Shed of the Week | Audi A3 2.0T

Shed is a grizzled old dude who’s seen a lot of things in life, some of them not very pleasant, but even at his time of life he still gets surprised every now and then. For example, he has recently witnessed a surprising solution to the longstanding riddle as to why all his razors were going prematurely blunt. It turned out Mrs Shed had been using them to shave her hamster, a revelation that simultaneously explained the equally long-running Mystery of the Perpetually Bunged-Up Bathroom Sink Plughole and the Curse of the Angry Hamster.   

Professional surprises are less common for Shed these days, but he did get a big one when he chose this week’s sub-£2k tempter. Looking back through the assorted scraps of paper and cardboard that constitute his records he discovered that not only is this gen-two 8P Audi A3 2.0 T the first performance A3 to feature here, it’s the first A3 Shed ever, full stop. 

How can that be? Well, as we all know, ‘full stop’ can be a glumly appropriate phrase when discussing TFSI-engined VW products. The proposition of a smooth and torquey 2.0 turbo petrol motor chucked into a small vehicle like the A3 sounded great, and so did the reality when the freshly-minted press cars were tested by a generally enraptured specialist press. The unnaturally aspirated version of the EA113 2.0 litre FSI four was the first production direct-injection petrol engine to be turbocharged. This added 49hp and 59lb ft to the straight FSI’s output, giving 200hp from 5,100 to 6,000rpm and, more tellingly, 207lb ft between 1,800 and 5,000rpm.

The A3 2.0 T initially came in two flavours, front drive with the DSG twin-clutch trans or, as here, quattro Haldex all-wheel drive with a six-speed manual. Its 0-62mph time of 6.8sec put it only a second or so behind the rambunctious S3. Although the cylinder head was left as it was, the turbo pistons were obviously new and the bottom end was reassuringly reinforced to cope with the extra thrunge. All seemed set fair for success. 

Sadly it didn’t take long for negative reports to start coming in from a vociferous group of TFSI owners who were wondering why their turbos were losing boost, why their cam followers were wearing out, why their cam chains and tensioners didn’t seem to last very long and why they were having to put literally gallons of oil into the engine. All that plus the usual direct-injection woes of carbon buildup on the intake valves. It all gives you an insight into why 2.0 Ts like this bright red 95,000-miler complete with unconcerning MOT certificate and value-enhancing reg plate can now be had for the unlikely sounding sum of £1,995.

Shed can’t be bothered to go into the causes of that grief. He does say however that not every TFSI owner had all, or indeed any, of these problems. The ones that did made quite a din about it, reasonably enough, but a quick skim through the forum on this identically-engined and even smarter-looking A4 Avant that Shed dug up last September might give you some cause for positivism. At its heart the EA113 was a strong and reliable motor, arguably more so than the succeeding EA888. Enough owners did have enough issues with it back in the day to create a bad smell around the TFSI but the ones that are still fizzing around on the road in 2024 will surely be immune or fettled by now.

To help you make the gamble on this one, read the MOT history which suggests that a healthy wedge has been spent on it over the last couple of years and 5,000 miles. It has had some fairly aggravating issues in that time – oil leak, engine misfire/knock, corroded suspension, blowing exhaust, and a few more – and if you go deeper into the history it seems to have been run on the cheap, with just about every consumable you can think of not being refreshed until the absolute last minute. 

On the plus side it’s still showing under 100k miles, a number that checks out on the MOT tickets, and the only advisory on last June’s MOT was a worn brake disc. It’s S line spec, so it’s nicely equipped with gear like heated seats and mirrors, rain and parking sensors, courtesy lights and suchlike. On the downside some of the lower cabin plastics might come as a shock to anyone expecting top Audi quality, and electric window regulators are famed for conking out. 

Shed thinks that the suspension on this late ’05 car might have benefitted from the slight softening Audi brought in on 8P A3s following complaints about the ride quality on early cars. Some say you can keep the carbon issue at bay by getting the engine up to operating temp quickly and keeping short journeys to a minimum. If Mrs Shed is in the car Shed likes to keep all journeys to a minimum, short or long. He spends a lot more time in cars with the postmistress but there’s a big disconnect there between miles covered and hours on board.