A new A2 owner!

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Griff

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I have just acquired a TDi SE A2 (late 2001) on Saturday (well the wife has really but i'm the obessive car nut!) which prompted me to discovered this A2 forum. I have learnt a lot about a2s already and perhaps i should have come here first for all the answers during research time.

Anyway I have two questions:
1. Does the A2 come with a pre-installed bus lead to the boot for a cd changer? I think the answer is no but have found some car stereo sites that have said yes. Without the factory boot panelling for a changer where is the best place to position?
2. Also (probably a little bit worrying!) the car makes a small noise(a boing...a dull faint thud...faint bang...call it what you like) when you touch the accelerator when pulling away in gear. It is most noticeable at low speeds. It is the sort of noise that makes your mates think your paranoid as it is not always noticeable but when you do notice it you do so all the time.

After a little research(car press, net etc) it appears that this is quite common. Any way thats what the dealer is telling me but they have still offered to look at it under warranty. I am still happy with the car (boings and all) but getting a dealer to talk straight can be somewhat frustrating!!!
Can anyone enlighten me? What is it? Is it serious? Should I be worried? Has anyone else had similar experiences? Does anyone know if Audi recognise it and if they planning to do anything about it?

Well thats 8 questions and not 2!!!

Yours in anticipation

Griff

2001 TDI SE, SILVER, CONCERT AND REAR BENCH (FAMILY IMMINENT!!!1)
 
Hi Griff,

Welcome to the forum. Regarding question 1, I will leave the reply to the guys who know as I have never investigated. Regarding your second question however, it 'could be' a well known driveshaft problem. Do you get the noise on lift off? If it is this, then I believe it can be resolved by adding some paste/glue to the drive shaft. The dealer should be aware of this problem, and I believe other owners have had this done successfully.

If I am correct, I think Royfox (forum member) had the same prob. ?? Maybe he can enlighten you more.

Kaine
 
Griff,

If you have a “Concert” radio/cassette with buttons numbered 1 to 6, then I would say the wiring already exists for a remote cd changer. Other than that I say it would not. For what its worth the production of the A2 only provides a wiring loom (CanBUS) for what is actually fitted to the car. If you want laptop dancing in the back via a rotating table you will be in trouble obtaining a connection.

The noise that you describe sounds 99% like drive shafts. Get them replaced under the warranty before you have to part with £600 of your own money. Lots of A2 owners had/have this problem, so there is no need to blame the wife.

Regards
John Disdale
 
Griff,

My understanding is 'when the clutch bites', however I have never had the prob. Just what I have read on the forum.

Kaine
 
Thanks John,

I have a six button concert stereo. Presumably if the wiring is there it will be behind the panelling (i have not looked yet)? If it is wired would I only need a relevant interface between that and a suitable changer.

From what you have said about the driveshafts I will take it down the dealer!

Cheers
Griff
 
Griff-welcome and a wise choice (the A2).

Although I have not stripped the interior of the car, I am very sure there is no pre-cd changer wiring to the boot area. If you should look under the boot fllor where the battery etc is held, you may have a black plastic cage and some wires-this is the pre-install for the optional sat nav cd rom unit and isn't big enough for a standard cd changer. Strange Audi do this but not the pre-install og cd changer wiring.....

Anyway, the glovebox is where I will fit mine eventually. From other posts, the glovebox is easy to remove and it's close to the head unit. As for any pre-wiring behind the head unit I'm not sure. My Leon had it-just plug in the interface lead and away I went-20 minutes all in. I have a feeling the A2 may take that little bit longer....but without stripping things down I don't know.

I agree with the other guys on the driveshaft-previous posts all point to the problem affecting your A2.

How was the Audi dealer?. Good/bad-marks out of ten?.

Steve - 1.4SE petrol, 2002, Silver
 
Hi Steve, (war and peace attached!!!)

Looked at some A2s privately at first (attracted by some very loaded ones)but not impressed as they had not worn very well. They were all under 20k mileage but I suspected they proably were well used demos.

We initially were looking to buy a petrol one purely on cost but the wife preferred the torque of the diesel. Dealtwith two Audi Dealers before going with my local dealer. First one was Poole Audi (they had a standard SE in the right colour...crystal blue. Dealer was very helpful altough the salesman I dealtwith was 'old school'. To be honest he was very arrogant and talked down to me misquoting list prices (higher!!!!) an awful lot. Having said this we got a fair discount of screen price but he basically lost the sell through not throwing a cd player in. I getting the feeling though that he had already sold it as it disppeared of the audi website the day he came back to me saying he could not move on the cd.

Car: Nov 2001 standard tdise 8k Screen £13995 best they could do £13200 no extras.
Poole Audi 6/10

Then we looked at silver tdise at the our local dealer Taunton Audi (Previously Silver Street Audi) with exactly same spec as the one above and same list price. The salesman was very pleasant and a pleasure to deal with. Attentive to my demands and honest (well as honest as you are gonna get with a car salesman!!!!). We deliberated whether to go for this silver one as it was not our first choice colour. Within the week another silver one was delivered with cd and rearbench....just what we looking for albeit in silver. The rest is history. Pd £13200 for it.....Oct 2001, 8k mileage, cd and rear bench.
The dealership did everything i asked them to do although because we looked at car and bought it as soon as it arrived it stiil had to be prepared for sale and i am stil waiting for some of the paperwork to catch up with me. Fully assured everything is ok though!

Taunton Audi 8/10 (although experience slightly tarnished because of 'drive shaft' issues but will take have and it looked under warranty)

What do you think about the price i paid? Fair? Most similar cars are generally priced @£13995 in the South West. I probably could have got
another £200 off but the wife was to keen!!!! I found other dealer prices for similar basic tdise's between 12.5k and 13.5k but were too far away to be practical.


Time for bed

Griff
 
Griff !

Welcome and great choice on your new car.

I purchased my A2 from Taunton Audi 2-3 months ago and found them very good compared to Yeovil / Exeter Audi. Exter wanted £14000 for a silver basic 1.4 petrol with no extra's.

Also a work friend has a TT from Exeter Audi with bad experiences :(

I had a problem with re-starting the A2 when hot, this transpired to be fuel contamination (They had put petrol in it :(). But on call and it was picked up and cleaned / drained and parts replaced with a rather horrid A3 as a replacement.

I paid £13400 which isn't bad for the specification and backup so far from them will see me going back later for service and parts.

2001 1.4 TDI SE, Crystal Blue, Open Sky System, Climate Control, El.Rear Windows 16" six spoke alloys, Alpine CD/MP3 & Genesis Components & Amps, Focal Sub all custom fitted.
 
Griff

Glad you found a decent dealership-it's not only the car your buying into!. There are a few 'old school' dealers still about, but some are better than others. Prices of A2's at dealerships appear to be held higher than maybe what they should be. I paid approx £14,600 for my new A2 so your price looks ok. A recent report states that X reg basic A2's are going for about £9k which they say is low-maybe not when you work out the lower price of the basic A2 and then about 2 years/24,000 miles on the clock. Give it 3 years and the price may stabilise into the predicted 3 year depreciation figures (whatever they maybe). I know one person on the forum was offered a ridiculously low trade-in price for their A2 recently, and I bet the dealer would bump the value up on the forecourt something terrible.

There is a lot of money in cars-second hand ones. I sometimes think they subsidise the new car prices-lower manufacturer margins and increased public demand for discounts mean they make the money when the customer returns in a few years to trade it in.

Anyway, the main thing is to get the possible driveshaft problem sorted and enjoy the A2!. And start shopping at Tesco's if you don't already....

Steve - 1.4SE petrol, 2002, Silver
 
Same noise here, I think. It's something like a "knack", a metal-to-metal noise. It sounds like there is some space anywhere in the propulsion. I hear it best when I've put it in reverse and then lift off the clutch. Beside that I can hear it when the car accelerates or decelerates.
I went to my dealer and after driving with it he said it was a known problem. Instead of what I read in the forum, he is not going to replace the driveshafts, and not going to add paste or glue either. (By the way, where do they actually add this paste/glue? Does anyone know?) In fact he wants to replace bearings in both driveshafts.

I had two other "noise-complaints": one was a rattle under the car, the second a noise in the back.

The dealer told me these noises too were known issues.
The rattle seems to come from the cables between the gearshift and the gearbox. They 'hang' in something like a tube. When you drive on bad roads, the cables touch the tube, which gives the noise. This noise can be isolated by tightening the cables and/or add isolationmaterial in the tube.

The second noise, the dealer said, could come from broken rubber suspensionbuffers. I think there was another topic in which sounds from the rear were mentioned; this could be the solution for it.

I have an appointment with my dealer next week to have all the noises fixed. I think he's doing his very best to solve everything. I'll let you all know if he succeeds.

(I hope I used the right words, especially the technical ones!)

JanF

2001 1.4 Petrol Exclusive
Cobalt Blue Metallic
 
JanF,

You need to ask your dealer why the factory now glue in the drive shafts to eradicate the problem, and why he opts to ignore this.

Regards
John Disdale
 
Update on noise.

Noise happens when you touch the accelerator regardless of whether you're in gear or not. Is this still likely to be drive shaft?

Noise is more like a soft uugh (like sexual groan!!...no I'm not doing anything to it but I couldn't think of how else to describe it!)

Anyone?
 
Griff,

See my coments on Moo-ing A2

HT

TDI SE AMULET RED, OPEN SKY,1/2 LEATHER, BOSE
 
With regard to installing a CD changer, am I right that the rear panel in the boot is different when the CD changer is factory installed? i.e. if you don't have a CD then there is no place for one to be put?

I guess you could also install one under the floor cover, as there is a space there for the navigation cd player.

If the wiring is not present for the Can bus version, surely there must be a kit available from soneone on the web?

MartinW - Dolphin Grey 1.4SE
 
martinw-I've thought about the cd changer panel in the boot too. I wonder if it is just the panel that is different with it's built in changer holder, or whether there is more to it than meets the eye-the trim feels very hard above the offside rear wheel as if there is something behind it. So swapping the panel with a friendly Audi dealer for the cd changer one may not be an option-but it might!.

The cd rom space under the floor isn't big enough for a changer I don't think, and I'm sure the wires are not compatible with a changer. But I'm sure you may be able to spice into it and cobble something up-saves running wires through from the front to the back.

I'm still in favour of glovebox method!..

I've been looking at some DIN size DVD players with motorised screens-just the right size for that bottom DIN slot below the CC unit........but then I saw the fold down one from the ceiling...oooohhhhhh. Lottery tomorrow night, might win......!

Steve - 1.4SE petrol, 2002, Silver
 
JD
Thanks for your concern.
In fact I mentioned the glue/paste when I did the "noise-testdrive" with my dealer. He did not know this solution, and did not like the idea of pasting or glueing.
My car was with the dealer after that testdrive, and thereafter he came with the above mentioned solutions. The way I was treated, this time and in the past, I don't think I have any reason for doubts. Apart from that, someone else told me the dealer had an A2 the next day with exactly the same problems. So: known problems.

I think I like the idea of changing parts instead of pasting something. That's why I asked in my other reply if anyone knows where exactly this paste is added. Could it be in the bearings?

Besides all this: I do have a year warranty. Why should the dealer change parts when he knows it does not solve the problem. He knows I will be back then, just like the other A2owner, and it will cost him even moore money. It's in his interest too that my car is repaired properly.
We'll see next week, I'm an optimist. :)

Keep you informed.

JanF


2001 1.4 Petrol Exclusive
Cobalt Blue Metallic
 
Sorry for the delay with my input...

Well there are a few things I'd like to pick up on.

1. Driveshaft issues. Yep, I think most people have covered this one. Yes, get them repaired at once. Don't accept "Well it's not a common problem" from your dealers. Ask them to look at Audi bulletin information; I'm sure they will find it very easily.

2. Griff. £13200 for your car. I've recently (3 weeks ago) traded in my A2, it was a 2001 1.4SE with climate, cd player, leather. It had a total of 8500 miles on the clock. When I purchased the car only 4 months previous I paid £13k for it. When I P/Ex the car last month I was offered £7800 for it. Both my dealer and Audi UK confirmed that they were selling cars for £10k now as the prices had dropped due to market conditions and the recent price drops by Audi on new cars.
I do believe the price you paid is probably a fair one, however based on my experience and the fact that Audi UK had confirmed that my dealer was correct in offering a P/Ex value of £7800, I would strongly suggest you talk to your dealer and if needs be point him to this forum and ask what P/Ex you would be getting in 4 months time if you ever wanted to change the car.

I had a massive row with my local dealer- Rybridge Audi of Stoke on Trent. I thought they were treating me with utter contempt. After a phone call from their sales manager I calmed down and came to the conclusion that perhaps the market had subsided but having read this I fell I was completely ripped off by Audi. I will be calling the dealer tomorrow and asking him to look at this thread and I will want some comments back from both him and Audi why after being told that prices had dropped, people are still being charged in excess of £13k for a similarly spec'd car as mine.

Griff, enjoy your car, they are great. Sorry if my rant seems to stink of sour grapes, I have to say it does a little but only because my ownership of my A2 cost me just under £1000 per month. I lost over £4500 in depreciation whilst only adding 4000 miles onto the car, I'd hate to work out the total cost of ownership but I fear I'd be better off driving a harrier jump jet to work....
 
Its blatantly obvious the dirty tricks that Audi dealers are playing. If you are a seller, then the bottom has dropped out of the market, however if you are a buyer it’s a totally different kettle of fish when the false illusion is being conveyed as though the A2 only suffers from a small level of depreciation.

Any dealer that can in the same breath be mentioning £7,800 and £13,000 as though the difference only represented a small profit is no better than an outright criminal.

Regards
John Disdale
 
quote:Originally posted by JanF
[br]
In fact he wants to replace bearings in both driveshafts.

I had two other "noise-complaints": one was a rattle under the car, the second a noise in the back.
The rattle seems to come from the cables between the gearshift and the gearbox.
The second noise, the dealer said, could come from broken rubber suspensionbuffers.
Click to expand...

Update on noises:

Got the car back, and had a testdrive this evening: Silence!
The noise from the rear was fixed by new rubber suspensionrubbers. The noise in the front, heard especially when changing gear or accelerate or decelerate, was repaired by placing two new bearings. Not in the driveshafts as I said before, but in the, what I call McPhersons (I don't know the right English word for it and can't find it either, but I hope you all know what I want to say).

The only noise that's still there, but only now and then and less then before, is the noise of the cables underneath the car. The dealer still has to do some work there, isolating the cables. Apart from that, this isn't a noise that bothers me very much. I think this particular sound does not point out to a defect.

So, the dealer did a good job so far, and I'm convinced he will solve the other "problem" too.

JanF

2001 1.4 Petrol Exclusive
Cobalt Blue Metallic
 
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