audijim113

First, yes, I know what is causing it thanks to several people who gave me a good tutorial. One suggestion was the change the oil to 5-30 synthetic. I did that last week (hi to the guy who works for the shop that did the oil change)

It didn't make any difference. Yes, now it is colder than a witch's *** but the day after the oil change wasn't that cold and it didn't make any difference. It stops clacking within 5 seconds but those seconds irritate me. This is something I did not know about before buying the car (never started it when very cold). I really like the car and not sure if it would have been a show stopper.

What I am doing now on cold starts is turn key to start for a second or to just to turn it over but not start. If I do this a couple times to get oil pressure up, then start, it doesn't clack. Any thoughts (pro or con) to this?

It reminds me of back in the day of high performance engines on 1/4 mile strips, we'd pull the distributer and use a shaft from an old distributor, chucked into an electric drill to spin the oil pump before firing up.

silverd2

It' an unfortunate failure by Audi.....irritating yes, but just a noise. It scared me at first, till I realized that it happens to almost all FL D2's. Before variable intake timing on the A8, all Audi's using the system made start up noise...even brand new. Don't know if they solved this on D3's ? ...don't hear much (if anything) about it...so I dunno. But in other text I've seen, Audi only tried to correct it due to "customer complaints about the noise" ...not because of any perceived long-term damage. The drawing below shows you Audi's attempt, starting with 2000 model 40V engines, at eliminating the start up noise.

I just live with it...goes away quickly with pressure.

The only "success" story I've seen online with oil choice, was a poster who started using 10w30 Mobil 1 and achieved much quieter start ups. I have NEVER used Audi's recommended 0w30...don't care what they say...TOO thin. Even 5w30 runs off the dipstick like water when even slightly warm. Every instinct I have (and it's MY car) says oil is not supposed to be that thin, considering what it has to do...AND it AIN'T gonna stop flowing if it's slightly thicker. So, I fully intend to go with 10w30 on my next change...with NO fear whatever.

TerminA8r

"I switched to Mobil1 10w-30 synthetic a few years ago. At the time my D2's were noisy. The 03 S3 was extremely noisy on start up, and from time to time a valve would even stick on start up. The 98 A8 was always noisy at idle, even at operating temperature. Then a few years ago I dropped the oil pans, cleaned out the sludge, switched to Mobil1 10w-30. After about two oil changes, (7-8000 miles), I noticed that the engines got more quiet as time went by, now they are both really quiet. I'm convinced that over time the Mobil1 oil has "cleaned" the engine inside,(maybe even the screen you mention). I have not had a valve stick in at least two years. I used to change oil every 7500 miles, now I change it every 5000. Note. I also tried Mobil1 0W-40 a while back, it made the engine noisier, (perhaps 0w-40 is too thin?)."

Keep in mind that it will take some time, (1 or 2 oil changes), before you will notice the reduced noise. Btw I acquired the 98 A8 in 01, the 99 A8 in 04 and the 03 S8 in 06. Since I'm a long time multiple D2 owner who does most of the maintenance/repairs on these cars myself, I guess I feel like I have a reasonable amount of experience/knowledge about these cars and their behavior, good and bad. Try synthetic Mobil1 10w-30 for a year and see.

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