Audi Q5 Mechanical Review

Today we're going to be reviewing the Audi Q5. Now while most car reviewers would praise the Q5 for having an excellent ride quality and a luxurious interior, we're going to be taking a look under the hood and underneath this Q5 to see just how the Germans and the Mexicans who built it could make a luxury SUV that's so complex. Now we're going to start under the hood of the Q5 where we have this, which is kind of a disappointment. It's just the same old 2 liter 4-cylinder turbocharged engine that's used across almost all the Volkswagen products including the Tiguan, the GTI and even all the way up to the luxury Q Audi SUVs. Now this is a variant of the EA888 engine that's been around for quite some time now and it still actually uses an iron block. Now the engine sits longitudinally like it would in a rear wheel drive platform, however you could see it's actually pushed quite to the front in front of the front wheels so it has a large front overhang unlike many other rear wheel drive vehicles and that's because this uses a symmetrical all-wheel drive system, kind of similar to what Subaru uses. Now paired to it is a 7-speed dual clutch transmission which is down at the back of the engine underneath the vehicle. Now taking a look at some of the components under the hood here, on the side here we have the air box, we have your positive terminal here that goes to the battery, we have the washer tank over here, the engine here is right in the middle and then off to the side here we have the coolant jug and the ECU. Now we're going to start with the air intake system on the Q5. Now fresh air is going to be drawn in from the front of the vehicle through this duct over here and go into this air filter to get filtered out and then be sent down this pipe here straight to the turbocharger. Now this side of the engine is the exhaust side of the engine so you can see there's a very short air intake path before it goes straight down to the turbocharger. Now just like many other Volkswagen's there are six torque screws that you have to remove in order to get this air box cover off to change the air filter. Now you also need to remove this fresh air pipe and then I can pull off the air box itself revealing this air filter which is a very non-traditional shape. Now with that air box removed we have clear access to the turbo on the side of the engine here and the air pipe you can see how it leads down to the turbocharger. It'll then use the spool of the exhaust gases to pressurize that air and then send it down the charge pipe which is located further down below. Now from underneath the vehicle we can see the turbocharger, that air is going to be pressurized by the exhaust gases and then flow down through this tube over here which goes into the air intercooler in front of the radiator. Now once that air cools off from the intercooler it's then going to flow through this charge pipe there's a little resonator over here and then up towards the throttle body. Now on top of the charge pipe coming out of the air intercooler we have your mass air flow sensor and then this is the drive-by-wire throttle body motor that controls the flap inside here to vary the amount of air that's going to go into this plastic intake plenum. Now it looks like this plenum is used on multiple models because this vehicle only has direct injection but you could see the holes inside of the molding here where a port injector would go. Next we'll take a look at the fuel system on the Q5. Now we've got this fuel line that comes in from the low pressure pump inside the tank. It's just dangling there, I wish they had secured it a little bit better. Now this is a direct injection engine only so that line is going to go straight into this high pressure fuel pump that's driven off the exhaust camshafts on this engine that's going to pressurize the fuel and then send it down the fuel rail. Now over on the back of the engine you can see that line come down to the fuel rail which is located underneath this intake plenum. It feeds the four direct injectors that will inject gasoline directly into the combustion chamber. Now if you look closely inside of here you can see that shiny thing is the fuel rail and because this engine does not have port injection it could potentially lead to carbon buildup issue. Now taking a look at the top of this engine we do have a metal valve cover we also have the purge valve on top here for the evap system and this large oil kind of separator here before it goes back into the intake to get burned. Now on top of the engine we have the four ignition coils which is going to make spark plug access very easy when you need to change it. We do have the oil filler cap here now this does take 0w 20 weight oil however if you need to check your oil you do have to do so inside the vehicle because this vehicle doesn't really come with a dipstick. They've gone through the trouble of adding a dipstick hole but they don't include the actual dipstick this is probably sold separately just for enthusiasts like us who like to check our oil ourselves. Now taking a look underneath the Q5 we're going to start to see more differences between the Audis and the Volkswagens. Here we have everything all completely covered up with the exception of a couple of exhaust components underneath. Now that's good for aerodynamics but also to prevent salt water from splashing up at vital components accelerating corrosion. Now there's a total of three covers underneath the Q5 you do have to remove the first one in order to do an oil change. Now taking a look underneath the Q5 with those covers removed we've got the engine located at the front here and the transmission underneath this subframe cross brace. Now underneath the engine here we have this oil pan it's made of plastic and it has a plastic drain plug here you can see this one's already starting to leak here. Over here we have the oil level sensor which is what's going to tell you how much oil you have and tell the computer inside the car. Now just above the oil pan is the upper oil pan this aluminum piece but above that is the engine block and here you can see the rust forming because this is actually an iron block. Now over here on the front side of the engine underneath this plastic timing cover we have a timing chain which is a good thing because you don't have to replace it over the life of the engine but it's a Volkswagen which has been known for timing chain issues so who knows what's going to last longer. Regardless we do have dual variable valve timing one on the intake side over here for this camshaft and one on the exhaust side over here for this camshaft and you can see it's two oil control actuators located over here. Now the oil filter is located up at the top here instead of down below like many other vehicles so it's going to be pretty easy to access once you remove the engine cover you just have to unscrew this plastic housing here and it houses an oil filter cartridge it's not a canister style so this is going to be a little bit more messy to replace. Now on the side of the engine here you'll see these solenoids that actually correlate one for each exhaust valve and that means that these valves are actually electronically adjustable through the solenoids here as opposed to being hydraulically adjustable like in many typical vehicles or even manually adjustable like the older vehicles. Volkswagen has chosen to make the adjustment a little bit more complex here by adding all of these solenoids in the exhaust side. Now just in front of that timing side is the accessory belt and this here is the alternator which is right on top. Luckily accessing this is pretty easy there's a lot of room to work inside of here to replace the alternator. Now the belt itself is off of a tensioner located further down below and the AC compressor is located at the bottom here. Now the water pump is not driven off of the belt at least on this side of the engine. And here's another look at the drive belt setup and the AC compressor from underneath. Now if you ever had to do a valve cover job on one of these there's a lot of stuff that you have to remove including your ventilation system, your direct injection pump system, all these wires and hoses that run across and even the timing cover here. And now we'll have a listen to the engine startup sound. Now like many direct injection vehicles the direct injection pump makes the most noise and in my opinion the engine sounds like an economy car not really something you'd expect from a luxury vehicle. Now the Q5 has three main engine mounts. There's one over here on the driver's side underneath here. There's another one over here on the turbo side on the passenger side underneath this barrier. Now from underneath here you can see the engine mount it's actually a hydroelectric mount which makes them adjustable. And here's what that hydroelectric mount looks like on the driver's side. Now the third mount is actually the transmission mount at the back here which connects the body to the transmission. Now overall taking a look under the hood of the Q5 things are fairly basic when you consider what this actually is a luxury SUV. Now yes there is a lot of electronics and wires and hoses but it's not any more than you'd find in the Volkswagen Tiguan which is a much more simpler lower class of vehicle and that's where it kind of disappoints me because you're buying a luxury SUV and you'd expect more technology and innovation under the hood especially considering the rest of this vehicle's interior and suspension design. Now in terms of electronics there's not too much. The battery is inside of the vehicle but you do have this little jump part here that you can put a jumper cable to here and over here. There's no visible fuse boxes under the hood either. Now over on the driver's side we have the ECU. Now it's kind of bare and open to the public here and all the elements and of course subject to any collision damage. There's not even a cover covering it over or it's not hiding behind anything. It seems like Audi kind of just tacked it onto the strut towel wherever it's going to fit. Now the battery of the Q5 is actually located underneath the rear seats in the trunk. Now looking at the underbody of this Q5 I'm a little surprised that they're still using a stamped steel subframe. It runs from the back here and kind of blocks all the access to the transmission. It then runs in front of the engine over here and gives you access only to the oil pan side of the engine. The subframe kind of stops over here at the engine itself. There's no real structural members up at the front here except this plastic radiator support. Now taking a look at the front suspension from underneath the Q5 here you can see the double arms here with the two ball joints as it joins to the knuckle. Now all the components underneath here are thankfully made of aluminum as you'd expect on any luxury vehicle. Now the Q5 uses a double ball joint setup in order to change the steering axis inclination angle. I've got another video linked above on how multi-link suspensions work. Now if you do want to replace ball joints in the Q5 the one on this rear arm here is actually integrated into the arm itself so you've got to replace the whole thing and it's bolted down here at the knuckle. The other ball joint here sits inside of the knuckle and is secured with this pinch bolt and then it just bolts up to this control arm over here so you can change it out separately. Now looking in behind here we do have the fasteners that hold on the front hub so you luckily can change wheel bearings without a press. Now here's a look at the stabilizer bar link from underneath it's actually a good size and it's made of aluminum. Now it ties directly to the knuckle itself and to the sway bar. Now replacing the control arms on the Q5 is going to be a little challenging that's because the bolt that runs through here might hit the heat shield and you might have to remove a couple more components to get it out. Now replacing the front lower control arm is also tricky because you might have to remove this steering boot in order to get this bolt to clear it. Now if you ever want to upgrade your front sway bar on your Q5 it's going to be pretty easy it's just four bolts and it drops right down. Now taking a look at the front suspension on the Q5 this is where things really get separated from the Volkswagen's branding. We have a multi-link suspension here with these two upper control arms and two separate ball joints instead of one a-arm at the top here. Now inside of here we have the strut mounted to the body at the top and then at the bottom here it's mounted to this fork which mounts to the front lower control arm. Now just like the top the two control arms on the bottom are separated design they're not one l-shaped piece and there's two ball joints at the bottom here. Now in terms of working on the suspension I do like that this pinch bolt design is a aluminum one so it's not going to rust to the strut here when you do have to replace the shocks and this model doesn't have air suspension which should also be fairly reasonable to service. Now because this engine is longitudinally mounted we have a front steer setup where the brake caliper is actually at the back here and the tire rods are up at the front the inner and the outer. Now the front here this chunk of aluminum is the suspension fork it actually takes the weight of the vehicle from the spring up above through this lower control arm and then through its ball joint connected to the knuckle. Now it also connects to the stabilizer link over here which will then connect to this sway bar over this way. Now overall I'm pretty impressed with the complexity of the suspension on this Audi. It's really good that they've used a lot of aluminum up front here which should aid with this vehicle's dynamics. Now the only issue I have with this suspension is that any benefit that you're getting from the handling here is actually taken over by the over boosted steering feel that you get through the electric power steering. It's a feeling that's so soft and disconnected it kind of makes you wonder why they invested so much into the suspension. If you get something like a McPherson strut suspension on a Lexus RX it pretty much gives you the same feedback. Now of course as an owner you will have a lot more problems with your suspension because there's a lot more components here that could wear out. You've got pretty much four ball joints plus the tire rod at the front here that connects the steering knuckle. Of course working on this is going to be more complicated than the McPherson design but with a luxury car comes its cost. Now taking a look at the Q5's rear suspension we do have a multi-link setup here and there's five separate links. We have this rear tow link over here. We have the lower control arm that holds the spring and the strut located down here. We have an upper control arm over here. Another upper control arm over here and then a trailing link way over on this side here. Now at the back here there's a mixed use of materials. The rear lower control arm is made of aluminum and it's got this plastic arrow piece underneath it. The rear control arm here and the upper control arm at the back are stamped steel. The upper control arm over here is aluminum. Same thing with the stabilizer link it's also made of aluminum and it attaches down to the sway bar over here that goes down across to the other side. Now the trailing arm is also made of steel. Now the knuckle itself is made of aluminum. Now looking down inside of here we do have a stamped steel rear subframe and then there's this vibration isolator down here. Now replacing shocks on the Q5 is pretty easy just two bolts up at the top there and then one bolt down at the bottom here for your lower control arm. Same thing with the spring it's just sandwiched between the lower control arm and the body. Luckily this one does not have the air suspension so it should be pretty reasonable to work on. Now of course having such a complicated suspension setup is going to be really good for handling especially for an SUV. Though you do have a lot of wear points on here such as bushings for the stabilizer link, the upper control arms, pretty much any bushing over here is a wear point on this vehicle which means that you are going to have to replace it with things to wear out. Speaking of replacing control arms some of the bushings at the back where the subframe joins are pretty difficult to reach and actually require you to drop the subframe in order to change them out. Now taking a look at the rear suspension from underneath here you can see we have the multi links here they're all attached to the subframe. They do have these cam bolts here to adjust the toe and the camber luckily. Here's another look at that aerodynamic piece from underneath just helps to smooth out airflow underneath here. Here's a look at the back of knuckle where the axle goes in. Now it's a bit difficult to see but the rear bearings are a bolt on style so you don't need to press it out of the knuckle when it wears out. Now next we'll take a look at the transmission on the Q5. Now we do have the output that's going to come from the engine and go straight into this bell housing to feed this dual clutch transmission. Now this transmission is an all-wheel drive transmission it's going to first feed power to the back and then it'll bring it through a pop shaft to an integrated differential in the bell housing itself to these front wheels. You can kind of make out where one of the axles are going to be here and where the other axle runs on this side. All of this is done behind the actual engine itself. Now of course this being an Audi there's no actual dipstick nor is there even a shifter cable. The only thing you can see here is the two coolant lines that go down to the transmission warmer. Now looking at the transmission from underneath this is where things get quite interesting. We have this stamped steel subframe here that pretty much blocks almost all access to the transmission pan. This pan here is actually made of plastic so if you ever have to change the gasket or work on the valve body or anything to do with the transmission you have to remove the subframe or lift the transmission up. Now we do have a drain plug located over here on the transmission pan and there's another plug located over here. There's a fill plug located somewhere up above but you can't really see it. Now once this transmission is done changing its gears it's then going to bring the power over to the transfer case over here. Now here you can see the transfer case actuator and this is going to distribute the power split 50-50 between the rear which is going to go through the drive shaft of the back there and the front which has a prop shaft that's actually integrated in the transmission housing. Now just up inside of here we have the fill port for the transfer case fluid and down at the bottom here we have the drain port for the transfer case fluid. Now the manual actually suggests that you remove this transmission mount here and drop it down a little bit in order to get better access up there. Now here at the back of the transmission at the output of the transfer case we have this actuator which is going to actuate the parking pawl to lock the back wheels. Now the transfer case has an integrated prop shaft that's going to bring it up to this front differential housing over here before it splits it off to the CV axles. Now this differential housing is supposed to have a drain and fill port separately but I can't really seem to find where they are. Of course servicing that differential is going to be pretty difficult because it's right above the subframe. Now if your starter ever goes bad on your Q5 good luck because it's actually buried underneath this engine mount. This here is the positive terminal wire that's going to run to that starter buried inside of there. Looking up through this little hole in the subframe that's where the starter motor is located and this is the bracket that goes around it so you pretty much have to support the engine of the vehicle and remove that mount in order to get access to it. Now the diameter of the drive axle up at the front here does look pretty thick. Now that drive shaft is going to run up inside of the body then underneath this guard here which actually houses the differential. Now the rear differential is going to take that power and split it to both rear wheels. Now because the transfer case is the one that's doing the diversion of the power between the front and the rear there's no electronics to be seen back here it's purely mechanical. Down here you have the drain port for the fluid and up there you have the fill port for easy differential fluid changes. Now the rear axle does look pretty beefy just like the front one so you can tell definitely that this is going to be a full-time all-wheel drive system where each wheel gets the same amount of power. Seems like Audi tries to make everything really complicated. For the spare tire instead of giving you a normal spare tire donut they actually give you this big rim with an inflatable tire on it. That's right it's actually inflatable this part's going to inflate up there's no thread on it over here. It comes with its own compressor located over here and even just to remove the lug nuts you have to use a special clip here in order to remove these caps before you can get access to the bolts. To further that when you want to jack up the vehicle with a normal floor jack the body under covering is actually covering the subframe and the rear differential where you would jack up and therefore the only jack points are really your pinch welds where a regular four-post hoist at a dealership would lift you up. They don't really think about using a floor jack. Next up we'll take a look at the exhaust system on the Q5 and because this is a longitudinal engine it's pretty easy to see. We have the exhaust manifold over here that's integrated into the head it comes down to this really small port over here before going down to the actual turbocharger. That exhaust gas is then going to spool up the wheel inside of here which is going to boost the air intake pressure. You can see we do have a coolant line that runs in between here. The exhaust gas is then going to escape and go out this way to the catalytic converter and then to the flex pipe further down below. Now that exhaust is then going to travel through this flex pipe at the side of the transmission and then come down around this way to the mid silencer and then out the tailpipe at the back. Now after that mid silencer there's another one behind it over here then there's a tailpipe that goes around the rear differential assembly and then into the muffler. That muffler has two exits one on either side it does point downward and unfortunately they do give you fake exhaust tips. And now we'll have a listen to the exhaust. Now the front bumper on the Q5 is made up of many small little pieces of plastic including little clips, little pieces of hardware, lots of pieces of trim. You can feel you can really hear how that plastic creaks when you push on it. If you were to get into a minor fender bender on here there's probably more than a hundred parts that you'd have to replace. It's got to be the best that Mexico has to offer. Now this being a longitudinally mounted engine the steering rack is mounted just below the engine itself ahead of the front control arms and the electric power steering motor is actually located underneath this part of the subframe inside of here. From underneath here you can see where the intermediate shaft is going to join down to the steering rack. Next up we'll take a look at the Q5's braking system because it does have to be pretty impressive to stop such a heavy vehicle. Now it does use your typical vacuum booster at the back here with this brake master cylinder. It's all hidden underneath this windshield cowl. Now if you follow the line from the vacuum booster it actually comes down to this vacuum pump which is also driven off of the exhaust camshaft here and that's because these turbocharged engines do not have enough vacuum in the intake manifold to drive that vacuum booster. Now following the brake lines from the master cylinder down the fender here we come to the ABS actuator located underneath here. This is just a typical ABS actuator it's going to control your traction and stability control as well as any autonomous braking features on this car. Now speaking of autonomous features I kind of find it very saddening that you could buy such a nice luxury vehicle with no autonomous braking features or radar sensors up at the front here. This is all just plastic that kind of creaks when you touch it. The only sensors you really get is just parking sensors. I mean you could even get a radar sensor on things like a Corolla nowadays. Now looking at the front brake setup on the Q5 we have this nice giant caliper over here. It's actually a four piston fixed caliper with the pads inside of here that slide around and retract. You get your two bleeder screws up at the top here and there's a nice giant rotor as you would expect on a sporty crossover luxury vehicle. Now the rear brakes on the Q5 are a bit of a disappointment to me. Just a simple floating caliper on the disc rotor. I would have expected a little bit bigger of a brake or maybe even a dual piston setup being that this is a very heavy big luxury SUV. Now the parking brake setup is inside of this electric actuator over here that's going to squeeze the pads together in order to lock the rotor. Now underneath the Q5 we have this plastic fuel tank. Now it is a two-piece design where it actually goes over the exhaust and the driveshaft hub and continues over to the other side. Now inside the rear right wheel well we have the EVAP canister just where the exhaust is. Now one thing I notice is there's a lot of space just behind the rear subframe inside of here and then just behind the muffler itself inside of the bumper there's a lot more space inside of here. This is where the sensor for the trunk lid actuator lives. Luckily though accessing the fuel pump just requires you to remove the rear seats. Now the interior of this vehicle is really well built and it's got a lot of features which it should be. It is a luxury SUV. Now I personally don't like some of the materials used on these dashboards and the interior pieces. It feels more like a Volkswagen or like a Honda Accord than like a luxury vehicle to me. Now under the hood yeah there's a fair share of plastics and electronics and complications that you get with any normal turbocharged German vehicle. Overall though while things kind of look promising from underneath here with pretty easy to access engine components when you look towards the back of what they've done to the transmission blocking it all with the subframe and the suspension components things are going to be pretty complicated in order to service especially when this vehicle ages. Now in my opinion the real place where Audi has cut corners is by reusing this engine which is an existing engine used in almost every other Volkswagen or Audi product. They just shoved it into this luxury vehicle. I think that Audi could have been a little bit more innovative under the hood here and offering a different kind of power plant or a more powerful engine rather than just reusing Volkswagen's engine. In terms of ownership Audi doesn't really have a big reputation for reliability although this four-cylinder engine has been around for a while and I hope that they've really worked on fixing its minor issue. Now this being a four-cylinder things under the hood at least are pretty easy to work on and to access however everything else in the vehicle such as the all-wheel drive system is completely buried in there and it's going to be very labor intensive to work on if something does go wrong. Now you tell me in the comment section down below what do you think of the Audi Q5 from a mechanical perspective? Do you think Audi's got some work to do other than offering a two liter and a three liter turbo engines or would you lease this vehicle for two or three years and return it before the warranty is up? Make sure you follow me on Instagram to find out what the next car review is going to be and subscribe for more videos just like this one. Oh crap I lost it