Hi everyone!

My name is MC, I recently purchased my first Audi vehicle, it's a 2007 A4 Quattro, and I'm having some issues with it. I purchased the car from a guy on craigslist, and before you say that figures, I checked the BB value of it and it was a steal - the car is in immaculate condition and the engine looked and sounded great too - I had some concerns before I handed him the money, but the thought of owning this vehicle outright no payments or anything was way too appealing to turn down. I did have a carfax done on it and it appears to have 3 prior owners, all local. Only one reported accident with it so i'm investigating to see if I can find that accident report, otherwise it has a pretty decent maintenance history.

Anyway, when I test drove it, I didn't notice some of the issues i'm having with it now. When I'm driving the vehicle around town, it usually stays in 3rd or 4th gear and it makes this slight but constant grinding sound when the vehicle is either coasting or no longer accelerating. It does sound like it's coming from underneath the shifter, so I'm pretty certain that the car needs some transmission service.

I have an appointment to have it looked at soon, my moms BF is a mechanic at a EU import garage, so Audi is their specialty. I had an appointment booked for Thursday, but there was a storm that knocked out the electricity at that shop so, bad luck. The car did not have a check engine light initially but now it is there. It went away and so did the other problems when I went to go to the shop, but it's back and it sucks. The guy who sold it to me had it recently inspected, so it must have been somewhat up to spec when he had it checked out. It also has some issues with stability when i'm on the highway going faster than 65-70 miles an hour. Sometimes it goes away, other times it will do this the whole trip, and i'm not sure if it's just tire balancing/bent rims, wheel bearing(s), or if it's related to the transmission at all.

These are the issues I had up until earlier tonight. I was in the middle of dropping off a coworker when I noticed that the vents were not pumping heat if I was stopped, despite the controls being set to max/hi. After I dropped him off, I went to meet another friend of mine and turned my car off. I got a phone call from someone else who asked me to get to her asap, so I turned my car back on, threw the car in reverse, and then the car just died on me. I tried to start it over repeatedly with no luck. The starter/engine would kick over but then it would rumble below 1k rpms and shut off. This went on for about 10 more attempts. At this point I got out of the car to look under the hood, and I called my mechanic, who told me to call a tow truck. So, I called the tow truck and was about to wait. I noticed that the engine would stay on longer if I let it sit there for a minute or two. Also I threw the car into neutral and went back to the position I started in. I then attempted to start the car and it thought about it for a few seconds, and then *bam* it came right on. I canceled the tow, called my mechanic and called it a night. Ever since then the car seems to start up just fine, so I'm not sure if I should expect it again, but it seems like maybe something electrical.

Sorry for rambling, I'd really like to hear some other A4 owners to see if any of you have had any of these issues at all, either with the grinding gears, or the random failure to start? The car does have 178K on it, but it still rides really great. Any feedback would be very appreciated. Thank you.

- MC

 

Welcome here MC! I understand your situation and I hope to solve this very soon! By the way.. if you were interested to lease one, check https://dsrleasing.com/. You will find your fav model with the best deal ever!