Unreliable or Unlucky * Thoughts pls

[Mr Sewell]

Hi there,

New member here, browesd this site a few times before, seems the best and most helpfull from what i've seen and read. :fing02:

I bought an Audi A4 Quattro 2.5 TDI SE 2002 plate privately, late Feb last year, 105k on the clock and 1 previous owner. Got all the trimmings, built in sat nav, 6cd multichanger up front, full leather ect ect. FSH and no major work carried out. £4700 paid. Happy days... or so i thought !

After about 2 months the injector was leaking diesel, apparently the thread had worn and needed a helly coil to fix it. Cost inc. labour £150, not as bad as first annticepated.

The next thing in Aug was one of the injector pipes had fractured at the base of the pipe, was informed that over-tightening from previous problem was the cause. Couldnt just buy the one pipe or make a new one so the full set was needed. Cost inc. labour £110 again, not as bad i thought cost would be.

Then in late Nov, problems with the starter motor occurred. Sometimes it would start, sometimes it wouldnt. Weeks would pass were it would be fine, then weeks were it was constant. Eventually it was a daily problem. This is when i first stumbled across this site and seen it wasnt to uncommon. A reconditioned starter motor was needed. Cost inc. labour £150

Now over the last week or so, the fuel gage has started playing up. Im pressuming its that and not a major leakage. Seen a few similar threads on here re. the same prob. Sensor problems ! So again, hand is going to have to dip into pocket

The reason i bought an Audi was for its reliability :(
So, is it just me, am i unlucky or are these probs all common ones in such a short space of time. Tax & Insurance is up next month and im seriously considering doing something i dont want to...selling my baby ?

Appreciate any thoughts or ideas

Cheers Paul

[big jase]

its part and parcell of car ownership, i havent had any problem's with mine touch wood but that's the luck of the draw i guess. if you sold it now you could get another car, and have problem's to, and why sell it now and let some one else benefit from the money you've just spent on it . keep her and enjoy

[kite]

Any 7yr old car will have the odd problem....so if the garage that fixed the injector had tightened them properly you wouldn't have had the broken pipe. So no major repairs yet.
Enjoy the car and the helpfrom the guys on here with keeping the ol' girl going....
Welcome to the forum

[Mr Sewell]

OK boys, thanks for your fast replies. I supsoe its just piece of mind i wanted to hear, and thats what i got.

Can i just add what a great site this seems. I aint no petrol head.... Yet :) But reading thru some of these threads, i can see this changing lol

[kite]

It won't be long before your looking for bigger wheels, remapping, better brakes, body kits.....I could go on.......
All on here are into subtle mods....I don't want to scare you off

[kite]

Invite to the B6 club sent.....

[Darjm]

Doesnt sound that bad to me. I'd be touching wood if i were you! You'll probably have no more problems til you lay her to rest or, pass her on!

[Mr Sewell]

Doesnt sound that bad to me. I'd be touching wood if i were you! You'll probably have no more problems til you lay her to rest or, pass her on!


Yeah.... right !!!

http://i47.tinypic.com/33lzbep.jpg

Quoted in excess of £1000 rebuild to the engine, new gaskets, valuves , piston ring sets, + the cogs are connected to ...... so new ones of them too.
They guy looking at it for me is not having much joy for parts at his usuall supliers aswell, not stocking parts so have to be audi dealers sigh !

Can things possibley get any worse ??

[Braveheart1981]

What happened and what is that a picture of?

[TonyMc]

Every single month since I bought it in Sept last year I have had an issue with it that has cost me something.

[RickT]

Yeah.... right !!!



Quoted in excess of £1000 rebuild to the engine, new gaskets, valuves , piston ring sets, + the cogs are connected to ...... so new ones of them too.
They guy looking at it for me is not having much joy for parts at his usuall supliers aswell, not stocking parts so have to be audi dealers sigh !

Can things possibley get any worse ??


Contact jason at All German Parts, Mention the forum ..

He should be able to get you what you need.

Rick

[Mr Sewell]

What a nightmere of a day, and were best to vent my frustration than a VW forum.

The picture i posted earlier in thread is of a cam-shaft cog with 2 missing teeth, natuarly the broken teeth have caused so much damage.

Lad tells me its been run on the wrong oil for so long ( prior to me buying it) and that its the grityest oil he has seen. Obv this isnt going to do my engine very good.

Right , im not the most mechanical minded so what i write here is repeted from my machanic friend....

.. part of the cylinder head has snapped off the cam locker, and the cam shaft is floating/moving front to back as its turning ..


Soooo, ive been informed what i need to locate is an engine

Audi 2.5 TDI 2002 Engine - part no. AKE 104 357 Cylinder Head with camshafts, for left hand side when looking at / drivers side when in. :1zhelp:

Again, cut me loses and sell as spares and repairs or bite the bullet and fork out anything up to, and over £2000 :confused:

[shook]

I've owned my 1.8T 04 A4 cabriolet, 60k miles, since November 2009. Six months-ish...

Cam belt kit £390 - (par for course)
Failed ECU £1150 - replaced under warranty - (How Audi are not being pulled up for al this MT trouble is beyond me)
Failed window switch pack £130 - replaced under warranty
Two Coolant leaks, one into cockpit - £150
Repeated Airbag problems - 3 separate fixes - £200 so far
Failed radio antenna/wiring (been quoted £650 to fix, not covered, left it :( )
Broken Glove Box - £85
'Cracked Roll Bar' - £250 (haven't bothered to fix)

I spent much less than that on my previous car, an 05 Golf, in four years of ownership.

Most weeks I wonder what's going to go **** up next.

Knowing my luck, it'll be a complete Multitronic gearbox failure @ £3-4k. I've been put off Audi a bit; I've had cars of a similar age have way fewer issues.

Very happy I took out a third party warranty.

[mark shutt]

that's the problem with buying cars with high milage, things do inevitably go wrong, maybe it would have been a better investment to spend more money on a car with say 30-40k on the clock..

[TonyMc]

Since I got mine last Sept I have had to do the following;

Roll bar drop links
Suspension arm
drive belt
power steering belt
immobiliser
throttle body
battery
all four tyres
rocker cover gasket

and now I have a leak from the heater matrix return hose.

[Quattro73]

I think we have to accept that the build quality of Audis is not what it used to be. My 2005 A4 B6 2.0T FSi is not a scratch on the 1994 A6 2.6SE that I used to have and which was still running strong when I sold it with 260,000 miles on the clock on its original gearbox and only its second exhaust system.

Having said that, aren't we driving around in some of the most beautiful motors on the planet? Who'd want to buy a dull, boring and downright ugly piece of Japanese tin? - not me for one!

[dieselmanvw]

i had this with my misses golf always playing up costing money but after i replaced most of it its now been fine touch wood.just bad luck i suppose my mates got a vauxall,its alway in the garage,just think modern cars are more problems when they get older as they have more to go wrong than an old car.

[shook]

It's probably got as much to do with the previous owner's level of maintainance as anything else.

I think I bought my car while it was running fine but there was plenty of hidden work imminent, perhaps the ECU had shown a few rare syptoms of failure and the owner did some research and thought 'I'll get shot of this now'.

I've been meticulous with it since - whoever buys it from me is going to get a good deal because I've spent a lot on making it better, yet I can't add value to the car because of this.

I'm wondering what I want next, and am considering a less 'prestigious' car as the combination of many problems and the cost of repairing them makes for a headache. The spectre of a complete gearbox failure coming in at £4k doesn't make for very relaxing car ownership. Going on my only experience of one Audi, there's no way I could describe the brand as reliable. No way.

I do like simple, old cars, and am considering one, but they can come with a whole load of trouble too...

[shook]

Having said that, aren't we driving around in some of the most beautiful motors on the planet? Who'd want to buy a dull, boring and downright ugly piece of Japanese tin? - not me for one!


This is perhaps why I haven't got rid of mine yet.

[Mr Sewell]

Shook, u speak alot of sence there mate, and a few home truths that we dont like to admit to :blackeye:

Ive bite the bullet and am carrying on with rebuild. Got all of the parts ready to order bar one.
The main one. Cylinder Head WITH Camshaft !

All the rockers and gaskets and valves ect come in at around £700
Holding my breath on price for head and shaft
And then add the labour..... I'm looking at around £2k :(

There was the mention of stripping the Camshaft and seeing if it could be repaired/welded, but not sure whether thats an option yet

Any help with locating a Head would be much apprectiated

Paul

[Quattro73]

[QUOTE=shook;520322]It's probably got as much to do with the previous owner's level of maintainance as anything else.QUOTE]

I entirely agree, but there has been and continues to be an increasing trend by manufacturers towards making it totally impossible for us to do anything ourselves. Oil will soon come in replacement packs like ink cartridges on printers - mark my words, the days of the "amateur" car mechanic are numbered.

Comparing the various Audis that we have had as a family, the earliest manufactured car was the best built. The 2.6SE A6 not only did 260k, but did it on the original engine, original gearbox and original clutch!!! Now I read on the forum of worries about gearboxes on car that have done less than 100k. Hopefully these will just prove to be worries and not become reality, but I do find it somewhat unnerving.

On the bright side, my car was in for diagnostics at the main dealers for an obscure fault today and they valetted it even though I'd washed it yesterday evening. Now it shines extra bright. As I drove it back through town, it was noticeable how many heads turned to have a look..... or was it that people were shocked at a 58 year old driving a Brilliant Red Quattro? Well, I have to have something to keep me young!
http://www.vwaudiforum.co.uk/forum/images/icons/icon7.gif

[Mr Sewell]

And I look forward to my Mid-Life Crisis too ;)
Always thought I'd have a Lambergini of Ferrari when I'm over the hll like !

Paul 28yo :D

[Quattro73]

Mid-Life Crisis? Humbug..... shouldn't happen when you drive a decent motor. I can recommend a Quattro for the odd unintentional off-road excursion - like when is a road not a road? Answer, when you can't see the edge of the tarmac because of a thick carpet of leaves. Who'd drive up tracks in the Lake District in autumn anyway?

Anyway, with reference to the thread, I forgot to mention that a friend of mine took his 3 year old Mondeo to the local Ford dealer for a service and ended up buying a new car. The bill would have cost £2,700, so he decided to trade it in.... he had discounted having an Audi as he thought they were more expensive than Ford. I guess he could have been unlucky!

[bez101]

I've owned my 1.8T 04 A4 cabriolet, 60k miles, since November 2009. Six months-ish...

Cam belt kit £390 - (par for course)
Failed ECU £1150 - replaced under warranty - (How Audi are not being pulled up for al this MT trouble is beyond me)
Failed window switch pack £130 - replaced under warranty
Two Coolant leaks, one into cockpit - £150
Repeated Airbag problems - 3 separate fixes - £200 so far
Failed radio antenna/wiring (been quoted £650 to fix, not covered, left it :( )
Broken Glove Box - £85
'Cracked Roll Bar' - £250 (haven't bothered to fix)

I spent much less than that on my previous car, an 05 Golf, in four years of ownership.

£650 TO REPAIR THE

Most weeks I wonder what's going to go **** up next.

Knowing my luck, it'll be a complete Multitronic gearbox failure @ £3-4k. I've been put off Audi a bit; I've had cars of a similar age have way fewer issues.

Very happy I took out a third party warranty.

£650 TO REPAIR THE antenna with gold plate i spose
the parts under 25 quid and takes an hour to fit

[shook]

But where will do it? I've tried a few garages and thy don't seem to know anything about it... they just want to replace everything as 'we don't know where the problem is'.

Cd you recommend anywhere pls?

[bez101]

But where will do it? I've tried a few garages and thy don't seem to know anything about it... they just want to replace everything as 'we don't know where the problem is'.

Cd you recommend anywhere pls?
id go for the rubber boot from boot lid to car
they always snap
you will see it
u can strip it back and rejoin like some ppl try but its a crap fix realy
u move the boot lid cover u will see the aerial box theres 3 in a cab
top of my head its the blue ended wire audi will sell you a repair wire
and then its a case of pulling it through the rubber into the car and running it to the front glove box out radio out unplug old wire plug new 1 in
if you was near on to me id do it for you
but im up iin sheffield

[shook]

id go for the rubber boot from boot lid to car
they always snap
you will see it
u can strip it back and rejoin like some ppl try but its a crap fix realy
u move the boot lid cover u will see the aerial box theres 3 in a cab
top of my head its the blue ended wire audi will sell you a repair wire
and then its a case of pulling it through the rubber into the car and running it to the front glove box out radio out unplug old wire plug new 1 in
if you was near on to me id do it for you
but im up iin sheffield

Ah man thanks, if 'm up there soon I will def drop you a line and pay you to do it.

I had a look at the box and wires under the boot cover, nothing obvious, and I'm not comfortable doing a more extensive job.

I'm hoping a Londoner might be able to help... Any takers? :1zhelp:

I miss my radio and just know there'll be World Cup games on when I'm in transit.