'03 A4 1.9 TDI 'Problems'....

[imported_timcoupe]

HI all,

I recently got rid of my company car, a '54 A3 2.0 TDI (140) and bought an '03 A4 1.9 TDI Avant (130). Whilst absolutely delighted with the A4, there are a couple of niggles which I wanted to voice, just in case I am being paranoid...


1. The engine seems very 'boomy' on the A4, the engine noise in the cabin is a lot louder than the A3. I have a friend with a Golf TDI 130, same engine as the A4, that has commented on how loud mine is compared to his. Is this something to be concerned about? Is it normal?

2. When the car is low revs, < 1500RPM, the clutch pedal is super smooth, and goes down and up sweetly, however, >1500RPM, there seems to be some resistance as the pedal is pushed down >20% of it's travel. It feels just like there is some hestitation on the spring. My old vauxhalls used to do this all the time, but it is weird that it only happens over a certain rev range. Thoughts?

3. When the car is driven first thing in the morning, just as you pull away, there seems to be a clunking/knock noise from the front drivers side of the car. I wondered if there is some calibration of something happening under the bonnet as it never happens again until the car is stone cold.

4. I have an RNS-D satnav unit, when tweaking the front / rear fader for the stereo purely to the rear, the volume is very low compared to tweaking fully to the front. In fact, you just cannot hear anything from the rears when the settings are equal. Doesn't sound quite right to me, Are there any tests I can do to check if the rear Amp is working?

Thanks!!

Tim.

 

[imported_CurryMilkShake]

Very surprised at item #1 - my experience, and one voiced before here, is that the A3 has significantly higher road and engine noise than the A4, particularly the saloon A4. hard to be precise without hearing yours, but I get lots of comments about how 'unobtrusive' the engine is in my A4, whereas a colleagues A3 is significantly louder, she herself pointed this out..

Cant comment on the other three items, mines a multitronic, I dont get a knock, and dont have the satnav! Sorry!

 

[peteA3tdi]

1 thats not right my old 2.0tdi a3 was a lot louder then my a4 tdi, cheak the intake pipe on the air box as they make more noise if not fitted right
2 pass
3 i have no clunking/knock hot or cold get it checked
4 my satnav is the same, you get more bass out of the front doors then from the sub in the boot and you can't here the rears at all, the amp is in cubby hole in the boot on the right with the sub box, if about the size of 20 fags and has audi amp written on it (funny that) the best thing to do is bin it and fit something better and replace the sub and box at the same time

good luck and welcome to the avant club

 

[AndyMac]

I think my A4 Avant TDi 130 is noisy but it's my first diesel so no idea how it compares to similar cars.
3. I sometimes get a slight clunk when moving off but it seems to be coming from the rear, usually when stuck in traffic.
4. The rear amp must be working otherwise you'd get nothing out of the rears. However I replaced my OEM HU for a Blaupunkt DAB unit and the rears where very faint when runnig through the Audi amp, so eventually just rewired them directly to the HU but keeping the rear amp wired for the so called sub.
Unfortunately you can't do this on the OEM HU as it doesn't have speaker outs for the rears, so I guess you'll have to live with it unless you want to swap the HU for a decent one, sounds like it's a common problem. The rear amp is a good deal bigger than the feeble A3 unit (inside the sub) so I'd be surprised if it is outgunned by the 2x20w front amp in the Audi HU.

 

[MJCAUDI]

I noticed a clunking/knock when the car is first moved after starting. Audi garage says is is ABS self check a valve or servo operating?

 

[a4sline]

The clunking from the front is alost certainly the ABS self check. On old 8D a4s you used to get a relay clicking but on 8E models it is on the ABS pump etc.
HTH