i just purchased a 2003 A4 3.0 quattro AWD. i have never owned an AUDI before. the car is very clean and has only 60,000 miles.
The gas mileage is horrible. im averaging between 11-17 mpg depending on how much highway driving im doing. is that normal? window sticker says 18-26. i know that is usually not possible but didnt think it would be this bad. what should i do first to try and improve the mpg.
what oil do you recommend? im getting a whining noise from power steering, will try and add fluid to see if thats the problem.

any suggestions to keep my car running smooth? fire away please.

 

The whinning noise is going around on the cold weather, just keep an eye on it to make sure you're not low on fluid and so that there's no evident leaks. For your MPG are you actually getting that or you're just reading it from the computer thingy on the dashboard?

 

thanks Dan. I reset the tripometer after each fill up and thats what i've been averaging

 

Assuming you'e been calculating it correctly, that mileage is really low. My car (admittedly a 1.8T, but even still) averages 25-26 MPG (sticker says 21 city/29 highway if I recall correctly). I get just about the midpoint between the EPA numbers, and that's roughly what I expect in most cars. I assume you're not driving around at wide open throttle all the time?

 

with my 1.8t i get awful city mileage, prob around 19 or so, with me trying to be light on the throttle, but when its warm i get like 31 on highway, now since its colder i get a bit worse mileage, like 17/27 are my averages, just by looking at the dashboard thingy

that could be why yours isnt as high as it should be right now

 

Well a few things.

1. 3.0's get worse mileage. We get 22-23mpg combined city/highway.
2. You get worse mileage in the winter, there is upto 5 percent less energy in winter gas vs summer gas, so you use 5 percent more fuel to make the same power.
3. What kind of tires? Going from summer tires to winter tires dropped that 23mpg to about 20.
4. Any drag, like from the PS, can worsen gas mileage.
5. What state are you in? Is your ethanol content in your states gasoline the same as the national average? Gas mileage across the country went down when they went to a higher percentage of ethanol.

Is the rear bumper black or have black soot on it? Are the exhaust tips black or have black soot?

11mpg is extremely poor, even in very hard city driving we never get anywhere below 15 so there is something up.

 

If you're still getting bad mileage after this try scanning it to see if you find any codes. Maybe you need just a tune up, check your air filter too.