What have you done to your Audi A4 B7 today?

[northpole]

yet they use 5w40 in the Netherlands as standard... and the climat is very comparable to what we have here in he UK ( actually it's less wet and humid) but temperatures and seasons are mostly the same. just check the owners manual if it has the 5w40 listed than you can use it without a problem, just make sure you get a quality branded fully synthetic one that carries the right specification for PD's as 5w40 is found in half synthetic (and even though it's got the right flow it won't protect your engine properly). Afaik they aren't PD compliant those half synth oils so make sure you check the specifications usually the price will give it away, half synth oils are cheaper than the full synth ones.

 

[Matt275]

Hope you get a chance for the MOT work Matt - I understand only trusting one place to do it too - what work is required btw?

Interestingly I've just been reading up on the 170 TDI from some old forum posts. It was very common for owners to gut the DPF understandably and then have a lot of smoke afterwards. Understandable too but a proper running 140, that came without the DPF, shouldn't smoke too much. It appears that the early DPF on these cars is of the combined cat and DPF type - the 140 came 'DPF' prepared for retrofitting, should you have been so foolishly inclined. So it also appears you can simply replace the DPF for a 140 cat (a simple 2 way convertor). They are bolt on bolt off, and that would satisfy any MOT too, I should think, since they look pretty identical. The cat itself does reduce some smoke/particles, hence why they don't smoke too much, though not to the extent of a proper DPF, obviously. Anyway it's an option for the future of your unicorn pristine example; and something I would definitely consider if it were mine. The cat new can be had for between 1-200 pounds, is a simple swap and works out cheaper than a gutting often - still has to be mapped out of course.

5k OCIs is a very very good thing, on these engines ( I do 6-8K normally, mostly 6K now). Almost every single failure of the balance shaft/hex key were on LL 20K OCIs. Those that were on fixed 10K and less, such as taxis often covered very high mileages without failure, with no mods. I was recently in an UBer and the driver said he had a passat with the same engine that got to 350K before it went, for example. Castrol Edge do say their 5w40 is for DPF cars too (as well as PDs) but Audi stipulated 5w30 for DPF fitted cars. Oil tech may have improved a little since then though.

Hi Steve, that is very interesting. I still have my original DPF, mine can smoke on idle when it's warming up, the car has always done that for the last 30k miles I've owned it. It's always from cold at the same time where it's at about 60 on the temp gauge, really smells bad and sounds like a misfire. Yet, the second I blip the throttle or drive off it behaves itself. Can't be the torsion values as it would be throughout the rev range etc, so weird. I'll get it nice and up to temp for the MOT.

Hopefully no work required, but it's getting the test even done to find out - maybe another few weeks yet, it's madness!

Today I replaced my N/S headlight ballast pack, started flickering quite a bit over the last year, so I got two ballasts from LED Perf in France. My plan today was to do both, but jeez getting the tool to line up through the access hole on the top of the wing!! The struggle was real to say the least lol. Rob was very kind and lent me a skinny 1/4 drive long wobble extension and some bits so I had everything I needed to loosen that pesky hidden T30 torx. It was so difficult as needed lighting and a mirror...plus get the T30 bit on it. Thanks a lot Audi for that one! The ballast pack sits right on the underside of the headlight.

So for now I've just done the N/S. Managed it with wheel still on, and pulled the N/S corner of the bumper forwards by just a few inches which was enough for me to wriggle the headlight out. Putting back together took longer as lining up the headlight again - mine is pretty much spot on, and perhaps at MOT it will need to be tweaked with the allen adjusters.

I unbolted the power steering reservoir and tucked it away, plus a wiring bracket where I pulled off the connectors and bent the bracket out of the way, just so I could try and get a torch down there.

It was the first time I'd partly removed the bumper and headlight on the car, it was a bit tricky, but got there in the end. I couldn't drive the car as no MOT but fired it up and the headlights worked fine, ballast pack was plug / play, and no dashboard errors etc. My O/S headlight has never flickered, so will leave that one alone for now, but I have a new ballast in stock - plus, if the one I did today makes the bulb somehow brighter, then will change the other one.

 

[Charlie Farley]

Good work Matt, yep it's an awkward job first time round but gets easier after that, not that you want to be doing too many times..lol
And you had the lovely weather on your side.
Glad the tools helped out.

 

[Charlie Farley]

Hey Matt, when we met yesterday, and I mentioned that wrap type covering on my door trim, well it was, and now it's off to uncover a really nice dark vavona trim, just the dash and centre console to dewrap now.

 

[Matt275]

Good work Matt, yep it's an awkward job first time round but gets easier after that, not that you want to be doing too many times..lol
And you had the lovely weather on your side.
Glad the tools helped out.

The tools were a massive help Rob, without them I wouldn't have been able to even start the job
Just hoping that it was the ballast pack that was causing the flickering, I'm pretty confident it was. Looking forward to doing a full road test / shakedown - once I can get an MOT.

Ah cool, nice to unveil the original interior trims - which have also been protected for years - win win!
Cracking car that Rob, you've got a nice one there.

 

[B7Tourer]

Hi Steve, that is very interesting. I still have my original DPF, mine can smoke on idle when it's warming up, the car has always done that for the last 30k miles I've owned it. It's always from cold at the same time where it's at about 60 on the temp gauge, really smells bad and sounds like a misfire. Yet, the second I blip the throttle or drive off it behaves itself. Can't be the torsion values as it would be throughout the rev range etc, so weird. I'll get it nice and up to temp for the MOT.

9 times out of 10 on these cars Matt, smoke is down to a defective EGR and usually the ASV goes at the same time, like mine did too. I recall you already replaced with new some time back but if you recall I ended up replacing mine 3 times in quick succession - in the end only an OEM Pierburg one worked. It's compounded on the 170 by the finicky Siemens piezo injectors (even after the recall) and the DPF - PD engines are really not ideal for DPFs (what diesel is lol) since they cannot deliver effective post injection like common rails can - this is why Audi moved to piezo from solenoid of the 140s, for the 170 - sufficient post injection is virtually impossible with solenoid cam driven injectors. It's best when replacing an EGR to also 'delete' the DPF on a 170 at the same time; as I say if it were mine I'd replace with the 140 cat, to keep smoke down too, for the MOT.

Well done on the lights. I'd ideally one day like to replace mine and it's good to know it can be done without a full bumper off jobby, but a pig of a job nonetheless.

 

[Matt275]

9 times out of 10 on these cars Matt, smoke is down to a defective EGR and usually the ASV goes at the same time, like mine did too. I recall you already replaced with new some time back but if you recall I ended up replacing mine 3 times in quick succession - in the end only an OEM Pierburg one worked. It's compounded on the 170 by the finicky Siemens piezo injectors (even after the recall) and the DPF - PD engines are really not ideal for DPFs (what diesel is lol) since they cannot deliver effective post injection like common rails can - this is why Audi moved to piezo from solenoid of the 140s, for the 170 - sufficient post injection is virtually impossible with solenoid cam driven injectors. It's best when replacing an EGR to also 'delete' the DPF on a 170 at the same time; as I say if it were mine I'd replace with the 140 cat, to keep smoke down too, for the MOT.

Well done on the lights. I'd ideally one day like to replace mine and it's good to know it can be done without a full bumper off jobby, but a pig of a job nonetheless.

Interesting, I have replaced the EGR about 18 months ago with no changes. The ASV though - that is still original, and I have found that to be very oily inside the motor / gears and electronics. Although never any fault codes that I know of. It must be the seals for the actual ASV plate that are letting in oil from the boost circuit into the actual ASV itself. I keep forgetting about that!

Ref the lights, well, put it this way, seeing as my O/S has never flickered, I didn't want to just replace that ballast, but would've done if it was just easier to do. My main struggle was lining up the wobble tool to get to the hidden T30, and same when putting the light back in, all told it was a few hours of trying and trying to get a purchase on that torx. The other thing that took the time was adjusting the headlight and getting it to the same place it was, I did mark everything with chalk pen, but still that was an hour before i was "pretty much happy" with it. As I say, it may need a tweak at MOT with the allen adjustors.

I'll keep my other new ballast in stock for now and at such time I need it then I have it. MOT finally looking like Weds / Thurs next week....yaaaay at last!

 

[Charlie Farley]

Good work Matt, but as with most things Audi-oriented, persistance is is key to success with so many jobs on these cars.
The seemingly quick, easy jobs are far from it....

 

[B7Tourer]

Interesting, I have replaced the EGR about 18 months ago with no changes. The ASV though - that is still original, and I have found that to be very oily inside the motor / gears and electronics. Although never any fault codes that I know of. It must be the seals for the actual ASV plate that are letting in oil from the boost circuit into the actual ASV itself. I keep forgetting about that!

It's normal Matt, they all do this - it's oil from the CCV, coming from the rocker cover. Sometimes they get defective, the diaphram splits letting more oil into the intake, but almost impossible to stop any, since it's designed for that purpose. The other thing sometimes affecting starting conditions is loss of vacuum on the intake flaps control lever. The rubber diaphram on that gets perished; it's an intake off job to replaced the £10 part; an opportunity to clean the intake out as it gets very clogged too. I have no problems but I'm thinking of getting a new rocker cover with CCV and taking off the intake cleaning it and fitting the new lever I have at some point, as a precaution. EGR valves can be faulty even when they mostly work; electrically that is.

One test you can do for the EGR/ASV is to temporarily disconnect the plug to the ASV, it will throw an EML light obviously but should start run normally then (with a slightly shaky shutdown). If your starting smoke condition disappears then it will indicate a fault in one or the other. Codes don't always tell the full story too.

Good luck with the MOT.

 

[Matt275]

I did have a leak in the swirl flap diaphragm, I changed it last year as it had a small hole in it as it failed a mitivac test miserably.
I thought it would be the answer to the rough idle / acrid smoke at between 60-70 degrees but sadly no changes.

The intake manifold was ok, certainly not anything remotely bad enough to block air / flow.
Hmmm, I may well do the ASV test, it's something I've not tried. If I borrow the Snapon machine from work, I will be able to do the test and then clear any codes etc.

It's not a starting smoke problem as such, just if I fire it up from cold and leave it running, it plays up after about 10 minutes / 5 or 6 minutes in the hotter weather - seems to be the same as when I first got the car, no better no worse.
It's one of those awkward issues where throughout my relentless research, threads on forums go cold, cars become parts bins and no threads seem to come up with a proper fix for it.

Subaru MOT tomorrow, it runs out Saturday lol, Audi hoping for Weds next week, it ran out "a little while ago"

 

[northpole]

yeah crankcase ventilation, a slow reacting egr valve (due to it being dirty) or to much buildup on the intake/exhaust valve stems can all be a source of that cold start smoke. well i hope for your sake that the Subaru passes the MOT without a problem as most of them always have something that needs sorthing out (usually just dried out rubbers or oil leaks).

 

[B7Tourer]

I thought it would be the answer to the rough idle / acrid smoke at between 60-70 degrees but sadly no changes.

The intake manifold was ok, certainly not anything remotely bad enough to block air / flow.
Hmmm, I may well do the ASV test, it's something I've not tried. If I borrow the Snapon machine from work, I will be able to do the test and then clear any codes etc.

It's not a starting smoke problem as such, just if I fire it up from cold and leave it running, it plays up after about 10 minutes / 5 or 6 minutes in the hotter weather - seems to be the same as when I first got the car, no better no worse.
It's one of those awkward issues where throughout my relentless research, threads on forums go cold, cars become parts bins and no threads seem to come up with a proper fix for it.

I know what you mean about dead end forum threads Matt. I recently did a mammoth read of this B7 forum, so others don't have to lol; the 170 kept coming up time and time again with these kind of issues, especially when they'd chipped them; usually only sorted with an EGR and DPF delete. Intermittent issues are always pesky and harder to diagnose than constant failure conditions.

The acrid smoke is very often a classic cat/dpf thing - have you been able to determine the soot levels of your DPF with a code reader? Even if it's not throwing an emissions light it could still be high (and ash which is built up over time, is never burnt off, only soot). When it plays up, do you lose boost too? That what's happened when my EGR failed; no smoke but total loss of boost as if my turbo had blown; it was intermittent too, at first. As I say, these early DPFs are hugely problematic with the PD engine tech and deleting them ultimately is the best solution. Is it not trying to regen when you get this condition and never completeing, I wonder too?

I'm not a believer in deleting the EGR, not because I'm a goody two shoes, but because they unintendly aid warm up of the engine, especially in winter, through hot gasses paassing throufgh the EGR cooler, and that means less wear. They are dirty things imposed upon us by emissions regs but they are easy on these engines to strip off and clean every couple of years and as your intake and EGR mine weren't that bad and they'd never been cleaned, by me.

I remember you having concerns over your tandem pump too; they can produce these kind of conditions. The test there is to change the fuel filter and empty the old diesel into a glass jar, if it's anything but completely clear there could be failed gaskets in the pump but dirty fuel can also produce that. At the service I did recently the filter was clear.

I remember a kid on Youtube who had a 170. He had similar issues but he'd had a cheap map put on. He went down a rabbit hole; gutted the DPF, deleted the EGR; put a new tandem pump on; new MAF sensor, with no change whatsoever - and everyone kept telling him your cheap map is the problem. But I don't think yours is chipped in any way?

Anyway, try the ASV disconnect test, run it when you have the MOT for a few miles and see what you get. OBDEleven I believe can test for DPF soot levels as VCDS btw too. It will be something or nothing on such a low mileage good car.

 

[Matt275]

I know what you mean about dead end forum threads Matt. I recently did a mammoth read of this B7 forum, so others don't have to lol; the 170 kept coming up time and time again with these kind of issues, especially when they'd chipped them; usually only sorted with an EGR and DPF delete. Intermittent issues are always pesky and harder to diagnose than constant failure conditions.

The acrid smoke is very often a classic cat/dpf thing - have you been able to determine the soot levels of your DPF with a code reader? Even if it's not throwing an emissions light it could still be high (and ash which is built up over time, is never burnt off, only soot). When it plays up, do you lose boost too? That what's happened when my EGR failed; no smoke but total loss of boost as if my turbo had blown; it was intermittent too, at first. As I say, these early DPFs are hugely problematic with the PD engine tech and deleting them ultimately is the best solution. Is it not trying to regen when you get this condition and never completeing, I wonder too?

I'm not a believer in deleting the EGR, not because I'm a goody two shoes, but because they unintendly aid warm up of the engine, especially in winter, through hot gasses paassing throufgh the EGR cooler, and that means less wear. They are dirty things imposed upon us by emissions regs but they are easy on these engines to strip off and clean every couple of years and as your intake and EGR mine weren't that bad and they'd never been cleaned, by me.

I remember you having concerns over your tandem pump too; they can produce these kind of conditions. The test there is to change the fuel filter and empty the old diesel into a glass jar, if it's anything but completely clear there could be failed gaskets in the pump but dirty fuel can also produce that. At the service I did recently the filter was clear.

I remember a kid on Youtube who had a 170. He had similar issues but he'd had a cheap map put on. He went down a rabbit hole; gutted the DPF, deleted the EGR; put a new tandem pump on; new MAF sensor, with no change whatsoever - and everyone kept telling him your cheap map is the problem. But I don't think yours is chipped in any way?

Anyway, try the ASV disconnect test, run it when you have the MOT for a few miles and see what you get. OBDEleven I believe can test for DPF soot levels as VCDS btw too. It will be something or nothing on such a low mileage good car.

I remember about 18 months ago having a forced regen done and the VCDS went down to zero soot. This didn't help the smelly warm(ish) idle. Nope, never lose boost and it does it's regen thing as and when - I always know as the accelerator pedal becomes less responsive on the motorway. Also, if I interrupt the regen and switch off the engine, I always get a darth vader exhaling sound from the turbo area.

I put this down to - when you interrupt a regen and hear this sound, you can always grab the EGR feed pipe with bare hands, it's only barely warm. Regen disables the EGR function and keep the small valve closed at the EGR end (nothing changes on the EGR cooler end), so whilst the EGR feed pipe is blocked at the EGR end, the darth vader sound is just the now pretty cold exhaust gas which was trapped, flowing back / draining to the turbo. The common denominator with the noise is that it is always 100% combined with a cold EGR feed pipe.

I mean, during a regen the EGR is disabled, so the silver feed pipe gets gas locked, so that gas sits in the pipe, goes pretty cold as it has nowhere to go and isn't flowing, the rest of the exhaust goes out through the DPF. The darth vader sound is just a tiny amount of back pressure that's all - almost like an echo maybe. On normal switch off the EGR feed pipe is very hot - way too hot to grab with a bare hand as it's been functioning how it should as and when so EGR valve has been "in use" and not disabled due to a regen.

I was convinced I has a turbo issue for a while, and it took me forever to find that the darth vader switch off noise is normal and it's what BRD 170 does if a regen is interrupted. It was actually a Polish or Lithuanian forum I found, translated to English and I found it on about page 35 of a 45 page thread! You can also hear it a tiny bit whilst driving in the lower gears during regen.
It would be helpful if there was a light that comes on to tell you it's doing a regen, but there isn't.

I've seen the videos on Youtube that you mean, it was a nice car until he started doing stupid things to it. They mapped it in some random car park and then a quick road test, he's lowered it and now scrapes all over the place. Sometimes I wish people wouldn't molest what was probably a nice running reliable car.
I've never been even tempted to go down the mapping route on the B7 - not with DPF etc, just not worth it. Even gutted DPF's and well mapped ones can be troublesome.

My Passat B5.5 1.9 TDI AWX on the other hand....I did get that mapped by AMD in Thurrock, crikey some 15 or more years ago now, still fine to this day. the car just needs a clutch now...badly!

Subaru passed yaay!
Audi next week, can't wait to get back in it again, I've missed it a lot.

 

[B7Tourer]

I was convinced I has a turbo issue for a while, and it took me forever to find that the darth vader switch off noise is normal and it's what BRD 170 does if a regen is interrupted. It was actually a Polish or Lithuanian forum I found, translated to English and I found it on about page 35 of a 45 page thread! You can also hear it a tiny bit whilst driving in the lower gears during regen.
It would be helpful if there was a light that comes on to tell you it's doing a regen, but there isn't.

Yeah it's a curious one Matt. Injector seals can be another thing to look at with all these TDIs. You tried something like BG245 or Forte? Maybe a ****** good blast in low gears could do no harm? I know I had a flat spots at first too before I switched permanently to V-Power; smooth as silk since. Kept it much cleaner also.

I've seen the videos on Youtube that you mean, it was a nice car until he started doing stupid things to it. They mapped it in some random car park and then a quick road test, he's lowered it and now scrapes all over the place. Sometimes I wish people wouldn't molest what was probably a nice running reliable car.
I've never been even tempted to go down the mapping route on the B7 - not with DPF etc, just not worth it. Even gutted DPF's and well mapped ones can be troublesome.

Yeah it was a very good low mileage, fully loaded example, until he messed with it and ragged it. I don't believe in mapping any of the 2.0 TDIs - the turbos can't take it, they are just so from factory and the clutches/DMFs get a short life too - on all and absolutely every remap; whereas both can last a long time on standard (original good turbo and over 220K on the original clutch/DMF on mine). Looking back on this forum's thread, you won't believe the number of people that bought 05 BLBs, because they were cheap for a reason and then proceeded to remap them straighaway; bang in a month their oil pump chain and balance shafts went, taking the turbos with them. Even though there was a big fat sticky all about it.

It's my opinion and philosophy perhaps alone, that you should spend the money on getting them factory right, on spec in spec, with the best quality OEM parts you can; from wheels, suspension, brakes to engine and body; only improve what was weak to start with such as the 2.0 TDI oil pump, for which there is a permanent and much better than Audi solution. They are bullet proof then. If you want a faster car get a faster car, it'll be cheaper in the end. I'm perhaps at an age where I feel zero lacking in performance with what I've got; and I've driven a lot faster cars, in my time as I'm sure we all have. Properly sorted all the B7s make fine cars, that can make smart progress in the right hands: Good driving; mechanical sympathy; service them every 6K with good oil and quality tyres they were designed for. Not a fan in any way of chipping, deleting or lowering; the S-lines are low enough and just right if properly sat. These are well engineered, last of the good analogues, driver's cars, if fixed/maintained, with a few mass produced defects as other contemporary makes, that can be sorted, to work reliably for hundreds of thousands of miles, if you don't go crazy. There isn't anything made today I fear, that could be said of.

Your Passat though, I'd have probably done the same there - those 1.9 engines were truly legendary.

 

[Matt275]

I fully agree Steve, the B7 is the last of the old school build A4. Same as my B5.5 Passat and MK4 Golf - before things got silly and electrical control units failing everywhere.

That's why they are all still going some 20, 22 and 26 years later respectively. Anything these days is in and out the workshops for warranty stuff every 5 minutes, more known / prone faults / flaws. Then after the 3 year warranty is up, you're on your own for repairs and potentially huge bills for items that used to last forever if maintained well.

It's like manufacturer's cared so much more back then, it was almost like a competition as to who could genuinely make the best car that lasted the longest and at an affordable price point, now, it's more like a digital competition as to how many functions one cheaply made control unit controls!

It was truly and genuinely about the customer experience back then, surpassing expectations etc, now it's just about cost saving and how to strap everyone up with finance for 3 years for a car that, after 3 years, they don't even own!

 

[northpole]

Don't even get me started on those new electric cars... they are laptops on wheels, even if you buy it straight out, the software is proprietary owned by the manufacturer... aka they control that part, can deny you parts on the account that it's dangerous to work on the car yourself since it's high voltage(simply disconnect the main power fuse and your fine!) Than apart from that they can turn off functionality because you don't want to pay for a subscription.

Now think about this one, you buy a used one, they probably blacklisted it already, meaning you can't fix it or get parts for it... it will probably need a new battery pack.

Longstory short... I love my B7 but if i didn't need more space, this would be my forever car.

 

[alps26]

Don't even get me started on those new electric cars... they are laptops on wheels, even if you buy it straight out, the software is proprietary owned by the manufacturer... aka they control that part, can deny you parts on the account that it's dangerous to work on the car yourself since it's high voltage(simply disconnect the main power fuse and your fine!) Than apart from that they can turn off functionality because you don't want to pay for a subscription.

Now think about this one, you buy a used one, they probably blacklisted it already, meaning you can't fix it or get parts for it... it will probably need a new battery pack.

This is the problem with electric cars. Once the warranty is done, you get no more updates unless you pay for them and having to go through the hassle of paying the dealer for doing a "diagnostic" before they do anything.

My Dad currently has a Q4, there is a long standing bug where the car and the phone app (which you need to monitor charging remotely) no longer talk to each other. His warranty expires in a month and even though there is a fix due in the 3rd quarter of this year, he will have to pay for it despite flagging it as an issue whilst its still under warranty and Audi knowing about the issue.

You can't even update them yourself now with the new SFD2 protocols and now you cant just update one module, there could be more modules dependent on the one your updating and they need to be on a certain software version or they stop talking.

The MMI is pretty much obsolete already (its a 2023 car) as Audi updated the hardware in 2024 and seem to have limited support for the older hardware now. I can't be too hard on Audi, they're not the only manufacturer with software problems.

Also, his Q4 needed new tyres after 8k miles (it weighs 2.3T) and they're around £210 each...so much for being environmentally friendly...

I agree with the B7 being the last of the old school build, but ironically it was a failed traction control module that made me sell mine (would have failed MOT due to dash light). I couldn't find the part second hand (I had an early B7 (2005) which used some obscure part number), new part was £££. It needed a bunch of maintenance too which was getting close to the value of the car. It wasn't that I didn't look after it (far from it), it was just a perfect storm of things needing doing at once.

 

[B7Tourer]

That's why they are all still going some 20, 22 and 26 years later respectively. Anything these days is in and out the workshops for warranty stuff every 5 minutes, more known / prone faults / flaws. Then after the 3 year warranty is up, you're on your own for repairs and potentially huge bills for items that used to last forever if maintained well.

It's like manufacturer's cared so much more back then, it was almost like a competition as to who could genuinely make the best car that lasted the longest and at an affordable price point, now, it's more like a digital competition as to how many functions one cheaply made control unit controls!

Don't even get me started on those new electric cars... they are laptops on wheels, even if you buy it straight out, the software is proprietary owned by the manufacturer...

This is the problem with electric cars. Once the warranty is done, you get no more updates unless you pay for them and having to go through the hassle of paying the dealer for doing a "diagnostic" before they do anything.

Agree 100% with all you guys:

Hybrids are very bad too; poor ICE engines designed to fail because they are running on waterthin 0W20, for stop start and emissions and full of plastic tat. EVs that only achieve anywhere near their charging times, if you're lucky to find and uber duper KW burning supercharger; other wise it's 45mins to an hour. Range that is a work of fiction and falls alarmingly in Winter with the heating on, or cruising on the motorway at seventy (that's why I always seem to pass Teslas doing 50 with range anxiety on overdrive); and only cheap to charge if at home - then your radius is half that range. ICEs with wetbelts and plastic (the new A4s have a wetbelt driven oil pump - when will they learn for Chrissake?!) and as mentioned, everything controlled from a flimsy laptop, and I mean everything, mirrors, gears aircon etc. They're all white goods to be junked soon after warranty. It gets worse every year lol.

 

[alps26]

Hybrids are very bad too; poor ICE engines designed to fail because they are running on waterthin 0W20, for stop start and emissions and full of plastic tat.

My B9.5 RS4 runs 0W20 and I will be putting in 5W30 once the service plan runs out. The Audi service plan is also a con, they don't even cover the air filter which Audi say you only replace after 60k miles...it was caked in cr*p well before then due to the design of the airbox. I replaced it at 40k miles (when I bought it) because the previous owner didn't do it. Service plan doesn't even cover a pollen filter, which are cheap!

 

[northpole]

Well i don't know if you know about the EU's directive for 2035's NETZERO (luckily for me I'll be that old than I'll probably won't be driving anymore anyway) but they are planning on having MOT'S done to ICE cars that will expire if the car needs a new part, leaks any fluid etc. The way they plan on pushing this forward is to make it illegal for both garages and owners to fix their dirty ICE cars... and if you noticed, all of a sudden, parts are getting discontinued a lot faster.


I read the whole thing, and I thought they lost the plot.

 

[alps26]

Well i don't know if you know about the EU's directive for 2035's NETZERO (luckily for me I'll be that old than I'll probably won't be driving anymore anyway) but they are planning on having MOT'S done to ICE cars that will expire if the car needs a new part, leaks any fluid etc. The way they plan on pushing this forward is to make it illegal for both garages and owners to fix their dirty ICE cars... and if you noticed, all of a sudden, parts are getting discontinued a lot faster.


I read the whole thing, and I thought they lost the plot.

Seems like a short sighted decision if it comes to fruition. I plan to keep my RS4 as long as I can but will likely (and reluctantly) have something electric at some point in addition

 

[northpole]

I'll try and keep them away as long as i can, and if I have to switch over i'll probably endup with an asian maufacturers EV... as by that time they should be available to buy on our markets as those Asian manufacturers EV's are way more advanced than any other ICE manufacturers EV'S on offer here.... Have a look for yourself, if you think BYD is doing good things, wait until you see what Huawei has on offer on the EV market.

 

[Charlie Farley]

Off yesterday to see a fellow Audi enthusiast in Sittingbourn so a 140 mile round trip, filled up before I left home , had a good start then stopped briefly halfway, quick glance at the tank range and I was very surprised, not too bad for a big old Allroad barge.

 

[northpole]

it's a diesel that is what they do... the longer you drive at a certain speed the less fuel they use

 

[Charlie Farley]

Had the dreaded drivers side window regulator cable snap on friday evening, exactly the same format that I had with thd b7 , even in the same place , still had a replacement arrive yesterday and fitted today, definitely easier than doing the b7 as the mirror can be left on and less door seals to disturb, still a good few hours work though.
Done now and all good on the old barge.
Fitted a new master window switch too.