Hi All,

I've been having performance concerns with my A4 since I bought it used in June '08. It had one previous owner, at around 98,000 miles.

Honestly, the car runs fine, I have routine service check-ups every 3,000 miles, but I'm concerned with a noise I've been hearing under the hood and the overall performance of the vehicle since I bought it in June '08.

My car use to be a lot more quick/smooth from the stop (now does a mild hiccup before moving forward at a normal pace), and lately I've been hearing this really annoying squeaking noise, may be the belts, under the hood.

Question #1: What would I hear/feel/see to predetermine that there is in fact an issue with my car's belts (i.e. v-belt, timing, etc.)?
*1A: Can I check this myself?
*1B: What do I need to do to check this myself?

Question #2: What would be causing my vehicle to under perform in a little less than a year?
*2A: What can/should I do to reestablish sound performance?

Question #3: What is the most cost-efficient way to go about questions #1 & 2 above?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance,

Jeff

 

answer to your first questoin. check your belts for cracks and driness. if needed replace. your timing belt should be done soon if not already done. while your doing that, you might as well do the water pump as well, along with the seals. to answer your second question, first of all, are you putting the right kind of oil in your car? with the right filter? you sould be using 5w40 synthetic. and what kind of gas are you using? that may also effect your performance. also you should do a comprssion check. start there and see where your at

 

I want to say the timing and other belts were replaced before I purchased the vehicle, but I do not want to chance this so I will have these checked ASAP. For every oil change I am putting in 5w40 with a Mobile 1 oil filter, and I switch my gas between 89 and 92.

How would I go about doing a compression check?

By the way, thank you for your help and guidance.

Jeff

 

i would leave the compression check to the pros. and bring it to a shop an have the take a look.