One careful owner...

Great story and testament to the hard wearing and long life our A2s can give. I don't normally having a liking for yellow but your Imola Yellow could make me change my mind! The colour storms became available in mid 2002. Maybe when Audi saw how fetching your A2 was it gave them the idea of the colour storms ;)

Wishing you great motoring to reach the 500,000.
 
Brilliant write up. Love it . Sligichan at 500k miles is indeed a most worthy place for the milestone. Thanks for sharing this.
 
Hi.

I joined recently after an invitation from a member who uses the same garage as me, so thanks for the invite, Rince/Andy.

I've already made a small contribution in the 'highest mileage' thread, but this seems the most appropriate place to give the full story. Please bear with me, as I have very little spare time just at the mo.

So, the story began in the summer of 2002, when I placed my order for a 1.4 TDi Sport at Dane Audi in Chester. A work colleague had a rather snazzy S3 that I liked the colour of, so I duely handed over an extra thousand quid for them to paint mine Imola Yellow.

several months later, in November, I was able to go and pick up my little ray of sunshine:

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Part of the justification for the purchase was the rather high miles I was doing to and from work - 170 daily, so I soon racked up a lot of zeroes on the mileometer. One of the joys of the car at this time was the service interval. 32,000 miles, the car told me, but the max under the warranty was 30,000, so that's what I stuck to.

Anyway, here's a few key points, as I remember them, no guarantee of 100% accuracy!

Up to 350,000 miles, I had the car serviced by the dealership. Notable replacements were the clutch slave cylinder (they replaced the master first, because that had gone on a TT they'd had in), and the first turbo, at about 160,000 miles. I think they may have done a couple of EGR valves along the way, as well.

Perhaps one of the most notable replacements has been the wheels. I consider these consumables, having been through around 16, in three different patterns. I calculated that on average, I replaced one every 60,000 miles. Having said that, I don't seem to be having as much trouble with the current set.

Different wheels:

Original:

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Next:

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Current:

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So at 350k, I parted company with Cheshire Oaks Audi, as they had become by now, after some botched engine maintenance which left me needing a new engine. That and the sarky comments coming back from the workshop, along the lines of: 'Isn't it time you got a new car?'

Enter Manor Garage in Chester. After a bit of advice, I acquired a new (well, slightly used) AMF engine, and they fitted it for me.

I still have the top of the original engine, it struck me that there are bits in there that might be useful later.

Since then, I've had two gearbox changes - the first was another ebay job, which unfortunately didn;t last, so I bit the bullet and ordered a factory fresh one. The main problem with the original was that the selector was entirely worn out, apparently.

( by the way, while technically literate, I have no interest in doing work on the car myself - it was bought to do a job, which it continues to do admirably. The most I've done is repair the windscreen washer pipe after it came undone following a windscreen replacement )

On with the replacements: both drive shafts and various joints - one went after a particularly nasty encounter with a massive pothole on the M56 at high speed - I wasn't usually in the inside lane. Back springs and dampers, although the fronts are still original. The exhaust lasted past 400k before all the wear and tear on the front caused the cat section to fail, and since then it has progressively deteriorated - the next bit on the list is the back box.

Speaking of which, post-engine swap, I started to have problems with the turbo. Much limping. After some investigation, Phil at Manor reckoned that when the engine swap took place, the turbo had got some water in it, and this had caused the small steel actuator for the variable vane geometry to rust, making it stick. Once this had been sanded back and cleaned, it was much better, but was still subject to causing limp mode, particularly when either changing power very slowly, or demanding lots of power.

I managed this for a long time, becoming very adept at turning the car off and on at 70, but preferably doing a lot of feathering of the accelerator, particularly when going up big hills. However, a couple of weeks ago, I had a shiny new turbo fitted, andit's made a world of difference.

So here's a short record of my mileage. In the early years I was doing up to 45k a year, but that has tailed off now.

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The last one being taken at the Sligachan Hotel on Skye, one of my favourite places. I did all the calculations and predictions to book holiday at just the right time to be able to drive up there and hit the half a million somewhere significant.

There's undoubtedly more, but I hope this introduction is enough to be going on with.
What a great story.......
 
1. Go to the "Introductions" forum
2. Top right, click "Filters"
3. Sort by "First message reaction score"
4. Find this thread

Currently at 581k miles and going! Thanks for sharing your story
 
You'll have looked at the MOT history ;)

This year's MOT was done while the car was having a bit of a break at WOM. Sorry to say that much of the work was repairing/putting right work that had been done by my local garage. However, to everyone's surprise, it got through the MOT at first attempt, before they'd done much to it.

With the current restrictions, I'm not going to be driving much, so it was good to have a blast on Saturday, when I picked it up. Now that it's feeling better, there are a few improvements that I can justify :)
 
Fantastic reading, I saw your car at WOM when I dropped and collected my 2 recently. It was there a long while! I was worried it was at its end of life, but asked the guys and they said it’s still going strong! Good to hear it’s still serving you well, we can only all hope ours last even half your miles!
 
You'll have looked at the MOT history ;)

This year's MOT was done while the car was having a bit of a break at WOM. Sorry to say that much of the work was repairing/putting right work that had been done by my local garage. However, to everyone's surprise, it got through the MOT at first attempt, before they'd done much to it.

With the current restrictions, I'm not going to be driving much, so it was good to have a blast on Saturday, when I picked it up. Now that it's feeling better, there are a few improvements that I can justify :)
As a new A2 owner i've just stumbled across your thread. A great read! I'm in Frodsham so will keep my eyes peeled for a yellow A2 when out and about.
 
Fantastic reading, I saw your car at WOM when I dropped and collected my 2 recently. It was there a long while! I was worried it was at its end of life, but asked the guys and they said it’s still going strong! Good to hear it’s still serving you well, we can only all hope ours last even half your miles!
Admittedly, a lot of the miles that mine has done have been at 70 on the motorway, but even so, I hope that a lot of people on here can take confort in the fact that there is still plenty of life left in the old warhorse. If treated well, these cars just keep on going.
 
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