TSHong

I had some bad luck here recently and it came in 3s. First, I had af out of town funeral so in the middle of of the trip, I notice my temp guage is reading cold now. I saw no evidence of a coolant leak and I had heat so I kept driving to the funeral. After the funeral, I checked my coolant level and it was a little low but ok so I drove home with no issues.

So the next day, I'm thinking I have the dreaded coolant sensor replacement ahead of me. Driving home, I get a rock chip on my windshield. Just dam.

So the next morning I'm pulling out of my garage, and I thew the serpentine belt. Called the tow truck to send it to one of our shops. Upon inspection, the inner idler pulley is bad. I replaced the belt and the tensioner when I first got the car because it had a belt squeal. So I tell my guys to order both idler pulleys, a new belt, coolant temp sensor, plenum gasket, 2 o-rings, and 2 retainers. Thanks MP and others for the write ups for the coolant sensor replacement. They call me back to say the inner idler pulley part # 07D145276E, the smoothe pulley has to be shipped from Germany. None are available here in the US. The outer pulley part # 07D145276C, the ribbed is available. The ribbed pulley also is used by VW and Bentley so there is a vast supply vs the smooth pulley must be only used by Audi only. I tried to search the web but to my dismay, it just is not available here.

So if you have a higher mileage VW, I would suggest ordering a smooth pulley at some point because you will be down for almost week and a half because of a idler pulley.

On the lucky side, at least she did not break down in the middle of a trip. That car is hard to steer without power assist, let me tell you.,

Mister Bally

The no power steering and in my case, no air conditioning in 100° weather and no alternator when I lost my serpentine belt a thousand miles from home (Blauparts junk belt saga) in 2011 came to mind with your story today.

Glad you heeded MP's advice about the retaining clip and O-Rings for your temp sensor. I made sure my son did the same when he needed to replace his on his TT. It uses the same sensor.

MP4.2+6.0

Sorry to hear the misfortunes.

I always had collision+comprehensive, so OE windshield was $100 and I got a nice clean/new view when done so I took it in stride.

Yes, if you just lost gauge but not heat, probably the temp sensor. If you found my write up, you know pulling the intake is the way to go. Yes, be sure you have the intake riser gasket--assuming that's what you mean by plenum gasket. Not expensive if you pull at main riser center instead of the ridiculously expensive outer wing gaskets. One of the parts I kept a spare of, though audiusaparts typically has them in stock to start with. Since you will be in there, consider if any other to do's w/ manifold off. Plugs are the most obvious that is just the extra hour or so w/ manifold already clear.

If you lose some heat and/or slow to warm coupled with flaky gauge and cooling system malfunction codes plus maybe jet fan mode, then figure thermostat. Another manifold pull for that. I dealt w/ both over a year or two. Both parts overlap the flaky gauge symptom, but once I noticed slow to warm and also that it wouldn't hold running temp in cold mountains, I realized thermostat was partially stuck open--confirmed when I pulled it.

Belt is a weird one. In my case it was the A/C compressor pulley and bearing. Belt was still fine, but pulley was destroyed in less than 500 miles from first signs of faint noises. That also had to come from Germany and a similar part is also found on VW's. It was a week or less as it turned out so not too bad. You are near their year end parts shut down/inventory/SAP computer burping/whatever--every New Year when I needed something there was always some end of year excuse at the Audi parts depot for things ordered. Hopefully yours gets processed ahead of that.

TSHong

Mp you are exactly right about the plenum gasket. It has saved me money since that is how we do the spark plug changes. We changed those too when I got her last Aug. The gasket would probably be ok but they are so cheap why risk it.

I also have comprehensive and collision but I'm kind of wondering if the D3 has a weak windshield. The car came with 4 chips when I got her and I replaced the windshield less than a year ago. I'm sure the previous owner was mostly highway driver. The front bumper cover was pitted on the right side from an inferior touch up. So I get another chip so quickly. I never had one in 10+ years with my D2 and 3 years with my 05 W12. Could be just bad luck I guess. I wonder if an aftermarket windshield is more durable?

MP4.2+6.0

Probably bad luck. If you have a late one now BTW, do you also have any extra sensors in mirror area that you didn't on earlier one? Something to watch for any non OE glass replace, or may cause them not even to run an aftermarket windshield for a low volume car. You probably have the acoustic glass too, so yet more of an outlier volume wise. For me, on one replace as my A6 got older they showed up with a non OE windshield. Stupid me did not look at it carefully enough. Once installed the optical distortion in lower passenger side became more obvious. Should have rejected it; ever since (and staring at it for 50K miles) I am hard line w/ my insurer on OE.

Meantime in my own case, haven't lost Audi windshields or had real chips any more per year/miles than the reasonably modern Toyota, the Ford or the Chrysler the wife drove for years and several hundred thousand miles. The one big disappointment was we made a single drive to Tahoe (215 miles) in the Q5 one night as a storm was coming in, driving into strong headwinds most of the way. Cleaned glass right before we started out so I knew exact (near new) condition. I could hear sand type stuff hitting it over the drive as I felt the gusts. Next morning I went to clean it and check it out. All of windshield glass was pitted, to where you drive it into sun and have a tough time seeing. 5K miles on car. But paint only had maybe a couple chips total and nothing obvious on headlights. That struck me as soft. Still waiting for a bigger chip to change it out.

Mister Bally

My '04 D3 has the original windshield. Almost 260,000 miles. Disclosure; I've had it "repaired four times now for minor stone chips.