Audi Problems

The recommended engine oil for your car is actually a 5W30 fully-synthetic. That goes for either the petrol or diesel-engined version of the Q5.

You've more or less answered your own question: When it comes to prestige makes and models, you'll often find you're paying for the brand image and how a car looks rather than what's in it. It's also very common for luxury brands to make many convenience and tech features part of an additional option pack that costs more for gear you might find standard in some more mainstream makes and models. That's just marketing for you.

A great example was the original Mercedes-Benz C-Class back in the late 1980s. This was Mercedes' first attempt at a cheaper car (to compete with the BMW 3-Series) and while it was nicely built and very solid, it had a small, relatively underpowered engine and a very plain interior. The argument was that you were paying for the core Mercedes engineering.

These days, there's also a compulsion to keep weight out of cars. Electric seats operate with electric motors and are notoriously heavy. By using manual seats, Audi can keep the kerb mass down which helps with handling, fuel economy and makes more of the relatively small engine fitted. Not to mention it gives the buyer the impetus to move up to the more expensive model with electric seats. Again, it's called marketing.

To stay within your budget, any A4 wagon you’re likely to find will be getting on for around 15 years old. A4s from this era weren’t bad cars (they were actually great to drive) but the old expression that there’s no such thing as a cheap, second-hand European car has its roots in the truth.

The fact is, an A4 of any sort will be more expensive to repair and maintain than many, say, Japanese or South Korean cars of a similar size. This isn’t Audi-bashing, it’s just a fact; the Audi is a more complex design and European car parts are just generally more expensive to buy (blame exchange rates).

None of this is to suggest that an A4 can’t be bought and run on a budget, but only to a certain extent. At which point, skipping vital maintenance might seem like a good financial decision but is most certainly not. A complex machine like the Audi is also probably not the best car on which to begin learning about maintenance, if that’s on your son’s agenda.

If you look on the major online selling sites (including this one) you’ll find that there are plenty of cars like yours for sale. Prices seem to start around the low to mid-$30,000s with lots of choice in the mid-30s to low-40s range. Prices appear to top out (generally) around the low to mid-50s.

Audi buyers tend to be pretty switched on, so a full service history will make your car more desirable. But prices also vary according to whether the car is a sedan, hatchback or convertible and what options are fitted. Even the colour of a car like this can have a big effect on the asking price.

The best advice is to tap into some of these sites and find an exact match for your car and see what the seller is asking. Don’t forget that dealers will be asking more than private sellers and that what is being asked in the advert is not always what is being paid in reality.

The recommended Audi Q5 engine oil is a fully synthetic oil with a viscosity rating of 5W30. Regardless of what engine is fitted to your Audi Q5 oil type and grade remains the same from 2017 onwards, regardless of whether the car in question is fitted with the two-litre turbo-petrol, two-litre turbo-diesel or the three-litre V6 engine.

In older, simpler cars than the Q5, an oil change is as simple as opening the drain plug to remove the old oil, spinning on a replacement oil filter, replacing the plug and refilling the engine with oil.

But the complex specifications of the modern Audi line-up mean that there’s often a bit more to this critical maintenance job. For instance, some of the fasteners Audi uses in the engine bay might require specialised tools. There are also sometimes complicated engine covers above and below the engine that need to be removed for a service to take place. Even turning off the service reminder light after the oil change can be confusing if you don’t have the knowledge or the gear to do it. Suddenly, a DIY job has just become a much bigger size task and “how to change oil on a Audi Q5” has become a very complex question.

For many Q5 owners, then, an oil change is a good job for an accredited service centre with a trained mechanic who can also advise on how often to change oil and the correct service interval for other important jobs.

You haven’t told me what engine and transmission your car is fitted with, but if it’s one with the seven-speed DSG transmission, then this would not be the first time buyers have experienced problems. While not as troublesome as some dual-clutch gearboxes, the Audi’s DSG can wear over time, with symptoms including jerking on take-off, an inability to select a gear and, as you’ve noted, a selection of noises and clunks during shifts.

A transmission specialist should be able to scan the car electronically to see if the car throws up a fault code, and can also graph the performance of the transmission’s clutch packs to see if they’re behaving smoothly.

But don’t rule out something loose or worn in the front suspension or even a worn driveshaft. Both these things can contribute to clunks at low speed.

The reductant heater on this car is a heating element that stops the AdBlue from freezing. According to most sources, the heater is only called into operate at ambient temperatures of minus-11 Celsius or lower. So, unless you're a regular at Australia's snowfields, your car will probably never need this function. But while the car may work perfectly without a functioning reductant heater, you might find that it's technically unroadworthy on the basis of its emissions systems (of which the AdBlue is a part) are not all working properly.

Most times, failures of this heater revolve around the electronics that control it, but when that happens, the computer will usually flash up a check-engine light to let you know there's something wrong. Without this light, I'm unsure why your mechanic would think there's a problem with the heater system.

It all depends on what aspect of the car disappointed you, Kylie. The clinical feel of an Audi interior is not a chance thing and the brand spends lots of time and money ensuring that its cabins and driving environments are among the most ergonomically savvy in the game. If, however, that makes the thing feel something less than special, then this is a classic example of where perception is reality. For you (which is what matters).

I'd also be interested to know what variant you drove that prompted you to ask questions about engine performance. The Q3 is available in one variant with 110kW and 250Nm, but also a higher-spec version with 132kW and a much meatier 320Nm. These feel quite different to drive thanks to the extra performance of the latter.

Beyond the Audi brand, the world is your oyster. The phenomenal popularity of SUVs means that pretty much every maker has one of each size in their line-up. They come in all grades of trim and cover a huge range of price-points. Check out the Carsguide website reviews section and you'll see what we mean.

Fundamentally, these Audis were well-built cars but there a couple of things to watch out for when shopping for a second-hand one. First, these were very complex cars with lots of standard equipment. So it’s important to make sure every switch, every lever and every button does exactly what it’s supposed to. Check that the air-conditioning blows icy cold and that the cruise-control does, in fact, work. Fixing these problems after the purchase might make the car seem a pretty expensive one.

Mechanically, the biggest thing to watch for is a faulty transmission. The V6 variant of the TT had a six-speed dual-clutch gearbox which is not without some history of problems. So, during the test drive, make sure it shifts promptly and without any hunting issues. It should pick up a gear from Park without hesitation and there should be no noises from the transmission whatsoever. Any jerking during take-off or trouble selecting a gear means you should look for another example without these problems as replacing or rebuilding the transmission will cost a huge percentage of the car’s value.

The Audi TT is one car where the cost of an independent pre-purchase inspection might be a good investment.

The first thing to figure out is which version of the 2012 Q5 you have. See, in that year, Audi updated the Q5 and, in the interests of fuel saving, changed from a conventional hydraulic power-steering system to an electro-mechanical one. Each system has the potential to give problems, but for very different reasons. The change came in late 2012 (December) so your car is probably the earlier one, but a check of the build-plate will tell all.

In the case of normal power-steering, low fluid can cause the problems you've noted and is also likely to make the power steering noisy when you turn the wheel. In the electro-mechanical system, the fault could be with the electric motor that powers the steering assistance. In both cases, wear in the actual steering rack can cause the same symptoms. Either way, it needs to be checked by a specialist, as a car's steering is obviously a crucial system.

But before you do that, have the car's wheel alignment checked at a tyre shop. A car that is out of whack can sometimes exhibit very strange steering characteristics. And what about the absolute basics? When did you last check your tyre pressures? Low tyre pressure can also make the steering heavier than it should be. And it doesn't matter that you haven't had a flat tyre for years; tyres lose about one psi per month, just sitting in the driveway. That's why they need to be pressure-checked every few weeks.