First of all, wow
James has it above.
AudiNutta, you come across like an owner of a car that will never be happy. I see this going on for the rest of your life with all future car purchases. You appear to find the littlest of things and then waste a huge amount of everyone's time trying to rectify them.
How many call outs to Audi assist have you made since you purchased? How many calls to the dealership have you made? How many times have you visited the dealership since purchase and how many hours, days and weeks of your life have you wasted complaining or reporting things to Audi?
What tells you this car is misfiring? Do you have a flickering engine management light under hard acceleration? Do you feel hesitation? Have you VCDS fault code scanned this car and its come back with hundreds of misfire warnings? If not, why on earth would you even consider changing spark plugs and coil packs? Why would you bother phoning audi assist, dealership etc and tell them your car's misfiring?
In summary, you have a modified exhaust (to make it louder) and you are now getting these noises (small cracks/pops) from the exhaust? Tell me how this is Audi's problem? You have modified your exhaust, not Audi, so why should they spend their time troubleshooting issues coming from a modified exhaust and why didn't you tell them that it was modified to save everyone's time?
I have had 11 Audi's in 10 years, I can honestly say, the only time I've ever visited or phoned my dealer has been service time. There have been creaks and squeaks here and there, sensor lights come on and off etc etc but you know what, I've just always scanned, cleared the codes and they've never came back. A bit like when a Windows PC has an issue, you reboot it, it disappears and if it comes back then you have a problem. Other small issues like creaks and squeaks I've ended up rectifying myself as I loathe wasting my time back and forward to the dealer on trivial issues.
These videos are just unburnt fuel popping and cracking, go for a really hard run, abuse the sh*t out the car, lots of 30-100 runs over and over again, pull over, listen to the exhaust and it will be a hundred times worse than these videos. Your ECU richens your fuel mixture when the engine gets hot, it does this to cool the engine (EGT's) down. Excess fuel in the exhaust will cause these little pops. Absolutely nothing to worry about. (Unless you have the VCDS scans to state that you have a fuelling/misfire problem)
Sorry mate, just saying how it is, you appear to be an absolute nightmare of a customer. I bet they have a dartboard in their staff canteen with your face on it.
Yep extremely unlucky with cars, brand new Fiesta had a bottom end rattle, S3 was plagued with suspension clicks and clunks and the RS is suffering from the tyre issue and now this. Yeah I’ve been a total t**t of a customer in the past and I’ve learnt my lesson, more than one Audi Centre that I’m not welcome in at this point in time, well not comfortable in. I’ve chilled out big time with the RS, sit back and take the majority of the rubbish I’ve been spouted.
How is this a little issue? The car didn’t do it before February, took 15 months for it to start doing it in the same conditions hence I wanted to investigate. Not to be a pain in the backside but to make sure the car is running the best it can be, for longevity and enjoyment. I don’t plan on selling it at any point, I don’t have the usual attitude if it’s a car on finance and it’s going back so to hell with how it’s treated (as some do). Yes the car is on the road, but I don’t think it’s uncalled for to try and find out why after 15,000 miles it’s started this.
Far as dealership visits go;
- One visit because of exhaust rattle, follow up visit to replace faulty exhaust as confirmed by Audi.
- 10k service at Audi, tyres worn to cords.
- Call to Audi assist sometime between with a scraping noise when driving which I couldn’t clear from movement, 100 miles away from home and no jack in the car.. free’d stone.
- 16k, geometry check at Audi for continued bad tyre wear. Audi agreed it was making this spluttering noise and advised I changed spark plugs (Audi advised this!!)
-16,5k, spluttering issue so back in following them advising I change spark plugs once I had the keys back in my hand. Audi Technical suggests software update which was done
-17k, back in to change spark plugs at my cost, Audi’s recommendation. Then announced the exhaust was modified and because they are listening to this through the exhaust, wanted that taken off to rule it out which makes sense and I’m not arguing that just know myself it wasn’t like it for the first 6/7 months. At this point booked in with my indi.
- Call to Audi Assist on the day of the second video because the engine was visibly jolting forwards in the engine bay to an extreme extent, hence exhaust was doing the same and could feel a shudder through the whole car when this was happening. AA patrol out, listened to the video and said that’s absolutely not right and offered to follow me into Audi as a recovery, which I declined.
Audi weren’t told about the exhaust initially because they didn’t ask, they asked if it had been mapped which it absolutely has not so that was that. If I thought it was the exhaust I’d totally bypass Audi and take the bloomin thing off.
I haven’t actually told the dealer it is misfiring, my mistake in how I wrote this thread. It went in defined as rough running at idle and I described it as a popping/spluttering. A You Tube search this morning allowed me to compare other misfires at idle and according to those home mechanics it seems pretty definitive that is the issue but appears I got sucked into that, sorry let’s return to rough running.
Sounds like you’ve been extremely likely, we have 3 VAG cars in warranty and every one has been in for at least 2 warranty claims in the last year, clutch pack, headlight levelling motor, water ingress due to failed speaker seals, turbo solenoid rattle and that’s without even mentioning mine. Lucky lucky you! That’s not me either that’s my Mum and grandparents picking up on all 4 of those issues, who have very little knowledge. One Audi out of warranty that we are working to a solution with gearbox issues at the moment but that’s an older car.
Thanks for your input, I know you are very well experienced and appreciate what you’ve got to say on the matter. If it is the engine running rich to keep temps down, it is interesting how it did it in the height of winter late at night time after time in February and then from a cold start on multiple occasions but there we go that’s just what I’ve experienced. I will send it into the independent on Saturday as it’s having a Haldex oil change at 18 months, half the recommended interval as I am doing with every item on the service schedule and they can scan it then and cast their well trained eye on the live data if they say it’s ok not to worry I will run it as it is, after all I’ve got a 5-year warranty and I’d always extend it after that anyway as I’m sorry to report that my pockets aren’t deep enough to pay for any major issues which may arise down the line.
For 99.9% of other users on this forum the reply would have been a little more tactile
There's a pattern and theme with Audinutta's posts though. Comes across as never being content and always complaining, I'm not actually sure why he drives an Audi RS to be fair.
Anyway, Audinutta, don't take this the wrong way fella, I've just hopefully saved you a lot of money, time and effort. The video's you have posted are entirely indicative of unburnt excess fuel in the exhaust. You may be more aware of it now due to modding your exhaust and it getting warmer outside. Honestly, go out drive the car hard, pull over and listen to it and it will be a lot louder than it is in those videos. Completely normal.
What surprises me is that you have wasted 3 trips to the dealership to troubleshoot this "issue". What did Audi say when they discovered your exhaust was modified? You're extremely fortunate that they didn't send you a bill. You should have told them your exhaust was modified on the first trip and then you wouldn't have wasted everyone's time (including your own) on the 2nd and 3rd trips.
The thing that upset me most about your responses is how you question you don’t know why I am in an RS? Where the hell has that come from, what a strange and unnecessary comment to make
As previous I’ve settled down and of late most of my complaints have been on behalf of the majority of the owners of the FL RS3 on here as some just don’t seem to have the get up and go to pursue an issue themselves, more fool me because I’m back to square 1 again as always when dealing with the poor Audi CS team, all is well until something is wrong. Why the hell I still live and breath the brand I’ve got no idea, the reason why I distance myself from the forums has become apparent again today. Head. Bitten. Off.
Again, genuinely thank you for your input on the over fuelling being normal.