2009 Audi A4 Avant

[SlimKlim]

Yeah I'm sure it is, the rear of the GTI is super stiff, much more so than the front, The front sort of sloughs its way over the sharp little speedbumps we have at the office and then the rear punches me in the kidney.

[Mike]

Let the electrical gremlins begin! My guess is they should have put a sensor on the sensor so it'd sense when the sensor wasn't sensing properly. Overly complicated shit...

Started the car this morning and received an error that the rear license plate light was out. No big deal. I then started driving and heard an obnoxiously loud clicking from the rear that went away [gradually] when I'd press the brake, but wasn't an on/off thing (was thinking some sort of bad relay that was being fixed by the power of the brake light activation? just grasping here). I get to a light, cycle the car on and off, the warning is gone, and no more clicking.

Any ideas?

Hopefully it's just a bad bulb that works now and then. That'll give me a good excuse to upgrade to LEDs like the car should have had from the factory.

[Apoc]

It's never what you think it is. My S4 threw brake sensor warnings, so they replaced all the pads/rotors. It still threw them, so they replaced the entire dash cluster. That fixed it.

Have you considered burning it to the ground?

[Mike]

WARRANTY!

[WRXtranceformed]

Ohhhh boy here it starts

[Mike]

Still no repeat after a few more starts. Good times. Hoping it is just a broken bulb that has a filament flicking around and usually connecting.

[SlimKlim]

Why would a bad bulb cause a clicking sound though?

Did your GTI do the "fuel pump tapping" thing? Apparently as part of a system check it does some stupid thing with the fuel pump, I can hear it tapping away when the car is cold and I'm at a stoplight.

[JustinG]

Definitely the blinker fluid.

[Mike]

Why would a bad bulb cause a clicking sound though?

Did your GTI do the "fuel pump tapping" thing? Apparently as part of a system check it does some stupid thing with the fuel pump, I can hear it tapping away when the car is cold and I'm at a stoplight.

Just thinking of how relays can click... No idea, really.

Nope, no fuel pump tapping.

[Mike]

Just dropped her off for a fancy detail. Will snap some fancy pics when we go on a fancy road trip on Sunday to some fancy scenic shit.

[Jake]

Just dropped her off for a fancy detail. Will snap some fancy pics when we go on a fancy road trip on Sunday to some fancy scenic shit.

I hope you ask your dear wife if she'd like to go for a ride in "the Owwww-di" and really draw out that fanciness.

[SlimKlim]

As opposed to "the wonnn-uh"?

[Mike]

Just dropped her off for a fancy detail. Will snap some fancy pics when we go on a fancy road trip on Sunday to some fancy scenic shit.

I hope you ask your dear wife if she'd like to go for a ride in "the Owwww-di" and really draw out that fanciness.

you mean my fancy dear wife?

[Mike]

So the weather was kind of rough until we got back home so no great pics. If you're on FB, you saw the awesome places we went.

The detail I got was shit. I got him to correct about five things when we picked it up and sent him a dozen others (pics) of things very clearly missed that he'll correct tomorrow. First time Yelp has really let me down.

Anyway, car is silly on the highway. Was just cruising along comfortably when I looked at the speedo and it read 88. I might need to setup a speed warning because the combination of smooth engine, 3700lbs, and gratuitous amounts of sound deadening can really cause a car to sail away from you. Aaand I've confirmed it corners like a boat. Oh wells.



Detail pics:












You get the idea... This was a very high-end detail from a guy with lots of published results. He "fit me in" so possible he unloaded my car on a lesser detailer for a quick and easy profit?

[SlimKlim]

Shit I coulda gotten those switches a lot cleaner than that, hope you didn't pay too much for that...

Your description of it on the highway sounds like Lauren's Optima. It's deceptive because it doesn't "feel" fast at all. It steams up a whole bunch of torque at 1700 rpms and plateaus most of the way through the RPM range, which makes it feel like it's not really accelerating. The motor doesn't strain, the road noise doesn't get louder, the only indication is watching the speedo climb. I drove it to visit the dog breeder on Saturday morning and had to use the cruise control because I kept looking down and I realizing I was going 90+ by accident.

[Jake]

I drove D'Amico's A4 (same gen, sedan, 2.0T) back to the hotel from Summit Point on Saturday night... same deal. I looked down and I was going 80 in a 65 without even trying. Nice car to drive though, for the 8 miles I drove it.

[Mike]

Shit I coulda gotten those switches a lot cleaner than that, hope you didn't pay too much for that...

Paid enough that it should have been flawless. I got better in Arlington (<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.yelp.com/biz/perfect-auto-detail-falls-church">http://www.yelp.com/biz/perfect-auto-de ... lls-church</a><!-- m -->) for about 2/3 this price.

[Evan]

damn I skimmed and first I thought those pics were *before* the detail to show how gross the car was.........

[Mike]

Yeah... I'll give him a chance to redeem himself before I bring down the Yelp hammer. The POs had dogs. There's not a ton of hair in the car, but a bit. Am I wrong to think there should be none after a quality detail? Or am I asking too much?

[Ken]

Yeah... I'll give him a chance to redeem himself before I bring down the Yelp hammer. The POs had dogs. There's not a ton of hair in the car, but a bit. Am I wrong to think there should be none after a quality detail? Or am I asking too much?

No, but I had the same experience here. Normal people just have a much lower bar for details.