Weird noise.... and strong gas smell
 

2000 A6 2.8 90578miles

OK need some help. this all started after it got cold out, usually just above freezing and below.

I have this whining noise when I brake coming from under passenger side dashboard. It only does it when I brake, and the harder, the louder. Also if I turn the heater off, it stops. Not sure how brake's and heater are connected there, but I have not been able to figure it out.

Also, since getting cold when I start the car first thing in the morning or after it has sat for awhile, until it warms up I get a strong odor of Gas fumes from the exhaust. I use 91, or 93 octane depending on what station I stop at. Is this normal? Car runs greats, motor seems to be much louder overall in the cold and seems to be using a little more gas in the cold as usual with all vehicles.

Thanks for any help or advise on this.

Recently just had Cam seals, Valve cover seals, vent hose, and timing belt changed at the dealer. But all of the above was already happening before I took it in for repair. Just forgot to mention it to them.

I had this same smell and found out I had a leaky gas tank. This happened after they did the fuel roll over valve recall. Car ran great but gas mileage really tanked. I know if they re-install the recall wrong this can happen to the tank but I don't see you having this done. I also had the check engine light come on.

I noticed the smell of my exhaust was much more potent (read: sweet, gassy, etc.) with premium (93) in it than when it was running off of 87. I don't believe there is anything wrong with it at all, so this may just be because of the higher octane and perhaps slightly because of the cold.

Thanks, I kinda figured the smell would be because of being cold and the higher octane but want to make sure.

Also this morning it was 15 degrees out and when I started the car it miss fired and ran like crap. So I shut it off and restarted. Started a little better and then smothed out. I got out the computer and ran Vag and came up with P0300, P0302, P0306, P0301. Multiple missfire, Cylinders 2, 3, and 6.

I cleared out the codes and restarted and it was running good agian. I hope this was just a fluke, but has anyone experinced it? Thanks agian

I regularly start my car in ~15 degree whether and never have any problems with anything. What oil do you have in there? Sometimes less viscous (thicker) oil will make the engine harder to start. Though it sounds like it may be a problem with something else.

Cool, I'm glad you don't have what I had, costly fix.

Ok. well it started up just fine this morning. So I will just keep an eye on it. I read something about coils packs go bad pretty easy on these. I use Mobile 1 0w-40 oil. I bought this car in Oct. with 85k. I have replaced fuel filter, plugs and wires, oil change twice already, new serp, and timing belt and the oil leaks repaired. Just hope I didn't buy a lemon..... Still trying to figure out noise under the dash...Thanks again.