hello fellow A3 owners. i have come to the dark side... sorry...im trying to be jolly despite my audi experience.

i am a new forum member and first time Audi owner. this is not the first time i have owned German luxury. i have owned 4 BMW and 1 Mercedes. i loved the ride and interior of Mercedes but hated the performance. i loved the performance of BMW but hated the comfort and effort on slow drives. to make the long story short, i have found my soul mate in cars... Audi.

i fell in love with the interior quality and workmanship. alot better than BMW indeed and at par with Mercedes. i fell in love with the comfort of the seats. very comfortable but supportive unlike the hollow seats of Mercedes and the firm, hard wood-like seats of BMW. i fell in love with the fact that at slow unspirited drives it does not take two hands of Arnold to turn the wheel like in BMW but at speed would tighten up to improve stability and road feedback. i fell in love with the fact that i don't have to break my wallet buying one.

here is the nightmare. dealer sold me 2008 Audi A3 with 25050 miles certified pre-owned. first, after a day with me, i noticed that the engine sounded like a diesel. i thought, could they have sold me a diesel? was i dreaming? to make the long story short, my heart dropped on the floor when i checked the engine oil and it was a few millimeters on the tip of the dip stick. i called the dealer and service director assured me that the car is fine and not to worry about engine damage. i was already skeptical because it was sounding like a freaking diesel. so its got to be the valves or the lifters that was noisy due to lack of oil. he told me to drive it to work and he will send out a flatbed with a loaner in the morning. so i did just that.

after a day they notified me that they dont know what happened to the oil but according to thier records the 25000 mile service was not done yet. mind you this was a certified pre-owned. they should have done the freaking maintenance before they even certify the car. so to make me feel better and for the inconvinience they said, they are throwing in audi care for free for the 25k 35k 45k service for free and they will do the 25k service. wow free audi care... yeah right. free my A$$

after 3 days the car would not creep forward or backward. there was a delay and then the car would jump forward or backward. like there was a delay in power transfer. took it in again and they said bad mechatronic. i told them wasnt there a recall for those things and they said yes and that this was the cars second mechatronic. to they put in a new mechatronic. drove the car for 2 days. i noticed that the tranny like skips on uphills. took it back again and test drove with mechanic and after like 20 mins of going around to replicate the problem it finally showed and mechanic was like " that i felt!" so mechanic said that because the car had 2 faulty mechatronic that there might have been some mechanical damage to the tranny already. mind you again car has 25000 miles. so they replace the tranny and another new mechatronic. tranny working ok not great but livable.

here is my main issue now that i want to ask you guys. how does your car sound? how does your engine sound? mine sound like a diesel. not the same like when i first got it when it had like a few oil at the tip of the dip stick. it sounds better but its still noisy and dealer is telling me that all 2.0 fsi turbo sounds like that but i dont buy it. i have not heard an engine sound like this except for diesels. im used to bmws and mercedes thats why im asking you guys how does your engine sound? its not the same noisiness of diesel but close. another thing is fuel economy. i get like 25-26mpg highway and 17-18 city. i drove the car to vegas which was like 280 miles from los angeles and my avg is 24-25mpg on the highway cruising at 65. im not a speeder so i set my cruise at 65 so why em i getting 25 mpg and there was not traffic at all it was smooth sailing. emailed the service director and he asked my my speed and traffic conditions and i replied now almost a week no reply. how are your fuel consumptions? i only put premium gas.

i hope Audis are not like this or this will be my first and last. please help

 

If you really had a diesel (and it was working properly), you'd be getting 15mpg better than what you are getting. The normal mpg with a TFSI is 21-22 city, and 28-30 highway. And as for the noise, I just bought the diesel, and my office-mate (who used to be a mechanic) said it didn't sound like a diesel, and he could only tell by listening very closely at idle.

So chances are, your car is louder than one of the new diesels if you are noticing it like that, and since your mileage is not optimal, I would guess that there is still something wrong, though it's probably not something obvious.

 

true

but im just really worried about the sound. dealer says its normal. but there is a pinging sound

 

Yes, the 2.0T engine sounds like a diesel at idle (faint, fast "tap-tap-tap"). This is a result of the direct injection and high compression ratio. The diesel-ish sound should go away as soon you're above idle.

There can be another, louder and slower tapping noise at idle that sound like something bad in front of the glovebox. That's the fuel lines rattling where they run under the passenger side of the car. There's a TSB on that, but the fix is easy:

http://oooo-a3.blogspot.com/2006/01/...attle-fix.html

Super Cow's on the money for expected gas mileage from a 2.0T A3 with DSG.

BTW, I had the mechatronics replaced on my 2006 at 55K - night and day difference in how the car behaved from then on.

 

its not coming from that. its coming from engine.

my fuel mileage is 16mpg to 17 mpg city and max 25 hwy. why is it eating this much on the hiway i only go 65? the city driving can be tricky since i live in los angeles but i know which streets to take so im really puzzled about this fuel economy. i have a 2000 bmw 323ci 2.5l inline 6 and it gets more mileage than this car on the city and in the hwy. not because the tank is bigger. i compute the number of miles i drive and compare to how many gallons i use during fillups and do the math. consisten 16 city 25 hwy. what could be causing this?

 

I have a 06 2.0t fsi and it also sounds like a diesel. I usually get around 27 mpg highway when I keep it around 65mph, I did notice when I was averaging above 75mph it was significantly worse.