We have an '03 B-6 with the 1.8 T motor. I have developed a love-hate relationship with the thing. It's a wonderful car to drive, but has developed some serious issues lately. I put 20-25,000 miles a year on it, but drive it gently enough to average 35 mpg to and from work. It gets all the scheduled service at the dealer.
History of the car as follows; At exactly 60,000 miles, my wife was driving on the freeway in moderate traffic when the car just stopped. She was able to safely get the car to the side of the road and get it towed back to the dealer. Seems that the right side overhead cam-shaft just snapped. They had to rebuild the whole top of the engine. I had them replace the timing belt and follower at that time. After much discussion with the dealer and Audi USA, I was able to get them to cover the cam shaft problem under warranty (which actually expired 10,000 miles prior to the problem occuring). I told them that this should NEVER happen, so it must have been a bad casting. They agreed and corrected the issue. At just over 100,000 miles, the transmission control module went out . The local transmission places wouldn't touch the CVT transmission. Had to go to the dealer which charged me $2200.00 (I was able to negotiate it down to $1800.00). Two weeks later, the water temp sensor went out. I was able to change that myself. Three weeks later, the water pump went out (On our way to a New Year's Eve event! Got the car to a nearby dealer, and had to rent a car to go the rest of the way... NOT one of our better weekends). The replacement of the pump was $800.00 not including the rental car.
That brings us to the present. A couple of weeks ago, we were on a trip from L.A. to the Bay Area (Car ar 107,000 miles). We made one stop outside of Stockton without any issues. When we got in to the car the following day to go to Livermore, the oil light came on immediately. I initially thought it was oil level. I added a quart but that didn't do anything. We drove to Livermore and I got on-line to check on what could be the problem. It seemed that it was oil pressure. Affraid that I damaged the motor, I got it to the local dealer to check out. They advised me that it could be a sludge problem and would look into it. If it was oil starved, the cam bearing could become scored and that meant replacing the whole $9000.00 motor ($700.00 just to diagnose!). The next day, they told me it was a sludge issue, but the motor was fine. Oil pressure was suppose to be 55 or greater, but was down around 30. They told me that the factory memo fix was to flush the motor, replace all the EGR lines (with LARGER ones!) and oil lines along with the sump and pump among other things at around $3500.00. What choice did I have?! After all the other recent repairs, I just couldn't afford that so I had them do everything but replace the EGR lines (Which they said they have never done a partial repair like this before...). The total out the door was $1800.00 not counting the rental car to get home and the airline flight to return to pick up the car at the end of the week!
Seems to me to be a factory defect that AUDI should cover! I have NEVER had an issue with ANY OTHER car or truck that I have owned where sludge built up in a motor to cause damage while following the factory guidelines on service. Anyone have any suggestions as to what I should do now? The service rep said that I should sell it quick! Now that sure says alot about Audi products.... Did I mention that a coil pack failed on the freeway on the way home from work yesterday?!
< Message edited by MikenMel -- 2/16/2008 11:07:03 AM >
wow, sorry to hear that man. from what i understand though, as long as you can show that you have changed the oil with fully synthetic every 5000 miles, audi should cover everything dealing with sludge including a whole new engine......cue amze
like jojoampt said, as long as you have something to show about your oil changes every 5000 miles, audi should cover sludge problems.
also, the timing belt and water pump are recommended for replacement by my audi dealer around 90k miles. But I dont understand how it couldve faulted so early. My 05 B6 1.8T manual has 83.5k miles on it and the only problem ive had is a bad coil pack, which we all know is no big deal at all.
APR 1+ Stasis StreetSports/Center Diff Neuspeed Exhaust/TP Podi w/ VEI Digital Gauge JHM Short Shifter Southbend FE SS Racetec FMIC Apikol Snub 6000k HIDs
Posts: 5085
Joined: 2/24/2007 From: Sacramento, CA Status: online
Who is working on your car!? They are trying to charge you for work that is covered by audi regardless of mileage. The timing belt and water pump should be changed at the same time so thats your bad. Buying a CVT transmission is again your bad. Coil backs are made by Bremi, and they suck. Replace all four of them by ordering them from www.ecstuning.com. They will give you all four coils for the price of one at the dealer. Also have the world wide TSB printed out about oil sludge, if you want more info on sludge look up my thread "facts about oil sludge" in the general tech section.
The factory oil change interval was 10000 miles per the owner's manual. Where does it say 5? It's had every scheduled service at the dealer. No one said a word. So far as the CVT, when I read up on the car, it was suppose to be a MORE reliable tranny, not less. Now time has changed a few things I guess. I will look up the thread, thanks.
Posts: 5085
Joined: 2/24/2007 From: Sacramento, CA Status: online
The factory oil change intervals are 10k yes, and you only have to show proof of oil changes every 10k also for the TSB to apply. You "should" change your oil every 5k as a rule of thumb however.
So far as the dealer goes, I've been to three different ones and they all seem the same. Every time I go in, they find another issue. Now I have a EGR line leak on the top of the motor (I can see that oil is seeping a bit), and this last time, they told me oil was leaking off the back of the motor. In a rear wheel drive car, I would worry that I was loosing a main bearing and would think about tearing the motor down. I'm not sure what that means in a front wheel drive car. The dealer in the Bay Area mentioned that the TSB recommended specific things be done to correct the sludge problem, but they did not go so far as to tell me Audi should cover the expense. I guess my next stop will be AoA and see what they say. I wanted to get an idea of what I was up against here on the site first though. Any suggestions are appreciated. The service record at the dealer should show that I serviced it on schedule wouldn't it? Is that sufficient for the TSB?
< Message edited by MikenMel -- 2/20/2008 7:51:25 PM >
All you guys can keep saying its the dealer or just rare cases but this is more common you guys admitt. Check other forums and you will be hard pressed to find as many issues with other luxury cars, i was mbr of bimmerforums for two years (while i owned a bmw with more miles than my audi and no mechanical issues ever) and now a G35 forum and its rare to read about serious issues like i do here with the A4. Next week my G35 will be ready and ill be rid of this A4 nightmare forever.
Just looking on the B6 page and i saw at least 26 posts requesting help with something broken on their audi. The B6 is not an old car nor is it cheap and there is no excuse for the amount of break downs and falures this car has.
I called AoA today and they told me that since there is a TSB for sludge on the car, they have increased the warranty to 8 years, unlimited mileage so long as you can prove that the car was serviced properly (10,000 mile intervals). They say they will look into our case and get back with us. Let's see where this goes...
So Audi finally accepted responsibility on the issue, and are going to issue me a REFUND! They want to complete the repair I didn't have them do at the time due to prohibitive cost. Only thing is, they want to drive a loaner down to me, and drive my car back up to the original dealer to do the repair. That's a 1000 mile round trip! I told them to find another way even though they didn't want the local dealer to touch it.
I didn't know until the light came on. The only thing I can think of for prevention is to change the oil with full synth every 5000 or less with a new filter. If you have done your oil changes acordiing to the factory specs (10,000 miles), you may want to run some seafoam in the oil for 50 miles, then do a flush and an oil/filter change.
Well we finally came to an agreement where Livermore Audi would compensate a dealer in my area for the remainder of the repairs. After doing all my own foot work, I finally got the repairs completed by Keyes Audi in Van Nuys Ca. The guys from Livermore Audi kept saying they would tell the Keyes techs what was going on with the car, and what needed to be done. So I take the car in, and Keyes knows nothing about it! After a few days of angry phone calls to Livermore, everyone finally talks to each other and come to an agreement. So the repairs are completed, and they tell me "Just pay for it, and we will send you a check for the entire amount." What, am I STUPID?! I said no, Livermore would pay for the repair, AND send me a check for the amount I paid initially, and I stuck to it. They finally capitulated(seems the FIRST check to me mysteriously got lost in the mail....). I got the car fixed AND a check for the full amount that I paid for. The feeling that I got was that the Livermore tech (who has since moved up to the associated Porsche dealer) was trying to cover up their screw-up by preventing a paper trail, but I wouldn't let them. Even the Keyes tech said they weren't suppose to do that. The TSB is pretty straight forward when it discusses the extention of the warranty and audi's responsibility. Keye's has been a pleasure to work with, Livermore has not. Just my $0.02 worth.
< Message edited by MikenMel -- 5/10/2008 9:58:52 AM >
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Sludge and other issues - 
