I'm Back'ish

Hi buddy welcome back good to hear from you it has been a while.

What's happening car wise in your life since we've let seen you?
 
It has been a while, Thought to myself I need to stop being an anti-social bugger and say hi to everyone lol.

Car wise it's been an eventful time. I think Last time I was here I had a Celica T-Sport, Awesome car but it was a bit to low for me so I swapped to something more practical. So I ended up with a 2014 Seat Ibiza FR, Again brilliant car and I'd probably still have it if it wasn't for its untimely meet with a lorry. That meet with a lorry wrote the car off so now I have a 2007 Audi A3, I've had a bit of a nightmare with its reliability (the previous owner severely neglected the car) but overall I like it.

How are things with the Car/Cars in your life?
 
It has been a while, Thought to myself I need to stop being an anti-social bugger and say hi to everyone lol.

Car wise it's been an eventful time. I think Last time I was here I had a Celica T-Sport, Awesome car but it was a bit to low for me so I swapped to something more practical. So I ended up with a 2014 Seat Ibiza FR, Again brilliant car and I'd probably still have it if it wasn't for its untimely meet with a lorry. That meet with a lorry wrote the car off so now I have a 2007 Audi A3, I've had a bit of a nightmare with its reliability (the previous owner severely neglected the car) but overall I like it.

How are things with the Car/Cars in your life?
My A3 2.0 TDi 140 was a 2007 and the clutch was dying, the turbo was virtually shot it needed a cambelt change and the boot release was sticking and windows were not quite working right. So part ex-d it and got a newer 1.4 TFSi A3 - lovely car, so well built and feels just as sporty as the diesel did, and outperforms it in fuel consumption and handling/fun factor.

I think I also owned a 2.0 TFSi lemans edition 225bhp A4 Quattro Avant since you were last on here, that was lovely but fuel and tyre costs were killing me.

I remember your Celica, that was a very tidy car.
 
My A3 2.0 TDi 140 was a 2007 and the clutch was dying, the turbo was virtually shot it needed a cambelt change and the boot release was sticking and windows were not quite working right. So part ex-d it and got a newer 1.4 TFSi A3 - lovely car, so well built and feels just as sporty as the diesel did, and outperforms it in fuel consumption and handling/fun factor.

I think I also owned a 2.0 TFSi lemans edition 225bhp A4 Quattro Avant since you were last on here, that was lovely but fuel and tyre costs were killing me.

I remember your Celica, that was a very tidy car.
Seems you have had a few Audi's to say the least lol, What was different to the Lemans A4 compared to the standard one? totally understand the fuel cost issue though, my A3 has the 2.0 Tfsi engine and Quattro as well, how come you were chewing through tires though? I've done nearly 14,000 on my tires and they still have plenty of life left.

My Celica was a tidy car, I do miss it, couldn't manage any long journeys in it though, with how low the car was and the seating position I struggled with any longer than a 30 min drive.
 
The LeMans was tuned to 225 bhp (officially but they end up being around 230bhp in reality) and it had nice LeMans double spoke star alloys and interior styling features, plus the usual S line stuff, looked better. Leather interior, reverse sensors, lots of toys etc...

Yes we seem to stick with Audi, I know the engines and setups, we did look at a Golf once but the A3 boot space and interior space was better plus it felt a little more plush.

I put the older soft grippy, Goodyear Eagle F1's and drove quite hard, they lasted about 9000 miles, but we were starting to increase our annual mileage from 3000 to 18000 so it hit hard. Plus in the Quattro you have to replace all tyres at the same time. I put Contisports on them and they seemed to last longer.
 
The LeMans was tuned to 225 bhp (officially but they end up being around 230bhp in reality) and it had nice LeMans double spoke star alloys and interior styling features, plus the usual S line stuff, looked better. Leather interior, reverse sensors, lots of toys etc...

Yes we seem to stick with Audi, I know the engines and setups, we did look at a Golf once but the A3 boot space and interior space was better plus it felt a little more plush.

I put the older soft grippy, Goodyear Eagle F1's and drove quite hard, they lasted about 9000 miles, but we were starting to increase our annual mileage from 3000 to 18000 so it hit hard. Plus in the Quattro you have to replace all tyres at the same time. I put Contisports on them and they seemed to last longer.
Sounds Nice, especially the extra bit of power and toys.

Ahh I see, the Goodyear's are a bit soft. I'm running some Pilot sport 4's at the moment, awesome tyres. what's this about having to change all 4 tyres at the same time though? not really heard that before.
 
Thanks, bud. how are things with yourself?
Not bad, just living life, working and sleeping mainly and trying to find time to enjoy my car.

I'm thinking it's time for a road trip soon, it's been quite a while.
 
Not bad, just living life, working and sleeping mainly and trying to find time to enjoy my car.

I'm thinking it's time for a road trip soon, it's been quite a while.
Ohh, do you have anywhere planned yet for the road trip? I want to do a road trip around Europe at some point.
 
Waynne I see you have a direct injection motor ( TSFI =Turbo Statified Fuel Injection) and from what I have read having the injectors in the combustion chamber that over time leads to a build up of carbon on the back of the inlet valves as well as the inlet port that reduces the direct injections performance and economy over time and needs costly walnut? husk blasting to restore lost performance.

I have heard that some manufacturers are building OR intend to build TSFI type motors with 8 injectors in a 4 cylinder motors with the additional 4 placed in the inlet ports so that by using a proprietary fuel injector cleaner the need to nut blast to clean the ports and back of the valves is removed.

FWIW I use a small measured amount of IC each fill in both my CTR and diesel 4x4 DD ute.
 
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Sounds Nice, especially the extra bit of power and toys.

Ahh I see, the Goodyear's are a bit soft. I'm running some Pilot sport 4's at the moment, awesome tyres. what's this about having to change all 4 tyres at the same time though? not really heard that before.
The diffs start to send all the power to the tyres with the lowest tread depth, as they rotate at a different rate to one with new tread.

The Haldex diffs have the recommendation that you keep the same tread depth on each side of the Axle and the more complex 4 way systems extend this to all tyres.

If you don't you'll find the tread wears out really quickly on your worst tyre and it affects handling.
 
Waynne I see you have a direct injection motor ( TSFI =Turbo Statified Injection) and from what I have read having the injectors in the combustion chamber that over time leads to a build up of carbon on the back of the inlet valves as well as the inlet port that reduces the direct injections performance and economy over time and needs costly walnut? husk blasting to restore lost performance.

I have heard that some manufacturers are building OR intend to build TSFI type motors with 8 injectors in a 4 cylinder motors with the additional 4 placed in the inlet ports so that by using a proprietary fuel injector cleaner the need to nut blast to clean the ports and back of the valves is removed.

FWIW I use a small measured amount of IC each fill in both my CTR and diesel 4x4 DD ute.
It's not an issue on the 1.4 COD -=it is incredibly clean burning, the exhaust still looks like new. On the larger engines carbon build up was an issue, my 2.0 TFSi also suffered with this and I took it in for a BG clean service and it pepped up performance by quite a bit. The larger V blocks are even worse for it.

I've seen water injection kits setup to mist the intake, and alcohol/methanol kits to reduce this problem.
 
The diffs start to send all the power to the tyres with the lowest tread depth, as they rotate at a different rate to one with new tread.

The Haldex diffs have the recommendation that you keep the same tread depth on each side of the Axle and the more complex 4 way systems extend this to all tyres.

If you don't you'll find the tread wears out really quickly on your worst tyre and it affects handling.
Oh, I see, I wasn't really aware of this, I just thought it was the standard replace the two tyres on the same axle at a time. I'll have to keep that in mind when I come to change my tyres next time, not sure when that will be though with how long these tyres are lasting currently.

Waynne I see you have a direct injection motor ( TSFI =Turbo Statified Fuel Injection) and from what I have read having the injectors in the combustion chamber that over time leads to a build up of carbon on the back of the inlet valves as well as the inlet port that reduces the direct injections performance and economy over time and needs costly walnut? husk blasting to restore lost performance.

I have heard that some manufacturers are building OR intend to build TSFI type motors with 8 injectors in a 4 cylinder motors with the additional 4 placed in the inlet ports so that by using a proprietary fuel injector cleaner the need to nut blast to clean the ports and back of the valves is removed.

FWIW I use a small measured amount of IC each fill in both my CTR and diesel 4x4 DD ute.
This might explain why mine smokes when I haven't floored it for a while (city driving), it might need a good carbon cleaning.
 
It's worth dropping in some BG fuel cleaner, and seeing if this makes a difference. It still won't clean the inlet though as you need to spray this into the intake and if you spray too much you cause piston hydro lock which isn't pleasant so best left to the experts.

There is a full BG clean service which fully decarbonises the intake areas the fuel doesn't get to.

Do you lack power?
 
It's worth dropping in some BG fuel cleaner, and seeing if this makes a difference. It still won't clean the inlet though as you need to spray this into the intake and if you spray too much you cause piston hydro lock which isn't pleasant so best left to the experts.

There is a full BG clean service which fully decarbonises the intake areas the fuel doesn't get to.

Do you lack power?
How much is the BG clean service roughly and also is there a centre near Worcester?

I don't think I'm lacking power but then again I might not have ever had full power since the car was so miss treated when I got it, I've had it just over a year and I've been fixing more important things over time.
 
I had it done with a load of other things so can't recall the exact cost.

BG have a list of garages offering the clean service. I would recommend it.
 
Let me know how you get on. Is yours the EA888 or EA113 block?

If so I've just put up an article on these...

 
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Let me know how you get on. Is yours the EA888 or EA113 block?

If so I've just put up an article on these...

Errmm I'm not sure which engine it is, is there a quick and easy way to find out or do I need to start digging around the engine bay to find it. All I know currently is that it is allegedly a 2.0T TFSI at 200Bhp or thereabout.

Thanks for the links though.
 
Yes that would be my guess. It's a nice setup power wise though, the torque curve is right where you want it to be, almost all remaps create a high peak low down that play havoc with your clutch, although with quattro wheelspin is not an issue.
 
Yeah, it is a nice setup from what I can tell, a nice fat torque curve right in the middle of the rev range, perfect for some spirited driving.

I was having a look at the tuning guides and the known issues and problems with the engines and I believe I might have the oil burn issue, unfortunately. When I was doing the longer journeys I was going through about a1L of oil every 700ish miles, but now I'm doing short journeys the oil level isn't really changing much.
 
Check for fault codes. Usual symptoms are a rough idle, poor performance, higher fuel consumption.

See this video on using the VCDS
 
Check for fault codes. Usual symptoms are a rough idle, poor performance, higher fuel consumption.

See this video on using the VCDS
Just watched the video and it's quite helpful, unfortunately, I don't have the means to do the testing myself.

As for the symptoms, I don't think I have any of those symptoms. Idles smoothly when hot and cold, performance seems alright. and my MPG is 25mpg around the city and on a run, I can get 33mpg, sound about right for a 2.0T petrol with Quattro?
 
That's not too bad (especially based on the average TorqueCars users driving style).

As your losing oil do a compression test, and if thats ok just do the decoke from time to time and you'll be fine.
 
That's not too bad (especially based on the average TorqueCars users driving style).

As your losing oil do a compression test, and if thats ok just do the decoke from time to time and you'll be fine.
I'll have to get in touch with the garage that has been working on my car for a while now, and see if they have done a compression test already or not. if not I might have to book it in and go from there.

And by decoke, you mean the BG cleaning you mentioned before?
 
I'd only do a compression test if it looked like the car was burning oil.

Any blue black smoke from the exhaust when cold, or when you kick it hard when it's warmed up?
 
I'd only do a compression test if it looked like the car was burning oil.

Any blue black smoke from the exhaust when cold, or when you kick it hard when it's warmed up?
Not really no. the only smoke I get is condensation on cold start and some black smoke when I haven't driven it hard for a while, but even then that's cleared after a couple of pulls to the red line.

From what I can tell it'll only start using oil when the oil gets up to about 90c and I'm sitting in boost for a while, like cruising at 70 on the motorway, and then I can do about 700mile before I need to top up the oil, doesn't use a drop on short journeys around the city. My initial thought was either piston rings or something with the turbo before I started asking around for info.
 
The turbo could be baking the oil, do you let it cool down a little before turning off the engine? A hot turbo will boil off the oil it contains, and can sometimes cause a sludge build up, especially if you don't use the recommended oil grade.

It was drummed into me to allow the car to tickover, or do some low rpms at the end of my journey to let the turbo cool down after it's been booted hard.
 
The turbo could be baking the oil, do you let it cool down a little before turning off the engine? A hot turbo will boil off the oil it contains, and can sometimes cause a sludge build up, especially if you don't use the recommended oil grade.

It was drummed into me to allow the car to tickover, or do some low rpms at the end of my journey to let the turbo cool down after it's been booted hard.
I do let the turbo cool a bit, the last third of a mile is driving through a residential area at basically tick over RPM, and once I'm parked I'll let the car idle while I sort myself out before getting out (check lights are off, grab anything I need, etc). I do the same when I go to work, the last part of the journey is 10mph in 2nd gear with all the speed humps.

It's just odd that I only seem to get an oil leak while I'm driving and my oil has been over 85c for a period of time, usually, motorway driving. I currently use Castrol 5W30 that's recommended for the car, although I was wondering if 5W40 would be better given the problem I seem to be getting.
 
Personally I wouln't use a 5W40 just make sure the 5W30 used is fully synthetic and Audi 504 or 507 spec.

However on remapped and tuned engines there is an argument to use a different grade and I know a lot of guys do on these engines, with many going 0W-40 in winter and 5W-40 in the summer. Just make sure it is a high quality FULLY SYNTHETIC oil - don't believe what's written on the bottle either. Some synthetics are not true synthetics!

Two oils that work quite well and comply with the Audi spec are Castrol Edge Titanium 5w-30 & Mobil 1 ESP 5w-30
 
Just a friendly reminder oil pressure comes from resistance to flow so a high pressure is not necessarily a good thing.

My old car that had 380 hp at the tyres idled on 10-12 psi when hot and it was tracked at various events for 20 years and is still going strong in the hands of the new owner.

FWIW I always used a full synthetic oil.
 

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