Revenge of the D3 of Doom
 

Just when I thought all was well....

'Trundling' up the A9 just south of Inverness on Wednesday, when I heard a slipping belt noise.. Thought nothing of it as a slightly aged Focus was passing me at the time.

Noise appeared again a half mile further on which caused a raised eyebrow, then a slightly more vocal exclamation when I discovered that I had no power steering on a bend (thankfully a dual carriageway, not some of the very B roads I had been tearing up over the previous few days). Alternator light then came on and joy-oh-joy thought I.

Initially I just suspected a snapped or slipping belt, but when I got it up to Highland Audi (10 minutes up the road) and looked under the bonnet, sure enough, the belt had snapped, but there was shrapnel and green gunk all over the engine bay!

Quick visual inspection by a mechanic confirmed it.. The aircon compressor had self destructed and spewed bits of itself everywhere.

My poor D3 is now sitting in Inverness waiting on a new compressor to come from Germany (thank fook for the warranty!). Had to hire the "Qashquai of Doom" to go back down to Glasgow and pick up the D2, and the missus reckons she set off a speed camera on the A9 as well!

Holidays! Ha! Who needs em!

Still, means I get a week or so in the D2 again :)

Go on, admit it - you know you really prefer the D2!! ;)
Im rapidly becoming a fan of the Warrenty following your tales whenever I get my first D3! Hope it's sorted soon Richard

Mate, my heart goes out to you!!

For anyone reading your threads, they must be thinking "Those A8's a fragile" and this isn't the case. I think, unfortunately, you've manage to pick a duffer that's just caused you no end of grief.

Hope it's all sorted soon fella, and get some R&R time under your belt.....drive the D2 :D

I think it's definitely been a one-off '8 and this problem could really have occured at any time, though I'm just slightly suspicious that it maybe hasn't been fitted properly and caused a premature failure.

Most of my issues have been due to the previous owner just living with a stack of failures rather than getting them fixed as they occured.

The D2... Solid as a rock! Never let me down in over 3 years so far!