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Blakkout posted:Christ. It didn't even occur to me that the "dust and pollen filter" was the air filter. I should be able to take care of that. Thanks for pointing it out. I get the oil changed every 6 months (drive about 2K miles during that time), so I assume they would notice any glaring problems or serioues leaks while doing that. I could do some recon on flushing collant to gauge my comfort with doing it myself, but I think serpentine belt replacement, timing belt replacement, spark plug replacement, and power steering fluid flush are all well out of my comfort zone and probably in order here. The waterpump is cheap, it's the labor that eats you up. Have it done while they are in there. VAG uses plastic impellers that tend to die. My 04 crapped out it's first waterpump at 38k. Warranty covered the labor to replace it, so I just had them change the timing belt while they were in there for like an extra 150. Why do you change your oil every 6 months if you are only putting 2k miles on it?
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Mar 25, 2013 20:23
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I change my oil once a year and only put about 3k on it since the last one. Worried about water absorbtion / sludging. This may or may not be a reasonable concern.
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Mar 25, 2013 20:27
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Snowdens Secret posted:I change my oil once a year and only put about 3k on it since the last one. Worried about water absorbtion / sludging. This may or may not be a reasonable concern. Ya, I do 1yr/10k miles. 6 months and 2k miles isn't enough to ruin your oil.
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Mar 25, 2013 22:06
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Blakkout posted:Christ. It didn't even occur to me that the "dust and pollen filter" was the air filter. I should be able to take care of that. Thanks for pointing it out. I get the oil changed every 6 months (drive about 2K miles during that time), so I assume they would notice any glaring problems or serioues leaks while doing that. I could do some recon on flushing collant to gauge my comfort with doing it myself, but I think serpentine belt replacement, timing belt replacement, spark plug replacement, and power steering fluid flush are all well out of my comfort zone and probably in order here. The dust and pollen filter is the cabin air filter, not the engine air filter. The good news is you can easily replace both. The cabin air filters are not difficult at all to get to. I would recommend spending the extra few bucks and get one that is carbon impregnated to help with odor. I think I paid about $18 for mine and installed it in all of 10 minutes or less. Engine air filters is similarly easy to do, and while you are doing that, you are staring right at the snow screen filter so just clean anything out of there and you are done with air filters. As was mentioned, the water pump is usually replaced because the mechanic is looking straight at it while they have the front end pulled apart for the timing belt. You save on the labor of having to pay for it to be done when it shits itself, and you also save on the damage it will invariably do when it does. As a rule of thumb I would always have it done at the same time. I would also check out vw/audi forums, vwvortex being the biggest I know of, and search for reviews of places in your area. You can almost certainly find someone with a good reputation in your area and get a second quote from them. You also have what Audi specified to do, so you can compare what you get from the independent mechanic. I just googled for places and https://www.andersonmotorsport.com popped up, you can google reviews on them. Bonus points, their address is on quattro drive. 
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Mar 25, 2013 22:17
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veedubfreak posted:Ya, I do 1yr/10k miles. 6 months and 2k miles isn't enough to ruin your oil. Does that mean whichever comes first: 1 year or 10K miles? Is that pretty standard? For some reason I thought I was supposed to be doing 6 months/5K miles, with 6 months always coming first for me. Thought I got that that number from the manual, but I don't have it in front of me right now. I guess I'll plan on figuring out the spark plugs and both air filters on my own, and trying to get a few competitive quotes for the two belts and the water pumps. Thanks for the input guys. My alternative was just going to be walking into the dealership, and handing over my $2.3K.
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Mar 26, 2013 04:35
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Blakkout posted:75K mile routine maintenance is coming up on my 2005 A4 (B6). I've done all the maintenance to date, but this one looks like the expensive one. I'm trying to decide if I can safely forgo any of the items on the list to avoid paying the full $2.3K that I've been quoted. At this point, it's just really hard for me to swallow spending that kind of money on a car worth $10K with no current problems. How bad of an idea is it to just have them replace my timing belt, ribbed v belt (not sure what this is, but it sounds important) and spark plugs? Looks like I'd be skipping the following: How in Gods name does it take $2k to do this?
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Mar 26, 2013 14:37
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Blakkout posted:Does that mean whichever comes first: 1 year or 10K miles? Is that pretty standard? For some reason I thought I was supposed to be doing 6 months/5K miles, with 6 months always coming first for me. Thought I got that that number from the manual, but I don't have it in front of me right now. If the manual says 6 months, well I guess you need to adhere to that if the car is under warranty, otherwise, I see no reason to replace the oil after 6 months and only 2k miles. Oil doesn't just "go bad". If you are at least taking the car out and flogging it regularly the oil is going to be fine. The age thing is mostly due to oil accumulating water, and this mostly happens from short trips where the engine doesn't get fully up to temp. On the TDI it is 1yr/10k. Oh right, another thing to remember. The oil change interval seems to be different in every country, so someone is lying somewhere. Honestly, the best thing to do is get an oil analysis done and adjust your interval dependent on the results. veedubfreak fucked around with this message at 14:46 on Mar 26, 2013 |
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Mar 26, 2013 14:43
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Tab8715 posted:How in Gods name does it take $2k to do this? Believe to do the timing belt you've basically got to disassemble the entire front end of the car to change it, and when Audi tech's cost about $3-400/hr in labor it quickly adds up.
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Mar 26, 2013 14:44
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real_scud posted:Labor. It costs around 1200 just to do the timing belt on a 1.8t 
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Mar 26, 2013 14:47
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real_scud posted:Labor. This. The car has to be put in the service position, which ultimately is taking the entire front end loose and sliding it forward on really long pins that are inserted to support it. Everything gets disconnected, and it takes quite some time to do this and then put it back when it is done. Audi's have the engine hanging over the front axle basically and it leaves almost no room between the front of the motor and the radiator, radiator supports, etc... Think Porsche 911 in reverse position at the front of the car. The front drive axles are ahead of the transmission and behind the motor. If you have quattro then there is a drive shaft off the back of the transmission running to the rear. This is not relevant for the timing belt, but clutch changes are fun. I think ECSTuning sells the service kit and its less than $400 for all the parts, so that is an indicator as to the labor cost involved. I think the book gives it 14 - 16 hours or something.
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Mar 26, 2013 22:00
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Aflicted posted:This. The car has to be put in the service position, which ultimately is taking the entire front end loose and sliding it forward on really long pins that are inserted to support it. Everything gets disconnected, and it takes quite some time to do this and then put it back when it is done. Audi's have the engine hanging over the front axle basically and it leaves almost no room between the front of the motor and the radiator, radiator supports, etc... Think Porsche 911 in reverse position at the front of the car. The front drive axles are ahead of the transmission and behind the motor. If you have quattro then there is a drive shaft off the back of the transmission running to the rear. This is not relevant for the timing belt, but clutch changes are fun. I think ECSTuning sells the service kit and its less than $400 for all the parts, so that is an indicator as to the labor cost involved. I think the book gives it 14 - 16 hours or something. I just got a quote from my friends shop for the timing belt job on my 2004 allroad. He quoted me $650 labor + ~$400 parts. Typically he'll give me parts at cost, so it ends up a little lower. One of the mechanics is a good friend of mine, and has worked on my Audi and my friends Audi's many times. He's a good Audi mechanic. PCT Auto repair (http://www.passaiccountyautorepair.com/) However, ff anyone recommends another Audi shop near the 07432 zip code so I can price check around, I'd appreciate it. On a related note, one of my friend's kid has an old S4 (2001 I think). It won't start, so he decided to replace the starter and do the timing belt. He has no mechanic experience, and has a buddy that sort of a shady tree mechanic, so they took apart the front end of the car and now it's sitting in service position, and has been for about three weeks now. They have no idea what they are doing. The kid is unemployed and doesn't have the money to buy the parts he needs (in addition to the $400 for the timing belt kit it also needs a starter, A/C compressor, inter-cooler) so I'm not sure what his plan is. I do know that he ended up taking a knife and cutting the radiator hoses because he couldn't figure out how to get the front off with them intact.
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Mar 27, 2013 19:12
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Jerk McJerkface posted:I just got a quote from my friends shop for the timing belt job on my 2004 allroad. He quoted me $650 labor + ~$400 parts. Typically he'll give me parts at cost, so it ends up a little lower. One of the mechanics is a good friend of mine, and has worked on my Audi and my friends Audi's many times. He's a good Audi mechanic. No job, no mechanical knowledge, driving and trying to service an 11 year old S4, yep, nothing wrong with that plan.
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Mar 28, 2013 14:47
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veedubfreak posted:No job, no mechanical knowledge, driving and trying to service an 11 year old S4, yep, nothing wrong with that plan. My favorite part of his plan is this: the S4 is rather worked out. He bought it from a guy that used it as a track car. It's on it's second engine, it came with an aftermarket clutch and turbos. I'm not too familiar with the upgrades, but he says it has side-mount inter-coolers, which according to him are very valuable. His plan is to remove and sell it (netting a cool $2 grand) and using that to purchase the parts he needs (including the inferior front mount inter-cooler). He doesnt' have a buyer yet, but I guess he can just pop it on craiglist since he has nothing but time.
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Mar 28, 2013 14:56
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Jerk McJerkface posted:he says it has side-mount inter-coolers, which according to him are very valuable. His plan is to remove and sell it (netting a cool $2 grand) Yeah......used side mounts. I'd guess they are worth about $600. Considering you can get a new AWE kit for $1200 or so. Then you need the stock cooler, which ought to cost about $300-400. I believe this is where he starts talking about how much was "invested" in his car.
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Mar 28, 2013 15:47
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I have a good job, a garage, tools and mechanical knowhow and I wouldn't touch that car with a 10 foot pole.
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Mar 28, 2013 17:38
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veedubfreak posted:I have a good job, a garage, tools and mechanical knowhow and I wouldn't touch that car with a 10 foot pole. Same, and I even work for Audi and have access to any special tools and documentation I would ever need.
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Mar 28, 2013 19:56
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Brain Issues posted:Same, and I even work for Audi and have access to any special tools and documentation I would ever need. One of my friends is from Germany, he's a BMW master mechanic, and he was recently moved to the US to be in charge of the test car division for the east coast. The other day the kid went up to him, showed him a pic of his car taken apart and asked "hey, do you know how to time engines?" The guy just looked at him and  'ed.
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Mar 28, 2013 20:00
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I'm about to have a bunch of time off from work and got a CEL recently, pulling the codes it's for P2181 which from looking at a bunch of the regular Audi forums suggests my thermostat going bad. Right now my engine temp never gets to the mid-point even after driving for hours at a time. I've found a couple guides, here and a kit to replace everything over at ECS. My question is that while I'm not a big-time mechanic I have replace brakes/rotors on other cars as well as doing other maintenance. From the guides I'm reading replacing the thermostat doesn't seem that difficult to do, do you guys concur? Or am I silly for trying to do it on my own? edit: Oh yeah and this is on a B7 A4 FWD w/ CVT.
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Mar 28, 2013 21:26
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real_scud posted:I'm about to have a bunch of time off from work and got a CEL recently, pulling the codes it's for P2181 which from looking at a bunch of the regular Audi forums suggests my thermostat going bad. Right now my engine temp never gets to the mid-point even after driving for hours at a time. Have you ever replaced your coolant temp sensor? My VW GTI was throwing P2181 and replacing the CTS fixed it. It was incredibly easy on my GTI and I have almost no mechanical experience at all. e: looks like that kit includes a CTS but I read on various forums that you should only use the green sensor from the dealer fwiw resident fucked around with this message at 22:05 on Mar 28, 2013 |
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Mar 28, 2013 22:03
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resident posted:Have you ever replaced your coolant temp sensor? My VW GTI was throwing P2181 and replacing the CTS fixed it. It was incredibly easy on my GTI and I have almost no mechanical experience at all.
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Mar 28, 2013 22:37
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Motronic posted:Yeah......used side mounts. I'd guess they are worth about $600. Considering you can get a new AWE kit for $1200 or so. Were SMICs not stock on that car? I know on the B7 turbo cars, people are regularly ditching their SMICs to get a larger FMIC. I still have my SMICs, but I don't have too much in the way of mods on the car. I had REVO flash it with stage 1. Chris Cafiero, the US contact for them, is right down the street from me so I have had him look at the car and do the flash. After I swap the cat out I'm going to have him flash Stage 2 and run more logs on it. Rear sway bar swapped out for the RS4, and swapped to the copper plugs a lot of the 2.7t guys are running. The plugs actually helped smooth things out a good bit at the expense of life span on the plugs. I have contemplated a water/meth setup after getting my intake valves liberated from their carbon build up, and forgoing doing anything to the intercooler setup. I'm not looking for crazy power, the stock turbo and HPFP has limits.
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Mar 28, 2013 23:53
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Yeah, dual SMIC's are stock on the 2.7T...
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Mar 29, 2013 06:06
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I really don't like my 2.7t allroad, but the reason is 100% that it's not a manual. If I could find one in a stick I'd be much happier with it.
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Mar 29, 2013 14:07
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real_scud posted:Don't think it's the CTS because if the CTS fails then my temp gauge wouldn't work at all. My temp gauge was still going to the middle so I'm not sure if it was pulling from a secondary source or what. My CEL has stayed off for 3k miles now so Im sure the CTS was the issue. It's like a $25 dollar/20 minute fix so its worth a shot before doing the thermostat.
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Mar 30, 2013 16:21
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I'm looking at used GTI's right now and I came across a 2007 with 49k miles that looked nice but then the guy mentions that the turbo was recently replaced by VW under warranty due to a mistake. I asked him to clarify why the turbo was replaced and I got this email back: "I had a very small leak a year ago that my mechanic discovered.When I took it into VW to check it out they ended up replacing the Turbo. Two weeks later I saw my mechanic again and he pointed out the oil leak was still there. The second trip to VW for the oil leak found that it was just a gasket that needed replacing.... not the turbo!! So, now the car has a turbo with about 5k miles on it!!" I really don't know much about cars and even less about turbos but does this make sense to anyone? It seems odd to me that the dealership's first move to fix an oil leak would be to replace the turbo. I'd ask to see the paperwork from VW and also have a shop do an inspection for me, but is it even worth it? If there was really problems with the turbo, could there have been damage to the engine that wouldn't be visible? Should I just steer clear? Hopefully this is an okay place to ask this question but I figured people here in the VW thread would know best about this. AngryGuy fucked around with this message at 02:29 on Mar 31, 2013 |
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Mar 31, 2013 02:23
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I have a 2003 3.0L A4 Quattro with around 175k miles on it. I've had it for 8 years now and love the car but its time I start looking for a replacement. I am considering another A4 '07 or newer. I was also considering a Q7 as I would love the TDI but I am not ready to commit to one yet, more so since used TDIs are on the rare side. How is the 3.6/4.2 in the Q7s and should I be looking at more recent models for the A4? Currently the one thing holding me back is the inability to find a manual I am comfortable with. I am almost tempted to just get an automatic and replace the transmission but that is probably pushing it.
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Apr 5, 2013 22:03
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lightpole posted:I have a 2003 3.0L A4 Quattro with around 175k miles on it. I've had it for 8 years now and love the car but its time I start looking for a replacement. I am considering another A4 '07 or newer. I was also considering a Q7 as I would love the TDI but I am not ready to commit to one yet, more so since used TDIs are on the rare side. How is the 3.6/4.2 in the Q7s and should I be looking at more recent models for the A4? Currently the one thing holding me back is the inability to find a manual I am comfortable with. I am almost tempted to just get an automatic and replace the transmission but that is probably pushing it. I have a 08 A4 quattro with the 6mt. The manual transmission ones are indeed hard to find it seems. Even harder to sell too. I have mine up for sale now, but the people looking for them seem to want an automatic. I would have thought it would be easy to sell since it is a manual which is rare, and it has 60k and everything but navigation. CPO and dealer maintained to boot.  I had a v6 Q7 as a loaner once while mine was in for maintenance. It was alright, but that is a big car and I would have liked more power. Have never driven the TDI or the V8, but I can only imagine it is markedly better. Reliability I have no clue on.
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Apr 10, 2013 20:45
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I accidentally ruined my key fob for my 2000 Jetta. It fell into the pool and the transmitter no longer works. The key itself works to open the driver side door and start the car, but all other functionality is broken. I also have an unrelated issue with something in the driver side door where the mechanism to arm/disarm the alarm is broken - so, previously, the only ways to arm/disarm the alarm were the key fob and the trunk. Now I'm just down to the trunk, which is obviously an inconvenience. My first attempt to fix was to replace the two 1620 batteries in the key fob, but that didn't do it so it appears the transmitter is truly dead. Can I purchase a matching key fob from eBay and just take the working transmitter half and attach it to my correctly coded key half? Or does the transmitter also require programming? If the transmitter requires programming, I have another slew of questions including "Can I program it via the trunk keyslot since the driver side one is dead?" but we'll cross that bridge if we have to...
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Apr 10, 2013 21:03
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Neo_Reloaded posted:I accidentally ruined my key fob for my 2000 Jetta. It fell into the pool and the transmitter no longer works. The key itself works to open the driver side door and start the car, but all other functionality is broken. I also have an unrelated issue with something in the driver side door where the mechanism to arm/disarm the alarm is broken - so, previously, the only ways to arm/disarm the alarm were the key fob and the trunk. Now I'm just down to the trunk, which is obviously an inconvenience. http://jettajunkie.com/vw-jetta/showthread.php?7841-FOB-Programming-Instructions Looks like you might need the driver door to program it.
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Apr 10, 2013 21:13
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So, I went and looked at a 2010 A4 yesterday which was pretty nice except for one deal-breaker. From what I could tell, Audi's don't have Sirius Seek? For those that don't know, this lets you store your favorite artists and whenever they come on the air it gives you an alert. I find it hard to believe that my VW has this but Audi's don't??? Anyways...just wanted to double-check before I look elsewhere.
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Apr 10, 2013 21:46
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Sleepstupid posted:So, I went and looked at a 2010 A4 yesterday which was pretty nice except for one deal-breaker. From what I could tell, Audi's don't have Sirius Seek? For those that don't know, this lets you store your favorite artists and whenever they come on the air it gives you an alert. I find it hard to believe that my VW has this but Audi's don't??? Anyways...just wanted to double-check before I look elsewhere. I have no idea about that particular feature being present or not in the new MMI, but I will say this. The Audi infotainment experience leaves a lot to be desired in my opinion. At the same time they were pumping out GTIs with a decent stereo and very functional interface, They were giving the A3s the symphony II which is barely a revision from their decade old stereos they were using. To get the good stuff, and that term is used loosely, they force you into getting the nav package. The B8 (2009+ A4) gets a separate color display with a clumsy interface that still doesn't really wow you with features. It also makes replacing it with something aftermarket neigh impossible and keeping it looking close to stock. It would not surprise me to find out they don't have it.
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Apr 10, 2013 21:54
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Aflicted posted:The Audi infotainment experience leaves a lot to be desired in my opinion. This is really a shame. I loved everything else about it, but as I said, for me, the audio system (lack of features) is a deal-breaker.
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Apr 10, 2013 22:06
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Aflicted posted:I have no idea about that particular feature being present or not in the new MMI, but I will say this. The Audi infotainment experience leaves a lot to be desired in my opinion. At the same time they were pumping out GTIs with a decent stereo and very functional interface, They were giving the A3s the symphony II which is barely a revision from their decade old stereos they were using. To get the good stuff, and that term is used loosely, they force you into getting the nav package. The B8 (2009+ A4) gets a separate color display with a clumsy interface that still doesn't really wow you with features. It also makes replacing it with something aftermarket neigh impossible and keeping it looking close to stock. It would not surprise me to find out they don't have it. This is why my Golf has an aftermarket head unit
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Apr 10, 2013 22:23
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veedubfreak posted:This is why my Golf has an aftermarket head unit The MMI setup in the new Audi's has a separated display in the dash, and the rest of the controls are integrated into the same panel as the climate control etc... you could rig your aftermarket stereo in the glove box or something maybe. My B7 was the last with an actual in dash separate stereo panel that you could swap out with a retrofit bezel and double din setup. I saw someone rig a Nexus 7 there too. The VW setup still retains that option as far as I know, and you spend far less on the car. $40k+ for a car that has a lackluster stereo experience with a completely proprietary fitment, just sucks. Your Golf is probably one of the last cars I would buy from VW too. That or a GTI. The rest I saw at the autoshow were just meh. Buy a B8 and you are pretty much stuck with what they give you. Aflicted fucked around with this message at 22:40 on Apr 10, 2013 |
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Apr 10, 2013 22:37
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Aflicted posted:The MMI setup in the new Audi's has a separated display in the dash, and the rest of the controls are integrated into the same panel as the climate control etc... you could rig your aftermarket stereo in the glove box or something maybe. My B7 was the last with an actual in dash separate stereo panel that you could swap out with a retrofit bezel and double din setup. I saw someone rig a Nexus 7 there too. Apparently even the new GLI has that lovely gm plastic interior now. The Golf and "Jetta" Wagon are the last of the soft touch interiors
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Apr 10, 2013 22:41
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veedubfreak posted:Apparently even the new GLI has that lovely gm plastic interior now. The Golf and "Jetta" Wagon are the last of the soft touch interiors I want to say the GLI I saw still had the soft touch interior, but I may be mistaken. It at least had a motor that wasn't a gutless wonder, IRS, and no drum brakes.
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Apr 10, 2013 22:48
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Aflicted posted:I want to say the GLI I saw still had the soft touch interior, but I may be mistaken. It at least had a motor that wasn't a gutless wonder, IRS, and no drum brakes. I had to take my car in for the 20k a few weeks back and was talking to one of the sales guys. Didn't even think to actually go look at one, but he did say the GLI is the only way to get the 2.0t in the Jetta now. They had a white 2 door Golf R with 20"s in the showroom. I just can't give up my 40+ mpg. Well that and it would add 10k to what I owe on the car.
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Apr 10, 2013 22:49
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Does anyone know if the Golf 7 will have a lovely plastic interior? The pictures they've shown so far make it look Audi quality.
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Apr 10, 2013 23:59
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Aflicted posted:The dust and pollen filter is the cabin air filter, not the engine air filter. The good news is you can easily replace both. The cabin air filters are not difficult at all to get to. I would recommend spending the extra few bucks and get one that is carbon impregnated to help with odor. I think I paid about $18 for mine and installed it in all of 10 minutes or less. Engine air filters is similarly easy to do, and while you are doing that, you are staring right at the snow screen filter so just clean anything out of there and you are done with air filters. Well, I replaced my cabin air filter today and was shocked both by how quick/easy it was, and how dirty my old filter was. Engine air filter is on its way, and I don't anticipate any issues with that, either. Now I'm just trying to decide if I trust myself enough to do the power steering fluid and the coolant, the latter of which I'm pretty nervous about. From what I've been reading, leaving bubbles in the system is pretty problematic, and I'm not really sure how to prevent things like that. Blakkout fucked around with this message at 01:21 on Apr 11, 2013 |
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Apr 11, 2013 01:17
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I think luxury manufacturers put all their emphasis on the systems included in the nav / tech packages. Audi's and BMW's newest systems are great to use, while my mk6 GTI's nav is functional and simple. They probably figure that if you care about that kind of stuff you're getting the nav & tech packages. I'm planning to swap out my GTI's nav for the upmarket RNS-510 in the next year, which looks like it has a few really nice features and larger screen. Too bad I had to buy my car with nav already to get the leather, but I should be able to sell the old one for a good amount.
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Apr 11, 2013 01:34
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