Hello from Manchester

B

BBB

Member
Hi, it's time to introduce myself after a while of lurking - it's been very useful looking here for help and tips. I became an A2 owner around 4 years ago when my friend's partner was selling it on behalf of an elderly relative. She had owned it since new and it only had 40,000 miles on so I snapped it up.

It's been a great car so far, still under 80,000 miles and running well so hopefully got a fair bit of life left in it - we have two learner drivers in the family and both are keen to practice in my car, and probably hoping I will get a new one and pass it on soon! It usually needs a bit of attention at service time but other than a windscreen wiper motor and some suspension parts nothing much has broken... until recently. I hit a piece of debris on the motorway and when I was at traffic lights a few minutes later I felt the car drive over something. It was only when I got home I realised it was my radiator grille that had fallen off! I did go back to retrieve it and check the part number (which I wrote on an envelope and have since lost). It had also lost one of the fog light covers and the other has since broken off.

Looking online I can find replacement parts but they are expensive - £89 for the grille and £46 each for the fog light covers! Is there a cheaper way to replace these parts?

I don't have much to spend but I'd like to make it right and possibly address some of the other missing bits while I'm at it if I can find a good source:
Dipstick and collar
Front fog lamp
Alloy wheel centre caps
I may even save up to replace the horribly kerbed front alloy

Anyway, nice to meet you all and any pointers for where to get sensibly priced and reliable parts much appreciated.

Thanks.
 

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Hello and welcome....sorry to hear about the damage and hopefully an easy fix. You may find it helpful to place a "wanted" ad in the market section. Simply click on your avatar/name on the black bar at the top of the screen and it will give you a drop down menu. Click on "account upgrade" and follow the instructions. It will cost £2 (which goes towards the running of the site) and well worth it.
 
Welcome to the forum. That was good fortune to get one with just 40K on the clock 4 years ago. I've had my A2 TDi 19 years and 90k miles and I agree they are very reliable. From what I read the petrol ones will more likely fail first as they get older but at 80K and provided your A2 has been well maintained you should be OK for now.

As for parts. Yes, many are now hard to obtain new unless they are common to other VW/Audi cars, e.g. Polo. A few years back all remaining A2 stock at Audi dealers were sent back to Germany to Audi Tradition https://shops.audi.com/en_GB/web/tradition/ . But when Brexit came AT stopped shipping to the UK. However @Rickmeister who lives in Germany from time to time very kindly organises a group buy where he buys the items and ship or brings them to the UK where another member has volunteered to forward to those who had ordered the parts.

We have a number of members (e.g. @A2Steve Ami ) that rescue A2s and where they are not fixable will sell good parts to members at reasonable cost. So to your list:

Dipstick and collar - easily available from our breakers
Front fog lamp - ditto
Front bumper grill - ditto - I'm not too sure if you can fix it without removing the bumper.
Alloy wheel centre caps - good used ones are rare and sell very quickly - good luck!
 
Hiya, I recently bought two new front fogs for £50 each and front bumper grille for £40 all on ebay. The bumper grille is common on other VAG cars.
I'm in Lancashire if you need any local help.
James
 
If you're wanting to chav the car up a bit for a change, instead of a lower front grille you could wedge in some blue anodised boost pipes and a chintzy chromed front mount intercooler (not plumbed into anything, just for "the look"), and some bright blue-tinted bulbs for the fog lamps. Half the prep work is already done.

I take it that's not the effect you're looking for? :)
 
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