Soldato
The 3.0TFSI in the B8 S4/S5 has a pretty poor idle too. You'd think a V6 should be silky silent, but nope they're all noisy
.Audi owners in here!
- Thread starter GinG
- Start date
The 3.0TFSI in the B8 S4/S5 has a pretty poor idle too. You'd think a V6 should be silky silent, but nope they're all noisy
.Fair enough. I know nothing about these engines!
What do you make of the video? Standard TFSI or is something on its way out?
Soldato
- Joined
- 10 Oct 2006
- Posts
- 3,615
It does seem a bit loud but may be the video as I had to bump up the volume, my MK5 Golf sounds similar at idle although my sister's 2011 S3 doesn't but think they changed engine revision by then.
The chain tensioner failing is more a slapping noise and you can easily tell it is coming from the right of the engine.
Soldato
Today I got a new SIM in the post, purely to use for the data connection in the car.
<Rant against orange>
</Rant against orange>
I’ve gone for a Three SIM, and specifically the ready-to-go mobile broadband one that’s preloaded with 12GB of data to last 12months. I explicitly didn’t want to sign a contract with Three, as they’re known for poor customer service. There’s loads of data SIMs to chose from, but I really wanted one where the data doesn’t expire after 30days. I wanted the data to last until I’ve actually used it up. That’s not possible these days, but this 12month SIM was the best I could find. Also I needed one where tethering is allowed (as the Car’s WiFi hotspot appears as tethering to the cellular network). At £70 it’s not cheap, but when you work it out it’s only £5.83 per month or per gigabyte, whichever expires first. When it runs out, I’ll just throw the SIM away. You can topup an expired SIM with 1GB of data for £10, but it only lasts for 30 days. So I won’t top it up and will just get another 12month preloaded SIM again.
For some reason, Three won’t sell you the SIM in store. If you’re buying in store, you have to get it with a USB dongle for an extra £15. So I bought it online.
<Rant against orange>
Previously I had used an Orange PAYG SIM, where a £10 topup got me 1GB of data. But then Orange decided to mess everything up after a couple of months of it all working fine. First the Orange website decided that my password was invalid when I went to topup (despite me having the password written down on a piece of paper in the car!). Then the Orange website refused to do a password reset, saying that my username didn’t exist. Then the Orange website said that the telephone number was invalid when I tried to register for a new online account. So I’d then tried to topup by putting the SIM into a phone and calling 450, but then when I “pressed one for topup” it decided that “You have entered an invalid number, press one for topup”, and got stuck in a loop. The only way that the SIM would topup was by going on the Orange website for a one off guest top up (where you can gift a topup to another number). But then it would just apply a £10 topup as PAYG credit – it didn’t assign it to the 1GB data that it should have done. So I was getting charged the ridiculous charge 65p per Mb of data. A £10 top-up got me a whole 15Mb of data. 
Thanks Orange!
Thanks Orange!I’ve gone for a Three SIM, and specifically the ready-to-go mobile broadband one that’s preloaded with 12GB of data to last 12months. I explicitly didn’t want to sign a contract with Three, as they’re known for poor customer service. There’s loads of data SIMs to chose from, but I really wanted one where the data doesn’t expire after 30days. I wanted the data to last until I’ve actually used it up. That’s not possible these days, but this 12month SIM was the best I could find. Also I needed one where tethering is allowed (as the Car’s WiFi hotspot appears as tethering to the cellular network). At £70 it’s not cheap, but when you work it out it’s only £5.83 per month or per gigabyte, whichever expires first. When it runs out, I’ll just throw the SIM away. You can topup an expired SIM with 1GB of data for £10, but it only lasts for 30 days. So I won’t top it up and will just get another 12month preloaded SIM again.
For some reason, Three won’t sell you the SIM in store. If you’re buying in store, you have to get it with a USB dongle for an extra £15. So I bought it online.
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Associate
- Joined
- 19 Nov 2011
- Posts
- 341
My of Mk5 GTI was a little quieter than that but not a lot. The injectors make a lot of noise when the bonnet is up. The chain at the bottom of the engine could be rattling a bit. I've never really heard of a chain failing on the early engines though. You would also want to look in to replacing the HPFP cam follower if it hasn't been done already. I replaced the one on my GTI at 54k and it was pretty worn and it had been on short life servicing too.
That looks like a fairly old verison of the RNS-E nav it has too. It can be swapped out for a newer version easily enough. It will only support 2gb SD cards. I'm not sure if the firmware can be upgraded on these units like it can in the VW ones. The maps are expensive form the dealers but can be obtained elsewhere...
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Soldato
Whilst changing the SIM in the car, I grabbed a quick video of the Google Street View. The Google Earth map display is quite well known, but I'd only just found the Google Street View feature.
You need to have Google Earth set as the map display option. When you're zooming in with the crosshairs to set a destination, once you get past a certain level there will appear an orange person icon next to zoom setting. It looks like the same orange person icon as on Google Maps.
If you keep on zooming in and in, the map will switch to the Google Street View photos.
You use your finger on the MMI Touch pad to move the camera around.
Watching that back I've just noticed how dirty the lens is on my iPhone!
You need to have Google Earth set as the map display option. When you're zooming in with the crosshairs to set a destination, once you get past a certain level there will appear an orange person icon next to zoom setting. It looks like the same orange person icon as on Google Maps.
If you keep on zooming in and in, the map will switch to the Google Street View photos.
You use your finger on the MMI Touch pad to move the camera around.
Watching that back I've just noticed how dirty the lens is on my iPhone!
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Soldato
"elsewhere" 
that sucks about the orange sim though hate it when stuff like that happens. I bought a rolling contract sim from giffgaff as it was dirt cheap for some mins and texts and unlimited data. was great.... till a few months down the line when they decided to change the T&Cs so the unlimited data packages couldn't be used for tethering, only the specified data packages could. which was rubbish 
also I was with 3 about 8 years ago and yep... the customer service was shocking! never had I been jumped back and forth between departments, or put on hold for so long in my life!
hummm regarding that screen, cloud it be some sorta anti-glare coating that's just worn/wiped away with age and use? looks like someone has had at it with a black felt tip pen
that sucks about the orange sim though
hate it when stuff like that happens. I bought a rolling contract sim from giffgaff as it was dirt cheap for some mins and texts and unlimited data. was great.... till a few months down the line when they decided to change the T&Cs so the unlimited data packages couldn't be used for tethering, only the specified data packages could. which was rubbish also I was with 3 about 8 years ago and yep... the customer service was shocking! never had I been jumped back and forth between departments, or put on hold for so long in my life!
hummm regarding that screen, cloud it be some sorta anti-glare coating that's just worn/wiped away with age and use? looks like someone has had at it with a black felt tip pen
Awesome, thanks. I've ordered the part so they'll do that when they do the cambelt/water pump jobby.
I'm happy with the old RNS-E as it'll probably be on-street parking and I wish to retain my windows
If I obtain the latest DVD, I presume it'll still work fine.
As long as it has traffic I'm happy
Apologies for spamming this thread, I know naff all about Audis, being a BMW fanboi and all
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Soldato
A Giffgaff sim would surely be quite a cheap/no contract alternative?
Soldato
£10 rolling contract (auto top up) for sim with 1gb of data (only option so you can use it to "tether". same masts as O2 but slightly slower speeds apparently....
I say apparently, that was one of the straws that broke the camels back. It was fine to start but for the last 3 months of my time with them the 3G+ speed was dog awful and would just timeout/not send data half the time. would try and do something and i would just have a working symbol but the data transfer icons (arrows in the top bar) wouldn't do anything. tried to get assistance on their forums (no phone support.... reason why their cheap) and got FA help really. a few suggestions that didn't work and then just no reply at all from their team. so I told them to FO
Soldato
Giffgaff only allow tethering on the £10 per month 1GB data 'goodybag'. Twelve months of that works out at £50 more than the Three 12gb/12month preloaded SIM.
![[TW]Fox](/data/man-of-honor/2009.png){kind=avatar}
Associate
I haven't heard of the chain tensioner being an issue on the TFSI engines, certainly on the old 1.8T engines they were but not the newer generation TFSI. Could be wrong though!
With regards to the RNSE screen it happens to them all, you can get some plastic cutting compound which might help. Mine is the same but it doesn't bother me.
Just drove 500km back from picking up my S3 8P . Such a solid car, ran perfectly. Bit boomy on the motorway though and such a short ratio gearbox. 120km/h is 3000rpm in 6th!
Question: water temp sits maybe 2/3rds of the way between 70 and 90. Is this normal? It will rise a little bit closer to 90 in traffic. Should it sit vertically bang on 90? Oil temp is 80-83C on the move. Might as well replace the thermostat whilst they're replacing the cambelt..?
Also, there's a funny boomy sound that's really noticeable around 3500-5000 rpm in all gears. It cycles if that makes sense - Waaa...Waaa...Waaa... It gets faster with rpm/speed.
It goes away if I put it in neutral or dip the clutch so the revs fall. Didn't hear it on the test drive as I didn't go on the motorway. Thoughts?
Question: water temp sits maybe 2/3rds of the way between 70 and 90. Is this normal? It will rise a little bit closer to 90 in traffic. Should it sit vertically bang on 90? Oil temp is 80-83C on the move. Might as well replace the thermostat whilst they're replacing the cambelt..?
Also, there's a funny boomy sound that's really noticeable around 3500-5000 rpm in all gears. It cycles if that makes sense - Waaa...Waaa...Waaa... It gets faster with rpm/speed.
It goes away if I put it in neutral or dip the clutch so the revs fall. Didn't hear it on the test drive as I didn't go on the motorway. Thoughts?
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Associate
Yes your thermostat is gone and they are a right pain on S3 engines! Did mine recently. Cheap to replace and the thermostat and housing is one unit. Labour intensive, most places will quote about £300 to replace it.
The boom sound is probably the exhaust, over 3k or 3.5k rpm the exhaust valve opens for the second tailpipe. It's open at idle but closes as soon as your accelerate. You might be able to hear the valve click when it changes.
Associate
Well it's having almost a grand's worth of work done so what's another £300?
But surely it'd be less as they're doing the cambelt and the waterpump, etc?
The exhaust valve could make sense. Could it also explain the throbbing noise?
No it'll be extra work the only thing they won't have to do is drain the coolant off twice, alternator has to come out and most of the hoses in the general area to be able to get to it. Easy enough just time consuming.
If its a low pitched vibrate the rear propshaft doughnut/dampers sieze and give a high irritating rearward drone/vibration but thats usually more around 2krpm.