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Audi TT Roadster
Built: 2000
Audi TT Mk1 225 quattro
This is a very well sorted Mk1 TT Roadster and is quite special. Powered by the most potent version of the veritable Audi/VAG 1.8 litre 20-valve turbo engine - widely used across various Audi, VW and Seat models in the early 2000s - together with quattro four-wheel-drive, my car presents in rare, Desert Pearl Green Metallic paintwork, with reputedly the number of Mk1 roadsters in this colour in the UK being in single figures. One wag said he could understand why :-/ All according to taste I suppose but I love it, especially as my car's interior isn't the more usual and typically dour Audi black, but the more rarely seen, much softer Artic Grey colour scheme: pale grey carpets and trim panelling with leather-alcantara grey upholstery. The colour combination of green paintwork and grey interior work well, especially now the car has a brand new soft-top, also in grey.
This TT is also relatively rare for other reasons: aside from the 225q top-of-the-range spec - part-leather interior, xenons (with new bulbs), 6-speed box, etc etc, - it is fitted with the APX version of the 1.8 litre engine, rather than the BAM version used in later cars. The APX is widely thought of as the stronger unit not least due to forged rather than cast internals. Also, early-model, standard specification on these top-of-the-range TTs included xenon headlights, and the superb Bose sound system amplifying the Concert 1 head unit. This has been upgraded with a bluetooth adapter for seamless connectivity to my phone, which although does not enable full 'hands-free' phone use, it does provide access through the system to music, internet radio, and GoogleMaps sat-nav. My car also sports the rarely seen, AudiSport logo discreetly embossed onto the steering wheel. Also acquired has been the difficult-to-source tonneau which makes a very neat cover to the soft-top when it's down. The very latest improvement to the car has been to have the alloys completely refurbished (Spring 2025).
My ownership of this unusual TT commenced in November 2019 and despite the car coming with a pretty comprehensive service history, it went directly to The TT Shop in Bedfordshire for a complete inspection and a major service, which included the cambelt and waterpump, the haldex unit oil and filter, and to have an OEM cruise control fitted. The overall prognosis was bright, however, indicating that the car had been well looked after throughout its life and little additional work has been required since other than regular servicing which of course, I have maintained scrupulously. Full details of all servicing work are below.
Following this major service, also immediately required was a new soft-top. The factory-fitted items are always in black and clearly mine was original. Although the fabric itself remained in generally good, if tired-looking condition, the seams around the heated rear window glass were leaking in several places. So after plenty of research, Allhoods in Romford were chosen to supply and fit a replacement, with dark green selected for the fabric. Their TT Mk1 hoods are imported from the USA because they say these are well-made from good quality fabrics and competitively priced. The fitting of the hood to my car was completed in little more than a morning. The car looked great.
Four years later the heated rear window on this new green hood literally exploded into tiny pieces of toughened glass one autumn morning on the outskirts of le Mans, France. This was ahead of a 500km drive south in autumn weather conditions forecast to deteriorate!
As far as I could tell, nothing had impacted on the glass and although the heating element was active so as to clear a misted window in this chilly early morning, it had been working scores of times previously with no issues. Fortunately, part of my 'travelling abroad' kit included a couple of rolls of duct tape. Patching up the hole used all of it. So in light of the distance still to cover and the prevailing weather forecast, duct tape stock was replenished courtesy of a local Carrefour Supermarché, not least to anticipate regular patching up on the way.
Tentatively, I headed south. Once on the A75, I slowly increased speed expecting the duct tape to tear itself free of the roof at any moment. At 100km/h all seemed ok so I settled for that. The rain didn't arrive until well after lunchtime and fortunately was lighter than forecast, and anyway I'd just made it to my overnight stop at Saint-Flour with no leaks and duct tape more-or-less intact. When the sunshine appeared the following morning, the only disappointment was knowing that to lower the hood to enjoy a wonderful drive on empty roads across the Cevennes to Nîmes seemed just too risky. But it was a great drive anyway and I'd thoroughly recommend the D806/N106 route that I followed. The remainder of the trip touring French Catalonia was uneventful. It was only a shame that despite lovely sunny days, it remained 'hood up'. All credit to the strength and stickiness of duct tape, the repair survived a torrential rainstorm on the way home, ironically also close to Le Mans - a sign?
Once home I was surprised to learn that replacing the shattered HRW could be claimed on my insurance as part of the windscreen and glass cover. It was not possible to replace just the glass however, and so the car was booked in again to Allhoods for another new soft-top. All I paid was the £100 excess on my policy. This time, I chose a mid-grey fabric so as to completment the grey interior, but perhaps the green was better?
TT Tours | 2022 - 2024
The TT was purchased in November 2019 with the intention to use it regularly for Grand Tours in Europe. To date, the car has succeeded in this mission three times, and given the Covid pandemic 2020-21 interrupted plans for a while, most of the car's mileage in my ownership has been covered in Europe.
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September 2022 | French Catalonia
This was a 12-day trip from the Channel port of Ouistreham south through the length of France to Banyuls-sur-Mer close to the border with Spain. On the outward leg we stopped at Amboise, and Rocamadour; and on the return, at Albi and Tours. Although the TT was comfortable, relatively quiet and astonishingly frugal (40+ mpg overall), the trip was marred somewhat by uncertainty about whether or not the car would start when required. This followed the highly embarrassing arrival in France when it sulkily refused to drive off the ferry! Once the car deck had emptied, Brittany Ferries' crew gave poor TT a good push to get it going, and with great relief it started. Very occasionally at home I'd had this issue with a refusal to start. But pushing the car forward a metre or two seemed to effect a remedy and so the fault remained undiagnosed. In fact, once off the ferry the car behaved faultlessly in France, all until the evening before the homeward trip when it refused to start again. How annoying! Tentative plans were made to leave it behind, get it fixed and return to pick it up some time later. But panic not we did, as the following morning the car started, and continued to start, all the way home. The fault was later identified as an intermittent crankshaft sensor confusing the ECU, easily fixed.
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July 2023 | Spain, Portugal, France, Italy and Switzerland - A 3000km Grand Tour.
What an amazing trip. The TT arrived in Bilbao on the Brittany Ferries service from Portsmouth to journey across Spain and into Portugal for a music festival in Lisbon. With the festival over, the next objective was the Italian Lakes to rendezvous with family for a few days at Lago Maggiore, a trip from Lisbon to lakeside idyll of Laveno Mombello, just north of Milan. En-route, the TT visited Caçeres and Zaragoza in Spain, Narbonne and Orange in France, crossing the southern Alps at Montgenevre to skirt Turin and Milan in Itally, a trip of some 2100+km and 5 days of cross-continental cruising. The TT drove faultlessly. With family flying home a few days later, my route to bring the TT home too first crossed into Switzerland to traverse the Alps on the devastatingly impressive Gothard Pass, thence into France to visit the charming Alsacian town of Colmar. The final leg to the northern coastal town of Dieppe took in famous cathedral city of Amiens, ahead of a short ferry crossing to Newhaven. At that point, I was rudely reminded of the terrible roads and awful traffic of the UK. But what a trip!
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September 2024 | French Catalonia - a second visit.
Another trip to the South of France, planned to enjoy sunny early Autumn weather on the Côte Vermeille was only spoilt due to the HRW failure on the way down. In all other respects, the TT was as amazing as ever on this 2000km round trip behaving faultlessly and once again, returning a creditable low-forties mpg.
Service History 2025 - 2000
This is a comprehensive list of all known work completed on my TT from new, to date.
Date | Mileage | Work Done | By whom | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
02/04/2025 | 119000 | Alloys comprehensively refurbished | Diamond Alloyz, Christchurch | £447.50 |
24/02/2025 | 118650 | Replaced cruise control clutch switch; replaced main light switch; | At home | £42.00 |
19/11/2024 | 118224 | Replaced NSF anti-roll bar link; adjust headlmap aims; (as part of MoT) | Station Garage, Park Gate | £144.92 |
14/11/2024 | Replaced convertible soft-top (insurance claim: HRW had shattered) | Allhoods Ltd, Romford | £100.00 | |
25/09/2024 | Battery replaced; | EcoBat Battery UK | £62.45 | |
03/09/2024 | 116437 | Full Service; replaced dipstick guide; | Station Garage, Park Gate | £331.26 |
08/08/2023 | Front wheels tracking; wheel balance | ProTyre, Fareham | £84.98 | |
21/06/2023 | 4 x Bridgestone Turenza 6 tyres 225/45R17 91Y | ProTyre, Fareham | £377.84 | |
21//6/2023 | 111477 | Interim oil service; replace rocker cover gasket; resecure exhaust heat shield | Station Garage, Park Gate | £431.51 |
18/11/2023 | 110155 | Replaced brake switch (as part of MoT) | Station Garage, Park Gate | £113.54 |
04/10/2022 | 109842 | Replaced crankshaft sensor following unreliable starting | Station Garage, Park Gate | £366.20 |
20/09/2022 | Instrument cluster refurbish; incl centre LCD and needle motors temp, fuel | Cartronix, Waterlooville | £270.00 | |
01/07/2022 | 107677 | Interim oil service; | Station Garage, Park Gate | £139.23 |
07/12/2021 | Replacement of steering wheel airbag gas generator (recall; warranty) | Audi Portsmouth | FoC | |
09/11/2021 | 106778 | Replaced level sensor and rod for headlamp self-levelling; replace front o/s CV boot (as part of MoT) | Station Garage, Park Gate | £500.91 |
07/06/2021 | 105471 | Brembo discs and pads fitted all four corners; | Station Garage, Park Gate | £457.25 |
16/06/2021 | 105752 | Air conditioning serviced and recharged; | Station Garage, Park Gate | £59.99 |
05/05/2021 | 105136 | Full service, including brake fluid change; | Regal Autosport, Southampton | £304.00 |
23/11/2020 | 104267 | Replaced front strut top bearings - both sides; | Regal Autosport, Southampton | £425.12 |
23/06/2020 | 103238 | Replaced 1no. coil pack connecter to correct misfire | Regal Autosport, Southampton | £266.81 |
07/03/2020 | 102470 | Full service, including cambelt and waterpump change; Haldex oil and filter change; comfort-control-module replaced to correct central locking fault; cruise control fitted; Complete inspection of the car; | TT Shop, Bedford | £1,162.00 |
03/02/2020 | Replaced convertible soft-top | Allhoods Ltd, Romford | £795.00 | |
08/12/2019 | Replaced wind-deflector toothed belt | At home | £40.00 | |
09/12/2019 | 101740 | 4 x Avon ZV7 tyres 225/45YR/17 XL TL; | ATS Euromaster | £265.96 |
09/12/2019 | System scan to identify central locking fault; | AutoTechnix, Southampton | £36.00 | |
27/11/2019 | 101670 | Replaced both front CV gaiters for pre-purchase MoT; | S&S Cars, Wickham | dealer paid |
04/12/2018 | Battery replaced; | Total Motor Factors Ltd, Southsea | £54.76 | |
16/02/2017 | 97007 | Interim oil service | Mobile Diesel Doctor, location unknown | £65.00 |
10/03/2016 | Brake pads (front/rear? not known) | ProParts Ltd, Waterlooville | £11.05 | |
02/12/2015 | 90940 | Interim oil service | BAR Garage, Porchester | unknown |
19/02/2013 | 84401 | Full service including cambelt and water pump | Scott Fisher Cars, Burlsedon | unknown |
02/02/2012 | 73772 | Audi Longlife service; brake fluid changed; Haldex oil and filter changed | Audi Southampton | unknown |
15/02/2010 | 49616 | Audi Longlife service; | Audi Yeovil | unknown |
17/01/2009 | 34663 | Audi Longlife service | Audi Yeovil | unknown |
02/04/2007 | 19941 | Audi Longlife service | Audi London Finchley Road | unknown |
15/08/2006 | 19194 | Audi Longlife service; Haldex oil and filter changed; | Audi London Finchley Road | unknown |
17/01/2005 | 14148 | Audi 30k miles service; | Audi London Finchley Road | unknown |
14/01/2003 | 8056 | Audi 20k miles service; brake fluid changed; | Audi London Finchley Road | unknown |
08/08/2001 | 2907 | Audi 10k service; | Audi London Finchley Road | unknown |
28/07/2000 | Delivery inspection | Audi London Finchley Road | unknown |
