ak07
21-10-2012, 12:44 AM
HI,
I am the proud owner of a 2004 A4 1.9 tdi avant B6.(85kw BKE)
i love my car but this problem has really really got me down right now, to the point I am thinking of getting rid, a real shame as it is mint example as it only has 70k and I am the second owner,
Please could you guys take out a few minutes to read the information and please advise, sorry for the long winded description but want to give as much detail as possible.
In February this year I started the car in the morning and heard a squeal on what sounded like the fan belt, it lasted for a couple of seconds and quickly disappeared , over the next few week it began to last longer in the mornings until it warmed up and would then disappear, over a few weeks it got to the point where it was constantly squealing on idle (not screeching or vibrating shaking or bouncing etc).
i took it to my local garage who inspected it and advised me to change the fan belt and tensioner, I purchased genuine parts and did this.
He also advised me to change the alternator pulley as these were a common fault but as this had been changed only a couple of months earlier and seemed to be working fine (clutch etc) we let it be..
After changing this all was fine and the squealing stopped and the car felt perfect again.
About three months later the exact same problem began again, starting with a second squeal eventually building up to a constant squeal over a few weeks.
I went back to the garage who removed the belt, the power steering, crank, air con, and alternator pulley all seemed fine, the belt was not jumping when observed and none of the pulleys had any movement left to right or forward to backwards etc, no resistance or signs of seizure. The clutch system on the alternator pulley worked fine when locked, ie only turning one way.
the mechanic suggested it may be a faulty tensioner, so I returned the parts to Audi who replaced it alongside the belt without and questions asked,
again when fitted it was perfect,
three months later exactly and I have the same problem again,
we have checked the battery in case it was putting extra load onto the alternator which was making the belt slip when cranking it up in the mornings, but battery is all good,
belt has been removed again and all pulleys seem fine again,
there is no noise when the car is started with the belt off,
i had no alternative other than to book it in with Audi for the £102 diagnosis,
this was done on Friday,
when I arrived at the garage I explained to the technician what has had been going on, he started the vehicle, turned the steering to check for a fault on the power steering pulley but there was no change in the sound, so he concluded it would probably not be the power steering pulley, he than said that it was very unlikely for it to be the alternator pulley if it the clutch system was working fine and there was no movement in it and also it was only 12 months old
he then went to turn the air conditioning on to see if that made any difference , at this point I told him that I have not been able to use the air con for about 18months as the ECON light is stays illuminated when I press it..
it wasn't always like this but about 18 months ago the ECON light was constantly illuminated. I originally thought it was out gas but never had it gassed as we had no summer and probably out of laziness,,
he then told me that more than likely that would be the problem, I asked if he could explain further as I was under the assumption that if the air con compressor was not engaging the belt would just be running on the air con pulley freely without any king of resistance etc,
he then requested for me to leave it with them for further investigations
i returned to collect later on that day, I was handed a report which concluded that the fan belt was squealing due to a faulty air con compressor, £1400 to replace, when asked how the diagnosis had been carried out, they explained that they used a stethoscope to listen to all areas the belt covered and they thought the the aircon compressor area didn't sound quite right,
as you can imagine I was not totally convinced by this, I understand that the aircon not working is a problem, but I wanted to be sure that I would be spending my money on the correct parts,
bearing in mind that the belt it self would need replacing as it was now damaged, I knew that if just the belt was changed it would stop the squealing for three months anyway like previously, so I wouldn't really know if the problem had been resolved until 3 months later, I was also paranoid that if I Returned 3months later I would then be diagnosed with a different fault etc
I kind of had the feeling that the technician had diagnosed the problem solely on the basis of the ECON light not diffusing
on the way home I got my air con re gassed, the ECON light now works fine, it diffuses which is meant to activate the aircon, problem now is the temp of air stays the same as in ECON mode which indicated to compressor is not engaging,
I don't hear the engine idle change when I press the ECON button, bit I'm not sure if I'm really meant to,
questions now are,
why is the air con not functioning properly, after doing some reading on here I think it may be the clutch/pulley not engaging the compressor, but not sure if my car has the clutch system on the unit?
what do you guys recommend I do?
I wouldn't be able to afford a new unit from Audi to be honest. I think the clutch pulley kits are about £120, but don't want to be buying one if I need the actual compressor as well, there are some complete units that breakers are selling from £100-200. Are these worth the risk?
is there a diagnosis process to determine if I need the clutch pulley or complete unit?
And more importantly could this actually be the culprit causing the squealing of the belt in the first place? As I would hate to go thought the whole process of changing it all only to have the same problem three months later..
My local mechanic seems to think that it can't be the problem but at the same time doesn't understand what could be
What I can't understand is if this is the problem, why does it take about three months before I hear the belt to begin to squeal?
please guys your advise would be really great, this has really got me down, just to put the icing on the cake the airbag light illuminated on the way back from Audi, which I have never seen before,
i am paranoid to even drive it now invade the belt snaps and causes further damage
Please please I would really appreciate some good advise,
thankyou for taking the time out to read the post,
I am the proud owner of a 2004 A4 1.9 tdi avant B6.(85kw BKE)
i love my car but this problem has really really got me down right now, to the point I am thinking of getting rid, a real shame as it is mint example as it only has 70k and I am the second owner,
Please could you guys take out a few minutes to read the information and please advise, sorry for the long winded description but want to give as much detail as possible.
In February this year I started the car in the morning and heard a squeal on what sounded like the fan belt, it lasted for a couple of seconds and quickly disappeared , over the next few week it began to last longer in the mornings until it warmed up and would then disappear, over a few weeks it got to the point where it was constantly squealing on idle (not screeching or vibrating shaking or bouncing etc).
i took it to my local garage who inspected it and advised me to change the fan belt and tensioner, I purchased genuine parts and did this.
He also advised me to change the alternator pulley as these were a common fault but as this had been changed only a couple of months earlier and seemed to be working fine (clutch etc) we let it be..
After changing this all was fine and the squealing stopped and the car felt perfect again.
About three months later the exact same problem began again, starting with a second squeal eventually building up to a constant squeal over a few weeks.
I went back to the garage who removed the belt, the power steering, crank, air con, and alternator pulley all seemed fine, the belt was not jumping when observed and none of the pulleys had any movement left to right or forward to backwards etc, no resistance or signs of seizure. The clutch system on the alternator pulley worked fine when locked, ie only turning one way.
the mechanic suggested it may be a faulty tensioner, so I returned the parts to Audi who replaced it alongside the belt without and questions asked,
again when fitted it was perfect,
three months later exactly and I have the same problem again,
we have checked the battery in case it was putting extra load onto the alternator which was making the belt slip when cranking it up in the mornings, but battery is all good,
belt has been removed again and all pulleys seem fine again,
there is no noise when the car is started with the belt off,
i had no alternative other than to book it in with Audi for the £102 diagnosis,
this was done on Friday,
when I arrived at the garage I explained to the technician what has had been going on, he started the vehicle, turned the steering to check for a fault on the power steering pulley but there was no change in the sound, so he concluded it would probably not be the power steering pulley, he than said that it was very unlikely for it to be the alternator pulley if it the clutch system was working fine and there was no movement in it and also it was only 12 months old
he then went to turn the air conditioning on to see if that made any difference , at this point I told him that I have not been able to use the air con for about 18months as the ECON light is stays illuminated when I press it..
it wasn't always like this but about 18 months ago the ECON light was constantly illuminated. I originally thought it was out gas but never had it gassed as we had no summer and probably out of laziness,,
he then told me that more than likely that would be the problem, I asked if he could explain further as I was under the assumption that if the air con compressor was not engaging the belt would just be running on the air con pulley freely without any king of resistance etc,
he then requested for me to leave it with them for further investigations
i returned to collect later on that day, I was handed a report which concluded that the fan belt was squealing due to a faulty air con compressor, £1400 to replace, when asked how the diagnosis had been carried out, they explained that they used a stethoscope to listen to all areas the belt covered and they thought the the aircon compressor area didn't sound quite right,
as you can imagine I was not totally convinced by this, I understand that the aircon not working is a problem, but I wanted to be sure that I would be spending my money on the correct parts,
bearing in mind that the belt it self would need replacing as it was now damaged, I knew that if just the belt was changed it would stop the squealing for three months anyway like previously, so I wouldn't really know if the problem had been resolved until 3 months later, I was also paranoid that if I Returned 3months later I would then be diagnosed with a different fault etc
I kind of had the feeling that the technician had diagnosed the problem solely on the basis of the ECON light not diffusing
on the way home I got my air con re gassed, the ECON light now works fine, it diffuses which is meant to activate the aircon, problem now is the temp of air stays the same as in ECON mode which indicated to compressor is not engaging,
I don't hear the engine idle change when I press the ECON button, bit I'm not sure if I'm really meant to,
questions now are,
why is the air con not functioning properly, after doing some reading on here I think it may be the clutch/pulley not engaging the compressor, but not sure if my car has the clutch system on the unit?
what do you guys recommend I do?
I wouldn't be able to afford a new unit from Audi to be honest. I think the clutch pulley kits are about £120, but don't want to be buying one if I need the actual compressor as well, there are some complete units that breakers are selling from £100-200. Are these worth the risk?
is there a diagnosis process to determine if I need the clutch pulley or complete unit?
And more importantly could this actually be the culprit causing the squealing of the belt in the first place? As I would hate to go thought the whole process of changing it all only to have the same problem three months later..
My local mechanic seems to think that it can't be the problem but at the same time doesn't understand what could be
What I can't understand is if this is the problem, why does it take about three months before I hear the belt to begin to squeal?
please guys your advise would be really great, this has really got me down, just to put the icing on the cake the airbag light illuminated on the way back from Audi, which I have never seen before,
i am paranoid to even drive it now invade the belt snaps and causes further damage
Please please I would really appreciate some good advise,
thankyou for taking the time out to read the post,