Dear all
my apologies for the use of the correct technical terms but I am very much new to this and really could do with some help/advice. I bought the above car in sept 2010 from a private owner. its a 56 plate registered in 2007. The car was running fine until feb 2011 when the amber coil light came on and the car would lose power and go into limp mode. when this happened i called out the AA who diagnosed the problem relating to the turbo. unfortunately the guy reset the codes and so when i took it to audi they weren't sure of the problem. Anyway I recently took it back when it happened again (some 3 months later) and they put it through their diagnostic check and have advised that one of the flap valves is broken (something about it being linked to the manifold) there was also some oil leakage. the lady at the service centre advised that they could not be sure until they had fully stripped the engine. thus an additional 200-300 pounds would be required to fully diagnose the problem. Apparently this is a common problem in the a3. What concerned me the most was that she said the costs could run up to thousands. What complicates the issue even more is that the car is under warranty by arnold clark who advised that in 9/10 cases this type of problem is not covered under warranty. However i have accepted that the warranty isnt worth the paper its typed on and have duly written it off.
I was hoping for advice as to whether anyone is familiar with this problem. And whether this is a straight forward problem that any garage should be able to fix or whether i should bite the bullet and just take it to audi. unfortunately i dont know the error codes but i may be able to get these from audi.
thanks
issac
my apologies for the use of the correct technical terms but I am very much new to this and really could do with some help/advice. I bought the above car in sept 2010 from a private owner. its a 56 plate registered in 2007. The car was running fine until feb 2011 when the amber coil light came on and the car would lose power and go into limp mode. when this happened i called out the AA who diagnosed the problem relating to the turbo. unfortunately the guy reset the codes and so when i took it to audi they weren't sure of the problem. Anyway I recently took it back when it happened again (some 3 months later) and they put it through their diagnostic check and have advised that one of the flap valves is broken (something about it being linked to the manifold) there was also some oil leakage. the lady at the service centre advised that they could not be sure until they had fully stripped the engine. thus an additional 200-300 pounds would be required to fully diagnose the problem. Apparently this is a common problem in the a3. What concerned me the most was that she said the costs could run up to thousands. What complicates the issue even more is that the car is under warranty by arnold clark who advised that in 9/10 cases this type of problem is not covered under warranty. However i have accepted that the warranty isnt worth the paper its typed on and have duly written it off.
I was hoping for advice as to whether anyone is familiar with this problem. And whether this is a straight forward problem that any garage should be able to fix or whether i should bite the bullet and just take it to audi. unfortunately i dont know the error codes but i may be able to get these from audi.
thanks
issac
