B8 S4 Ownership

Author
Discussion

lemonslap

960 posts

154 months

Friday 13th February 2015
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bungle said:
"Sports Differential System Fault". Oh dear eek

Not just come on once, but a number of times weeping

Booked in to dealers. Needs new sports diff! £6k part + labour yikes

Thank fk for the warranty readit

But the part is on back-order, so currently no idea when I will get the car back. No courtesy car (for now), so not much driving for a while maybe. But no driving means I can do drink whenever I want!
Not good mate! Thank god for the warrenty! I said a few pages back that I actively sourced a non sports diff car due to the potential big bills, despite I know a sports diff equiped car drives better... Although I also purchased a manual box car to try and avoid big DSG bills, but we know how that has ended so far..

bungle

1,874 posts

239 months

Saturday 14th February 2015
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I wasn't looking for sports diff either, and went to look at this car thinking it didn't have it, but playing with the menus after the test drive I saw it had it. The salesman had no idea!

I say "warranty" covered it, but apparently it's covered under Factory Goodwill (the part), and Audi Approved Used Warranty (the labour). I don't really understand why (or care in a way, as I'm not paying regardless), but I do want to find out why. And it implies that I would have got the parts cost covered, regardless of warranty, which may (or may not) influence my decision to renew (or not) the Audi warranty when it expires. (which is soon!).

lemonslap

960 posts

154 months

Saturday 14th February 2015
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I didn't renew my Audi warrenty back in September as I wished to perform the servicing and repairs myself, if I didn't have the ability to do this I would of kept the warrenty going. So far this year had the clutch and flywheel replaced (paid someone else to do this) and replaced one of the B&O speakers.

s4tronic

245 posts

125 months

Saturday 14th February 2015
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lemonslap said:
I didn't renew my Audi warrenty back in September as I wished to perform the servicing and repairs myself, if I didn't have the ability to do this I would of kept the warrenty going. So far this year had the clutch and flywheel replaced (paid someone else to do this) and replaced one of the B&O speakers.
Was b&o speaker replaced under extended warranty?

lemonslap

960 posts

154 months

Saturday 14th February 2015
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s4tronic said:
lemonslap said:
I didn't renew my Audi warrenty back in September as I wished to perform the servicing and repairs myself, if I didn't have the ability to do this I would of kept the warrenty going. So far this year had the clutch and flywheel replaced (paid someone else to do this) and replaced one of the B&O speakers.
Was b&o speaker replaced under extended warranty?
It has had two speakers replaced in my ownership, the first one under warrenty left front door and the second I paid for (no warrenty) dash left speaker but only cost £23.

silentbrown

8,793 posts

115 months

Saturday 14th February 2015
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bungle said:
Needs new sports diff! £6k part + labour yikes

Thank fk for the warranty
eek! I guess if it's covered by goodwill there's a known design/manufacturing issue somewhere...

Just ordered an S4 with sports diff smile (and extended 5yr warranty, as there seem a few of expensive bits waiting to go bang just outside 3 years - and warranty costs the same as a base A4)

lemonslap

960 posts

154 months

Thursday 26th February 2015
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Had my oil analysis back today on the Millers Nanodrive CFS 5w-40..



Adrian E

3,248 posts

175 months

Thursday 26th February 2015
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That's very interesting - have you sent them a sample of the oil straight from the bottle?

Are you using the same again or changing to something else? That's a friction improver I think, isn't it?

lemonslap

960 posts

154 months

Thursday 26th February 2015
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Adrian E said:
That's very interesting - have you sent them a sample of the oil straight from the bottle?

Are you using the same again or changing to something else? That's a friction improver I think, isn't it?
I haven't sent them any new oil. but will do so over the next few days, I think from reading into the report what Millers have managed to do is make Molybdenum remain in suspension in the oil. I wasn't going to change to anything else as the wear looks good. I have sent the report Opie Oils as they were very interested in seeing it and will welcome there input.

Adrian E

3,248 posts

175 months

Thursday 26th February 2015
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Given the recommended longlife oil is 5w30, it sounds as well that even though it's branded a 5w40 it's potentially somewhere in between, subject to what the 5w30 actually comes in at at 40C compared to what it's stated to be?

Where'd you send the oil sample for testing? I've got Shell in ours at the moment and would be interested in comparing

lemonslap

960 posts

154 months

Thursday 26th February 2015
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Opie recommended as it designed for engines were 5w-30 is normally specified, looks like they are right! I used this company for the analysis: http://www.fa-st.co.uk/ . I posted the old oil off on Sunday and result emailed today, good service!

bungle

1,874 posts

239 months

Tuesday 3rd March 2015
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What fuel are you guys using? 95 or 98 RON? Anyone find either "better"? Is it worth the extra for 98 RON with a standard car, as I assumed it isn't mapped for 98 anyway?

jimmyjimjim

7,329 posts

237 months

Wednesday 4th March 2015
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91 Octane, nae probs here.

lemonslap

960 posts

154 months

Wednesday 4th March 2015
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bungle said:
What fuel are you guys using? 95 or 98 RON? Anyone find either "better"? Is it worth the extra for 98 RON with a standard car, as I assumed it isn't mapped for 98 anyway?
One of the tuning company's discussed this, sorry can't find the post... They stated in standard form there are no gains to be had on any 95RON+ fuels. As our local Shell garage closed, ours is fed a diet of Sainsbury's standard 95.

Adrian E

3,248 posts

175 months

Wednesday 4th March 2015
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95 here too - I go by fuel flap and it says 95/91 so isn't mapped for anything higher. Clearly if tuned it can enable running higher octane and produce greater additional power as a result. Running 98 won't cause any issues on a standard engine however

BIGYIN1314

72 posts

204 months

Wednesday 4th March 2015
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It was MRC's Doug that said that the car was developed to make its power on 95ron, and using anything beyond that in stock form would not result in any more performance. I personally run on 95 as there is no advantage to run on anything higher.

silentbrown

8,793 posts

115 months

Wednesday 4th March 2015
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Three weeks after placing my order I've finally got a build week: 21. So looks like June before its with me. Oh well... Patience, patience.

Hol

8,360 posts

199 months

Wednesday 4th March 2015
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95ron. I won't be modding this one, before trading it in before three years are up.


bungle

1,874 posts

239 months

Thursday 5th March 2015
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Thanks folks – looks like it's 95 RON then. They (Shell etc) often quote better mpg with the higher RON fuels (I think even when your engine has not specifically been mapped for it), so interested to know if anyone has actually noticed a difference in mpg? (rather than performance).

In my experience, the mpg/range is pretty poor (to say the least!), especially over my 17 mile stop/start commute, so even if there are no performance gains it wouldn't take much for 98 RON to pay for itself if there were mpg gains (ie. 98 RON is about 5% more expensive, so anything more than a 1-1.5 mpg increase would be worth it).

Adrian E

3,248 posts

175 months

Thursday 5th March 2015
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I've tried this in the past on a non-98 RON mapped vehicle - it made it run smoother and you might get a 1-2mpg difference in economy, but not enough to warrant the additional 7p per litre of fuel.

There's more difference to economy figures from changes in seasons than anything else - there's a good reason the old snake oil products like lead pellets in your fuel tank were all advertised heavily as we came out of winter! If anyone bothered to compare before/after economy they would see one....