A4 B9 2.0TDi reliability and common issues

Hey folks

New-ish B9 owner here. I've got a 4 year old A4 B9 2.0TDi 150 manual. It's got 35,000 miles on the clock.

What is the general concensus as to reliability of these with the EA288 engine? What are the common issues, and at what mileage do they generally start to be problematic?

Also I've got a couple of fairly minor gripes at the moment - one of which is a quiet 'clunk' from the drivers seat area when pulling away - pretty sure it's not suspension related - it's coming from inside the car. I've taken the seat out and examined it but can't find anything loose. Oddly it doesn't clunk from cold - only after driving for half an hour. I'm thinking it could be the seatbelt intertia real...

The other minor issue is after driving in town/stop-start for a few miles, I get a slight clutch judder when pulling away. It's not major, but worried it could point to DMF issue? Or is this normal?

Finally, what is the cambelt interval for these? I've heard/seen conflicting guidance so would be good to get views. I'm aware the EA288 has a lifetime belt-in-oil for the oil pump, but I'm talking about the cambelt specifically.

monkeyhanger said:

Not sure specifically for the A4, but the 2.0TDI units are rock solid for reliability, only issues I could see would be related to the newness of the AdBlue tech. My Dad's 2013MK7 Golf GTD with the 2.0TDI 184ps output engine and DSG (same as S-Tronic) is up to 135k miles without missing a beat. He's had 2 previous high output TDIs with huge mileages too *MK4 1.9TDI130 up at 172k miles and a MK5 GT-TDI170 up at 165k miles, all were still going strong when he got rid of them and all of them have had a tuning box attached for the majority of those miles. I had a 2013 MK7 Golf GTD (Manual) and that had a DTUK box taking it up to about 240ps and 500Nm.

These engines are robust (I feel less confident about TFSI longevity)..

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I think the cars you mention above are all fitted with the EA189 engine. The 2015-on A4 (B9) is fitted with the newer EA288 engine which substantially different to the EA189.

(Happy to be corrected on the above.)

tickedon said:

Is it when the car gets up to 28mph-ish? If so, the clunk noise is an ABS brake test and nothing to be concerned about...

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No, it’s definitely not the ABS self test. It’s every time you pull away (the ABS test should only occur once when you first pull away after starting the car), plus it’s coming from the B pillar.