Hi All,
I'm in desperate need of some advise as I'm starting to lose my love for Audi's....and I really don't want too!
I picked up my 08 plate SLine 2.0TDi 170bhp Audi A4 Avant in April last year. It's my third Audi after having two older A3's. I had been so impressed with the build quality, performance and reliability of my other two that sticking with Audi was a given. But.....I only went and got a B7. If I had only done some research before, I probably wouldn't of bothered, for good reason as I'm starting to find out. That being said, I still love it. When its running well, its an awesome car.
The fun pretty much started the moment I got it. First thing I noticed is that the average mpg's was much less than my last 04 plate 2.0TDi 140bhp A3 Sport. I could easily hit 50mpg where as I'm lucky to get to 40mpg in the A4. My normal running average is at 35mpg actually. I know its a bigger car, bigger engine and all that but surly it shouldn't be that different. Anyway, it soon became apparent that this particular model actually had a recall on the Injectors (Common fault #1) so, I contacted my local main Audi dealer who confirmed this and booked it in to get them changed, which they did free of charge obviously. Anyway, didn't notice any difference with the economy or overall performance after that had been done but at least I know there are 4 new injectors in there now.
A few weeks after that, the recirculation flap motor packed up (Common fault #2) and has had to be removed due to it going on random fits and making a right racket. At the same time as I was removing that, I realised the central flap motor was also faulty (Common fault #3) and I can't direct air to the footwells or central vents. In the summer it wasn't much of an issue, it was hitting the windscreen so that was the main thing. Not so great now though as can't warm my tootsies up in this cold weather. I had initially done some research on this and found that a reset of basic settings via a VCDS might of fixed the issue with these motors so I thought an investment in one would be a worthwhile investment. I went and got an original RossTech kit but that didn't work as its the potentiometers that are faulty, so new motors required. Not replaced them yet but probably will do soon.
Anyway, apart from the low mpg, the car was fine until late last year. In November the rear wiper motor packed up (Common fault #4) as it has done on my last Audi so that was changed. Annoying but simple to fix. But then in Dec, it started. What appears to be a random warm/hot starting problem. I had driven the car for about 20 minutes before stopping at a friends house for about 10 minutes. Got back in, tried to start it and nothing, it just turned over but would not fire up. Not even a sniff of ignition. Starter was fine, as was the battery and immobiliser. Tried it a few times and nothing. Went back in the house, made a few phone calls for advice and went back out 5 minutes later to try it again and it started first time as if nothing had happened. It was fine then for weeks, started fine and was running fine. Just thought it was a one off.....but no. Since then its happened a dozen times, normally at the most inappropriate times like at petrol stations. I've been trying to find the common factors but that proving difficult. Heres what I do know 'normally' happens:
-It always starts when its cold. In the mornings, after a day in the office etc
-It might not happen for a week or two, although it seems to be becoming more regular
-Only does after it's just been driven
-When it won't start, the coil light on the dash doesn't light up
-When it won't start, if I leave it for 5-10 minutes it will then start fine first time
Annoyingly though, there are some caveats to that list. One time I'm sure the coil light did light up once but it didn't start. And another time I had driven home (45mins), went to go back out 30 minutes later and it wouldn't start. Left it for a bit, tried again and still nothing. 20 minutes later I had to give up and get picked up. I was still confident that 3 hours later when I got back home that it would start....but it didn't. That was a first. Next morning however, it was fine again. Since then, I've been more wary of it and now i'm not driving the car unless its to work and back as I can't trust it and if I do have to stop at places, like shops and petrol stations, I'm leaving it running which obviously isn't a great or safe idea.
So where am I at now....lost!! I've obviously run my VCDS over it a few times and no fault codes showing up other than the known issues with the aircon motors. Been to see Audi and they weren't particularly useful. Trawled the internet but not found anything conclusive. On the back of what I have read about, I've been to see Dialynx, I'm sure some of you have heard of them. Luckily I live in Swindon so they are just a few miles from where I live. I've explained all this to them as best I could and even they were a bit stumped. I got them to change the coolant temperature sensor as I had read that they can cause all sorts of issues, and also to see what they could find. They came back with a faulty high pressure fuel pump (Common fault #5). It was leaking oil through the seals and contaminating the fuel. The mechanic was pretty confident that this was probably causing the issue and although I agreed it was an issue and had to be fixed, I wasn't so confident that it would fix the starting problem. Mainly because it does seems like some kind of electrical problem to me rather than mechanical and also because when it does start, it starts perfectly fine and runs just as I would expect. Although I did wonder if that was possibly causing the poor mpg.
So I booked it in to have the pump changed anyway and picked it up yesterday. That day, I drove to work and stopped twice on the way there, both time for a few minutes and it was fine. Started every time and got to work fine......things were looking good, or so I thought. 5 hours later I went to get some lunch and drove about 3 miles to the local supermarket. Came back out 10 minutes later and low and behold it happened again. So ran through the same process, left it for 10 minutes and tried again and it started fine. Got back to work, finished my day in the office and 3 hours later left to go home. Started fine. Got back to Swindon after a 45 minute drive, went out 3 hours later and again it was fine. It also got me to work and back today but I'm back to not feeling confident driving it unless I have to incase it decides not to start for hours again. And I'm also back to having no idea what the fault may be or where to go now. I've spoken to Dialynx and Audi again today. Dialynx are at a loss and a different Audi mechanic has mentioned something to do with the EGR valve. I was thinking possibly the glow plug relay or mass air flow sensor as thats the only other things that I can see mentioned online. Either them or a fault with the ECU itself.
I really don't know where to go now and I've ploughed £££'s into this now and no where nearer to fixing it or knowing what to do next. I thought I would post as much info as possible as its such a random problem and I would very much welcome any suggestions as to the cause or fix of this very frustrating issue. I may even end up offering a reward to anyone that actually manages to solve this for me, thats how desperate I am!
Anyway, I think thats all ;-)
Seriously appreciate any help and thanks in advance.
I'm in desperate need of some advise as I'm starting to lose my love for Audi's....and I really don't want too!
I picked up my 08 plate SLine 2.0TDi 170bhp Audi A4 Avant in April last year. It's my third Audi after having two older A3's. I had been so impressed with the build quality, performance and reliability of my other two that sticking with Audi was a given. But.....I only went and got a B7. If I had only done some research before, I probably wouldn't of bothered, for good reason as I'm starting to find out. That being said, I still love it. When its running well, its an awesome car.
The fun pretty much started the moment I got it. First thing I noticed is that the average mpg's was much less than my last 04 plate 2.0TDi 140bhp A3 Sport. I could easily hit 50mpg where as I'm lucky to get to 40mpg in the A4. My normal running average is at 35mpg actually. I know its a bigger car, bigger engine and all that but surly it shouldn't be that different. Anyway, it soon became apparent that this particular model actually had a recall on the Injectors (Common fault #1) so, I contacted my local main Audi dealer who confirmed this and booked it in to get them changed, which they did free of charge obviously. Anyway, didn't notice any difference with the economy or overall performance after that had been done but at least I know there are 4 new injectors in there now.
A few weeks after that, the recirculation flap motor packed up (Common fault #2) and has had to be removed due to it going on random fits and making a right racket. At the same time as I was removing that, I realised the central flap motor was also faulty (Common fault #3) and I can't direct air to the footwells or central vents. In the summer it wasn't much of an issue, it was hitting the windscreen so that was the main thing. Not so great now though as can't warm my tootsies up in this cold weather. I had initially done some research on this and found that a reset of basic settings via a VCDS might of fixed the issue with these motors so I thought an investment in one would be a worthwhile investment. I went and got an original RossTech kit but that didn't work as its the potentiometers that are faulty, so new motors required. Not replaced them yet but probably will do soon.
Anyway, apart from the low mpg, the car was fine until late last year. In November the rear wiper motor packed up (Common fault #4) as it has done on my last Audi so that was changed. Annoying but simple to fix. But then in Dec, it started. What appears to be a random warm/hot starting problem. I had driven the car for about 20 minutes before stopping at a friends house for about 10 minutes. Got back in, tried to start it and nothing, it just turned over but would not fire up. Not even a sniff of ignition. Starter was fine, as was the battery and immobiliser. Tried it a few times and nothing. Went back in the house, made a few phone calls for advice and went back out 5 minutes later to try it again and it started first time as if nothing had happened. It was fine then for weeks, started fine and was running fine. Just thought it was a one off.....but no. Since then its happened a dozen times, normally at the most inappropriate times like at petrol stations. I've been trying to find the common factors but that proving difficult. Heres what I do know 'normally' happens:
-It always starts when its cold. In the mornings, after a day in the office etc
-It might not happen for a week or two, although it seems to be becoming more regular
-Only does after it's just been driven
-When it won't start, the coil light on the dash doesn't light up
-When it won't start, if I leave it for 5-10 minutes it will then start fine first time
Annoyingly though, there are some caveats to that list. One time I'm sure the coil light did light up once but it didn't start. And another time I had driven home (45mins), went to go back out 30 minutes later and it wouldn't start. Left it for a bit, tried again and still nothing. 20 minutes later I had to give up and get picked up. I was still confident that 3 hours later when I got back home that it would start....but it didn't. That was a first. Next morning however, it was fine again. Since then, I've been more wary of it and now i'm not driving the car unless its to work and back as I can't trust it and if I do have to stop at places, like shops and petrol stations, I'm leaving it running which obviously isn't a great or safe idea.
So where am I at now....lost!! I've obviously run my VCDS over it a few times and no fault codes showing up other than the known issues with the aircon motors. Been to see Audi and they weren't particularly useful. Trawled the internet but not found anything conclusive. On the back of what I have read about, I've been to see Dialynx, I'm sure some of you have heard of them. Luckily I live in Swindon so they are just a few miles from where I live. I've explained all this to them as best I could and even they were a bit stumped. I got them to change the coolant temperature sensor as I had read that they can cause all sorts of issues, and also to see what they could find. They came back with a faulty high pressure fuel pump (Common fault #5). It was leaking oil through the seals and contaminating the fuel. The mechanic was pretty confident that this was probably causing the issue and although I agreed it was an issue and had to be fixed, I wasn't so confident that it would fix the starting problem. Mainly because it does seems like some kind of electrical problem to me rather than mechanical and also because when it does start, it starts perfectly fine and runs just as I would expect. Although I did wonder if that was possibly causing the poor mpg.
So I booked it in to have the pump changed anyway and picked it up yesterday. That day, I drove to work and stopped twice on the way there, both time for a few minutes and it was fine. Started every time and got to work fine......things were looking good, or so I thought. 5 hours later I went to get some lunch and drove about 3 miles to the local supermarket. Came back out 10 minutes later and low and behold it happened again. So ran through the same process, left it for 10 minutes and tried again and it started fine. Got back to work, finished my day in the office and 3 hours later left to go home. Started fine. Got back to Swindon after a 45 minute drive, went out 3 hours later and again it was fine. It also got me to work and back today but I'm back to not feeling confident driving it unless I have to incase it decides not to start for hours again. And I'm also back to having no idea what the fault may be or where to go now. I've spoken to Dialynx and Audi again today. Dialynx are at a loss and a different Audi mechanic has mentioned something to do with the EGR valve. I was thinking possibly the glow plug relay or mass air flow sensor as thats the only other things that I can see mentioned online. Either them or a fault with the ECU itself.
I really don't know where to go now and I've ploughed £££'s into this now and no where nearer to fixing it or knowing what to do next. I thought I would post as much info as possible as its such a random problem and I would very much welcome any suggestions as to the cause or fix of this very frustrating issue. I may even end up offering a reward to anyone that actually manages to solve this for me, thats how desperate I am!
Anyway, I think thats all ;-)
Seriously appreciate any help and thanks in advance.
