Mannyo's 2001 Audi A8 3.7 Quattro Sport

[mannyo]

Looks like the tank is sorted, filled up today and no petrol leak.

On Friday evening I drove from Blandford, Dorset to Haverhill in Suffolk and I reset the trip computer once on the open road just outside Wimborne Minster. For the run on the A31, M27, M3, M25, M11, A14, A1307 the Audi averaged 35.1 MPG based on the trip computer, although reality is slightly less it compares favourably to most smaller sized petrol engines.

Where the Audi excels is cruising, and it shows. However, around town the average 12MPG is obviously not great.

So the last 80 litres, got me from Blandford to Poole and back, Blandford to Shaftesbury and back, Blandford to Castle Combe and back, 2 weeks of commuting across town then Blandford to Haverhill and lastly Haverhill to Stevenage, Herts where I filled up with 20 miles remaining.

I do have another potential issue,although I'll see if it develops further.

[Babs]

This log has got me eyeing up the one that's up for sale on here!

[mannyo]

One day I'll get one month without a problem, May was looking promising until last weekend. Car is now booked into VASWorks (APD) Poole to have a sticky brake calliper looked at, it only does it occasionally but when it does the heat and smell are enough to put anyone off. Need to get it sorted as in 4 weeks I am attempting to drive it to the Costa Del Sol and back via the Santander Ferry.

[Yeti_Man]

One day I'll get one month without a problem, May was looking promising until last weekend. Car is now booked into VASWorks (APD) Poole to have a sticky brake calliper looked at, it only does it occasionally but when it does the heat and smell are enough to put anyone off. Need to get it sorted as in 4 weeks I am attempting to drive it to the Costa Del Sol and back via the Santander Ferry.

Followed this thread with great interest, thanks for the regular updates and it'll be just the thing for a relaxed and comfortable euro jaunt! (ive done santander to the costa blanca a few times now) :-) Good luck with it.

[mannyo]

Here are some updated pictures from today, as you can see compared to the first set of pictures the car is in much better shape now than when I bought it.

Mileage now on more than 176,000 and still rising.

[mannyo]

One day I'll get one month without a problem, May was looking promising until last weekend. Car is now booked into VASWorks (APD) Poole to have a sticky brake calliper looked at, it only does it occasionally but when it does the heat and smell are enough to put anyone off. Need to get it sorted as in 4 weeks I am attempting to drive it to the Costa Del Sol and back via the Santander Ferry.

Car is all sorted, the bill was just 1 hours labour, the cause was a almost seized slider. Hopefully now its all been stripped down, cleaned up etc. and put back together its all sorted. They are very confident that its now fixed after an extensive road test, so lets see.

[mannyo]

Brakes seem to be working perfectly, however another issue is requiring attention. There is currently a small oil leak thats developed from the what is suspected to be the front Crankshaft seal, I discovered it the other week and have been monitoring oil loss since which is minimal so I guess its been leaking for a while. The engine under tray is covered in oil, as is the lower part of the front of the engine but there are no oil pools being left under the car after being parked.

The A8 is off to the Costa del sol in just over a weeks time, travelling by ferry to northern spain and then driving the 670 off miles down from there. Based on current losses, I may only need to topup the oil with a single litre for the entire 3 week holiday.

Once back, a decision will be made to either sell the A8 and replace it or fix the oil leak for whichI already have a quote.

[mannyo]

Quick update:

The car completed its run to the Costa Del sol, covering more than 2500 miles during the trip.

The oil seal is still leaking, and to date I have put about 1 litre of oil in during around 3000 miles.

Still keeping the car for the moment, and a few changes coming up to the interior. Watch this space and I'll be putting some pictures up.

[Babs]

This has an oil leak and uses less oil than a 1.4 Twincharger!

[Wardy]

That point wasn't lost on me either

Quite ironic really....

[mannyo]

My worry is more with the location of the leak, basically the oil is leaking out the crankshaft seal and in effect leaking onto the cambelt which although new (replaced in January) is obviously being affected by the leak.

I have had a, lets say substantial quote to fix the leak of more than £700. That includes stripping down the front end of the car again (it all has to come apart, so thats headlights, bumper, crash bar, etc.), replacing the £6.50 part, another new cambelt and re-assembly.

A fellow forum member on the A8 forum has offered to replace the seal for me at my parents house, an option I may well take up in the future but I'll need to get the correct part first.

The car is just 100 miles short of 180,000 miles now, and still rolling fine apart from the leak and a creaky dry balljoint. The car had a six week break, where it sat on my parents drive and covered less than 100 miles in that time whilst I used my dads Fabia. The car is now back with me in Dorset, with the leak and balljoint being constantly monitored.

[mannyo]

Well, the car has now past 180K miles and well on the way to 181K

After several weeks of no creaks from the suspension, today the creaks returned.

Also some additional work completed today, a full retrofit of RNS-D satnav and TMC can gateway using OEM parts. Pictures to follow once I have cleaned the interior again of all the mess caused.

[Wardy]

After several weeks of no creaks from the suspension, today the creaks returned.

Could be the weather getting colder Manny?

[mannyo]

The creaks and groans have stopped again now, although I may have identified the cause, I checked the PAS fluid and found it on the minimum which I have now topped up. Not sure if that's the cure, but it was silent on the run down to dorset yesterday evening.

[mannyo]

Some pictures of the RNS-D install, as you can see its very similar to, but not exactly the same as the MFD MK1.

Click pictures for larger version.

This is the map display screen

The Radio display screen

Playing a music CD from the CD changer

Navigation display on the full colour DIS (Maxidot), full colour in an 11 year old car, years ahead of its time.

I am really pleased with the way this has worked out, compared the Radio/Cassette CD double din unit that was there before this is far better and freshens up the dash a lot.

Whats not shown here is the amount of work that needed doing to get this to work as a lot of additional wiring was required, along with patching into the canbus wires right behind the instrument cluster which I had to remove to fit the TMC/Canbus gateway behind it in the OEM position.

[Wardy]

Good job Manny. Yes, I can imagine that was quite a lot of work!

[VladSoilerOfCarpets]

Looks sweet as a nut Manny... any chance you'll be bringing it to a South Central meet in the near-ish future??

[mannyo]

Minor tweaks continue.

I got fed up with constantly having to add air to one of the tyres because of poor bead seating as the wheels are not in the best condition.

So, as I had a set of RS6 replica wheels at my parents that were previously fitted onto my Octy MK2 it was time to get these fitted. Off to my friendly tyre place in Stevenage for a tyre swap between the A8 alloys and the RS6's and 1 hour later the A8 is sporting the wheels.

Given it a quick clean, especially because the wheels had been outside in a back garden for more than 2 1/2 years. The car I think looks great with them on, just need to get some centre caps now as the Audi ones have been lost by the looks of things.

[mannyo]

Still playing around with the A8.

I knew when I got the car, that it had a car phone kit installed in it somewhere as I had a microphone stuck on the front centre light module and a speaker located in the passenger footwell. I recognised the mic and speaker as being from a Nokia kit, but could never locate anything else.

So today, with it just above 5c (why I didn't do this in the summer) I traced and removed interior as required. Working back from the speaker, I located the control box. Unfortunatly, whilst it is a Nokia kit, its very old. From what I can gather the kit is a CAR-K91 for a wired handset in a cradle only. So traced some more wires, found the A pillar mounted antenna, and traced the cradle wire until it ended where it had been cut in half.

So that's that then, the kit is redundant. Now I have the remains of a CK-7W which has bluetooth, so did some wire modifications (different power plug) and connected the mic and speaker. Connected the CK-7W controller, and presto. Managed to pair my iPhone4 and make a call. The CK-7W is slightly thicker than the HFU-2, so would not go back where the old module was. So out it all came.

The car now has a Speaker and Microphone, leading to nothing and a power connection floating around. Maybe in the summer I'll look at it again, but I have managed 12 months without it so may just remove the mic and speaker as well.

[mannyo]

I have now owned the Audi for 12 months, that's gone by quickly.

Mileage at purchase: 173,900

Mileage now: 181,730

It'll jump over 182K in a couple of weeks.

Making just under 8K miles in the last year, 2.5K of those were driving down to the Costa Del Sol and back via the Portsmouth / Santander Ferry in June 2012.

On the negative side, that means it will be due another service in 3 weeks, and another MOT at the start of April.

[wilsy7]

Times goes too fast! Have you tracked economy over the 8k?

[mannyo]

Not tracked the economy, all I can say is on my very short commute its useless as the engine never gets anywhere near 90c, did a rough calculation and its around 9 MPG'ish. On a run, its much better and can hit 30MPG+ easily if taken steady, did get close to 35mpg driven all day at 72MPH on the way down through Spain making more than 500 miles on a tank.

[grr666]

I like this car Manny.

Nothing quite like a big german luxo barge...

[rockhopper]

9mpg!! Makes my 20mpg diesel feel frugal on some of the journeys I do around South London. (5mph average speed

Okay it will do 50 mpg on a decent run, but that doesn't happen often enough...

Do you keep a record of what you have spent on it, or is it like the fuel and you don't really want to know? :lol:

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

[mannyo]

Plans for 2013 are to keep the Audi for the time being, so coming up we have the following scheduled.

Early February, basic service and once over.

Early April, another MOT test.

Mid June, Manny's run to the sun 2013. The Audi is already booked on a ferry crossing from Portsmouth to Le Harvre, from there its drive all the way to just outside Malaga where the Audi will spend 2 weeks before returning to the UK via the same route. This will be the Audi's second trip to the Costa Del Sol.

End July, Briskoda mega meet.

Then there is all the unscheduled work.

Current low priority:

Problem with instrument cluster mileage display LCD starting to fail, needs replacing. £60 for donor cluster to dismantle and swap display.

Dual zone climate controller, making a whirring sound due to failing fail, £100 for a secondhand one.

Suspension creaks sometimes, but not always.

Cost wise, after some early issues in 2012 its only cost me petrol. With the exception of the 2012 holiday, the average fuel bill is around £150 a month. Went through a lot of fuel in June 2012, and will be again in June 2013.