Audi A6 - automatic - questions

chops018 · 27-07-2020 10:53am #1

Hi all,

I said I would throw up a thread on this.

I had been PM'ing a user on here, but rather than keep pestering them I thought a thread would be handier.

Background:

I bought a lovely Audi A6 last week. Year: 2008. 2 Litre Diesel. Automatic. NCT till next March.

The asking price was €2,450. I ended up getting it for €1800.

I test drove it for about 15 minutes and it drove lovely. Started on the button. Oil etc. all seemed fine. Tyres reasonably good. Very smooth drive. Seemed straight. Very clean and well maintained inside. No rust etc.

After the test drive, I made an offer of €2200. Which they accepted. However, I said I forgot to check a few things inside (the buttons etc., which are important), which led me to see the air-con was not working. They said the car is mechanically 100% and their neighbor always fixed it for them. They had a book which they wrote in all the work done on it over the years (they owned the car 7 years). They said they thought the air-con just needed to be re-gassed. I said I'd have to have a think about it.

The following day they text to say they had their neighbor look at it and said the compressor needs changing and dropped the price to €1950. They also had him check the oil pump and he said that all looks fine. I said I'd call out again that evening for another look, which I did, and all seemed fine. I was still unsure but I did like the car so they said you can take it away for €1800 and then you've a good car and a few bob to fix it if you want. I agreed as it seemed to be driving great bar the air con not working.

Issues:

Then of course on the drive home the following happened:

1. Back driver wheel started making noise.
2. The revs were going slightly up and down while driving. Nothing major but you can notice it, and doesn't happen at all speeds.
3. Then today, I noticed on the motorway once the speed got to 120kph or a bit more the car found it very hard to go faster. In saying that, it did go faster, but it just was crawling up.

I had my sister's friend who is actually an Audi mechanic check out the first two above (as the third only happened today). He gave it a good drive and drove it hard and tested the brakes etc., he said it seems a great car and was a good price. However, he did say the back caliper is sticking into the the wheel and he said that's the reason for the noise in the back wheel. He said it also needs a service. He hopes both jobs sort out the revs. He said if it's sticking then the wheel isn't turning properly as such and there's pressure and so it might cause that for the revs. He is going to do both jobs this weekend.

I'm a bit raging as I gave it a good test drive myself and a good check over and then even went to look at it a second night and it was driving great and seemed great both times bar the air con. I'm not a mechanic but I always buy 10-12 year old cars so I'm fairly used to knowing what to hear and if I car drives well or not.

Hopefully the work on it this weekend sorts it out, and if it doesn't and it's a lemon then I suppose it wasn't mega money.

My Question:

My question is - do you think the above jobs it's due this weekend will sort it or will it cause trouble going forward?

Also, is the revs thing me not used to driving an automatic? The mechanic couldn't see a whole lot wrong there or a whole lot wrong with the car in general and said it seems running well.

27-07-2020 10:55am

Pity your sisters friend wasn't asked to check before you bought

_Kaiser_ · 27-07-2020 10:59am

The slow acceleration at motorway speeds sounds to me like it's gone into limp mode. Could be that the DPF is clogged or a number of other things. Experienced it a few times with my own (2010 3.0 TDI A6) and it was a sensor problem. Any lights on the dash?

The caliper might be expensive enough if it needs replacing - been there too.

The revs fluctuating could possibly be an injector issue.

I think - with all respect to the seller's neighbour and your sister's friend - you need the car properly scanned and assessed. What's the mileage on it?

chops018 · 27-07-2020 11:01am

Deleted User wrote: »

Pity your sisters friend wasn't asked to check before you bought

Absolutely. Won't be doing that again. Lesson learned. Only thing is he did say it doesn't seem a bad car overall. Maybe I'm just being paranoid.

chops018 · 27-07-2020 11:03am

_Kaiser_ wrote: »

The slow acceleration at motorway speeds sounds to me like it's gone into limp mode. Could be that the DPF is clogged or a number of other things. Experienced it a few times with my own (2010 3.0 TDI A6) and it was a sensor problem. Any lights on the dash?

The caliper might be expensive enough if it needs replacing - been there too.

The revs fluctuating could possibly be an injector issue.

I think - with all respect to the seller's neighbour and your sister's friend - you need the car properly scanned and assessed. What's the mileage on it?

Brand new caliper and a service being done this weekend for €500 or thereabouts. Parts ordered.

Mileage is about 260,000km.

Do you reckon I got a lemon? That is, a car that will need money pumped into it?

_Kaiser_ · 27-07-2020 11:11am

chops018 wrote: »

Brand new caliper and a service being done this weekend for €500 or thereabouts. Parts ordered.

Mileage is about 260,000km.

Do you reckon I got a lemon? That is, a car that will need money pumped into it?

Not necessarily. Mine had about 220,000km when I got it and now (4 years on) has just over 405,000km and still going strong

It may have been sitting idle or low mileage runs over the last few months so may just need a good service and prolonged motorway spin to clear the cobwebs.

Get the gearbox checked though. One reason I went for the 3.0 rather than 2.0 was I was told the auto gearboxes in the 2L were very weak. Mine has the tiptronic setup

You need to get it scanned by someone with VCDS (VW/Audi Diags tool) to see what it throws up, and that'll give you a better sense of what's going on.
It's also worth installing/buying an app called Torque and buying a Bluetooth adaptor (few quid on eBay) so you can scan and save faults as they arise until you can get it to a garage. When it went into limp mode on mine, I took a screenshot of the error and cleared it via the app which restored power as I knew it was just a sensor fault.

chops018 · 27-07-2020 11:15am

_Kaiser_ wrote: »

Not necessarily. Mine had about 220,000km when I got it and now (4 years on) has just over 405,000km and still going strong

It may have been sitting idle or low mileage runs over the last few months so may just need a good service and prolonged motorway spin to clear the cobwebs.

Get the gearbox checked though. One reason I went for the 3.0 rather than 2.0 was I was told the gearboxes in the 2L were very weak.

You need to get it scanned by someone with VCDS (VW/Audi Diags tool) to see what it throws up, and that'll give you a better sense of what's going on.
It's also worth installing/buying an app called Torque and buying a Bluetooth adaptor (few quid on eBay) so you can scan and save faults as they arise until you can get it to a garage. When it went into limp mode on mine, I took a screenshot of the error and cleared it via the app which restored power as I knew it was just a sensor fault.

Ok thanks for that.

Well, I will go ahead with the jobs this weekend as they won't break the bank and parts have been ordered.

Hopefully it does sort them.

If not, I will get it scanned.

Maybe it is just it was sitting idle and didn't have long trips and needs a good service and hard motorway spin!

I'll know more after this weekend. Just don't want it to be a car I've to pump money into. It is such a lovely car though and a gorgeous drive. My first automatic too so I thought maybe I wasn't use to driving one or something.

frozenfrozen · 27-07-2020 11:18am

You might need to do what is like a soft reset of the gearbox, can't remember how to do it but it involves holding something while turning on the ignition. We had it a on an 06 with the cvt gearbox where it was slightly confused whether you wanted more power or not and it would rev up and down keeping the same speed. Doing the little reset fix sorted it permanently (it was easily 5 years ago)

Costs nothing so it's worth a try

_Kaiser_ · 27-07-2020 11:18am

chops018 wrote: »

Ok thanks for that.

Well, I will go ahead with the jobs this weekend as they won't break the bank and parts have been ordered.

Hopefully it does sort them.

If not, I will get it scanned.

Maybe it is just it was sitting idle and didn't have long trips and needs a good service and hard motorway spin!

I'll know more after this weekend. Just don't want it to be a car I've to pump money into. It is such a lovely car though and a gorgeous drive. My first automatic too so I thought maybe I wasn't use to driving one or something.

I've had 3 of them so far (2x 2005 - although one of them had to go back within a week, hence the second! - and the current 2010) and they're great. Mine have all been the 3.0 TDI Quattro Tiptronic models so it's different enough to yours but in terms of build quality, comfort, size they're fantastic machines... certainly far better than the equivalent BMW 5 at the time.

It sounds like you'll need to put a few hundred into it alright but nothing massive - but I would invest in that app and dongle and get it scanned ASAP. There are people on this forum who could do it for you depending on where you are.

ObserverOFlife · 27-07-2020 11:19am

Diagnostics check would flag any problem as mentioned. The limp mode you feel is happening shouldnt happen just cause it's an auto. Could by as mentioned above or the air flow meter

Clareman · 27-07-2020 11:24am

You got a €650 discount on the asking price on the car, just think of money that you have to put into it coming off the discount. At the end of the day it's a 12 year old car, it could be perfect now and in half an hour something could go but that could be said about any car, probably no harm to give it a full service anyway, a lot of people wait for the NCT for that but probably no harm to do it now.

chops018 · 27-07-2020 11:25am

frozenfrozen wrote: »

You might need to do what is like a soft reset of the gearbox, can't remember how to do it but it involves holding something while turning on the ignition. We had it a on an 06 with the cvt gearbox where it was slightly confused whether you wanted more power or not and it would rev up and down keeping the same speed. Doing the little reset fix sorted it permanently (it was easily 5 years ago)

Costs nothing so it's worth a try

Thanks. I will google it and give it a try later.

_Kaiser_ wrote: »

I've had 3 of them so far (2x 2005 - although one of them had to go back within a week, hence the second! - and the current 2010) and they're great. Mine have all been the 3.0 TDI Quattro Tiptronic models so it's different enough to yours but in terms of build quality, comfort, size they're fantastic machines... certainly far better than the equivalent BMW 5 at the time.

It sounds like you'll need to put a few hundred into it alright but nothing massive - but I would invest in that app and dongle and get it scanned ASAP. There are people on this forum who could do it for you depending on where you are.

Thanks again for the reply. I've had 2 Audi's before. A petrol A3 and my last car a diesel A4. Both grand. Just wanted a bigger car (the A6) and to try an auto and this seemed to be driving great.

I don't mind spending a few hundred on it to get it right for a couple of years as it was only €1800 to buy. Just don't want to spend thousands.

Didn't know that. If anyone on this forum wants to PM and see if we are close? As I said, I will get the jobs done on it this weekend anyway and see after that what the story is.

ObserverOFlife wrote: »

Diagnostics check would flag any problem as mentioned. The limp mode you feel is happening shouldn't happen just cause it's an auto. Could by as mentioned above or the air flow meter

Yeah, I'll see the story this weekend and if issues aren't sorted then diagnostic and see what the costs are. If too much, I will try flog it for €2000 with issues pointed out and try get most of my money back. Or try trade it for a car a similar year and get a good deal.

Thanks everyone for the replies so far. If anyone else has any other opinions that would be great. Even ball park cost wise to fix it if the jobs this weekend don't sort it out!

_Kaiser_ · 27-07-2020 11:33am

chops018 wrote: »

Thanks. I will google it and give it a try later.

Thanks again for the reply. I've had 2 Audi's before. A petrol A3 and my last car a diesel A4. Both grand. Just wanted a bigger car (the A6) and to try an auto and this seemed to be driving great.

I don't mind spending a few hundred on it to get it right for a couple of years as it was only €1800 to buy. Just don't want to spend thousands.

Didn't know that. If anyone on this forum wants to PM and see if we are close? As I said, I will get the jobs done on it this weekend anyway and see after that what the story is.

Yeah, I'll see the story this weekend and if issues aren't sorted then diagnostic and see what the costs are. If too much, I will try flog it for €2000 with issues pointed out and try get most of my money back. Or try trade it for a car a similar year and get a good deal.

Thanks everyone for the replies so far. If anyone else has any other opinions that would be great. Even ball park cost wise to fix it if the jobs this weekend don't sort it out!

I know you are keen to wait until the service is done before you take the step of scanning it - but really I'd be doing it the other way around so you have an idea of what else might need doing and costs.

If you're sensitive to price (which as you bought it for very low money is understandable), you won't react well I'd imagine if you get a list of other issues AFTER having spent 600+ already.

But, I will say that while mine has double your mileage and easily has another 100k in it, it does cost a bit to keep it that way. Pre-Covid I was doing big miles so it was getting serviced twice a year, tyres once/twice a year, and anything that crops up is fixed as soon as I can. They're great cars, but you do need to factor in the maintenance.. especially as they get older. Plus there's the annual NCT that you'll need to allow for as well.

But if you can afford it and use it for what it's designed, a long distance cruiser, it'll last years

kermitpwee · 27-07-2020 12:05pm

Lovely cars, not
A Toyota corolla that can be run on a shoe string budget, outside of servicing you would want yo budget 1000 to 1500 euros a year for repairs.
Some years you might do well, others it will cost money.
That autobox is a very troublesome in the model you have however. Its a lemon in my eyes, if I had a good audi auto why would I let it go to you for 1800??
Good luck with it

frozenfrozen · 27-07-2020 12:06pm

kermitpwee wrote: »

Lovely cars, not
A Toyota corolla that can be run on a shoe string budget, outside of servicing you would want yo budget 1000 to 1500 euros a year for repairs.
Some years you might do well, others it will cost money.
That autobox is a very troublesome in the model you have however. Its a lemon in my eyes, if I had a good audi auto why would I let it go to you for 1800??
Good luck with it

:rolleyes:

extra-ordinary_ · 27-07-2020 12:14pm

chops018 wrote: »

...Also, is the revs thing me not used to driving an automatic?

I'd say yes if when you say they 'fluctuate', you mean they go higher than you're used to. I'd say no if when cruising at one speed the revs are going up and down.

chops018 · 27-07-2020 2:13pm

Ok. So I went out on my lunch there and opened the hood and while it starts on the button and the engine sounds fine the engine looked like it was vibrating a little bit. (Didn't happen when viewing the car, the car seemed in great condition while viewing and was a dream to drive).

Googled it and most answers say spark plugs. Will tell the mechanic doing the jobs this weekend about it. Tbh, I might just tell him before the jobs this weekend to give the car another full look over (he had a 15 minute drive in it a couple of days after I bought it) and see if he can hook it up to a computer. Again, when he drove it last week he said it seems a good car bar the caliper, from what he could see.

I then googled a gearbox reset which said to put your foot on the gas, turn on the ignition but not the actual car, leave it for 15 seconds, take it off and start the car.

Surprisingly, after doing this the revs don't seem to be going up and down on idle much (or at all now). However, maybe that will start off again later when I am driving home - hopefully not!

As I said, it is strange as during the test drive it was driving great. It still is insofar as it is starting on the button and the engine doesn't sound bad. Just the revs were (are) jumping a small bit and the noise in the wheel which my mechanic said was a caliper. Service well needed too.

Another question - my old car was an Audi A4, 2 litre diesel, manual - the new A6 seems a slight bit harder on diesel than my old one was. Only slightly, mind. €60 in my old one usually got me two weeks driving 30km a day or thereabouts. This seems on track for similar but maybe will need a refill a day or two sooner than my old one did. Would that be right? Bigger car, heavier, obviously needs a service and then the caliper issue.

My old car the ball joint was worn and of course rather than just getting it fixed I had to go and look at shiny new cars and fancied a change to auto! Maybe I should have just got mine fixed. Only thing is I should get a few bob selling it on and can use that cash for the new one.

extra-ordinary_ · 27-07-2020 4:21pm

chops018 wrote: »

...Googled it and most answers say spark plugs.

Not in a diesel...

Putting your general location in your profile let's others know your whereabouts.
EDIT: ^^Can't seem to find this location setting now...has it been done away with?
EDIT II: ^^ Yes it has.

chops018 · 27-07-2020 8:14pm

Car seems to be losing some power now and the engine cover is quite hot when I stop.

Although no warning lights and temperature gauge is reading fine.

I was on to my mechanic and he said the stuck calliper is probably getting worse and not to drive it any more until he fixes it.

Does that sound right to anyone?

Hopefully that’s the only issue and once done at the weekend it’s sorted.

Thanks for all the replies. And also thanks to the user who PM’d offering a diagnostic but they were too far away. For every smart comment on this site there’s always far more helpful posters that outweigh them.

Also, the mechanic gave it a good drive 2 days after I bought it and he thought it was a lovely and well minded car bar the calliper issue and when I test drove it the car was driving like a dream so even if he had of came with me he might not have spotted anything if it was driving well. Just one of those things I’d say.

Kenny Logins · 27-07-2020 8:25pm

Will it go over 120 easily if you restart the engine?

There's a quiet limp mode that kicks in when the turbo overboosts for even a second but it resets when you restart. You might not even notice it in city driving, but you definitely will on an open road. The overboost could be caused by clogged mechanism inside the turbo making it react slowly to the ECU's requested boost.

Truckermal · 27-07-2020 8:32pm

Jesus Christ you get a A6 for 1800 quid thinking it's going to be perfect not sure if your Trolling after the spark plugs post...

chops018 · 27-07-2020 8:43pm

Kenny Logins wrote: »

Will it go over 120 easily if you restart the engine?

There's a quiet limp mode that kicks in when the turbo overboosts for even a second but it resets when you restart. You might not even notice it in city driving, but you definitely will on an open road. The overboost could be caused by clogged mechanism inside the turbo making it react slowly to the ECU's requested boost.

No, it seemed to be losing power after a restart insofar as it won’t really boost past 3/4,000 rpms when driving. Idle it revs up the whole way no bother.

All very odd.

Mechanic still really thinks it’s all to do with the stuck calliper.

chops018 · 27-07-2020 8:47pm

Truckermal wrote: »

Jesus Christ you get a A6 for 1800 quid thinking it's going to be perfect not sure if your Trolling after the spark plugs post...

Why do you think I’m trolling?

I checked the car out twice. I thought I got a good deal. Sellers seemed very genuine it was a good car. Had a book of work done during their seven year ownership. Met them in their house. They even had their mechanic check the air con issue for me as they thought it was just a re-gas but their mechanic then said it was the compressor. Bargained them down to €1800 then because of this as I couldn’t see anything else wrong with the car.

Then my own mechanic gave it a good drive when I bought it and saw the calliper issue but even after he drove it he said except that issue it seemed like a good price and to be running well.

Kenny Logins · 27-07-2020 8:58pm

chops018 wrote: »

No, it seemed to be losing power after a restart insofar as it won’t really boost past 3/4,000 rpms when driving. Idle it revs up the whole way no bother.

All very odd.

Mechanic still really thinks it’s all to do with the stuck calliper.

Ah, OK.

TBH, it doesn't sound like it has major problems and the price was low enough to cover these issues (I hope).

chops018 · 27-07-2020 9:05pm

Kenny Logins wrote: »

Ah, OK.

TBH, it doesn't sound like it has major problems and the price was low enough to cover these issues (I hope).

Yeah hopefully doesn’t take much to sort.

It wasn’t mega money, but still hope it’s not a lemon.

I’m not trolling btw (to anyone reading), at worst just ignorant and/or naive by thinking I got a good deal. I’ll chalk it down to a lesson learned and bring a mechanic with me from now on. Even still, and even if I had of brought a mechanic surely they might have cleared it as ok and in a few weeks it could have issues especially being a 12 year old car?

Olwas2014 · 27-07-2020 9:09pm

Shouldnt be going over 120 on a motorway anyway

, maybe it has some speed-limiting technology to the speedlimit of the road

chops018 · 27-07-2020 9:16pm

Olwas2014 wrote: »

Shouldnt be going over 120 on a motorway anyway , maybe it has some speed-limiting technology to the speedlimit of the road

Agreed! Ha. I was just testing it out as I was driving to give it a bit of driving. It was going up past that completely fine last week and for the first few days I had it. As I said it was absolutely grand from what I could see when test driving it and for a day or two after. Surely the sellers wouldn’t be able to hide issues or be even bothered hiding issues on a 12 year old car.

Olwas2014 · 27-07-2020 9:20pm

chops018 wrote: »

Agreed! Ha. I was just testing it out as I was driving to give it a bit of driving. It was going up past that completely fine last week and for the first few days I had it. As I said it was absolutely grand from what I could see when test driving it and for a day or two after. Surely the sellers wouldn’t be able to hide issues or be even bothered hiding issues on a 12 year old car.

Agreed, doubt a 12 year old car has technology like that haha

Goose81 · 28-07-2020 12:33am

chops018 wrote: »

Why do you think I’m trolling?

I checked the car out twice. I thought I got a good deal. Sellers seemed very genuine it was a good car. Had a book of work done during their seven year ownership. Met them in their house. They even had their mechanic check the air con issue for me as they thought it was just a re-gas but their mechanic then said it was the compressor. Bargained them down to €1800 then because of this as I couldn’t see anything else wrong with the car.

Then my own mechanic gave it a good drive when I bought it and saw the calliper issue but even after he drove it he said except that issue it seemed like a good price and to be running well.

You bought a piece of ****e 12 year old car for 2 grand and are complaining about everything? Mate, you be lucky if it runs, Jesus Christ

colm_mcm · 28-07-2020 12:47am

Get the Audi tech fella to look at it again?

Kenny Logins · 28-07-2020 1:08am

Goose81 wrote: »

You bought a piece of ****e 12 year old car for 2 grand and are complaining about everything? Mate, you be lucky if it runs, Jesus Christ

I don't think OP is complaining, just trying to understand.

BTW, mine is older, cost me €999 and I have 50k (mostly) trouble-free kms up on it now. I could probably get another 50k out of it no bother. Nothing wrong with bangernomics.

Audi A6 - automatic - questions

Comments