Why You Shouldn't Own an Audi 

Thank you all for helping me reach 300,000 subscribers!

I have a theory that sometime in the annals of history a German mechanic insulted a German engineer. The engineers have not forgotten or forgiven this insult and are continuing to punish all mechanics for it.

For sale: Audi. Just needs a $20 knock sensor.

This engine breakdown was difficult to watch. I can’t imagine owning a car with this type of engine let alone repairing one. Another throwaway luxury car.

Audi expert here, all you really have to worry about on these engines is the timing chains. It seems after 130k miles is kind of up in the air how long the guides will last before breaking and causing it to jump. To fix it the transmission has to come out which is labor intensive. Otherwise the engine is solid. I’ve seen them upwards of 300k still ticking with 1 timing service. The high pressure pump likes to fail occasionally as well, but otherwise good engine

Don't think the Chinese would bother reverse engineering here.

"Good time to get those 10mm sockets that fell into the V here" - always some great one-liners buried in there.

ex BMW chief mechanic at my local official BMW service, and i can relate to this, everything is so complicated, with really no reason to be.

As a very very green mechanic, watching these teardowns, and listening to your uninterrupted flow of words explaining everything down to the oil channels inspires me!

ridiculously complicated, the timing chain complex is insane!, thanks for the video!

The engineers who design such engines should be made to work on them while they're in the car at least 10 times. 😒

The triple reduction adapter on a swivel is like, my signature move

The cost of spares would make a re-build of this engine completely uneconomical. I'll never own an Audi again.

This mans videos should be in every engine class in schools and colleges.

Here you can see the effects of amphetamine use during WWII on Germany's engineers even to this day.

"track pants are pretty good because they absorb fluids really well" so much good advice, & the best videos ever!! Keep up the good work :)

Congrats on the 300k!!

Their engines are like an ultra complicated Mousetrap game where the whole thing breaks down from the slightest thing. Recommend you wearing protective footwear. This is from someone who spent 2 weeks in hospital from a crushed big toe after a heavy object fell onto my foot. Had to have pins inserted and because it was an open fracture I could have lost the injured toe because of the infection. It was a very very painful injury.

I like your electrical connector removal tool. You know...so you don't damage the harness.

A good piece of advice a wise man once told me, if possible compare the cars that the engineers are driving vs the managers/executives and see who really has faith in their product.

I had many roommates during my college years, and they had many different vehicles. Some were tremendously reliable, some had a few problems, and then there was Richard's Audi. It was never completely fixed in all the time I knew him. His endless intractable and expensive problems with that car put me off Audi for the rest of my life. I've encouraged my own children to steer clear of the brand too. This is despite the fact that some of the more recent models are real lookers!

This guy knows what he is talking about….and is honest about things. Very good!!

In the 70s and 80s, VW/Audi were noted for German engineering. I had a number of cars and loved them back in the day. For the last 15 years, I have stuck with Toyota/Lexus because I by older cars and keep them running myself...which has lead me to be one of your subscribers for a while now. I don't know why they have drifted into the Rube Goldberg designs lately. Great video as always. We appreciate your ability to simply show such detailed breakdowns with great explanations and visuals without being boring. Keep them coming, please.

Bro, these engine tear downs never get old! Thank you!

How many chains does it take to time a V6 engine? Audi engineers: more, more, *more!*

You should get a Colgate sponsorship.

I do own an Audi but the one I have is the polar opposite of the one from your video in terms of its complexity. It is an Audi 80 B3 with a 1.8 L 8 valve SOHC engine with Mono-Motronic (single fuel injector), it's great and extremely reliable.

Dude I have to say you explain so much better than any other mechanic. I've learned so much from you. Thank you🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻

The design is what you get when you only add components without thinking about the layout. It looks like something homemade, where the person had no plans and made everything up as he built it.

Big ups on hitting 300k subscribers. Audi engineering is an auto-mechanic's nightmare and a pain in the nut of car owners.

By far the best engine channel: compact, perfect explanation, some dry humor. Subscribed!

I had a car with this engine. It nearly killed me when it jumped time. Beautiful car but was a great day when it was finally towed away

Electrical Connector Removal Tool, to prevent damage to the harness😂 Am i the only one to catch the humor??!

So many things to go wrong in this engine. Congratulations for 300,000 subscribers! You really deserve this, your videos are funny and informative.

You clearly and concisely explain complex mechanical systems and components. I'm not a car tech and I don't (and never will) own an Audi, but I watched this anyway because I like your style.

Performance is lackluster when you consider the Acura NSX had a naturally aspirated, regular fuel injection 3.0 liter V6 with 270hp in 1991. Oh, and that engine is *so* much simpler to work on.

When the engineer hates the mechanic! Nice vid! Thanks.

Seems your brother walks naked in the house 😂 Where my shirt? You:You will find it under the engine. Appreciate you my brother

Really enjoy your running commentary. You enunciate very well and explain what and why. I have a hearing issue but I followed you all the way through very well, even with your speedy commentary.

Ive learned so much watching your teardowns man, really appreciate your knowledge

I guess Audi didn't actually plan to build that timing on the engine, it grew that way.

Here's the deal about VW/Audi products: This company has what I euphemistically call "The Airbus Attitude". Airbus is a European [cough cough French cough cough....] aircraft manufacturer that produces very good products. Their designs are almost always better than the competing Boeing product and they use none other than Porsche to design their cockpits, but mechanics tell me that they do not hold up as well as Boeing airplanes. And the company, EADS, is unapologetic about it. In FACT, they are on record as saying that their airplanes, irregardless of hours/cycles, should be removed from service and recycled at the 25 year point. Why? Because improvements in efficiency and safety occur over time and they think that is is a valid reason to park one of their products and buy a new one. [There are plenty of 40 year old Boeing's flying every day....] VW/Audi have this same attitude. Few people work on their own car anymore [I do...] and since they believe that torque rules, they try to stuff the biggest engine they can into the least space. In this video we see the timing chain at the output/aft end of the engine; This actually makes the engine shorter, since the variable valve timing gear is now in a space next to the firewall that is normally not used. You can see this all over the place on this engine, how they have crammed things together to make the package physically smaller in order to fit it in a small engine bay. Again, they know that owners won't be the ones swearing and throwing wrenches across the shop, but those owners like their torque, and THEY are the ones putting money into company coffers. AND, they figure that when things like timing chains need to be changed, that the car will be an "Airbus" and as such will be too old to justify the expense of hiring a mechanic to do it and the owner will just junk it and buy another one. Also, in Europe, cars are intensively inspected every year, and cars old enough to need extensive work are probably not going to pass inspection anyway. Thus, the design you see in this video. These cars are an absolute BLAST to drive, but don't own one when it gets more than about 10 years old. PS: All this is coming to you from a "certified" VW/Audi and Porsche fan boy...

Thank you for the tear down with detail. Most mechanics wont even work on these motors.

Congratz on 300k bro! I was here since about 40k subs , you've come a long way champ, well deserved

Little known fact: Audi’s lead engineer is a man named Rube Goldberg.

I recently overhauled my GM 3.1L OHV engine with 250k miles. It was made about same time as this Audi. I am not a mechanic and it was my first time. All I need is a hoist and some basic tools. I am appalled by complexity of this Audi. It must be purposefully designed to benefit VW's business, not consumers.

That timingchain routing looks terrifying , I remember my Alfa Nord 2 liter engine with 2 double chains just hangin free and roling over ONE spanner ! When warm , 6000 rpm ALL DAY LONG , for more than 100k miles without ever been changed . FABULOUS engine that was !

I own a 2007 Audi A4 3.2L V6 FSI S-Line 6sp. manual with 217k miles on it. It is insanely clean and reliable. If you known how to properly maintain an Audi (which the majority of you don't) they are incredible cars to drive and own. This comment sections disgusts me.

What a great video about a very complicated engine. I think the Audi engineers should book a visit to Toyota to learn a few things.

Wow! I can take more than half my car apart with nothing more than a 10mm socket. Only problem is in ever socket set the 10mm is always missing.

175k miles on mine. No problems, runs great!

You would make an awesome instructor. Your enunciation is second to none and you definitely know your subject.

I just bought a 2011 Audi A5 with 170,000km… with a replacement engine with 90,000km… Every car mechanic channel is telling me I’m screwed lol

To celebrate the 300K maybe you can get some shoes to protect those toes. Wonder if they make steel toed sandals? 🤔😂 I have gotten so used to wearing steel toed shoes at the plant and maintenance shop that I am surprised to see your toes every time some thing hits the ground. Great job on the engine. It is so crazy they use that many types of fasteners. It is one way to prevent the casual DIY’er from working on the engine.

this is what an engine looks like when a executive yells "we need to cut engineering time cost!! while increasing profit margins on repairs and maintenance by making these things ridiculous hard to work on. killin' 2 birds with 1 stone.

Love this dudes humor, he understands what mechanics go through daily lol

Hear me out, triple square is worth the toolset purchase, a good point load on the bolt, practically unstripable. But I agree the mismatch of bolts is a head scratcher lol.

Wow what a mess seeing something like that makes you realize just how underrated the 2 GR V6 is

To be honest, once the upper tensioners get changed and oil changes are done religiously, it’s a bulletproof engine.

I have driven cars with this engine before. Its a brilliant performer. Nice sound, very good torque, and super smooth. Unfortunately they are known for eating their own liners before 100k km. So I'd stay away from them just because of that reason....😬✌️

Interesting to see how complex these engines are.

That was a great instructional video on the inner workings of the engine, thank you 👍

Audi tech here, that 3.2 has actually proved to be a pretty reliable engine as far as this generation of Audis goes. Regularly see them over 200k miles. As far as timing on the rear goes yeah it’s dumb, dropping the whole lump out is just part of working on Audis, doesn’t take long really though

Loved my A6 with this engine. Took a lot of love to keep it running, though.

The title: why you should own a miata WOULD BE SO NICE TO SEE :-)

Thanks for you videos! "customer states what" has surely deterred me from audi's as well!

I was just talking to a mechanic when getting my car serviced and he joked that whenever an Audi, BMW or VW pulled into the lot, every mechanic would look the other way and try to act like they were busy so they wouldn't have to touch it. Now I know why lol

Thanks for showing this. I keep getting tempted to trade in my accord for an off lease a4 but videos like this remind me as to why Ive always avoided vw products. Leave it to the germans to make things over complicated. Keep the teardown vids coming! For your next teardown Id like to see the gm 3.6 v6. Alot of car guys (including the car wizard) hate that motor and tell everyone to avoid any gm product with it at all costs.

This Engine: "A fine-tuned performance powerplant that lasts 100k Miles" ... 2000 Honda Civic Engine: "A simple engine that leaks oil but lasts 500k Miles+"... Audi has not always built the worst engines in the world but i'd put them up there these days...

if i was that magician who memorises 50 packs of cards - i still wouldn't be able to reassemble that engine! amazing how you can get all that detail into 22 minutes - shows you really know your onions. great video!

oh, also, this is very helpful, this is the first take apart of this particular engine that I have seen, and that is super helpful, thanks.

I finally understood why switching back to timing chains with VW is a bad bad thing. Heck, even Mercedes has some issues with their timing chains nowadays.

Yea I have 2 Audis, an awm 1.8t and an awn 4.2 V8, they're both timing belt 5 valve engines the are very similar and easy to work on plus not too overly complicated lol

I’ve been daily driving an A5 with this engine for nearly a decade. It’s currently at 230k. With proper maintenance these engines are bulletproof.

This is very topical, because I was looking to buy a 3.2 Q5 today. Thank you!

What a nightmare of an engine! Thanks for the video ❤

"The Designer" - Author unknown. The designer sat at his drafting board A wealth of knowledge in his head was stored Of what can be done on a radial drill Or a turret lathe or a vertical mill. But above all things a knack he had Of driving gentle machinists mad. So he mused as he thoughtfully scratched his bean "Just how can I make this thing hard to machine?" If I make this body perfectly straight The job had ought to come out first rate But it'd be so easy to turn and to bore That it never would make a machinist sore. So I'll put a compound taper there And a couple of angles to make them swear And brass would serve for this little gear But its too damned easy to work, I fear. So just to make the machinist squeal I'll make him mill it from tungsten steel And I'll put these holes that hold the cap Down underneath where they can't be tapped. Now if they can make this it'll just be by luck Cause it can't be held by dog or by chuck And it can't be planed and it can't be ground So I feel my design is unusually sound. And he shouted in glee, "Success at last! This goddam thing can't even be cast."

The fact that you wear a pair of slippers and teach us how the engine works is just sublime!

Good video, cool seeing the oil routes.

Great video. Does anyone know how to do an LS swap on an Audi A6 3.2L? One thing you didn't point out is that the cause of that oil that leaked onto the coils+spark plug. That oil causes it to not run well when cold and misfire. To fix that leak there's a gasket visible at 7:08 that need to be replaced and another one not visible in your video that seals the metal layer exposed at 11:18. The outer gasket isn't too hard to replace but the inner one is hard. Why did they split it up into so many pieces?!?! It's GTF tech. Read about it in my Quora answers. Again this is a top-notch video to anyone with this engine who needs to do repairs on it. Upvoted.

You apply different types of screws to avoid the operator using the same tool if torque should is different. If fixing is critical (vehicle will fail if fixing loose) you also use strange fixings to make sure that the correct high-capable torque wrench is used on a specific station (they keep track and record of torque). Some of those tools cost $80k. Fixings can be close to each other, but if made on different stations, it does not matter that screws are different. You will have a new tool there anyway. Great vid as always! thanks!

this guy is switched on for sure>>>>I’ve owned a TT 225 and had very little trouble with it>>>then an A6 3.0 TDI Quattro and it was a nightmare everything went wrong with it>>>>>>excellent video>>>>👍👍👍

Thanks you explain it better than anybody else. Great work

Apparently German engineers are taught that needless complexity is some kind of virtue. Their recent engines use torque to yield on everything. Oil pick up and pan screws included. Crazy! I must say though, when new, they do run very well!

I really appreciate the teardown video, as even for a seasoned mechanic like me it shows internals i've never had a chance to see before, on this engine. And now we're getting to the point: these engines in fact, aren't that bad and considering their age (early A4s and A6s with these came out about 18 years ago) they aged very well. Especially comparing to their 4-cyllinder siblings. I agree with the comment that sometimes it is unnecesarily complicated to hold one bracket or accessory with two or three different types of fasteners. But it is quite typical for German-made engines, however it is marginally worse than BMWs and somewhat worse than Mercs, in that order. Next, there's the comment that this engine was "leaking and burning the oil". I do not agree with this one, since these engines just leak the oil. The excessive oil consumption (burning) issue is almost non existent on these engines. Oil leaks are the main culprit of this powerplant. It will leak from the valve cover gaskets, evidence of which is clearly seen on the video. The oil around the spark plugs and their threads is what it is - just a leak, resealing the heads will cure that. The second major leak spots are the rear timing covers, while head covers have their molded gaskets, the rear lids just sit on a bead of sealant and it goes bad with the time. Third major leak spot is the oil filter housing and this one is virtually not possible to reseal as the plastic part gets warped with the time. So gotta just put a new one, they aren't that expensive. Last but not least, solenoid valves on the top of heads will leak some oil although this is usually a minor thing. Sometimes this can be remedied with a new seal, sometimes the whole unit needs to be replaced. Other than that, there is no other ways for this engine to lose the oil and it definitely does not have issues with badly designed piston rings like some 2.0TFSIs (and yes they DO burn the oil excessively). As for working on the rear timing components, it is quite tricky on smaller platforms but a skilled mechanic thee days will do most of the repairs without pulling the engine. And there's not too much to it - upper slide rails and tensioners is all that gets worn, other than that no reason to mess with these. Cooling system of these engines is pretty robust, sometimes it will develop minor leaks front the front cooling galley (which is made of plastic). So as you see, the engine might look complicated when tearing it down but actually when it comes to routine maintenance and occasional fixes for common issues isn't that bad to work with. It is worth to note that it is relatively free from major mechanical design issues and when you think of buying a car with one of these, just be prepared that you purchase a MAJOR OIL LEAK and unless prepared to add a bucket of oil every other day, there are cures for that.

I just found this channel. How does anyone know so much about a single craft?? Makes me want to go back to school :/

the toothbrush ....my fav color too....knew a USAF tech school instructor who used a toothbrush pointer....it's a PRO move, thanks.

Carbon buildup behind the valves impacts almost every direct-injection engine, irrespective of make, because of the lack of gasoline/detergent on the back side of the valves. This is not just an Audi thing.

I got 2 Audis with the 2.0 .. 2017 both 70K and 90K miles so far.. do regular maintance no issues so far..

I had this engine in a 2008 a4. The dealership loved seeing this engine because it was different from all the 2.0's. That car always had the engine light on, I couldn't get it fixed. I took the car to specialty shops for carbon cleanings also. The dealer said the intake manifold like to crack a lot. I appreciated the car for I only seen 2.0's driving around but I felt like the engine was cheap. This was before I read anything on how engines work and I started to learn after this car.

I don't do: Audi, VW, Saab, Porche, Mini-cooper etc for this exact reason.. it IS however, interesting engineering-wise but I once worked on a early to mid 90s Jetta and to change the oil filter housing you basically had to break your arm in 3 places to reach some weird fastner and I was like ok no im good.. (mind you I was a kid and didn't have all the tools I have now) but still, scared me away for life lol

I love your vids speedkar, but could you put on closed toe shoes when you're dropping crank pulleys and water pumps on the ground?!

Wow, you actually gave me second-hand frustration just watching. I have no idea how you stayed calm filming this.

36 second watching the video, im already convinced. Cheers to 300k!!

Same primary timing used throughout Audis and Lamborghini engines. Very good engine but stupidly long service intervals and direct injection make them die quick

Motto of German engineering: "I do it because i can."

Good video! Offset crank = 90 degree block V6, that's my guesstimate.

I am flabbergasted at the complexity of these engines. Looks like a nightmare to work on and so many things potentially to go wrong with it.

Dam that's crazy!! I had people telling me how the 3.2 V6 is one of Audi's most reliable engines. I typically work on my own cars and I was thinking of picking up a used 2009 Audi A5 with the 3.2 to use for commuting back and forth to work but now I'm reconsidering.

BMW have the timing gear up against the firewall as well, not sure if Mercedes do this, pain in the ass designed 🙉