I ordered my S3 in November 2011 and received it on June 2012, long wait but it was worth it.
They took my R32 away and I picked up a my Panther Black Sportback.
Initial drive :
Amazing as it felt so solid and quiet when on the move compared to the Golf but it did like a diesel on startup and sounds like a lawnmower at idle with a warm engine.
Running in:
Was achieved in a month, basically no constant revs, no revs over 3500, no lugging in any gear ever, no sitting ticking over,etc.
I always allow cars to warm up before driving hard, pootling along at 2k without too much engine load is good, noting that water temp does not equate to oil temp when warming up.
After running in:
Still sounds like a diesel on startup and tickover with a warm engine sounds like a quieter lawnmower. Iâm told this is normal, and it did seem to be the same on the test drives I did.
Engine is superb, smooth, free revving and bags of torque even as low as 2300 revs. Great acceleration in first 4 gears, not really into losing licence exploring others.
Car has been excellent all summer (a boat would have been better at some points due to weather) not a fault to be found and only used 0.5L of oil in first 1500 miles, none since. So my running in practices seem to work.
Now itâs 6000 miles later and the novelty may be wearing off.
Noise and rattles
Still sound like a diesel on startup and tickover with a warm engine sounds like a lawnmower (to be fair is getting a bit quieter as the miles pile on). Have been asked if car was a diesel and tried to explain that no it was petrol but the engine employs direct injection, like a diesel, at that stage my wifeâs eyes glazed over.
I hate mechanical noise from cars and the Audi startup/tickover experience sounds coarse and cheap. I know Audi can make quiet cars and would have thought they could have added more sound insulation or noise cancelling trickery to sort this out.
I sold my Golf R32 because the dashboard rattles and low mpg were driving me mental.
Well Iâm happy about the S3 mpg but not with the door card rattles and the dashboard rattle on really cold days. I took all the door cardâs off on my previous car and DYNAMATâd all of them to get rid of rattles, I shouldnât have to do this on a 5 month old Audi.
The exhaust/cat rattles when the car is warming up when you hit 2500 rpm and it rattles like light hail on an tin roof until 3000 rpm, then sound goes away. Will give a slight rattle when coming off accelerator too. When car is warmed up exhaust does not rattle.
There is a very Slight knock from near/passenger side front suspension. I know the longer you drive a car the more susceptible you get to noticing noises from it and the noise that I hear may not be picked up by someone who doesnât drive the car daily but sod it, I can hear it and thatâs what matters to me. Itâs a very slight top strut sounding sort of noise. If I go over a drain-lid with a dip (or a raised one) with the passenger side front wheel above 20mph then I can hear it, doesnât happen with drain-lid on driver side.
Got car up on axles stands the other week using my trolley jack/ice hockey puck arrangement on the rather flimsy looking sill jacking points and had a go at sorting all this. So I Tightened up all clips and nuts holding heatshield and slightly bent heatshield to remove/reduce noise.
All suspension, drop links, arb, steering rack seemed rock solid (car feels rock solid, which is as I expected).
The front plastic belly pan and plastic wheel arch panel on passenger side were loose and could be made to reproduce a knocking noise so I tightened all that up. Had my fingers crossed.
The result:
The exhaust still rattles, slight less than before but the suspensions sounds exactly the same.
I really was expecting better.
Iâm going to try to get the dealer to sort out the exhaust/heatshield rattle and check over the suspension but I wonât bother asking them about interior rattles because theyâll just make it worse.
I had my R32 âfixedâ by a dealer for the above same issues and they not only made it worse they actually made it unsafe by not replacing subframe bolts correctly so I am very cynical and untrusting of dealerships.
I just want a car without rattles that I enjoy driving, canât be too much to ask, but if a (for me) very expensive Audi canât cut it then how *&%$ing much money will I have to spend. Maybe it was built on a friday by recession induced depressed German robots
Need to relax now.
hopeless
They took my R32 away and I picked up a my Panther Black Sportback.
Initial drive :
Amazing as it felt so solid and quiet when on the move compared to the Golf but it did like a diesel on startup and sounds like a lawnmower at idle with a warm engine.
Running in:
Was achieved in a month, basically no constant revs, no revs over 3500, no lugging in any gear ever, no sitting ticking over,etc.
I always allow cars to warm up before driving hard, pootling along at 2k without too much engine load is good, noting that water temp does not equate to oil temp when warming up.
After running in:
Still sounds like a diesel on startup and tickover with a warm engine sounds like a quieter lawnmower. Iâm told this is normal, and it did seem to be the same on the test drives I did.
Engine is superb, smooth, free revving and bags of torque even as low as 2300 revs. Great acceleration in first 4 gears, not really into losing licence exploring others.
Car has been excellent all summer (a boat would have been better at some points due to weather) not a fault to be found and only used 0.5L of oil in first 1500 miles, none since. So my running in practices seem to work.
Now itâs 6000 miles later and the novelty may be wearing off.
Noise and rattles
Still sound like a diesel on startup and tickover with a warm engine sounds like a lawnmower (to be fair is getting a bit quieter as the miles pile on). Have been asked if car was a diesel and tried to explain that no it was petrol but the engine employs direct injection, like a diesel, at that stage my wifeâs eyes glazed over.
I hate mechanical noise from cars and the Audi startup/tickover experience sounds coarse and cheap. I know Audi can make quiet cars and would have thought they could have added more sound insulation or noise cancelling trickery to sort this out.
I sold my Golf R32 because the dashboard rattles and low mpg were driving me mental.
Well Iâm happy about the S3 mpg but not with the door card rattles and the dashboard rattle on really cold days. I took all the door cardâs off on my previous car and DYNAMATâd all of them to get rid of rattles, I shouldnât have to do this on a 5 month old Audi.
The exhaust/cat rattles when the car is warming up when you hit 2500 rpm and it rattles like light hail on an tin roof until 3000 rpm, then sound goes away. Will give a slight rattle when coming off accelerator too. When car is warmed up exhaust does not rattle.
There is a very Slight knock from near/passenger side front suspension. I know the longer you drive a car the more susceptible you get to noticing noises from it and the noise that I hear may not be picked up by someone who doesnât drive the car daily but sod it, I can hear it and thatâs what matters to me. Itâs a very slight top strut sounding sort of noise. If I go over a drain-lid with a dip (or a raised one) with the passenger side front wheel above 20mph then I can hear it, doesnât happen with drain-lid on driver side.
Got car up on axles stands the other week using my trolley jack/ice hockey puck arrangement on the rather flimsy looking sill jacking points and had a go at sorting all this. So I Tightened up all clips and nuts holding heatshield and slightly bent heatshield to remove/reduce noise.
All suspension, drop links, arb, steering rack seemed rock solid (car feels rock solid, which is as I expected).
The front plastic belly pan and plastic wheel arch panel on passenger side were loose and could be made to reproduce a knocking noise so I tightened all that up. Had my fingers crossed.
The result:
The exhaust still rattles, slight less than before but the suspensions sounds exactly the same.
I really was expecting better.
Iâm going to try to get the dealer to sort out the exhaust/heatshield rattle and check over the suspension but I wonât bother asking them about interior rattles because theyâll just make it worse.
I had my R32 âfixedâ by a dealer for the above same issues and they not only made it worse they actually made it unsafe by not replacing subframe bolts correctly so I am very cynical and untrusting of dealerships.
I just want a car without rattles that I enjoy driving, canât be too much to ask, but if a (for me) very expensive Audi canât cut it then how *&%$ing much money will I have to spend. Maybe it was built on a friday by recession induced depressed German robots
Need to relax now.
hopeless
Care to make a video of this diesel sound?
