S4 service in South London, Bristol or Berkshire?

[cidered]

Have posted the following on several message boards with little luck so far. Can anyone here help? Thanks!

Hi there,

Last October I became the proud owner of a Quartz grey S4 – and very lovely it is too.

However, now it needs a service – and seeing how well the last owner cherished it, I’m keen to get it done properly. To that end – could anyone recommend a good audi dealer for an S4 service in any of the following areas:

Berkshire (anywhere near Maidenhead)
Bristol
South London (nearer Tooting the better).

Fountain for Audi are only 20 mins down the road from where I’m working at the moment – they seem to specialise in S cars. Anybody used them for a service?

Couple more questions:

1. I’ve always had difficultly getting a smooth gear change from 1st to 2nd – I always get a ‘lurch’ unless taking it very steady (and I don't think this is the 'normal' S4 1st to 2nd crunch everyone gets). Dos this suggest a new clutch is needed? Or could a clever bloke with a spanner just set it up differently?
2. At the back of most car mags there’s an ad for a tuner somewhere Birmingham that offers (amongst other things) “Blisten lowered springs” which promises to cure vague steering. Would anybody recommend these?

Thanks for any help – and if you ever see S842 SBE on the roads, gis a wave.

Cheers,

[toasty]

Hi Mate,

And welcome to RS246.com, nice to see another S4 driver around here.

S4 driver here too (S plate 1998 Azure Blue Saloon)
Servicing wise I'd steer clear of Dovercourt in Bristol, they are hopeless, they never cease to annoy me.
[img]images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]
If you are prepared to travel a little further then Millhouse Audi in Bath are excellent and my choice for servicing these days. [img]images/graemlins/cool.gif[/img]

I actually bought my car from Fontain, and found them to be excellent, however due to them only being an Audi 'specialist' and not 'main dealer' I decided not to have them service my car as it would mean I no longer had a full Audi service history.

I must confess I find my S very difficult to drive smoothly sometimes, in fact the more I try to drive slowly and limit the acceleration (for example if I have parents/in laws in the car) the more I find mine tends to surge forward.

Personally I don't think anything is wrong, it's just a hugely torquey engine especially low-down (more so than even the RS4) so I think unless you drive it the way Audi intended it's going to complain a little!! [img]images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img] (that's my excuse for Traffic light grand prix anyway!)

I've not had any modifications to my car, but plenty of people here have, I'm sure some of the others will be able to comment on suspension upgrades and the like.

Give me a shout if you are planning on being in bristol in the future (I live here) we could meet up for a beer/car chat.

All the best
-Dan

[Joshie]

Not sure if you need to have the car service at Audi for warrantly reasons or not.

I would get the servicing done at AmD - they know more about Audi's than Audi do! In fact if my local dealership has an unresolvable fault they take the car to AmD. Their charges are about the same or a little less than Audi and they really know what they are doing.

To give you an example whan I sold my AbT ECU the buyer was having difficulty with the idle speed of the engine and I accompanied him that same afternoon to AmD who diagnosed a problem with the air meter after correction I think his car now developes a whopping 346 HP and 380lbft (no downpipes, standard exhaust, AbT remap). Hardly seems possible but I have the email from him and he didn't strike me as a bullshitter - far from it, he's a fellow Geordie [img]images/graemlins/biggrin3.gif[/img]

The point is that if you want someone to work on your car who really knows what they are dong go to AmD