okay so I only have three main ?'s
The Subject: 01' A4 2.8l (30v) Quattro

1. this thing makes the most god awful noise, somewhere around either the tie rods or steer shaft, mostly heard on the drivers side- its a LOUD squeek- like neoprene rubbing-

2. the car pulls great, but it seems like somethins holding it back, in 5th pulls good, matter of fact pulls better than down shifting to 4th- (down shift 5th to 4th @ around 3200rpm), from a dead stop the car just kinda blahs around if you try to get on it, but if you ease back a little on the throttle it seems to pull harder-

3. to kinda go w/ # 2. pulling off hard the car seems to make a single ping- almost like spark knock, but its just a single ping- wondering if a knock sensor could be pulling back the timing or what-
- the car just seems like if you ask it to go it doesnt want to, but if you putt around and ease it, it wants to pull? oh yeah and NO codes

- guys any help would be greatly apreciated, (i know the 2.8 is not the strongest but, i needed reliability, plus i knew i would try to destroy a 1.8 or go broke trying) P.S. what is this Vag-Com never heard of it b4

 

#1 sounds like control arms. The ball joints on Audis around this year were underdesigned. It is common for for tie rod ends and control arms to go bad around 80k to 100k miles. I just replaced all of it (TRE and all CA on both sides) and everything sounds solid now. If you replace, get heavy duty ones. www.ecstuning is a good place to get it all. You can buy all CA and TRE kit for $550 and install yourself if you want to. There are DIY writeups available.


#2 A4s are OK at low RPMs but really pull nicely at higher RPMs. They are much more of a highway car than a 0-60 car. I love the mid range power on the highway, it won't want to jump hard off the line though (especially with quattro).

I have experienced the throttle thing on other cars as well as the Audi. Trying to dump the throttle seems to choke out a little bit of the power. Normal.


#3 Dunno about a ping. Make sure you run 93 octane for best performance (91 or greater)

Vag - Com allows you to tap into the cars computer and mess around. Its like a code reader (to get CEL codes ETC), but it gives you access to other options on the car as well. Example, I think there are different settings on when your car turns on the alarm and locks the doors automatically. There is the factory setting, but there are also a few other options where you could make it happen sooner or later than the factory setting. Something like that. Vag - Com also allows you to monitor and record values from different sensors on the car while its running. This way you can watch sensors to try and diagnose problems etc. I don't have one and don't know the full capabilities of it. Do a search and I am sure you can find out a lot more about it.

 

Thanx TDRILL,

truth b known I bought the car for my wife, hence Audi (safe) and Quattro (safe)
i live in a small town (Burlington N.C.), of evidently Honda lover/tuners- years ago a friend of the family had an original Quattro- that hooked me and i know own an A4 (well she does), but i want to basicaly be comfortable when the "locals" pull up reving-

- and heaven help any honda that decides he wants to follow me down a curvy rd-

 

Your not really in the right car for racing the rice, thats a modded 1.8T, but feel free to spank the ones without any real mods. Search around for some posts. There are ones about properly launching a quattro (can't drop the clutch like on a Honda), and other good related topics.

 

any idea where i might find these posts (kinda new to forums, sry)
i did however use the search engine up top- this is the only post that comes back-

I just dont want to hurt the car- i ran it @ our local 1/8th, a friend called me out cause its the wifes-
so i spanked him, not bad @ 10.16 (1/8th)

but is is nice to pull beside people, look good and still surprise them alittle-

 

Sometimes you have to be a little creative with what you search for. The answers are here, but sometimes the you have to dig into a post to find them.

Search button is at the top of the page. Or here:
http://www.audiworld.com/tech/eng35.shtml

Type in "Launch" and then to the right under 'Search in Forum', scroll down to '- - Audi A4'.

There are a bunch there:
https://www.audiforums.com/m_94875/tm.htm
https://www.audiforums.com/m_330461/tm.htm
https://www.audiforums.com/m_269153/tm.htm
etc

Then of course there is the important stuff. That of course is maintenance.

Type in timing belt, oil, control arms, or tie rod ends. Talk to you in February when you get done reading.

 

To maybe answer your 3rd question. I had the same thing happen to my 97 A4 2.8L V6 20V. When i would give it gas out of a stop it wanted to fall on its face until you let up on the pedal. It was a clogged cat. I would have to feather the gas pedal to get it up to speed. I had that same tinging in my exhaust. The materieal in the cat was broke and rattlin around. I hope this helps. To find out what cat is, tap the converter or shake it it will sound like that rattle. Just got done replacing the cat. Works fine now.
Peace, KB

 

what your saying makes sense, ive had a cat clog befor and this seems like maybe the begining of that, it just seems to accelerate better as you decelerate the pedal, however this cant be a good sign when the cars only got 60k, has only been run on 93 oct, plugs and wires have all been dealer changed (previous owner was thankfully ****, thats one of the main reasons i bought this one)-

- does any one know if the iridium plugs will make a difference, not so much in performance but gas mileage, maybe last a little longer

by the way THANX, You guys/gals for the help, ive checked out a couple other forums for my other ride, but you guys/gals are on the ball w/ answers and help-

i'm also a mini-trucker @ heart and building my next show piece and the other forums are just dead-
NO RESPONSES!