3.0 TDI Service
 

I serviced my new car today and thought I'd share some pics. I intend to change the gearbox oil and filter but will need the ramp for that so it'll wait.

I bought all the bits from Eurocarparts for less than £140. As I'm never sure they supply the correct parts I always start with the oil filter as there's little worse then draining the oil to find the filter is wrong. All good this time though....

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/621/2...cb407d17_b.jpgIMG_0142 by Aldous Voice, on Flickr

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/693/2...69c76021_b.jpgIMG_0141 by Aldous Voice, on Flickr

Oil was drained (no pictures) and I refilled with Shell Helix - I chose it as it was £20 for 5 litres and I use the same brand in my Ferrari.

https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5688/...6f4a7113_b.jpgIMG_0162 by Aldous Voice, on Flickr

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/743/2...9f509561_b.jpgIMG_0163 by Aldous Voice, on Flickr

Opening the air filter box brought a shock. The car has a full main dealer history with the same dealer but they thoughtfully fitted the air filter incorrectly and then didn't bother to change it for years. The pictures don't do it justice as the fans were solid with crud.

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/779/2...1b9ec38b_b.jpgIMG_0152 by Aldous Voice, on Flickr

https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5701/...67b6d5ed_b.jpgIMG_0153 by Aldous Voice, on Flickr

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/589/2...3e5b2425_b.jpgIMG_0154 by Aldous Voice, on Flickr

I like to clean the mesh on the MAFs with a soft detailing brush...

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/708/2...bf7531ea_b.jpgIMG_0155 by Aldous Voice, on Flickr

New cabin filter:

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/722/2...231fa4b1_b.jpgIMG_0157 by Aldous Voice, on Flickr

A couple of pics of the engine bay with the covers removed:

https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5752/...d835d6a7_b.jpgIMG_0158 by Aldous Voice, on Flickr

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/742/2...8e71633f_b.jpgIMG_0159 by Aldous Voice, on Flickr

The fuel filter was a dream to change - it would take about 30 mins of removing things to get to the filter on the car the A8 replaced.

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/740/2...071a76f7_b.jpgIMG_0160 by Aldous Voice, on Flickr

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/767/2...3218aa01_b.jpgIMG_0161 by Aldous Voice, on Flickr

Power steering fluid was flushed:

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/596/2...f3c724b3_b.jpgIMG_0164 by Aldous Voice, on Flickr

Finally I changed the brake fluid which gave me an opportunity to inspect the suspension whilst the wheels were off.

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/777/2...605b2be5_b.jpgIMG_0165 by Aldous Voice, on Flickr

The cars drive like a rocket now it can breathe!

A quick question - what is this thing I saw in front of the OSF wheel?

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/608/2...61982f90_b.jpgIMG_0147 by Aldous Voice, on Flickr

Also, where's the best place to buy the gearbox filter and fluid?

How did you flush the power steering fluid mate?

also the fuel filter, simple case of disconnect and replace?

The thing with the orange silicone collar is the exhaust for the Webasto Thermotop. It is a supplementary heater for speeding warmup after very cold starts. You can also program it to be a parking heater with timer option in MMI by way of a VCDS 'hack' of recoding and a few adaptions of HVAC channels.

Nice work OP.

I have a local cheap place replace my oil and filter for me, but do the air and fuel filters myself. I've never tackled the power steering or brake fluid on the D3. That level of crud in the air filter is typical too, from what I read here.

The diesel filter is quite simple to replace CR51GYR.

Some people reuse the diesel, I didn't. Just refilled it before connecting it up, nothing else, from memory. I had no issues with it, other than it being a tad fiddly.

Re Power Steering: I vacuumed out the fluid from the reservoir and then pulled the return pipe off. With the engine started briefly it'll pump out the fluid from the rack pretty quickly.

The fuel filter was easy. I chose to leave the pipes connected to the black plastic fitting as I didn't want to snap them. I filled the filter with fresh diesel and used new hose clips.

Thanks for the info. +++

I didn't reuse the diesel as I wasn't sure if any contaminates caught in the filter would be present.

I fix Ferrari/Maserati cars for a living and the level of maintenance is far, far beyond Audi and their longlife schedule. To be honest I'm uncomfortable sticking to their schedule so will be over servicing the car from now on.

I have been looking at this stuff I found in germany

http://www.ravenol-shop.de/epages/61...ucts/211112-4L

Much cheaper than the audi fluid, i wonder if its any good.

So the final thing to do was to reset the service indicator. For my Ferrari work I use a diagnostic tool from Texa with their (expensive) supercar extension. The good thing about this is that the base software covers pretty much every car out there.

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/640/2...1c62b875_b.jpgIMG_0179 by Aldous Voice, on Flickr

Coverage for the Audi is good with most systems listed:

https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5715/...ca045517_b.jpgIMG_0180 by Aldous Voice, on Flickr

https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5800/...b2538577_b.jpgIMG_0181 by Aldous Voice, on Flickr

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/686/2...57b270be_b.jpgIMG_0182 by Aldous Voice, on Flickr

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/577/2...1e7e0d60_b.jpgIMG_0183 by Aldous Voice, on Flickr

https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5820/...834e7aae_b.jpgIMG_0184 by Aldous Voice, on Flickr

The service reset was easily done...

https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5636/...0a6f34c4_b.jpgIMG_0185 by Aldous Voice, on Flickr

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/708/2...c77d0cf1_b.jpgIMG_0186 by Aldous Voice, on Flickr

I also had a look in the gearbox ECU to make sure I could read off the oil temperature for when I change it.

https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5769/...4686c554_b.jpgIMG_0187 by Aldous Voice, on Flickr

I also use shell oil, and I find it bloody good oil for a very good price, so much so I picked up 25lts of it for my daily and the misses car, I wouldn't go back to another oil I don't think, when I did the head on mine the the head I took out was spotless from the shell oil, shows the additives are doing its job +++

I also lowered the service interval to 10k miles fixed servicing and with 8 litres of oil in the sump, 10k is probably nothing for all that oil but it keeps my mind at ease.

That filter looks much dirtier than a 10k old filter even though they do seem to get very dirty on the 3.0tdi's for some reason, and also the fitting of the filter is quite awkward compared to most cars, I have in my ultimate wisdom fitted the air filter and caught the top of it, I now fit the filter Into the top half first then locate it into the bottom half instead of the other way round.


I never fill the fuel filter with oil, I can't remember if it self primes on ignition, but I usually prime it using VCDS, whilst resetting the service light, I suppose at worst case you could suck the fuel through with some kind of vacuum implement, suppose it just saves faffing with diesel in a can.

Whilst you had the pollen filter out did you manage to get at the water drain outlets at the bottom of the bulkhead , arkward to get at but with a extended blow gun nozzle you can blast all the leaves and debris out .

Hi Lee, how many are there? Any tips as to what they are under?
I have looked for them a couple of times to no avail.