Hi everyone, went and looked at a car i'm interested in swapping for my mercedes its a 5 Door audi A3 2005 2.0 Tdi SE diesel, with flappy paddle, quite nice exterior wise. However, the seller has said it has a Engine mount problem which costs £70 to replace as he was supposedly quoted by his local mechanic however, he doesnt have insurance or time to go and do it. When i went to view it i noticed he was only driving quickly where he was trying to show me that "it pulls like a train" and its powerful, which it is as its a 170 bhp car, regardless of this there was a knocking noise near the engine im finding it hard to realise whether, he is trying to quickly get rid of his car and swap it as it could be a gearbox fault which would cost me of course way too much, or is he being honest which of course no will know unless i buy but is it possible i could know if its just the engine mount or could it also be the gearbox at fault or something bigger like the engine. It looked like the car had stayed quite a lot as it was under a berry tree. it has 113k supposedly even though he has no service history. Really want to know if it could be linked to any other problem or not, any questions feel more then welcome to ask.

 

There's only one way to tell. Eyeball'em. Get the car on a lift and inspect. If the knocking is coming particularly on acceleration, shifts, and deceleration, it certainly can be just a mount flopping around. Sometimes the rubber that keeps the metal parts separated can degrade and allow those metal parts to collide on abrupt force inputs from shifting, accelerating, and decelerating thus making the clunk noises you may be hearing.

 

Thanks a lot for replying mate, when the seller had his test drive it seemed as if he was avoiding driving slow, if this is useful. Another thing, the car didn't particularly knock when changed gears using flappy paddle as its a automatic with the paddle shifts for sport mode, and neither did it make any noises when it accelerate it was mainly when the car was a bit slow, or when he started the car and began to drive it made the knock noise which was pointed out by the seller however, i must say when changing gears on the paddles it was extremely smooth, I'm just worried if it could be the gearbox?

 

Could just be a CV Joint too... If it's shifting well and not making and whining sounds, the gear box is probably fine. I'd still throw it up on a rack and eyeball the suspension and mounts (subframe, engine, and trans).

 

To be honest mate not as worried then if its more likely to be something like a CV joint which doesn't cost the price of a gearbox. Only thing is his car is in his drive and he lives about an hour away when i last went to view his car, so i don't know how i am going to be able to check it if i can't get it on rack...
Another thing when i see him on Sunday is there is anything else i should look out for example, give it another test drive and test the gear changes of the paddle shift again or? check anything else in the engine which might help me determine further information. One thing that did raise suspicion is when he inspected my car to swap he called his dad on the phone and checked my oil and everything, i questioned him why didn't u get your dad to replace the engine mount and he said he wasn't insured and he didn't have no time (which could be seen as the car was covered in leaves and stuff as it was under a berry tree).

 

Also might of forgot to mention its more of a Judder then a noise, when he started the car he pointed out the judder and mentioned it to me. So its a judder not a Knock sorry about that.

 

What does being insured have to do with fixing a motor mount? Sounds like the guy is being deceptive or just full of crap..

The word "judder" kind of changes things a bit. That would point more toward a transmission issue in my book. If you are unable to get the car looked at by someone who can determine the cause of the "judder" and you cannot confirm that issue yourself, I'd be inclined to pass on the trade for now. I'd tell the guy to get it fixed and then we'll talk trade.