End of an era

Firstly, apologies for the length of time since the last post. I've had a lot going on and haven't had a chance to post an update.

Secondly, regular readers will notice that the 'contact' page has disappeared. This is down to the amount of spam I was getting, even with using ReCAPTCHA. If anyone desperately wanted to contact me and now can't, you can blame "Eric Jones", who seemed to be responsible for the majority of spam. If you really want to get my attention, just post a comment. You'll need to register, but I promise not to spam you or sell any of your data. It just gets used to confirm that you're human; you'll get an email with a link, click on the link to confirm your email is valid, then you can sign in and post comments. That's all your email address will get used for. I can't even access it for any other purpose.

Anyway, on to the main topic of this post. After 9 years, it's time to say goodbye to an 'old friend':

Yes, my trusty old 2007 A4 Quattro failed its MOT.

It's actually not that serious a fault (although the symptoms are). There's a major exhaust leak (failure 1) which is causing exhaust fumes to enter the cabin (failure 2). An examination has determined that the exhaust manifold now has a large crack in it. As a further fault (but not an MOT failure), this is causing exhaust to leak out before getting to the turbocharger. As a result, the turbo won't spin up fully, engine power is down, and the engine management system goes into 'limp home' mode just at the point where you need a burst of power (eg overtaking, or climbing a hill).

The part itself is (apparently) easy enough to replace once you can get to it. The issue here is that the manifold is right at the bottom of the engine bay, and requires a complete strip-down of the top of the engine to be able to reach it. The garage that did the MOT quoted me £900; looking at the amount of work involved to strip down and re-assemble everything, this doesn't actually seem unreasonable.

However, the car is now 18 years old. I've had it for half its life. It has nearly 130,000 miles on the clock, and even if the exhaust is fixed and it gets a new MOT, there's a lot of bills coming up. Timing belt replacement, clutch, diesel injectors etc etc. It's probably going to need another £3,000 spent on it to keep it roadworthy over the next 18 months, on top of getting it through the MOT.

So it's with some regret that I need to let this car go. I've had a chat with a friend who has the experience to repair it, he has advised me that he can do the work at 'mate's rates' if I get the parts, then I can at least sell the car with an MOT. Hopefully someone else can get a few more years use from it. Unfortunately this is going to take a few weeks and I can't be without a car for that long.

I've already removed the aftermarket sat-nav unit and re-installed the original Audi RNS-E unit, as well as deinstalling the retro-fit amplifiers, subs etc. Basically restoring the car to its original specification.

I already have a replacement. I've stuck with Audi as this one has done me so well. I've picked up a much newer A4 (a 2014 model), also a Quattro. This new one has a full leather interior, front and rear parking sensors, and a hard drive-based sat-nav with the 'Jukebox' function. I'll put up another post on this new car when I've had a chance to get used to it.

In the meantime, if anyone is interested in buying it, leave a note in the comments! It'll be all repaired with an MOT by the time it's sold.