Looking for advice on Diesel 2017/18 Q7 please

[rn123]

Hi everyone,

We have a need for a 7 seater with lots of space and so that has led us to looking at various options out there. We have landed on the Q7 as the style of car we are after and so have begun looking, but as expected all the examples I can find out there are diesel engines.

Normally, I would opt away from a diesel given that the other half does probably do 2 miles each way on the school run each day, trips to the shop etc (all short journeys). On a weekend when we go out as a family we tend to do longer trips out with the kids, but probably looking at 7k miles a year.

When I spoke to a couple of the dealers, they all indicated that the V6 diesels are often school run cars, a lot do low miles and they dont tend to have issues with them coming back. Now, obviously i know they want to sell a car here, so I wanted to get some input from people who would have some impartial insight.

Normally I would go petrol , but they are like hens teeth, so I think if we opted for the Q7 it would need to be the diesel. Would it just be nuts to get one given the driving use case, or are these engines no longer problematic with the DPF?

Thanks in advance.

[Papereyes]

Hi,

I'm in exactly the same boat, brought my q7 66 plate from new and literally using it for the school run 2-3 miles and in the 5 years have clocked less than 25k miles and engine seems fine. I do try and get a long run in every couple of months (but with COVID that stopped for some time).

Otherwise great choice of car, I do get an annual service and occasionally get an oil over flow but hopefully the annual service negates the issues with the short runs.

Hope that helps

Papereyes

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[rn123]

Hi,

I'm in exactly the same boat, brought my q7 66 plate from new and literally using it for the school run 2-3 miles and in the 5 years have clocked less than 25k miles and engine seems fine. I do try and get a long run in every couple of months (but with COVID that stopped for some time).

Otherwise great choice of car, I do get an annual service and occasionally get an oil over flow but hopefully the annual service negates the issues with the short runs.

Hope that helps

Papereyes

Sent from my SM-G965F using Tapatalk

Thanks, that is really helpful. Can I just check, do you mean that occasionally the oil overflows from the engine?

[Papereyes]

That's right, sometimes I get an oil overflow message which I think is part of dpf. I then do a long drive or its typically timed itself with the annual oil service/change

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[Crasher]

You have to take into account these things are massive, we had to get one in yesterday to put on the lift to find a coolant leak, without the power folding mirrors it would have been a two person job to get it through the entrance and still it was extremely tight. The car has scratches and scrapes all over it where the mum of two has caught it. The water leak is probably the biggest worry with these 3L V6’s, it looks like the usual inter valley coolant valve which Nottingham Audi has quoted £2300 to replace. If ANYTHING goes wrong on these things the bills are usually crippling. The other job it needs is the bank 1 exhaust cam and that is looking to be in the many thousands as the vehicle has never been serviced by Audi in its 60k miles over 5 years and they will refuse goodwill.

[rn123]

You have to take into account these things are massive, we had to get one in yesterday to put on the lift to find a coolant leak, without the power folding mirrors it would have been a two person job to get it through the entrance and still it was extremely tight. The car has scratches and scrapes all over it where the mum of two has caught it. The water leak is probably the biggest worry with these 3L V6’s, it looks like the usual inter valley coolant valve which Nottingham Audi has quoted £2300 to replace. If ANYTHING goes wrong on these things the bills are usually crippling. The other job it needs is the bank 1 exhaust cam and that is looking to be in the many thousands as the vehicle has never been serviced by Audi in its 60k miles over 5 years and they will refuse goodwill.

Yeah I can definitely see how it could get expensive. Alternatives then are cars like the Pug 5008 (newer shape) which have the space for the car seats and are cheaper to buy and run.

[ckq7]

We bought the Q7 because of the space and 3 isofix across second row, it was that or a Sharan/Galaxy and the difference in quality is night and day. Ours is a 4M 2015 with air suspension and 20" alloys and it is one of the most comfortable and quiet cars I've been in, it never wants for power. It regularly does the school run and you get used to the size (had a caravelle before and the Q7 has worse turning circle). On a long run it can do 38-40mpg (caravelle was 34mpg with half the bhp) but with your low annual miles I guess that extra cost won't be significant.

If you can buy from a dealer they were offering a 2yr warranty with used sales, after that some good aftermarket warranties will give you peace of mind (some won't!). We've had it a year and had the coolant valve replaced new timing chain, tensioner and camshaft (mostly under after market warranty).

I don't think it's in the same league as a 508. I've had an X7 for 2 weeks and a brand new A8 for 8wks and the older Q7 was the better car.

[Crasher]

Most warranties only cover wear and tear not actual failure of a part and also have a cost limit that is nothing like enough with these monsters. We did a late 4L 4.2V8 a few months back where the DPF pressure sensor on one bank had failed and caused the cat and DPF to block solid. To get at the pressure senders, you have to drop the gearbox down at an angle with the engine going up so that you can get the DPF's off and remove the huge frame assembly that is the pressure sensor system. This was also blocked but the warranty company would only pay for the sensor and the labour to get at it and not the subsequent blockage to the piping, CAT and DPF (£2k for cleaning) which the customer had to pay for and they elected to do the other side as well.... the bill was thousands and the job made worse as someone had been in there before to do the same job and butchered all the fittings. The customer wanted us to fit the full control line assembly system rather than clean it which was a good idea at £300 but there was no UK stock! The 4L 4.2 V8 TDI is one of the few VAG products that I would actually say "do not buy it" just because of this issue.