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

[gebbel]

If I may piggyback on this thread, my 2.0TDi SE has begun to sound like the recording by the OP...but only after ignition....it fades away after a couple of minutes. Should I be concerned?

[jangles]

@gebbel, if it were me, I'd have the car into my Audi dealer, or other trusted expert if you have one, for a check.

[jangles]

An observation about this engine issue from using the car as normal during the past week.

When I start the car in a morning, from cold, it starts first time as you'd expect: normal, no problems, no weird sounds or anything like that.

But if I start the car when the engine is warm, the chances are high I'll get the awful racket and the engine sputters to a halt when starting. Trying it again works fine.

In any case, the car's in to Reading Audi in a couple of days so I guess I'll know for sure what the problem is.

[jangles]

Well, today was judgement day at Reading Audi. I took the car in first thing this morning; by mid afternoon, the experts there had done what they had to do on diagnosis to conclude - yes, it's the flywheel.

I authorised the repair which should be done by end of Tues. Further thoughts after that's done, I've chatted with them about it all and picked up the car.

[jangles]

Car collected from Reading Audi. The total cost for diagnosis, testing, replacing the flywheel, testing again was a little over £1,100. But I accepted their offer of 25% goodwill from Audi Germany, for a net cost to me of £862.

It's not a cheap item. Maybe I could have got it cheaper from an indie Audi expert. Would an indie shop have been able to plug in their diagnostics system to the factory in Germany for data sharing? Access to the data about this particular engine and other components? I wonder.

How much is peace of mind and feelings of confidence when driving your car after a repair like this? It adds to the overall history of the car, always maintained, serviced, etc, by an authorised Audi dealer. I think that's important. It comes with a 2-year warranty too. And they washed the car, looks very nice

Overall, pleased and impressed with Reading Audi.