My 2000MY A4 Avant 1.8SE B5

[Noony]

Finally, after 3 1/2 years covered up in my garage, I got my trusty A4 Avant back on the road.

It needed :-

A new cambelt including all tensioners.

All aux belts.

Brake fluid change.

Rear pads and discs.

O/S/R ABS sensor.

MOT to include:

O/S/F coil spring

2 x front anti roll bar link rods.

£1500.00 later she is 100% road legal.

I took her out for a run and, even though she has now covered 82000 miles, she still drives like a dream.
I will only use her occasionally as I have a van that I use on a daily basis.

I checked the plenum chamber the day after I washed her and there was water, so I removed the bungs that were clogged up, cleaned and trimmed them, cleaned the chamber up so that is all good too.

At some point I do need to renew the DIS as it's pixelating but I have no idea where I can get this done.

Happy Days for me though.

[Crasher]

We had one of those on an S plate as a customer loan car up until a year ago, same engine and immaculate. It had optional side air bags and the left under seat sensor failed due to water ingress as we had neglected to clean the drains. It turned out to be a one year only system, the sensor was obsolete and impossible to find used so we had to scrap it.

[Noony]

it's amazing that such a simple thing can cause so much damage isn't it? I am also amazed at the person who designed it.

This is the second time I have done mine and I have trimmed the rubber so there is actually a hole there now. My car is always garaged but will still check the chamber after every carwash or if it has been out in the rain.

[Crasher]

It is described as a valve and it’s purpose is to close when the plenum chamber is under a vacuum caused by the heater blower so in theory if you have a pre cat exhaust leak, Carbon Monoxide and other gases will be drawn into the cabin.

[Noony]

Ah, well that actually makes a lot of sense, thank you for that.

[FrenchAudi]

It is described as a valve and it’s purpose is to close when the plenum chamber is under a vacuum caused by the heater blower so in theory if you have a pre cat exhaust leak, Carbon Monoxide and other gases will be drawn into the cabin.

That suggests that if the heater blower is running and creating a low pressure in the plenum chamber during heavy rain, the plenum chamber will fill up with water until it is high enough for its pressure to open the valves. Hopefully before it overflows into the cabin.

[Crasher]

I bet I suffer from a greater depression than the plenum chamber which is also helped when the valves open after 6pm...

[Noony]

A quick update guys,

So the garage replaced Cam belt and water pump along with new belts and tensioners etc etc. Last month I decided to change the oil, so got her up in the air, removed the belly pan to discover the water pump had developed a slight leak.

Took it back to the garage and the water pump turned out to be faulty, so after a six hour job a replacement water pump was put on the vehicle and sorted at no cost to me.

I just feel very lucky that I did that oil change otherwise I would not have noticed the leak.

So to sum up I dodged a bullet there.