my baby has let me down
 

so last weekend on the way home from turin, my 2004 4.0tdi shudderd badly as if a tyre had let go, as i started to pull over onto the hard shoulder it cut out completely and wont restart. It was recoverd to a garage in parma. The day after the italian mechanic said he thinks a valve is bent, i am very dubious about this and think the fuel pump has gone or something along those lines. Any one any ideas? The car is due to be shipped back to audi on the 12oct, would prefer to buy a copy of vagcom and try yo self diagnose but some leads of where to start would be nice:-)

Sorry to hear that :(
You really do need to plug it in and see what the scan says as it can at least point you in the right area - not sure where you are bringing the car back to but I'm sure one of us thats nearby could try and help when you're back with the car

Thanks, i am not actually coming back with the car, the breakdown company i use are shipping it back for me and taking it straight to bolton audi as my father is only a mile or so from them. After explaining what happened to them the was also very adament it wasnt an engine failure at only 2800rpm on the cruise control. I am just so frustrated at driving a panda hire car that i want to try and sort it myself. Could have got it fixed at audi here in italy but they are busy for 3 weeks.

Sorry to be a bit gloomy and I do hope it is not this, but seem to remember someone saying on here once that a weakness with the 4.0TDI is the intake manifolds breaking down with age and sending bits into engine which doesnt sound good.

Good luck with it and hope its not expensive to get fixed+++

Yup.. 4.0TDi has a manufacturing spec fault that means that often the flaps inside the manifold snap and bits are ingested, causing failures :(

Fingers crossed it's not that!

If at worst it is this would any ecu or warning lights come onto the display like oxygen sensors picking up differance in air-fuel ratio etc, i have no warning symbols or lights!! Service manager at audi bolton said at 94k then he feels its possible to push for goodwill from audi uk for repairs due to full service record, not so sure myself. Still not convinced of internal failures, think maybe letting the car go to audi in uk is the best course of action as if i take the manifolds off for inspection then any king of goodwill will be completely out of the question.

You'd just get the same kind of errors as you would from a failed valve/cylinder I think. Given the large number of failures on these engines, you should be able to push quite hard on Audi..

Even when turning the engine over to try and start the car no faults show up on the dash at all not even an engine management light. So I need to let the dealer in uk take thier course and get it back to them ASAP to investigate. I was very wary about the diagnosis from the Italian mechanic but maybe he was right, but I doubt Audi uk would have given goodwill to him anyway.

Only a quick update, the car finally arrives at Audi on Tuesday morning so hopefully should have some news by the end of the week. Will keep everyone up to date.

Well, had the diagnosis back from audi. They say the high pressure pump has given up, the cost.......£2397. They cant tell me if there is any more problems until this is fixed and the engine is running but hopefull everything else is ok.
A hefty sum indeed but still better than manifold or engine failure, but only just!!!
Should be fixed by monday aftenoon.
I would have liked to get the brakes changed whilst at the dealer but feel wallet hemorage may stop me :-)

Looks like a claim against audi may be dead and buried though!