Can you give some advice on how to approach my 2009 Audi A3's oil leaks and computer problems?
Thanks so much for maintaining such an informative forum. I just received
some bad news from my local mechanic and maybe someone here can offer
advice.
We have a 2009 Audi A3. For the past few years we’ve had random warning
lights going off, including those for low tire pressure, faulty headlamps, various
low fluids, and ABS brakes. At different times I’ve noticed decreased
performance, but nothing that has made the car inoperable. I brought the car
into the dealership under warranty multiple times. Sometimes they found
nothing wrong. Other times they found that sensors were faulty. They were
replaced, but a little time would pass and the warning lights would go back on.
Once they found a cracked head gasket and it was replaced under warranty.
The car has 70K miles and is now out of warranty. Some of the sensor lights
still go off, but we’ve learned to live with it. Lately the car has been going
through far too much oil—nearly a quart per month. I’ve been topping off the
oil each time the low oil light has come on. About a month ago the check
engine light came on.
I brought the car into my local mechanic today. They did an inspection and ran
a full diagnostic. It turns out there are two oil leaks that will cost nearly $2K to
repair. However, they also found that the computer appears faulty. When they
hooked up the car for the diagnostic they first read 18 errors. They reset and
the new reading came back with 6 errors. They reset, did a test drive, then
reread and came back with 9 errors. In short, they think the computer needs to
be remapped or replaced and this might have been the problem all along.
They can’t provide either service so I’m going to have to visit the dealership.
The car is no longer all that valuable so we don’t want to pay for costly oil leak
repairs until the computer problem is sorted and we find that it’s worthwhile to
do so. I think a computer replacement would be very expensive. Remapping
would be cheaper, but we’re already stinging from the potential $2K oil leak
repair.
Do you think it would be worthwhile to try some of the inexpensive off-the-
shelf oil leak repair products such as additives? How would you approach the
computer problem?