arrrgh - car problems just before sale! (1.8T QS)

S

ScottMc

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hi guys - looking for a bit of advice here.

I took delivery of a new A3 8P Sportback (S Line in white - yup i'm a fashion victim) at the beginning of Dec (company car) and decided to hold off selling my A4 Quattro Sport until the new year (hoping the credit crunch would have improved a bit since then). In the mean time, the A4 has been sitting at my folks' house in their garage.

finally took advantage of the sunny weather and decided to take the A4 out for a run and get some photos taken for an advert...

first off - ABS warning light starts flashing up, then goes out (brakes did feel rubbish as the car hasn't been used for 2 months right enough).

not a good start...

so i carried on got the photos taken then started driving home only to find the exhaust getting louder and louder by the minute - thought i was imagining it at first but yup, took home and exhaust sounds like its blown -sounds like its coming from somewhere near the front of the car.

can't believe all this has happened considering the thing hasn't even been ****** driven and was fine when it went into the garage (MOT was done in Nov too so i'd have thought problems would have got picked up then!)

not happy at all - was hoping to put the car up for sale around £2.2k ono.

now i'm not relishing the thought of spending more money on it for me not to get much back.

do you think i'd be better fixing it? and if so how much work does it sound like it needs?

or else should i just let it go for cheaper (i was thinking 1.8k?)

it's a 2000 W with 105k miles (1.8T Quattro Sport)
pearescent/metallic dark blue in colour (can't remember the name but was told it was rare when i bought it)
half leather recaros
climate control
18" RS4 alloys,
11 months MOT
Audi concert tape player with CD changer in boot.
audi towbar (the removable one)
apart from that standard.

and the tax is due up on the 31st of Jan so i guess i'll need to stick another 6 months of that on too.


any one else had problems like this????!!

or am i being totally unreasonable


here's the trouble maker...
100_0387.jpg


and here's the new car...

DSCF1815.jpg
 
Youre going to have to find out whats wrong with the exhaust.

My moneys on the downpipe flexijoint, as with worn engine mounts it takes a beating and splits, but without actually looking its just a guessing game.

ABS warning is an odd one, it wouldnt come on then go off again... If it detected a fault you'd get three loud beeps and a large (!) in the middle of your DIS, that would stay there the whole time your driving. You sure it was ABS warning?

When cars are laid up the disks get very rusty, and you need to put some miles on it to clear them off.

The downpipe, if thats the fault, is about £80 from ECP, and while a bit fiddly to install, in this climate, fitting a new exhaust will give you a much better chance to get the car sold, or at least, get a good price for it.
 
Well If it helps I still have my 1.8tq exhaust and some of the ABS unit parts if need be but I would pop the sensors out and clean them which may fix the ABS problem.
 
thanks for the quick reply -

i hadn't thought about the flexi section - I took a look around the engine bay after i got home but its hard to see where its coming from.

pretty sure it's an ABS warning - it had the (!) symbol on the DIS and also the ABS light came on too. it went off again a few minutes later and stayed off but then came on again on the drive home.

i couldn't test the brakes by stamping on the pedal to see if i could feel the system working since as you said, the discs feel corroded from not being driven in 2 months.
 
I have an exhaust for sale too....
if your ABS warning stays off it could be down to the car sitting for a while.

need to VAG it though
 
i've taken it to a local garage tonight for some diagnostics and asked the mechanic not to do anything until i've given him the go ahead on the cost front. fingers crossed.
 
well some good news - the exhaust was blowing from just behind the flexi pipe and its now fixed. phew.

garage didn't have access to a vag com unit unfortunately so still not sure what the ABS light is on for...

is it likely that its just because the car has been sitting for a while?

and if so - is my asking price reasonable?
 
its likely that there IS something wrong with the ABS, be it corroded/dirty trigger wheels or dirty/broken sensors.

The car just sitting wouldnt cause the ABS light to come on, but without a diagnostic scan you'll be hard pushed to find out what is actually wrong.

As for the price, the 1.8TQS is about the only normal A4 that still seems to be holding its value well, and they seem to sell for 2250-3000 depending on mileage/spec/condition and how quickly the seller wants it shifted. I recon listing it at 2.2k with everything working should result in a pretty quick sale.

It might be an idea however to spend a tenner and buy a vagcom lead from ebay and running a scan on it yourself. This way you will ensure the car gets its maximum price, instead of knocking 400quid off when all you needed to do was replace a £100 sensor.
 
So...
Your folks' have been tearing around in it and ******** it up a bit have they?!
:yes:
 
ScottMc said:
cheers aragorn i'll try and get a vag com then. didn't realise they were so cheap!
Click to expand...

The official leads and the licence for the software is expensive (bout £250 all in) but the copy leads are only a tenner, and the software is available as a free download with limited functionality, but its more than good enough to do what you want it to.
 
you might be on to something there!

who could blame them though - its a hell of a lot more fun to drive than my new A3 never mind his old jag xtype.

mind you... quattros aren'tt exactly economical cars are they which is why i've gone for the boring option now.

i'm a bit happier now that exhaust is sorted - still a bit mistified over how it happened of course.
 
you need a nice Derv quattro like dieselfitter's ;)

might not go very quickly, but then the later PD engines can be tuned to ~200hp relatively easily....

I cant really see the 1.8TQS being THAT bad on fuel though? our FWD averages about 31, i'd expect a TQS to manage very high 20's?
 
TQS does 30mpg at 80mph. good cruising speed (on a private track obviously)
Even when I drive it like I have stolen it and around town I get 22+mpg.
 
my abs did this off and on for a while and it was the module.still at it just now.
 
if you want to do a deal with some standard quattro sport wheels for your rs4's i might be interested.im not far up the road.
 
ScottMc said:
you might be on to something there!

who could blame them though - its a hell of a lot more fun to drive than my new A3 never mind his old jag xtype.

mind you... quattros aren'tt exactly economical cars are they which is why i've gone for the boring option now.

i'm a bit happier now that exhaust is sorted - still a bit mistified over how it happened of course.
Click to expand...

I didn't look at where you were, I'm originally from Kilwinning & was just up your way at the weekend & I've got Vagcom... not much use now but I will be around within a week or so. If you're still having woes drop me a line! I'll see if I can swing by next weekend.
 
thanks for the advice again guys.

It's booked into a different garage now to take a look a the ABS (it's still doing the warning thing).

on the economy front I was managing to get an average of around 30mpg up to about 32mpg max out of it. i guess it's not woefully bad but i've got a 110mile commute to do every day so every little helps!

Ian52 - thanks for the offer on the wheels but i think i'm going to sell it with the RS4's on it - makes it stand out from the crowd a bit better for selling it i think. I actually sold the original ones i had that came with the car to a guy on here with the user name Soupy (or something like that!)??

Dieselfitter - cheers for the offer, i'll see how things go with the garage and if they are as useless as the last not i'll give you a shout!
 
Just curious, where are you putting it into... I know of one place you should stay away from and one which is Highly recommended, (in Kilmarnock), ex - VAG mech.
 
it's going to a small place in Ayr that our family have used for a few years now - John Blackwood is the owner. can't think what the name of the garage is!
 
That ABS problem is a very popular one on cars of our age. It's caused by two extremely small wires in the ABS 'module (on the side of the pump) coming away from the board inside... there was a guide on here somewhere a long time ago about how to DIY repair it... quite simple really if you have a steady hand and very good eyesight!

You firstly have to remove the unit from the car ... accessible from the top mostly but bottom screws and multi-connectors will have to be accessed by removing the passenger side wheel arch.

There are some instructions on how to do it here ...

... they also have an ebay shop where they offer remanufacturing of your own unit which is largely achieved by doing what is detailed below. Not that my description is in any way comprehensive, it's mostly from memory of what I read a while ago.

Once the unit is out of the car and separated from the pump you have to carefully cut off the top (as you look down on the large flat surface) of the module with a very sharp Stanley blade or similar to access the circuit board.

Once off you'll see the wires in question, they're covered in an insulating gel which is a ****** to clear away properly but if you have enough patience and spend enough time doing this it will give you more access for the next part which is soldering some new wires of a suitable (small) gauge into place.

Once all this is done (a good couple of hours later!) you can refit the unit to the car to test it and then remove it again to glue the top back on once you're satidfied that it's working.

Pretty fiddly job all in all, up to you if you'd like to try it...
 
dieselfitter251 said:
Just curious, where are you putting it into... I know of one place you should stay away from and one which is Highly recommended, (in Kilmarnock), ex - VAG mech.
Click to expand...

would appreciate the heads up for the Killie guy. I normally go to Hood Motors which have been good to me so far.

Cheers.
 
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