The engine mounts have gone bad. the dealership says they are leaking and thus have failed. this is a known issue with this model and several other models. the engine mounts fail at around 50000 miles. i've never heard of engine mounts going bad this early in a cars life. maybe after 100000 miles i would expect for the engine mounts to fail but not at 50000 miles. many audi owners have complained about this issue on forums and audi groups online. this is a safety issue and audi is not doing anything about this. they are leaving their customers to fix a problem which should not exist.
Stepped in my car to go out, started car as i pushed the clutch down. clutch pedal snapped to the floor. car was towed to dealer. part that failed was slave cylinder. car only has 12,200 miles. car is used to commute to work and back, no unusual strain of any kind on the car. i was lucky that i was not driving the car when the cylinder failed. i would been unable to change gears to safely stop the car. perhaps i could have pulled it out of gear but i am not sure how i would have reacted. my commute to work has me take a higher with lots of fast moving cars (rte 17, norther nj). i could have hit the brakes and force the engine to stall. in that scenario, i would lost power assisted functions. that would have also been a very unsafe situation. car is now at the dealer and is expected to be there for another week or so. replacement slave cylinder is on back order from germany. again, in my case i was lucky but if this problem is a recurring one in this model, that would present a safety problem. i am submitted this note out of concern for any other driver that may run into this issue with this model . i have owned manual cars my whole life and i have never experienced this type of failure.
For the passed 2.5 years, the heating system smells, burns my eyes, gives me a headache, and makes me nauseated. repeated visits to different audi dealerships with no change. issue remains, dealerships state no issue. i was told that exhaust is probably entering via the air system.