My beloved 3.2- The story so far

[cj.dub]

As you may remember, In June I posted regarding Manual gearbox noises.

I had the car booked into 'Gearchange' of Brdgewater for what looked like a bearing change. On the way there, the gearbox went bang. Whatever broke smashed a hole in the casing. The car was then of the road for 4 and a half weeks for the time it took to source a used gearbox, recondition it, rebuild car, find out 2nd gear needs replacing, take gearbox out, rebuild gearbox, rebuild car!
They did give me a 15% discount because they missed the 2nd gear issue
In total £2150 for reconed gearbox + new clutch dual mass flywheel.

Next brake callipers seize, needed to be striped down, cleaned, regreased, problem solved.
'Loads of life left in them' they said.

1 week later tweeting noise reoccurs from rear brakes, rear brakes warped badly, new discs and pads on rear, next hard stop will probely finish of the fronts.

My favourite- I noticed the smell of unburnt fuel when driving with the windows down, thought nothing of it. 1 month later after driving 15 miles back after work, I filled up fuel- . drove 2 miles home, smelt fuel again, I looked under the car, it was ******* out! All over the hot exhaust. So I rang the fire brigade, they mopped up the mess and rolled the car up onto a kerb to stop the leak. The AA recovered it to my garage. conclusion- someone had undone the feul tank sender unit and refitted it incorectly. My fuel consumption has greatly improved now. and it didnt burn to the ground

Took car to Audi Salisbury on friday. For software update to fix 2K Rpm issue, That problem is solved but a new problem is in its place.- Poor idle speed and lumpy at idle. They replaced the ignition coils for the recall. I also have a fault in the 'Secondry Air Pump' they tell me. £700 for audi to fix

On a positive note- audi did the service with the update FREE! I asked why, he said 'In the hope that you'll come back here in the future'
Not at £115 per hour mate I thought to myself.

If you have read all of that, remember that this 53 Plate car had only done 17'500 miles when I brought it in june. It has not been clocked.

please comment

Chris

 

[Steve B5 Biker]

Chris, Either youve been duped and its been clocked or you broke a hell of a lot of mirrors

 

[Ironborn]

Ouch, how much was the purchase price? I would have been tempted to trade it as it is. Just goes to show once again mileage means
nothing. Good luck with everything

 

[cj.dub]

£4800, cant get rid of it now, too much money spent. i'll never buy a low millage car again!

 

[Ironborn]

Yeah unlucky dude, nice car though. Any planned mods? Got overtaken by a 3.2 the other day, just the sound alone left me green with envy.

 

[Sarah's A3]

Ouch, thats a run of bad luck. All I will say is hang in there, I love mine to bits. Maybe thats why the last owner sold it, must have known what was coming up with her. Problem is with the 3.2s is they are costly to fix but oh so good to drive. Hope your luck gets better soon.

 

[Av4nt]

Not a great deal better with high mileage cars tho!! I bought mine at 115k... after a month the EGR valve snapped, cam belt tensioner sheared and one of the ECU main wiring harnesses melted against the EGR cooler pipe and shorted te car out lol! Have half a rebuilt engine, new EGR valve and rewired car now. pain in the butt

 

[schmergal]

What did u do in ur previous life? Hitler r wa??

 

[tedward]

It's luck of the draw with cars. Although I have seen a few of these 3.2s with gearbox issues. In fact there was a bargain auto for sale near me with box issues needing to be fixed.

I'm not 100% sure but is the manual box not the same as the golf 4 r32? Never heard of those having gear box issues?

I recently sold my golf v6 4motion 150000 miles and still on factory clutch and totally fine. You would have to think at 17000 miles your a3 must have suffered at some point to be spewing it's gearbox over the road? Maybe an abused ex dealer demo car?

 

[kanecullen89]

Probably just an unlucky stint. You've had so much repaired now its probably worth keeping and you may not have any more issues.

Audi prices are crazy. Mine was audi serviced and repaired for 3 years, until I bought a house, had a baby and bought a second car. Now it goes to the cheapest garage I can find. Audi prices are unrealistic for the 'normal' people

 

[RYes3]

How do you know it hasn't been clocked? All the issues described scream high milage! fuel sender out under 20K? brakes warped? second gear gone?

I hope it isn't the case that you got stung but it's all very suspicious!

Then again, brakes seizing and fuel sender could be as it has been stood for a long time I suppose.

Either way I feel for you, thats a real pig of a repair list.

Moral of the story, low milage high age is not neccesarily a good thing.

 

[vacant]

Low mileage is almost always a good thing, but extremely low mileage usually means long stints of the car standing, and probably lots of short journeys - neither of which are great for any car for sustained periods.

Sorry to hear the bad luck with it, but with a bit of looking after and some more regular use hopefully it'll be something that starts behaving better so you can enjoy it's awesome engine a bit more

 

[N8]

£4800, cant get rid of it now, too much money spent. i'll never buy a low millage car again!

Yes but then could have bought a 3.2 with 180k on the clock and had all the same problems, sometimes it's just luck of the draw. One car may have 100k on the clock and be driven/treated with the up most respect and another with 17k on the clock and that one could have been ragged from cold etc etc.

Glad you got it sorted in the end, cars are great when they are going well, and a PITA when they are not.

 

[discostu49]

unlucky mate as said its prob been sitting a while and been a town car so lots of small trips

hopefully now you have the stuff done it will give you peice of mind and it will last you many fun miles

i love my 3.2 evem more when it goes over 3k in sport mode, windows down and music off ;-)

 

[cj.dub]

I know it was definity off the road for 6 years. Tyres where cracked to hell from standing. Its been to 5 different garages + an audi dealer, hpi checked all saying its genuine. Also you can tell alot from the interior. Audi floor mats are dated.
Apparently the only reason someone would remove the feul sender unit is to syphon the tank. (unless its broken)
Its clearly been owned or used by a complete idiot.
The manual gearbox is shared by the golf, they shouldnt have problems.
My clutch didnt need replacing, I had it done as the car was already in bits - saved on labour costs