Is it likely to be the flywheel causing the racket in my A4 2.0 TDI SLine multitronic?

I've had my A4 just over three months. '06 plate, now done just over 79K miles. Serviced to schedule at Audi dealers from new; I had it serviced at Audi Reading just after I bought it and had the cambelt replaced as well.

Today, out and about, started the car after finishing some shopping. Well, it didn't actually start: turned the ignition key and the engine shook and rattled for some seconds. Seemed like a real racket from inside the car, must have sounded awful from outside. Second attempt, started just fine.

The car runs sweetly, no complaints with it at all. Smooth runner, a delight to drive... indeed, all the good reasons to have an Audi like this. But that experience worried the heck out of me. What could it be?

When this happened, I was literally just around the corner from the Audi dealer in Reading so I nipped along. Their tech expert started it, the same thing happened! He said most likely the flywheel. Possibly aircon pump or turbo but likeliest is the flywheel. If so, probably £1,000 or so. First step, diagnosis so I booked the car in for the earliest opportunity, Feb 14. Meanwhile, should be ok to continue driving he said but no hard acceleration.

Not welcome news at all but there it is. If the flywheel needs replacing, well, I'll get it replaced. Car no use going forward without this situation being fixed. Plus I like the car a lot!

I've seen a few threads in this forum going back a few years about B7 A4s and flywheels, so I'm expecting it probably is this issue.

Does that sound likely to you? Any insights gratefully received. Thanks.

have a search on here regarding "multitronic"...

Thanks for the tip. Quite a few posts show up on that search term but a scan through the 3 pages of them doesn't bring up anything I see relevant to what I'm asking about. Lots of interesting stuff, though!

The flywheel can make horrid noises which come and go but I would have to hear it to be sure.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Crasher

The flywheel can make horrid noises which come and go but I would have to hear it to be sure.

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Ok, I'll do an audio recording of the engine when I start it up, post a link to it here. Hopefully (!) I'll capture that awful racket ...

@Crasher, I recorded the sound of the engine starting. Naturally, it sounds just fine, no worrying noises there that I can hear :D

Here's where you can listen:

http://www.nevillehobson.com/audio/A...art-6feb11.mp3

It's about 30 seconds. A windy morning this morning when I recorded this, quite a bit of wind noise. Still, I'd be keen to know what you think.

Once again, it's an Audi A4 S-Line TDI 140 Auto (that's how the V5 describes it), 2006 model, 79K miles. BRE engine code, thinking about the discussions I see in this forum about BLB engines and oil pumps.

Thanks.

I can’t tell from that, if it is a Multichronic it could be the DMF.

Yes, hard to tell from that recording if anything's amiss. It is a multitronic. Ok, I'll see what Reading Audi have to say in their diagnosis on the 14th.

Thanks.

Hello.
I have the same spec car as you and my DMF failed at 61k. It made more of a rattle at initial start than your recording and sometimes the car would not start at all. New DMF + fitting was around £1300, which Audi very generously donated 50%:aargh4: Not impressed. John.

Hi @Stagman, thanks for your comment. It does look more likely than not that it's the flywheel, doesn't it? I'll know for sure when Audi Reading do the diagnosis next week. Already wincing in anticipation of the price estimate.