I had my 7.5K service at Clair (Boston) this AM. Some info that might be of interest:<p>1) Driver's side wind noise. The service manager, Tom, knew all about it. He said that Clair, in coordination with Audi, has conducted extensive tests. He said the problem results from turbulence from the large driver's side mirror, which is particularly bad due to the overall slipperiness of the A4 body. The turbulence supposedly forces air through the door seals, hence the noise. <p>Tom said they have actually removed the mirror and taped the holes, resulting in NO wind noise. Also, the '99's, which have a new passenger mirror identical to the driver one, often have wind noise from BOTH doors as a result. Tom also said you can simply cover the space between the mirror and the body, which is ugly but also stops the noise. <p>He said they will do minor door realignments, but they are reluctant to get too radical with this for fear of bending the hinges and causing other problems, e.g. with door closing properly. He offered to replace the seals, but said in his experience, the problem might well get WORSE, since he cannot duplicate the quality of a factory-installed seal.<p>Tom said Audi has paid for many door adjustments (although only @ .1 hour each!) and would like to come up with a solution to this problem, but for now recommends to dealers only the minor adjustments that he offered. They did try that on my car. I'll report the results.<p>I told Tom that some people have had the problem fixed by dealers, and I even supplied details provided to me by e-mail from a few such owners. He seemed genuinely interested in the info, but said they always take such "Heloise Hints" with a grain of salt, since they may work only in some cases, in some climates, etc., and may cause other problems. Overall, Tom seemed on top of the situation and sincere in his desire to help. He even said they will be experimenting on his own '98 Avant and will let me know if they come up with any better answers.<p>It's hard for me to evaluate Clair's claims against the evidence that some A4 owners have had good luck getting this annoying problem fixed without causing other problems. But for now, I will accept his analysis and see what they come up with. By the way, I've already tried all the do-it-yourself suggestions mentioned on this forum with no luck.<p>2) Dipstickology. The owner's manual is unclear on exactly what the dipstick marks mean (IMHO). Tom explained, and it makes perfect sense to me based on my experience. The hatched area is the normal oil level variation. Below the hatched level you should add oil. The MINIMUM acceptable oil level is the top of the lower orange plastic. Above the hatched area you should NOT add oil. The MAXIMUM acceptable oil level is the bottom of the upper orange plastic. <p>So, there is no risk of engine damage if the oil level is anywhere between the orange plastic pieces. If you are outside the hatched area, but between the plastic pieces, you are OK--but not by much. And BE CAREFUL when topping off oil to make SURE you do not go above the upper orange plastic.<p>Again, I'm just repeating Clair's service manager's advice, but it seems correct to me.

That is what my manual says, pretty clearly I think: below the hatched area & above orange= you should add oil; in the hatched area=you may add oil; above the hatched area=you must not add oil; below the lower orange mark=you MUST add oil.

Do you have a '99? Maybe Audi improved the manuals since '98. <p>My '98 manual only shows a diagram showing unclearly marked "a" and "c" points for max and min oil levels. You can't tell whether "a" and "c" mean the ends of the hatched areas or the beginning of the orange plastic areas. And the text makes no mention at all of the orange plastic.<p>My manual also strongly suggests that if the oil level is above the hatched area you are in serious trouble. I know because when I topped up my oil, by adding 1/2 a quart just as the manual recommends, I would up above the hatched area just up to the orange plastic. Based on the manual, I thought I had overfilled for sure, but I didn't see how since I only added 1/2 qt. After some research and queries here, I concluded that I was probably OK, and I was.<p>What exactly does your manual say?

<br>NT

My '98 manual, version 1.98 English, says, on page 150:<br>"The best time to check the...oil...is when the oil is warm. To get a true reading the vehicle should be on level ground. After turning off the engine, wait a few minutes for the oil to return to the oil pan. Pull out dipstick and wipe it clean with a rag. Reinsert dipstick; push it all the way in. Pull dipstick out again and read the level.<br>[Referring now to the diagram fo the dipstick, where "a"=area between top of hatching & the top yellow/orange mark; "b"=hatched area; "c"=area between bottom of hatch and top of the bottom orange mark]<p>a - you MUST NOT [in bold] add oil<br>b- you CAN add oil.<br>c- you MUST add oil. After putting in oil make sure that the oil level is somewhere within the b range."

that the oil level will be too high in the sump and the oil will be whipped into a foam, which results in air bubbles -- this prevents a steady stream of oil being drawn into the oil pump (the foam is airy) and you can have intermittent lack of lubrication on bearings, etc., which is not good for your engine (same applies to an auto transmission).

On hills the oil will slide to the front or back of the oil pan, bringing it closer to the crankshaft (if they contact bubles and frothing can occur). The designers account for some of this by leaving a gap between the crankshaft and the normal oil level.<p>If your oil is just slightly overfilled, and you are driving mostly on flat roads you are probably o.k., but in hilly conditions I would avoid overfills.

NT

I have windnoise on my A4, which was made worse by the service trying to correct it, based on my submission of "solutions" posted on this board. However, if the service explained the windnoise source to me, as it was explained to Bill S, I probably would not force them to even try to do something. Now I am ticked off, as well as my service may be ticked off at me, because we were fighting about this since I bought the car. Based on this latest explanation (if correct), they were actually right when telling me that the noise comes from the mirrors. However, they never mentioned that mirror is the one causing the turbulence that causes the windnoise at the top of the door. I could not accept their explanation that mirror itself makes the noise because I could hear both, the mirror's high pitched noise as well as the hum at the top of door.<p>Now I am also ticked off at Audi, because they really could already correct the problem by simply redesigning the stupid mirror, or at least post the TSB, so the service would not make my windnoise even worse! I guess, it is dificult for them to admit that they screwed up... Yeah, Vorsprung mit Technik, my foot!<p>And finally, just to finish with my rave, I am really ticked off with such a difference between the services provided to us - some services appear to do much better than the others, yet we all paid about the same for our cars and their maintenance! Hey, AoA, wake up!

AoA could perhaps assist w/ the engineering aspect of the wind noise (which BTW has not been a problem on my Avant). But the dealers are independent and the difference in ability, etc., is no different than any other service industry. You can get a hamburger at lots of different restaurants, but they'll cost different prices and be done better at some, worse at others... or a better analogy, maybe, you take the same clothers to 10 different cleaners, you'll find some clean better than others/charge more, etc. That's capitalism/consumerism and you/I get to vote with our feet (or our pens/word processors).

Your manual is the same as mine. You did reach the correct conclusions, apparently, but I found the diagram unclear. The manual is misleading when it suggests that the hatched area is the only safe oil level variation ("make sure the oil level is somewhere within the b range"). When I thought I had overfilled mine, I was above the hatched area but there was in fact no overfill. <p>I guess most people haven't suffered the confusion I did. But I think the manual should be absolutely explicit about something so important that almost every owner must deal with.

Jon, I do not understand what you are trying to say, because your "cleaners" analogy just confirms that I should be upset: we all paid THE SAME for our cars (+/- negotiated perks), but receive either good or bad service. Consequently, I believe that it should be in the interest of AoA to make their dealers behave and provide the service in the same way (and not some services being really good and well informed vs. other doing sloppy jobs and even worsening the problems on cars, etc.)!

Try this: If you buy the exact same suit from different stores, and pay the same price, then go back for alterations and one store does them better than others, do you blame the manufacturer of the clothes?<p>My point is that while it is in AoA's interest for dealers to do well, in the end the dealers are independent and not owned by Audi, therefore they are "free" to do what they want, dumb as it may be, and we are free to not give them our business if they don't do a good job. Unless a dealer is so bad that they can't meet minimum standards --there are a few of these but not many -- unfortunately manufacturers generally don't take much of a hand in whipping dealers.