Looked at an A3 tonight, ’54 2.0 Tdi. 85k on the clock
Light smoke, more like steam coming from the filler cap when running, also I can hear the turbo whistle when it’s revved. Not loud but obvious.

Any cause for concern? It has a full Audi service history. It went really well and didn’t see any exhaust smoke when it was being floored.

What I didn’t like was the trader told us someone almost bought it yesterday but his card hadn’t been activated and then someone is coming tomorrow to look at it. They sound like selling techniques and I don’t like being pressured into buying second hand cars.

By filler cap do you mean oil filler cap? Oil mist is generated inside the block, but the filler cap should be airtight. If petrol filler cap then there is something wrong.

Turbo whistle is normal, but under power.

mine whistles a bit. think it’s pretty normal.
it’s also for sale! No pressure selling if you wanr a look…
It’s an s-line in blue 84k, 54 plate can fill you in on more details if you’re interested.

Either way they’re great cars, only selling due to a new lease deal through work.

Light smoke/whistle when idling/revved. No its not normal.

Floored mid-gear you’d expect occassional smoke. The whistle sounds like a leak somewhere and isnt normal.

Personally I’d avoid early 2.0TDI’s. 1.9’s are better of THAT era (all IMO)

Light smoke

Dutch seller?

I can hear the turbo whistle when it’s revved

The Colonel Bogey March?

They sound like selling techniques

Alarm bells for me. Were all four tyres the same, or mixed budgets? Not that I am a mechanic in the slightest, but IME low pressure turbos are only audible when under load, normal conditions engine noise should drown out turbo.

Turbo leaks give you a wooshing noise just like high pressure air leak. Turbos do whistle under load, not at idle or webbing in neutral. Under load the whistle is high pressure air leakage over tip of the compressor vanes and is normal. I’ve had it on every turbo charged car I’ve owned both petrol and diesel, and notice it on other cars too.

Other things to look out for is smoke on start up when cold and blue smoke under power.

I’m not sure what the smoke from the filler cap is. I’ve had white smoke generated before from a small oil leak dripping on the exhaust manifold, but not from the filler cap. It could be something like that and the smoke appears to be coming from the filler cap.

Never go to a car viewing with the car already warmed up. Ideal would be first thing/stone cold engine but…. turn up 40mins earlier than arranged.

should add mine doesn’t whistle on idle so maybe something amiss on the one you looked at.
No reliability issues so far (5 years+) unlike the golf 2.0ltr 150 diesel I had before that ate itself!

Still waiting for the vag whistle video!

Ours whistles, always has done. Not whistles as in like a milkman, but as the revs climb there’s a very slight wooshing sound. A blown turbo hose would hiss like a python, & lose some power.

Yeah, oil filler cap with the cap removed.
The guy drove it in and the engine was hot which also worried me a little. I always like to hear a car start from cold.

I was expecting niche queef!

View more.

Ignoring comments from those who clearly haven’t read the OP properly.

A bit of vapour at the oil filler cap on a warm engine is perfectly normal. It’s fumes off the hot oil. This gets passed back into the engine and burnt off via the EGR system.

Great flumes of smoke would be an issue.

Turbos whistle. They’re spinning 10x faster than the engine so there’s no great surprise that some noise is generated.

I agree that seeing an engine start from cold can be very informative. But cars can also have hot starting problems too.

I fell for the ‘phonecall’ trick when I bought the Beast. 9-years later and she’s not missed a beat. Outside of service / consumable items, I’ve spent probably £300 on parts.

If you don’t feel comfortable, don’t buy.

It started first time when I tried starting it from hot. Apart from the smoke (it was a gentle smoking, and it was more like steam. Not black, not white), and the whistle the car looked in great condition. The underneath looked in excellent condition, exhaust looked great, the back seats looked like new. Little chip on the rear bumper and only £4400.
My wife is going to phone our tame mechanic to see if he can go and look at it tomorrow. It’s only because she really likes it that I’m accepting his sales patter.
If the car was for me and he told me someone was looking at it at 3 tomorrow, I’d say ‘I’ll phone you at 4 to see if he bought it’.

A new turbo is circa 1.5k.

Just so you know- if you get the must buy-feeling/polishes up well.

Why not look at indie dealer cars?

There are plenty of cars out there – don’t feel pressured!

Have a look at others and compare engine noises?

Dealership prices for turbos may be £1.5 k but you wouldn’t get one from there. Turbos are simple devices with only one moving part. Reconditioned turbos are a few hundred quid and every bit ad good as brand new ones.

The 1.9 tdi is a lot more reliable of that era than the 2.0 Fact. The oil pump drive for these engines has a tendancy to round off causing big repair costs. Vag are aware of this. Is it from a Vag dealer and has it dealer SH. If so you should be OK. If not stick with the 1.9. Do you need diesel? My Skoda Vrs 1.8T is returning 36 urban.

The oil pump issue in 2.0s is not a persistent problem. There was a bad batch that would die at 40-50k miles. They would all have either died or been recalled by now. Lots of info online about it, you can check your Vin.

As for turbo whine, I dunno but the only time I hear mine in when driving slowly in 2nd up our hill, and even then it’s barely detectable and takes a pretty tuned ear.

Many thanks for the help chaps.

Tame mechanic went round today, engine and turbo seem fine. He reckons the car is in great nick but the cam belt hasn’t been changed when it should have been. So he’s said if we want the car we should buy it but offer 300 quid less to cover the cost of getting the cam belt changed. It’s only just over the recommended interval.

So I’ll make an offer tomorrow, take it or leave it.

Have you got an orange five on order to go with it?

It’s for the wife. She has got absolutely *no* idea how to be an Audi driver. For a start she needs to earn about £70k p.a. more than she does now.

Turbos are simple devices with only one moving part.

Old ones, perhaps. Modern variable vane geometry ones, certainly not. And that one moving part is going round at tens of thousands of rpm, and has extremely fine operating tolerances. Also, if the turbo does lunch itself, if you’re unlucky, it can stuff the engine too.