ehj

I love my 2012 A5 with manual (20,000 miles). It was purchased in Los Angeles as a commuter car. Now, having retired to Utah, I drive it very little, and mostly a few miles around town once or twice a week. Should I be taking it on periodic long trips, i.e. monthly, maybe 50 miles or so?

Thanks, great forum.

uberwgn

More frequent oil changes and take a long drive when practical.

plat27265

+1. I am in the same boat as the OP ever since I changed jobs and my office is just a block from my home. I will find some free time to drive around for around 30 to 60 minutes once in a while to get the oil temp up for an extended period of time. At the same time, charge up the battery.

lmariorod

For sure on the long trips.

Because I primarily use my PU in the winter. The S5 sits idle for days at a time. My alarm, interior lights and seat adjustments were not working properly because the battery energy management system was shutting down convenience accessories so that battery power could be conserved to start the car and run essential items like the driving lights, hvac etc.

I also had to check the battery ports and fill them with distilled water as they were down and had not been checked in 4+ years. The battery underneath the spare can easily be forgotten and when run down can cause these electrical shut downs. Ran her for a nice long trip, and all is well.

jschrauwen

I'm retired as well. Only a few short trips during the week but I do do a long highway trip at least once a month.
I would make it a practice to do an "Italian Tune-up" (after fully warmed up first of course) for each of those short little trips during the week. Doing that along with a more frequent oil change interval should keep things in order. My oil change interval now is around 6k to 7k kms (4 to 4.5K miles).

SloopJohnB@mac.com

An issue with DI engines is carbon buildup...some oils are worse than others with light fractions boiling off and depositing in intake ports because of the PCV function. Those deposits can generally only be removed with intake manifold removal and walnut shell blasting/vacuum device although some people have scraped the deposits with a shop vac held near the scraper.

I lease cars these days so I'm not particularly worried about the two DI Audi engines. But IF I owned one and wanted to keep it I would probably invest in a water/methanol injection system or use something else injected into the intake while the engine was running at 2000 rpm or so.

I have to laugh at Italian tuneups...in the old days we did shady tree tuneups with a pint or so of water trickled into the four-barrel while the engine was running at 2-3000 rpm...the thermal shock of the water hitting the hot (iron for the most part although there were a few aluminum heads in the mix) port/head/valves knocked off the carbon deposits and all kinds of black sheet came out the back. After 1973-6? when cars had cats (now there's a visual you really shouldn't think on!) using that much water would likely blast carbon into the cats and clog them or not. A water/methanol injection system OTOH seems to work out ok; even BMW is using one on at least one of their cars/engines.

SloopJohnB@mac.com

BMW motorcycle guys have used them for years, my B&S (Honda motor..go figure) PowerBoss standby generator came with a float transformer (probably a trickle but it's worked for 14! years on the OEM lead-acid AGM battery that I only just this year had to replace) and a phono-plug type quick disconnect on the key start panel. Point is that the float charger maintains the battery; I certainly cannot complain about 14 years on a lead acid battery.

Wake96c4

That's good advice.

A few of my cars sit for long periods of time and see lots of short trips. I still work so usually once a month I'll take one of the Escalades to work since it will run a nice 50 mile trip into work. That should take all the moisture out of the oil and get things nice and working for an extended period of time.