake light.

that’s not to say it’s not a money pit though! That admittedly is self inflicted haha.

let’s just say by the time I’m finished with it, it’ll owe me about £20-25k in the 6 years I’ve owned it.