New A2 Owner as of a few weeks ago

rupidoo

rupidoo

Member
Hi All,

Pleased to say that I've finally signed up to the forum, I've been 'lurking' for some months while I researched my purchase but held back on registering for fear of spending 'even more' time on such forums as a regular contributor to a popular electric vehicle forum. I've been interested in the A2 for years but could never really justify buying one.

Last year I took a leap(f) and bought a popular electric vehicle; which is my main daily drive and has been a joy to drive since and is my main vehicle but only has a restricted range and rapid charging is becoming tiresome on long driving days. Also having a big, thirsty, all conquering A6 sat on the driveway seemed a bit excessive so I put it on the market; which resulted in a sale soon after. My wife drives a big people carrier which swallows the family admirably, leaving me to choose something a bit smaller; cue the A2....

I love the design, the fact that it's such an efficient car for its age and still has plenty of driver appeal, it remains well ahead of it's time and is being regularly compared to the modern day BMW i3 in character. After a few months of searching I found a lovely 1.4 tdi '53 plate with 29,000 miles on the clock, it's in lovely condition yet leaves me a few niggles to sort, it's essentially a 2 owner car and has been looked after well, though looking through the history has spent some time with a dealership, which is where I imagine things like the tool kit have gone missing and oil stains on the seats have occurred. There is also a missing service stamp from the book, though a service reminder sticker from said dealership on the drivers' door (extremely frustrating!!) I contacted the garage who said that they'd happily stamp the book for me if I posted it out to them, I declined as it would be out of place now and I'd rather keep it authentic.

The good news is, I've painstakingly cleaned the seats and applied a suitable protector and pieced together what was missing from the tool kit via ebay and it's on it's way back to glory, I don't live too far from the oft mentioned Stealth Racing so will take it up to them for a good service and check through as it does smoke a bit during moderate to hard acceleration and doubt that the last 'service' was done correctly anyhow. The OSS is working fine though sticks a bit when the second part of the roof opens (should I be worried??) I think it's just some grease around the roof seal that is causing it to stick a little, any tips on this?? Maybe some carefully applied flo-plast (or similar) just to help the two seals separate more easily on opening?

I'm happy to put some money into the car as it's already saving me plenty over the A6 and I've already become (worryingly??) attached to it, my two eldest children have given their nod of approval, as has my wife, I've done several long motorway trips in it which have been a pleasure , it makes a surprisingly civil long distance cruiser if you keep it to 65-70 and overall am looking to a few years of happy motoring.

Just wanted to say thanks for all the advice on the forum which through my previous 'lurking' have, though indirectly, greatly helped my purchase decision!

(Apologies for the long, guffy introduction, I promise to keep my posts shorter in future!)
 
Welcome to the forum.
you've made a great choice in going for the A2! I'm sure you'll catch the mod's bug shortly as these cars can really get under your skin. :D lol also you wont go wrong on this forum as their is immense information here and some great people to give you great advice here in keeping your A2 healthy.

For your OSS A2cars Ltd are the one for that, should you require it to be seen to.

All the best
 
Welcome to the forum, and it sounds as though you have a cracking little A2!
Plenty of advice and help on here as well as some banter lol!
Be sure to post some pics of you're car, good or bad they are always nice to see and helps others help you!
Cheers Jeff
 
Welcome to the forum Pal, You have a lot of reading to do, and there's no shortage of information around on this forum so lets get started! :)



Cheers
Sarge
 
Welcome to the forum. I've only been with this bunch for 2 years but they have helped me with a few niggles with my A2 and are an awesome bunch to hang around with. I too can highly recommend A2 Cars for all your servicing and repairs. :cool:
 
Thanks all for the welcome comments! I take it you mean A2Cars in Milton Keynes? If so they're not too far from us and do get the odd excuse to pass that way with work so will definitely pop in. I couldn't believe the mileage myself when I first saw it advertised so I went through the history carefully and it certainly seems genuine, the condition of various things such as the mats, soft touch buttons, drivers seat wear would all suggest that it's a genuine mileage car (all little tips garnered from previous reading). I haven't taken too many pics so far as I don't think the weather has been photo friendly since I collected it but, here's some...... and thanks again.

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Hi Rupidoo, and welcome to the club. :)

When I saw that you were based in Banbury, I did immediately think of Stealth, though I then noticed that you make mention of them in your first post. Consider yourself lucky to live so close to one of the forum's most frequently mentioned garages.

In your lurking, have you fallen upon any threads about OpenSky de-screening and the 'helping hand' method of opening the roof?
The OpenSky system is most strained when first lifting the panels and thus breaking the rubber seals. It is at this point that failures tend to occur, so I'd make time to give it some attention soon. Audi make a special paste for OpenSky servicing; part number G-000-450-02. As well as being the lubricant for the tracks, it's also used to hydrate the seals. Make sure the seals are all clean, and then use your fingers to work some of the paste into the seals. I generally find that this causes the seals to break without presenting a further load to the OpenSky mechanisms.

Glad to hear you've become worryingly fond of your A2. You'll fit right in! :)

Cheers,

Tom
 
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Hi Rupidoo, and welcome to the club :)

Your A2 looks really great. The seats inside are really sparkling - you did a good job getting rid of the grime.

A2 Cars in Milton Keynes can't be that far away and could sort out the Open Sky.

Last year I took a leap(f) and bought a popular electric vehicle; ............. but only has a restricted range and rapid charging is becoming tiresome on long driving days.
Click to expand...

Interesting you resorted to buying a non-electric - good to see you bought an A2 - ironically they have been the subject of many conversions to electric ;)

Recently I thought about the scenario if I lost my A2 would I buy an electric? I watched some YouTube videos, particularly attempting long distance trips. Frequent problem seems to be arriving at a rapid charger to find it is not working and not enough juice to reach the next. So e-owners are resorting to more frequent stops (i.e. shorter segments) so they have a plan B and even a plan C. As you say, the journey time adds up and maybe the risk you can get overweight eating fast food in the services at every stop ;) I suppose eventually more chargers and longer battery capacity will reduce the problem.
 
That is why I would love to have a BMW i3 with a range extender, the benefit of plug in with a bit extra when you need it.

Steve B
 
Welcome to the forum Rupidoo.

Your A2 looks like a very nice example. With 29k on the clock I bet she drives like a dream!

We have just ordered a i3 to go with the A2 tdi, so looking forward to becoming electric late December. :)
 
Thanks Timmus for the tips with OSS, I'll have a look around for the thread, all the mechanisms look well greased but I suspect that it is with the incorrect grease. I'm heading to London for a couple of days in the coming weeks so may leave the car with A2Cars for a thorough going over and take the train from Bletchley. I have a friend that works at Stratford Audi who will be able to get the paste for me so will get hold of some for regular maintenance. I can't see me using the OSS much in the coming months but like you say would like to get it attended to before I strain the mechanism too much.

She does drive well, the gearbox, steering, clutch etc are all tight and as you'd expect, the brakes are a little rough, there are some new pads on it that may not have bedded in fully but again will have this looked at, the shock absorbers are hard over rough surfaces so may look at uprating them and the springs at some point but just to improve ride quality rather than improve the handling, this looks to be a bit of a minefield to get the rates right without compromising one or the other.

At the risk of hijacking my own thread, I still have the Leaf for another few months and have done many long 200 - 300 mile trips in it and cover about 13k miles a year with the car. You get used to planning your journeys around rapid chargers, checking whether they are operational before you set off and always having a plan B !! The main issue is that the free ones at the services are often either broken or in use by Outlander PHEV's so adding queuing time to charging time and journey time is making it untenable for long trips unless I have a LOT of e-mails to catch up on. The Leaf is a great car though and if you can fit it in to your lifestyle is highly recommended, anyone who hasn't driven one should try out an extended test drive for a couple of days from one of the dealers, they tend to be very forthcoming.
 
Had a good read through yesterday, think I'll hold back on the de-screening for a while but contacted Tony from A2Cars today and the car is booked in for the end of the month for a good going over, he's going to look at the OSS and make sure that all the cables are adjusted correctly and lube everything how it should be, I'm also getting cruise fitted (have I got the bug already ??) I don't think the cambelt and water pump have been done and even though it's low mileage given the age of the car I think it might be wise, either way I've arranged to leave it for a couple of days so that everything can be sorted. It's great to really have confidence in a service / maintenance partner and I'm sure that the car will be in great hands.

I've also booked out a body shop to look at a few scratches ( one which happened yesterday when some oik opened his door into it at the plumbers merchants, not dented but a decent size scratch, grr). I've also just successfully replaced the dipped beam bulbs for some Philips X-Treme Visions which I'm hoping will enhance the vision from the dipped beams. Again couldn't have done this without the great advice from the forum (and half an hour of patience !!)

manhattan$ I hope you enjoy the i3, I haven't had chance to drive one yet but from what I hear it's a great car to drive and is unbelievably rapid off the line!

Cheers,

Ru
 
Previously been very impressed with the Philips Xtreme Vision bulbs, but the difference between them and the standard-looking ones they replaced in the A2 doesn't seem as great for whatever reason.
 
Philip said:
Previously been very impressed with the Philips Xtreme Vision bulbs, but the difference between them and the standard-looking ones they replaced in the A2 doesn't seem as great for whatever reason.
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If they are also 55watt bulbs then the difference will be small surely?
they are filament bulbs and so every 55watt filament bulb will give a similar output. Maybe whiter but the same power surely.

100w white light bulbs are as good as you will get ftom a filament bulb but they are classed as illegal.
I have tried every combination available, to try and get decent headlamp illumination and i now have that with the Bi Xenon projector conversion. You won't get better illumination and they are totally legal. But they are expensive at £100 or so a pair.

Steve B
 
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No, they're generally a huge improvement on standard bulbs, it's not about colour temperature.

Xenons into a reflector (rather than projector) designed solely for halogen is never a great idea, the actual light sources are so different that it can never be ideal - the subjective perceived benefit of the bright white light and sharp cut-off is often very misleading.
 
I agree that xenon bulbs into a filament designed reflector is far from ideal.

That is why i opted for a conversion to projector xenons, which i have found to be the best solution.
100watt "white" filament bulbs are the second best (but illegal). LED bulbs have a long way to go yet before they are as they should be.

I have tried all of these combinations and as i say i find the xenon projectors the brightest option with no dazzle.

This is just my view, others may feel differently. That is what i like about the forum, people can disagree without it being personal.

Steve B
 
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It is conceptually flawed though - that's why you will never find a true Xenon-into-Halogen reflector swap kit from any of the OEMs. Perceived "brightness" and beam cut-off are very misleading when it comes to what you are actually able to see.

Also remember that the wattage of the bulb is just its power consumption rating, not its light output.
 
Steve -without derailing this thread, is there any info on the forum about your headlight modifications? A projector retrofit sounds pretty cool.
 
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