Hi all, new member here. I searched th efirst 10 pages of forum posts looking for discussion of my topic but found nothing so am starting a new post tho' I'm sure someone else must have had this problem. So my apologies in advance if I missed the thread somewhere.

I have a 2001 A6 2.7T. I bought it with 38K and all was fine. I received a 2 year waranty from the Audi dealer. During the waranty period when the weather was cold (about 35F or below)I started experiencing anstrained sound from the engine when accelerating about half the time. The symtom could go on even after the car was qarmed upor sometimes not at all. Normally the engine is buttery smooth, almost electric compared to other cars I have owned, but during cold weather often the car would have the strainingsymtom.

Anaquaintence who works in powertrain development and owned the same car except with a manual gearbox told me thre was a valve (BPV?) that could possibly cause this issue if it was sticking. I took the car to the dealer in Milwaukee and they were totally blank looking whenI expalined the problem. I left the car and when I picked it up they said everything was fine and that cars just sound different when cold.Sure. And only intermittently too.The problem persisted and the dealer stood by there diagnosis. I called Audi Relations and they offered no help except to suggest taking it back to the dealer yet again. I actually got the impression they wanted to deny the problem did not want to fix it under warranty. They did with with a number of other issues (Wheel bearing, suspension)so it seemed like their pattern.

Anyway, the weather is cold again, the warranty is over and now the strained sound came back interrmittently again. Can anyone give me info if this could be caused by the BPV or possible something else? I know there is a problem with the car because I am very in tune with the sounds it makes, whether Audior the dealerwill acknowledge it or not. I would like to get it fixed so I can enjoy driving the car in all weather.

Also, now that the warranty is up I may decide to chip the car but heard the automatic tranny wiil not hold up to the added power (about 308 claimed hp). Has anyone else heard ofor experienced tranny problems after chipping an A6 2.7T automatic?

Thanks to all,
Mike