Q7 4.2 TDI - owner reviews and tips sought
Discussion
Finally got round to changing my car after 12 years in a Mercedes CLK 320 (bought new).
What a beast of a car and superb spec, which took a while to find.
2008 (58) Grey metallic, S-Line, 2G MMI High with AMI and DAB, panoramic sunroof, heated front and rear seats, 4 zone climate control, 21 inch alloys, power fold mirrors, advanced parking with camera. 61,000 miles and great service history.
Very happy with it so far but looking to start a thread to share 4.2 TDI owning experiences and create a focused thread about running one and considering upgrades and "tweaks".
First observations and thoughts about improving over time are: -
- Planning on doing around 8,000 to 12,000 motorway miles a year, so may look into the long life service. Let me know if anyone has any experience with this choice
- Upgrading the MMI and maps to 5571 code and 2014 maps (shame that 2G doesn't do full postcode searching)
- Mild chip tuning (Superchips or similar) would like to get some ideas of options.
- The dealer put some of the cheapest tyres on the car, Nangkang AS1, and so far feel OK and a little noisy, so would like to get some recommendations on tyres others use for all year round use. I would typically use a well known brand, so will run these out and change in about a year, assuming they last that long
Thanks in advance for any contributions
Chris
What a beast of a car and superb spec, which took a while to find.
2008 (58) Grey metallic, S-Line, 2G MMI High with AMI and DAB, panoramic sunroof, heated front and rear seats, 4 zone climate control, 21 inch alloys, power fold mirrors, advanced parking with camera. 61,000 miles and great service history.
Very happy with it so far but looking to start a thread to share 4.2 TDI owning experiences and create a focused thread about running one and considering upgrades and "tweaks".
First observations and thoughts about improving over time are: -
- Planning on doing around 8,000 to 12,000 motorway miles a year, so may look into the long life service. Let me know if anyone has any experience with this choice
- Upgrading the MMI and maps to 5571 code and 2014 maps (shame that 2G doesn't do full postcode searching)
- Mild chip tuning (Superchips or similar) would like to get some ideas of options.
- The dealer put some of the cheapest tyres on the car, Nangkang AS1, and so far feel OK and a little noisy, so would like to get some recommendations on tyres others use for all year round use. I would typically use a well known brand, so will run these out and change in about a year, assuming they last that long
Thanks in advance for any contributions
Chris
Quick update.
Current MPG averaging 19MPG to 22MPG (really trying not to hoof it.....too much), mainly town speeds from home to the offices in Chiswick and occasional longer runs and getting up to almost 27MPG, which is quite respectable.
Upgraded the MMI to 5570 code with no issues at all (kept the engine running and didn't touch any other gadgets) which seems to have changed a couple of settings such as convenience open, which no longer does the panoramic sunroof with the windows, nor does it have the option anymore (no real issue). Response seems faster and with the 2014 maps loaded, seems to be a little quicker in dealing with route recalcuation, but maybe that's me wishful thinking.
Connected with Audi Volkswagen Specialists in Leatherhead, which is close to me and has a growing reputation. I want a good place to take my car going forward for service and repairs (should it need any) and they are a family business who seem to know their stuff.
Looking to explore extended warranties with Warrantywise (Quentin Willson endorsed and backed), but the price of around £1100 per year is making me do some more due diligence. If anyone has any experiences with warranty companies for the Q7, please let me know your thoughts.
Forums indicate things such as air suspension and sunroof drains (rear blockages fill the boot with water, where the expensive elecronics reside!) being items to keep an eye on, as well as excessive tyre wear if not checked for tracking and pressure regularly.
Current MPG averaging 19MPG to 22MPG (really trying not to hoof it.....too much), mainly town speeds from home to the offices in Chiswick and occasional longer runs and getting up to almost 27MPG, which is quite respectable.
Upgraded the MMI to 5570 code with no issues at all (kept the engine running and didn't touch any other gadgets) which seems to have changed a couple of settings such as convenience open, which no longer does the panoramic sunroof with the windows, nor does it have the option anymore (no real issue). Response seems faster and with the 2014 maps loaded, seems to be a little quicker in dealing with route recalcuation, but maybe that's me wishful thinking.
Connected with Audi Volkswagen Specialists in Leatherhead, which is close to me and has a growing reputation. I want a good place to take my car going forward for service and repairs (should it need any) and they are a family business who seem to know their stuff.
Looking to explore extended warranties with Warrantywise (Quentin Willson endorsed and backed), but the price of around £1100 per year is making me do some more due diligence. If anyone has any experiences with warranty companies for the Q7, please let me know your thoughts.
Forums indicate things such as air suspension and sunroof drains (rear blockages fill the boot with water, where the expensive elecronics reside!) being items to keep an eye on, as well as excessive tyre wear if not checked for tracking and pressure regularly.
Edited by bridgland on Monday 31st March 17:35
This evening has been a little disturbing. I have found what seems to be a significant oil leak from the engine, just in time for the Easter Weekend, with no one to fix it until next week. I will be getting it up in the air tomorrow to see if I can identify the source as the under tray seems to be covered in oil.
Any suggestions of where to look first would be welcome.
Chris
Any suggestions of where to look first would be welcome.
Chris
So pulled the under-trays off and it turns out the sump plug was leaking and had spread all the way back under the car. Not very impressed as it had apparently just been serviced by the selling dealer (looked like they reused the sump washer). £100 down with all of the oil I had to put back into it (10 litres on the beast) as well as all of the cleaning I had to do. Seems to have fixed the issue, but I am now a little over on the oil level, so will be syphoning some out over the next couple of days.
Chris
Chris
bridgland said:
So pulled the under-trays off and it turns out the sump plug was leaking and had spread all the way back under the car. Not very impressed as it had apparently just been serviced by the selling dealer (looked like they reused the sump washer). £100 down with all of the oil I had to put back into it (10 litres on the beast) as well as all of the cleaning I had to do. Seems to have fixed the issue, but I am now a little over on the oil level, so will be syphoning some out over the next couple of days.
Chris
I've had this. I think 99 time out of a hundred they can get away with using the old sump plug washer..................................................Chris
Ok first hand experience of a 4.2 tdi which I have owned for 18 months
It's really rapid and has a lot of go off the mark and on the move
Mpg it does 24 in a lane run through town to work which I think is fair. It's a big car and a lot of hills including start stop
Mpg on the motorway I have seen the otherside of 30 but normally it returns 28-29
I don't hang about and do give it the use it should do but not to the extent of ragging the backside out if it
It stops quickly
My only gripe is the Auto GB it would be such a nice car with a manual shift as it sometimes struggles to decide which gear it wants when mr softie is driving in front varying speed
Tyres I did 12000 miles and still had tread left but a puncture on the outer edge meant new tyres which was good as the previous owner fitted cheap tyres
If you can fit uniroyal rainsport 3 on there do it but I could not wait to mid June for them to be in stock so fitted Kuhmo ku17 which are very grippy and give a good road feel and feedback. They cost 156 a corner the uniroyals you can buy for 135 and pay to have them fitted so there you have it decent tyres for an good price.
Issues I have had are faulty DPF sensor which cost 550 to sort from a independent garage
Battery 270
Brakes 400 pagids which do stop the car just squeak
Tyres 630
Apart for that its a good car
It's really rapid and has a lot of go off the mark and on the move
Mpg it does 24 in a lane run through town to work which I think is fair. It's a big car and a lot of hills including start stop
Mpg on the motorway I have seen the otherside of 30 but normally it returns 28-29
I don't hang about and do give it the use it should do but not to the extent of ragging the backside out if it
It stops quickly
My only gripe is the Auto GB it would be such a nice car with a manual shift as it sometimes struggles to decide which gear it wants when mr softie is driving in front varying speed
Tyres I did 12000 miles and still had tread left but a puncture on the outer edge meant new tyres which was good as the previous owner fitted cheap tyres
If you can fit uniroyal rainsport 3 on there do it but I could not wait to mid June for them to be in stock so fitted Kuhmo ku17 which are very grippy and give a good road feel and feedback. They cost 156 a corner the uniroyals you can buy for 135 and pay to have them fitted so there you have it decent tyres for an good price.
Issues I have had are faulty DPF sensor which cost 550 to sort from a independent garage
Battery 270
Brakes 400 pagids which do stop the car just squeak
Tyres 630
Apart for that its a good car
Good information.
Right now I am finding it difficult to get more than 24 mpg on a decent run, however I have been able to get 30 mpg on one run, but I had to really drive gently (almost embarrassingly so). I would like the to pay the same you do for your tyres, but with the 21 inch wheels, I can't get decent ones for less than £250 each corner.
Have you done, or considered a remap for the car to improve the MPG?
Chris
Right now I am finding it difficult to get more than 24 mpg on a decent run, however I have been able to get 30 mpg on one run, but I had to really drive gently (almost embarrassingly so). I would like the to pay the same you do for your tyres, but with the 21 inch wheels, I can't get decent ones for less than £250 each corner.
Have you done, or considered a remap for the car to improve the MPG?
Chris
Edited by bridgland on Wednesday 9th July 22:16
Hi Chris
Thanks
I forgot to say I am on 20"s 275 45. I did look at 20 295 40 but they were 185 each The simple reason I didn't put 21's on the car is the price of tyres. I have considered 22's but hear this makes the hard ride even harder.
I do have to say to get the 30 plus a .1 or .2 it was driving like miss daisy back from the Cotswolds to Bucks
Normally I get 28.x on a run and town is about 20-24. Work is about 22-24 The same drive to work in the 140ps golf I get 50-55 or 45 if I push the car. But its the price you pay to drive a large engine heavy 4x4. People at work always comment about how expensive it must be to run but reply I just drive it and put fuel in when it needs it. I got the 4.2 as its not much more thirsty than the 3.0 probably 1mpg but the grunt you get its like chalk and cheese and I woul probably get less out of the 3.0 as I would push it harder to keep it moving. Used to get more mpg out of a hirsch saab v6 than my 2.0T just because the smaller engine needed pushing more
The place I took my car VAG tune in aylesbury the guys know their stuff an really polite. Probably because they are relieving me of lots of cash. No they really are good chaps there and squeeze my car in quickly to get work done. I find them reasonable on price.. The only other thing they said is some flappy things in the manifold which are the only other thing that can go wrong.
Thanks
I forgot to say I am on 20"s 275 45. I did look at 20 295 40 but they were 185 each The simple reason I didn't put 21's on the car is the price of tyres. I have considered 22's but hear this makes the hard ride even harder.
I do have to say to get the 30 plus a .1 or .2 it was driving like miss daisy back from the Cotswolds to Bucks
Normally I get 28.x on a run and town is about 20-24. Work is about 22-24 The same drive to work in the 140ps golf I get 50-55 or 45 if I push the car. But its the price you pay to drive a large engine heavy 4x4. People at work always comment about how expensive it must be to run but reply I just drive it and put fuel in when it needs it. I got the 4.2 as its not much more thirsty than the 3.0 probably 1mpg but the grunt you get its like chalk and cheese and I woul probably get less out of the 3.0 as I would push it harder to keep it moving. Used to get more mpg out of a hirsch saab v6 than my 2.0T just because the smaller engine needed pushing more
The place I took my car VAG tune in aylesbury the guys know their stuff an really polite. Probably because they are relieving me of lots of cash. No they really are good chaps there and squeeze my car in quickly to get work done. I find them reasonable on price.. The only other thing they said is some flappy things in the manifold which are the only other thing that can go wrong.
I have been comparing the MPG from the computer display to the receipts I get from each fill up and recording the mileage, which I reset at the time. I also did a significantly different amount of driving conditions, as my job has me going into town, on motoways and country roads (especially when the motorways are congested), so my MPG will vary as you would have expected.
To minimise variances I have tried to fill up with the same fuel, at the same pump, at the same petrol station (only one time at another petrol station).
Interestingly, if I believed the trip computer, I would have been averaging 25.3 MPG, however the calculations from the fill-ups are saying: -
Overall MPG 21.85498955
The lowest MPGs achieved were when I had to go into London for several days, combined with going back out to Reading to the head office.
The last fillup, I drove very conservatively, with no hard acceleration (unless necessary), typically tried to keep the car over 55mph on NSL roads(but withing the speed limit) to get 6th gear engaged and drove whn the traffic was expected to be light.
So you may ask, what this tells anyone, especially me? All in all, the computer is being ambitious with the MPG figures so I can take it as a guide only. When I drive the car fairly hard, or drive in slow moving town/city traffic, I drop from 1.4 MPG up to 3.72MPG respectively, so basically I can feel happy that when I need to go swiftly it's not that bad an effect on overall fuel consumption.
Man Maths Rules!
To minimise variances I have tried to fill up with the same fuel, at the same pump, at the same petrol station (only one time at another petrol station).
Interestingly, if I believed the trip computer, I would have been averaging 25.3 MPG, however the calculations from the fill-ups are saying: -
| Mileometer | Miles | Litres | Gallons | MPG |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 64078 | 0 | 84.89 | 18.67318949 | N/A |
| 64541 | 463 | 93.86 | 20.64631365 | 22.42531078 |
| 64920 | 379 | 81.44 | 17.91429558 | 21.15628819 |
| 65366 | 446 | 97.29 | 21.40080817 | 20.84033446 |
| 65812 | 446 | 90.34 | 19.87202189 | 22.44361457 |
| 66175 | 363 | 82 | 18.03747836 | 20.12476427 |
| 66678 | 503 | 95.9 | 21.09505091 | 23.84445537 |
Overall MPG 21.85498955
The lowest MPGs achieved were when I had to go into London for several days, combined with going back out to Reading to the head office.
The last fillup, I drove very conservatively, with no hard acceleration (unless necessary), typically tried to keep the car over 55mph on NSL roads(but withing the speed limit) to get 6th gear engaged and drove whn the traffic was expected to be light.
So you may ask, what this tells anyone, especially me? All in all, the computer is being ambitious with the MPG figures so I can take it as a guide only. When I drive the car fairly hard, or drive in slow moving town/city traffic, I drop from 1.4 MPG up to 3.72MPG respectively, so basically I can feel happy that when I need to go swiftly it's not that bad an effect on overall fuel consumption.
Man Maths Rules!
Edited by bridgland on Monday 7th July 14:13
Edited by bridgland on Friday 11th July 08:48
I've found Audi trip computers to over-read (so in reality they're worse than the trip computer reports) by between 2-10% depending on the number of short trips/cold starts. It seems to be better when doing longer runs, for sure.
Ref tyres, I would avoid Continental Sport Contact 5s, as even on our lowly A6 the sidewall scrubbing is unreal! I was chatting to my local specialist about servicing routines on the Q7 and he reckoned premium tyres on town driven cars were a waste of money as they will scrub in no time, particularly on 20s or bigger. Obviously depends on budget and mix of driving as to what will suit overall but may be better to go for mid range and live with a slightly shorter lifespan.
Ref tyres, I would avoid Continental Sport Contact 5s, as even on our lowly A6 the sidewall scrubbing is unreal! I was chatting to my local specialist about servicing routines on the Q7 and he reckoned premium tyres on town driven cars were a waste of money as they will scrub in no time, particularly on 20s or bigger. Obviously depends on budget and mix of driving as to what will suit overall but may be better to go for mid range and live with a slightly shorter lifespan.
Interesting on the tyres.
The cheapies I have on the car are showing signs of the torque effect, with the leading edge of each block rasing up (I have reduced the amount of hoofing I do now). I have now done some 5,000 miles since geting the car and a lot of these out of town thankfully and expect to get at least another 7K to 10K out of them, based on how they are wearing today. I may well look at Dunlops next time round as they were always good on my other cars and had a longer than normal lifespan. It is always down to "better the devil you know" with me, unless I can gt a superb recommendation.
The cheapies I have on the car are showing signs of the torque effect, with the leading edge of each block rasing up (I have reduced the amount of hoofing I do now). I have now done some 5,000 miles since geting the car and a lot of these out of town thankfully and expect to get at least another 7K to 10K out of them, based on how they are wearing today. I may well look at Dunlops next time round as they were always good on my other cars and had a longer than normal lifespan. It is always down to "better the devil you know" with me, unless I can gt a superb recommendation.
I have Super Sports on my S8 in 20" and love them, but for a Q7 I suspect they'd have a very limited lifespan! I've been impressed with Dunlops in 19" on an S5 we test drove. Nice and quiet and gave as good roadholding as Michelin or Continental options.
The 20s on our new S5 Sportback are Sport Contact 3s, but some are older than the car, so must've been old shelf stock when fitted! They have worn consistently but it probably says more about how and where the car has been driven than the likely lifespan with reasonable amounts of town use.
I intend to get some smaller rims for the S5 for winter use (18s or 19s) so might be worth a look on German ebay as there's loads of Audi alloys with winter tyres pre-mounted with decent tread and quality rubber?
The 20s on our new S5 Sportback are Sport Contact 3s, but some are older than the car, so must've been old shelf stock when fitted! They have worn consistently but it probably says more about how and where the car has been driven than the likely lifespan with reasonable amounts of town use.
I intend to get some smaller rims for the S5 for winter use (18s or 19s) so might be worth a look on German ebay as there's loads of Audi alloys with winter tyres pre-mounted with decent tread and quality rubber?
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