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Newer cars use very soft pads with high metal content. European car makers have been using these compounds for almost 20 years. Domestics are just catching up. These pads have excellent performance characteristics but they wear fast and produce tons of brake dust. The rotors used with these pads also wear very quickly and are designed to wear at the same rate as the pads. Rears typically have a slower wearing rotor.
Small SUVs and crossovers seem to wear their rear brakes quicker and especially when used for city driving. Most of the cars i service wear their rear brakes at about 1/2 the rate of the fronts, but small SUVs wear much quicker. I may be wrong about this part, but it is a pattern that i noticed.
Audi does the same thing. It’s nice. This way the customer is restricted to going to the dealer for oil changes. Before you jump at my throat, I constantly see vehicles damaged by Jiffy Lube and the like. It’s better if unqualified people are unable to service these cars. In the long run, customers end up saving money by having their vehicles serviced by qualified technicians at qualified workshops.
There is an oil level and temperature sensor mounted to the oil pan. It can measure the oil level with a 0.01mm resolution. The customer can access a level display in the MMI screen. It is a feel good display, and does not accurately represent the actual oil level. To obtain the actual oil level, you either need a scan tool to read the raw data from the oil level sensor, or the special oil dipstick tool, which Audi calls the ‘oil level display calibration tool’.
To reset the oil level display on an Audi it’s a whole process, and it’s probably intentionally made complicated to deter the DIY’er. Oil level display can only be reset with oil temp above 90deg C, and the vehicle on a level surface. Acceleration sensors know if the vehicle is tilted and the display won’t set. The hood must be opened with the engine running. Then shut the hood, shut off the engine, turn on ignition, wait two minutes, and the display will set.
The tool T40178 has to be adjusted for various engines.
Audi does the same thing. It’s nice. This way the customer is restricted to going to the dealer for oil changes. Before you jump at my throat, I constantly see vehicles damaged by Jiffy Lube and the like. It’s better if unqualified people are unable to service these cars. In the long run, customers end up saving money by having their vehicles serviced by qualified technicians at qualified workshops.
There is an oil level and temperature sensor mounted to the oil pan. It can measure the oil level with a 0.01mm resolution. The customer can access a level display in the MMI screen. It is a feel good display, and does not accurately represent the actual oil level. To obtain the actual oil level, you either need a scan tool to read the raw data from the oil level sensor, or the special oil dipstick tool, which Audi calls the ‘oil level display calibration tool’.
To reset the oil level display on an Audi it’s a whole process, and it’s probably intentionally made complicated to deter the DIY’er. Oil level display can only be reset with oil temp above 90deg C, and the vehicle on a level surface. Acceleration sensors know if the vehicle is tilted and the display won’t set. The hood must be opened with the engine running. Then shut the hood, shut off the engine, turn on ignition, wait two minutes, and the display will set.
The tool T40178 has to be adjusted for various engines.
Typically thermostats will become stuck in various positions. It’s not really a gradual onset. One day they just stop in whatever position they see fit. Some will prevent the vehicle from warming up, and some will cause overheating.
Bleed the system thoroughly if you perform any work on the cooling system.
Typically thermostats will become stuck in various positions. It’s not really a gradual onset. One day they just stop in whatever position they see fit. Some will prevent the vehicle from warming up, and some will cause overheating.
Bleed the system thoroughly if you perform any work on the cooling system.
We can assume the fan is working since it was replaced, but it doesn’t hurt to double check. Get the engine hot, shut it off, and try grabbing the fan blades and spinning them. If the fan spins freely, than your fan clutch is bad. Did you reinstall all the fan shrouds when you replaced the clutch? Is the radiator clear of debris and obstructions, and are the fins in good shape (not flaking away)?
Does it only get hot at idle and slow speeds, and cool off once you get on the highway? You may have a thermostat issue, or an air pocket in the system.
We can assume the fan is working since it was replaced, but it doesn’t hurt to double check. Get the engine hot, shut it off, and try grabbing the fan blades and spinning them. If the fan spins freely, than your fan clutch is bad. Did you reinstall all the fan shrouds when you replaced the clutch? Is the radiator clear of debris and obstructions, and are the fins in good shape (not flaking away)?
Does it only get hot at idle and slow speeds, and cool off once you get on the highway? You may have a thermostat issue, or an air pocket in the system.
The 2130 produces 550 ft-lb. I had one of those guns and it would have trouble with some fasteners like really tight wheel bolts and subframe bolts. Eventually i bought a 2135Ti Quiet which is a 780 ft-lb gun. It removes probably 90% of all automotive fasteners. Some things like axle bolts are too much for it and require a giant breaker bar. I also bought a 3/4″ 2145 1350 ft-lb gun and that will remove everything even with only a 3/8″ air line feeding it. Our shop air pressure is at 120psi.
For a DIY’er, i would suggest getting the IR electric guns. They are every bit as powerful as the top of the line pneumatics, and you don’t have to deal with the noise and expense of a large compressor. You can also take them to the track, if you are into that.
Your gun is pretty good, but it’s going to be too weak for heavy work.
The 2130 produces 550 ft-lb. I had one of those guns and it would have trouble with some fasteners like really tight wheel bolts and subframe bolts. Eventually i bought a 2135Ti Quiet which is a 780 ft-lb gun. It removes probably 90% of all automotive fasteners. Some things like axle bolts are too much for it and require a giant breaker bar. I also bought a 3/4″ 2145 1350 ft-lb gun and that will remove everything even with only a 3/8″ air line feeding it. Our shop air pressure is at 120psi.
For a DIY’er, i would suggest getting the IR electric guns. They are every bit as powerful as the top of the line pneumatics, and you don’t have to deal with the noise and expense of a large compressor. You can also take them to the track, if you are into that.
Your gun is pretty good, but it’s going to be too weak for heavy work.
In reply to SpawnedX – you are so dead on. Each one of those points strikes a nerve and you are absolutely right on each one.
My dealer has been tormented by secret shoppers, and they are easy to spot but they use some shady tactics. Passing one of those is not easy and you have to be 100%. We suffered a lot as a result. The techs always get the s****y end of the stick.n We are now required to do complete MPIs on every vehicle that comes through a shop. I have been doing this for many years, and a complete MPI can take anywhere from .3 to over an hour. They also expect us to quote for parts and labor when we find something wrong with a car – that means diag. A loud death-clunk from the suspension, or a DTC stored in one of the countless systems. They want it quoted for, and don’t expect us to charge diag time since it’s an ‘upsell’. If you get an older car with a lot of issues, the time spent doing the inspection, listing parts, looking up labor times, and waiting at the parts department can take over two hours – all unpaid.
Lately the hours clocked and the hours booked for the shop have not been equal. We have to work about 50 hours to book 30. My dealer is in Los Angeles, and in light of what happened at Mercedes of DTLA, we are now required to take hour long lunch breaks, and can’t work more than 8 hours a day. At 5 we are all rushed out of the shop. No one stays late unless it’s a waiter. I’m really glad that the techs at MB of DTLA got what they fought for, but it seriously hurt some of us. Our paychecks took a big blow. What is going to happen to the quality of work coming out of the shops now that everyone has to rush much more than before is a whole additional problem.
Things are getting bad out there.
In reply to SpawnedX – you are so dead on. Each one of those points strikes a nerve and you are absolutely right on each one.
My dealer has been tormented by secret shoppers, and they are easy to spot but they use some shady tactics. Passing one of those is not easy and you have to be 100%. We suffered a lot as a result. The techs always get the s****y end of the stick.n We are now required to do complete MPIs on every vehicle that comes through a shop. I have been doing this for many years, and a complete MPI can take anywhere from .3 to over an hour. They also expect us to quote for parts and labor when we find something wrong with a car – that means diag. A loud death-clunk from the suspension, or a DTC stored in one of the countless systems. They want it quoted for, and don’t expect us to charge diag time since it’s an ‘upsell’. If you get an older car with a lot of issues, the time spent doing the inspection, listing parts, looking up labor times, and waiting at the parts department can take over two hours – all unpaid.
Lately the hours clocked and the hours booked for the shop have not been equal. We have to work about 50 hours to book 30. My dealer is in Los Angeles, and in light of what happened at Mercedes of DTLA, we are now required to take hour long lunch breaks, and can’t work more than 8 hours a day. At 5 we are all rushed out of the shop. No one stays late unless it’s a waiter. I’m really glad that the techs at MB of DTLA got what they fought for, but it seriously hurt some of us. Our paychecks took a big blow. What is going to happen to the quality of work coming out of the shops now that everyone has to rush much more than before is a whole additional problem.
Things are getting bad out there.
I had this happen when i was replacing an engine mount on my girlfriend’s rustbucket POS civic. I ended up cutting a hole in the frame using a hole saw and replaced the welded blind nut with a nylon lock nut.
