Problem with Audi A3

Eoin

Hi all,

My mother picked up her new Audi A3 on Friday (new to her, it's a 03) and she has already had problems with the gears. Quite often the car won't go into gear, and she has to turn off the engine, engage gear, and turn the engine back on with the clutch down. The same happened to me and a driving instructor she knows who also had a look, so I am pretty sure it is the car, and not us!

My first thought was that it is a clutch problem, but when the car is started in gear with the clutch down, it takes off as expected once the clutch is let up. I am not the most mechanically minded, so I don't know if this is a factor or not.

One other thing I noticed was that the clutch pedal felt a little "spongy", I am not sure if this is particular to Audis, or the A3, but it just didn't feel that responsive.

Thankfully, the car came with a 12 month warranty, so she is definitely going to get it sorted, but it would be good to have an idea what is wrong (if the above is enough to go on) so the garage doesn't fob her off.

So, does anyone have any ideas / suggestions?

thanks in advance,

Eoin

Eoin

anyone any ideas?

Big Balls

Hi Eoin.. had a 2004 A3 for 20,000 miles.

Same thing used to happen from time to time... For me though it was just a matter of going back to neutral, foot off the clutch, back on it again and select first/reverse and that was it.

Happened on a 2003 GTI I had too...

Eoin

Big Balls wrote:

Hi Eoin.. had a 2004 A3 for 20,000 miles.

Same thing used to happen from time to time... For me though it was just a matter of going back to neutral, foot off the clutch, back on it again and select first/reverse and that was it.

Happened on a 2003 GTI I had too...

Thanks for the reply - it looks like this problem is more serious than the one you had - like I said, you pretty much have to turn the engine off to get into gear, there is just no putting it into gear with the engine on. Ironically, she went for an Audi over an Alfa because her friend told her that the Audi would be a lot more reliable!

lomb

sounds like the gearbox isnt disengaging for some reason.
this could be either
1. clutch cable adjustment needed
2 clutch replacement needed
3. broken gearbox
i think its fixed by a process of elimination, ie try to adjust cable and if it doesnt work, replace clutch and if while its out theres nothing wrong a new gearbox may be needed.

it can happen that cars are driven hard, or could be a manufacturing defect, or it could be something like the gearbox oil leaked out and destroyed it.

either way , im sure the warranty will cover it. just make sure that it works well when they are done.

Squirrel

You never know eoin, Big Balls could be correct, same thing happens the Micra in my family, the clutch isn't engaged fully so won't go into gear, just into neutral and back into first or reverse, and this also happens the Micra's at the Mondello Early Drive

lomb

eoin_s wrote:

she went for an Audi over an Alfa because her friend told her that the Audi would be a lot more reliable!

audi are basically VW as they are part of the VAG group.
bigger A8s are known to be very unreliable particularly with regard to automatic gearboxes.

german quality is only an image, for example a new jaguar will probably be more reliable than a mercedes or bmw.

the best cars are still jap, they know how to build cars that can go for 250000 miles. ironically in japan many of their cars dont reach a fraction of that milage and are scrapped after 6 years due to a very expensive nct test (3000 euros i think!)
funny world;)

lomb

eoin_s wrote:

Thankfully, the car came with a 12 month warranty

also possibly still covered by VAG 3 year warranty if there was one in 2003. i know there was in the uk, but im not sure if this applied to the republic. good luck with it.

Big Balls

New Audi/VW cars come with two year warranties in ROI.

Just the luck of the draw. As I said, I had an Audi for 20,000 and it was in the garage once for a dodgy seat frame. Nothing more.

There's no comparison between an Alfa and an Audi in my opinion.

murphaph

I'd be very surprised if there is a clutch cable in an A3. The A4s and Passats are all hydraulic from the pedal.

Ratchet

Big Balls wrote:

There's no comparison between an Alfa and an Audi in my opinion.

yeah it's like comparing Audi to a jappo.

Guy in work has Octavia and gearbox went just close to 30000

Eoin

Big Balls wrote:

New Audi/VW cars come with two year warranties in ROI.

Just the luck of the draw. As I said, I had an Audi for 20,000 and it was in the garage once for a dodgy seat frame. Nothing more.

There's no comparison between an Alfa and an Audi in my opinion.

Thanks again. It is an early 03, so I would imagine that the VAG warranty will be over by now, so she is stuck with the garage one.

Not particularly willing to start another Alfa thread, but I have had mine since early 03, with no problems yet.

squirrel wrote:

You never know eoin, Big Balls could be correct, same thing happens the Micra in my family, the clutch isn't engaged fully so won't go into gear, just into neutral and back into first or reverse, and this also happens the Micra's at the Mondello Early Drive

Not too sure Squirrel, it really seems worse than that - there is just no putting the car in gear when the engine is on. Releasing the pedal and trying again doesn't work.

stevenmu

I had a problem with my old seat ibiza (another VAG car) where the bracket that holds the clutch pedal and the cable was starting to break. At first this meant that the clutch pedal felt spongy and I'd have to really press down hard to change gear, over the space of a few days it got worse untill it eventually snapped totally and I couldn't use the pedal at all. It could be a similar problem with the A3, altough the Ibiza was 8 years old with about 80k on it when this happened. A tell tale sign would be if the clutch pedal isn't fully returning to it's normal unpressed position after use, try putting your foot under the pedal and lifting it up, not too hard just a bit harder than the force to bend a clothes hanger, and see if it lifts up more.

Either way a dealers warranty should certainly cover something like this.

Plankmonkey

I had a 1999 Audi A3 and the gear box was quite stiff at times and hard to get into gear. After talking to mechanics and car experts i was told that the A3 and the Golf have the exact same gear boxes and that they are very poor quality.

Unfortunately I seemed to have an exceptionally dodgy one as it went bang on me after only 34K miles on the clock :-( 12K to replace it with a reconditioned gear box, which still had the same stiffness! That along with the throttle body flaw made me sell mine and get a good auld reliable new ford focus. A3 is a fun car but its reputation exceeeds it.

Big Balls

The MKII A3 is quite different from your 99 one. Including the gearbox.

AMurphy

Once you get moving I'll assume there is no problems.

the clutch is "dragging" for whatever reason. ie, it is partialy releasing, but still maintaining enough contact to keep the input shaft loaded.

Try this test. while ideling, try putting it into reverse. Rev in 99% of cars has no synchros, and thus rather than no engage, will grind like hell if the input shaft is spinning, like an old truck or tractor.

on flat smooth ground, engage the 1st or reverse, and then with the brakes off and your foot on the clutch, start the engine if the car moves, your clutch is more than just dragging, it's partially engaged.

Reasons,
If it has a cable, (not hydraulic), the auto adjuster is stuck. New cable.
The cable has cut through the outer sheath so the auto adjuster has reached the end of its travel, new cable.
Oil in the clutch, causing the plates to stick a little. New clutch and engine seals.
One of the many release pawls are broken of bent and the clutch is only partially disengaging. New clutch & pressure Plate.
Som eof hte clutch disk material has cracked off inside the clutch and jamming the clutch. it may go away.... then it might not. new Clutch & PP.

If it is the VW 5sp reversed clutch design with the rod through the main shaft. The rod pressure pad is tearing apart or ground down so the clutch throw is upset, new pressure plate and push rod.

If hydraulic, check the fluid level, check for air in the system and check for leaks in either Slave or master cyl.

you say you have a warranty, use it.

Eoin

AMurphy wrote:

Once you get moving I'll assume there is no problems.

Correct

AMurphy wrote:

the clutch is "dragging" for whatever reason. ie, it is partialy releasing, but still maintaining enough contact to keep the input shaft loaded.

Try this test. while ideling, try putting it into reverse. Rev in 99% of cars has no synchros, and thus rather than no engage, will grind like hell if the input shaft is spinning, like an old truck or tractor.

on flat smooth ground, engage the 1st or reverse, and then with the brakes off and your foot on the clutch, start the engine if the car moves, your clutch is more than just dragging, it's partially engaged.

When we tried reverse, the car made that horrible grinding noise as you described.

Anyhow, the car is now back on the road. The garage took it back, said there were no problems apart from the fact it was not used for a while. Apparently, they just had to lubricate something, and problem solved.

Thanks a million for all the replies folks