Tdi90 clattering and knocking on overrun and at idle

Cloth Ears

A2OC Donor
Hello all,

Driving home from work today in traffic and I noticed an odd vibration through the clutch pedal on a neutral or trailing throttle. This has progressed to an expensive-sounding knocking and clattering when the car is stood at idle, or on the overrun, or under engine braking. When changing gear, a vibration can be felt through the pedal when taking up the drive.

I've taken a quick look under the bonnet, nothing obvious amiss apart from this horrendous noise; the noise seems to be coming from somewhere around the top left side of the engine and while the car was idling, the noise suddenly stopped and everything sounded perfectly normal. Aside from this horrible noise, everything drives normally. When I gently blipped the throttle, the noise resumed.

Does anybody have any thoughts as to what the likely source of this might be, and how much my beloved A2 is likely to cost me, this time?
 
Certainly does... similar symptoms to mine which has just been done after 130,000 miles. The clutch can be okay but the dual mass flywheel is the main wear item.
 
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Thanks, I was afraid of that. Clutch is fine, was replaced 20,000 miles ago (current mileage is about 115,000) when the bottom end of the engine was rebuilt. DMF was OK then, so I didn't replace it because doing so would have tipped the balance of the whole job into uneconomic.

My understanding is that the biggest expense is the labour, the flywheel itself is a few hundred. Is a solid flywheel significantly cheaper? If so, is there one to fit the Tdi90, and what would be the downsides.

Talking to the missus, she's firmly of the view that now is the time to cut loose and replace it. I don't want to, but may have little choice if marital harmony is to be maintained. Any ideas on the likely value of a 2004 (54 plate) Tdi90 Sport with goosed flywheel, but in otherwise very nice*, original condition, with full history from main dealer, then regularly fettled by Awesome from year 6 onwards?

*minor parking scuffs to the front and rear bumpers (one on each), A broken grille over the aircon heat exchanger, tiny car park ding to driver's door, and a moderate amount of kerbing/scuffing to the 17" sports wheels. Oh, and it needs a new aircon heat exchanger. Motorway debris did for that, and its grille, a few weeks ago. But I've always kept on top of the important stuff, and have a bucketload of receipts to prove it. Never skimped on consumables or tyres, either.
 
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The biggest problem is that the car has an, as yet, undiagnosed fault, likely to be the DMF and that will cause people to be over cautious about buying it and so they will value the car quite low.

However the TDI Sport is a great car, even more so in 90 form.

I would love the car, I am looking for a base for my next project, but it will be out of my price range.

Because I am slightly interested, I can't suggest a price for fear of it being seen as me "trying it on".

Really sorry to hear that you are having this issue, I hope you get a reasonable outcome.

Steve B
 
I see there's a Tdi90 Sport in the 'for sale' section for £2700. I'd been thinking (before today) that a decent Tdi90 would be worth around £3500 so that one seems surprisingly cheap. Am I mistaken?

I'd MUCH rather the car go to an A2 enthusiast than p/ex it against something else. I've had it since it was 18 months and 3000 miles old. We go back a long way, me and my A2, and I'd like to see it go to somebody who'd appreciate it as much as I have.

Would it be a better bet to fix it and then sell to recoup the cost, or sell 'as seen' and cut my losses, would you think?
 
I see there's a Tdi90 Sport in the 'for sale' section for £2700. I'd been thinking (before today) that a decent Tdi90 would be worth around £3500 so that one seems surprisingly cheap. Am I mistaken?

I'd MUCH rather the car go to an A2 enthusiast than p/ex it against something else. I've had it since it was 18 months and 3000 miles old. We go back a long way, me and my A2, and I'd like to see it go to somebody who'd appreciate it as much as I have.

Would it be a better bet to fix it and then sell to recoup the cost, or sell 'as seen' and cut my losses, would you think?

The prices for A2s are all over the place currently.

They are in between being a modern classic (for those that know their true value) and cheap old runarounds (for those that don't know them).

So there is no real price for any A2.

Also, people like me and many others on here, see the TDI 90 Sport as being at the top (or close to the top) of the pile.
Others worry about the DMF and VNT turbo and so value them a lot less.

There are not many A2s nearing the £4k price tag at the moment, so a nice sorted TDI 90 Sport can fetch mid 3s in my view (unless it is outstanding) but as I say, there are many on here that would say a lower price because of the DMF and Turbo, perhaps they might say High 2s to low 3s? But there is no right or wrong price.

Steve B
 
I bought the complete kit from these sellers.....

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/AUDI-A2-8...141635&hash=item4d5bcf597c:g:jrgAAOSwlndZNgGa

You may also need a clutch release bearing LUK500044010....£11 and a guide sleeve 02A141180A...£15.

and the labour charge was around £250..... 5hrs.

Well worth doing in my opinion for under £600 in total if you take into account your cars history ... it will be obviously be cheaper if you only need the DMF.
Cheers
Dave :)
 
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I see there's a Tdi90 Sport in the 'for sale' section for £2700. I'd been thinking (before today) that a decent Tdi90 would be worth around £3500 so that one seems surprisingly cheap. Am I mistaken?

I'd MUCH rather the car go to an A2 enthusiast than p/ex it against something else. I've had it since it was 18 months and 3000 miles old. We go back a long way, me and my A2, and I'd like to see it go to somebody who'd appreciate it as much as I have.

Would it be a better bet to fix it and then sell to recoup the cost, or sell 'as seen' and cut my losses, would you think?

You will get more for it fixed of course, but then you need to spend that money and hope that everything is then sorted and there is no guarantee that you will recover all of those costs.
It really is your call.

I guess we would hope that you fix it and keep it !!!!! LOL

Steve B
 
This sounds very familiar....
I had a TDI 75 for 8 years and as it approached 140,000 miles I thought it was time for a replacement, though it was still on the original clutch - I was worried it would be a big expense!
Managed to find a superb tdi 90 55 registered with only 60,000 miles on the clock
I thought "great" it'll be good for 80,000 miles.
So, 10,000 miles / 1 year later I have to replace clutch and DMf at £800!
I was so annoyed that I'd sold my old A2 and was stuck with this one. I didn't realise the tdi 90 was so different and that the DMf etc was a common issue on the 90 and not the 75!
To be honest, I fell out of love with the whole A2 thing for a while, but after some time I came to appreciate how great the tdi 90 is. It might have some issues the 75 doesn't, but if you keep up,with the servicing etc, it's a much better car to drive.
As others have mentioned, A2 values seem to holding, and with the DMF sorted, a well looked after model with service history etc will fetch a good price.
I would recommend you see the cost of repairs (painful as it might be) as an investment.
There's nothing else out there quite like an A2.
I've decided to keep mine for good, ive spent loads on wheel bearings, brakes, cruise control, oil pump tensioner etc, etc. If I sell it now to cut my losses, buy something else, and then end up replacing all of the same things........
Better the devil you know!



Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
Also, people like me and many others on here, see the TDI 90 Sport as being at the top (or close to the top) of the pile. Others worry about the DMF and VNT turbo and so value them a lot less.

Nothing wrong with a VNT tubo Steve, as long as you don't just use the car for shortish journeys.

RAB
 
Nothing wrong with a VNT tubo Steve, as long as you don't just use the car for shortish journeys.

RAB

I couldn't agree more about them being no real problem. (ands I did say that others worry about them, not me)

As for short journeys, my wife used her 90 for the school run for 6 years of short journeys.

A quick blast every now and then (which is fun anyway) and they are fine.

Good quality fuel helps too.

and I VERY rarely hear of turbo problems and just as many failures are on 75s as 90s

Steve B
 
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Thanks, all. Car is now with Awesome, I'll wait to hear back from them but DMF has to be the likely culprit. I'm pretty determined to get the work done and continue to use the car, at least until it doesn't owe me the cost of the repair but preferably much longer than that. I'm getting some resistance from the Mrs, though, who is pretty set on me changing it. Frankly, I can't think of anything I'd happily change it for, for much under £20k but we disagree on this.

My view is that even a £1k bill every year is cheaper than the cost of finance for a newer car, and depreciation is pretty much a non-event, unlike a newer, more mainstream car. But, hey.
 
That is a great attitude and financially sound as well.

Glad you plan to keep the car, no replacement could come even close to giving you what you can get from a good A2 (apart from another good A2, of course)

Steve B
 
Thanks! :)

I could be tempted out of the A2 for a good electric car of some sort. Maybe a BMW i3, but nothing less. The new Jag i-Pace looks amazing, but well out of my reach until there are some 2 year-old examples in the system. My feeling is that that means at least 3 more years of A2 motoring, but that remains to be seen...
 
Thanks! :)

I could be tempted out of the A2 for a good electric car of some sort. Maybe a BMW i3, but nothing less. The new Jag i-Pace looks amazing, but well out of my reach until there are some 2 year-old examples in the system. My feeling is that that means at least 3 more years of A2 motoring, but that remains to be seen...

The i3 is good. I have just handed mine back (it was on lease)

Getting back into an A2 really didn’t feel like a step down.

I miss the cheap (almost free) fuel costs and the addictive acceleration. But the A2 just FEELS Right.

Steve B

STE
 
Yes, I know what you mean. I love that 'planted' feeling, the secure handling and communicative steering (not your typical Audi, IME). I'm hoping that when I get the car back, it'll have lost some of that slightly raucous feel I notice, which is the main bugbear when getting out of another car.
 
I don’t know if you had any symptoms of the DMF issues before now?
but our 90 has a very heavy clutch and a small but noticeable vibration through the pedal.

The new clutch and DMF made a huge difference.

A very light clutch and super-smooth take up and pedal vibrations disappeared altogether.
Also the feeling that you won’t have to worry about the DMF for several years is good too.

Steve B
 
The engine came out for a bottom-end rebuild a couple of years ago (thrust washer going walkabout in the sump) and it was a hefty bill. As the car was on 93k miles, we replaced the clutch, but I discussed the DMF with the chief engineer at the time, and he said it was in good condition and if it was him, given the constraints on my budget, he'd be happy to re-use it. So we did. I took the view that it was an expense I could do without at the time, but also as I'd heard reports of DMFs failing after 40k miles, it seemed as though I'd got a good one, so replacing it with one which might, potentially, not be as good and might fail after 4 more years wasn't a no-brainer.

So this failure wasn't a huge surprise, 115k miles feels fair enough really, and I've had over 2 years more life out of the old DMF so I don't regret the decision. I guess the main waste will be the clutch, which has only had around 20k miles use but it'd be silly not to replace it again now.

I'm fine about the whole thing, it's just that my wife thinks we should take the hint and change it. Not sure why she's so bothered, she has her own, newer, car (a Seat Ibiza) and rarely uses mine (we tend to use hers when going out together). I'm rather hoping that it'll be smoother and quieter when it comes back, and she'll see the logic in keeping it in the family. Personally, I could see me and the A2 still being together in my dotage (hopefully, a couple of decades away yet), albeit I'd like to think it'll be a second car ere too long, but kept just for the fun of having what I do think of as a serious future classic.
 
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