daronson2001@yahoo.com

70k miles, just recently changed oil with Valvoline European 0W-20 full synthetic. Not sure when the ticking started but doesn’t sound good to me. Can’t hear it from inside car or outside with hood closed. Attaching a video for sound

RickNY

Sounds normal to me.. At least thats what the two S4's I've had sound like when the hood is open.

Burrcold

It's the direct injection system (high pressure fuel pump) on these engines, they are LOUD.

FLOS5IN

That is the HPFP and its completely normal

jmac_o3

I have an 18 prestige as well about the same mileage, and actually posted the same question on another forum. Conclusion was it is indeed normal and nothing to worry about. Since then, I add liquid moly oil additive every change now and that has helped quite the tick enough to be noticible.

daronson2001@yahoo.com

Thanks everyone! Very reassuring.

I did want to mention that when I changed the oil I added just shy of 8 quarts (capacity is 7.9 with filter) and now I occasionally get the message to extract some oil as it’s over filled. But then the message goes away when I cycle ignition. Came on twice and quickly went off. Thought ticking had to do with this, glad it’s not.

lastly the message popped up the other day “drive system malfunction - please contact service”. From what I read could be timing issue or timing chain issue, or just a false reading. Any ideas here?

FLOS5IN

Capacity for the 3.0 engine is 7.25qts iirc.

The drive system message could be from anything, you'd have to provide codes for us to help you on that. Could be the wastegate being stuck open if it went away on restart, but really won't know without a scan.

daronson2001@yahoo.com

Will my plug-in OBD pick up a code? check engine light is not on. and after alert coming on twice (last time under heavy acceleration) it hasn’t come on since.

FLOS5IN

Yes it likely will.

alexbarfond

hey I have the same thing on mine. Started at around 70,000 miles to. Curios if you also got estimate from dealer. They said they can’t say for sure where the ticking is coming from, so they would have to take a part a ton until they identify the root cause, and then fox and put it all back together. Was about 6,500 just to take it apart and figure it out, then likely another 6,500 to fix and repair. It’s absurd.

please message me back if you find a fox or have any thoughts. The more people who can report this, maybe Audi can do a recall on our models and they will fix it for free.