Hmmm, that sounds awfully familiar.

Last year, I had some issues with a leaking fuel tank. Brought it in to the dealership, got a huge estimate and then I found out online that there was a recall on the tank. They missed that. They fixed it for free because of the recall, but then only one week later the fuel pump broke. They refused to pay for it, said it died by itself. I still cannot believe I let that one pass without a huge fight. Only a few days later, I am without gas while the indicator says that there is still .25 of a tank left. Called the dealership while I was raging mad. Told them to pick up the car and to fix it for free. Suddenly everything was possible.

We are in a lot of sh*t when only yelling forces a dealership to do what they are supposed to do: provide some service. I actually spoke with corporate Audi about these problems, but they did not want to do a thing either. Well, you guys have lost yourself a good customer. This will be my last Audi.

Of course, they lost my business at that point. I have been buying parts online and have them installed by a guy around the corner. But when it comes to more sophisticated problems, I cannot rely on him and I have to go back to the dealership. I am wondering if I should go to another one that is at about one hour drive from here.

 

Well since ive been around the block, i can tell you BMW, Lexus and especially Mercedes will give you the same treatment. The whole auto industry has gone down the crapper as far as customer service goes.

 

Harry mak I agree with Auditech, My wife had a Toyota Avalon in warranty that went back five times before I found a cracked fuse block in a parking lot one afternoon. The thing is Cars are more difficult to diagnose these days and it would serve you well to have a better understanding of what is supposed to be happening "the theory" to diagnose where the problem is comming from. I try to repair my own but if I do send it in for some reason I want to point them in the right direction.( in a nice way)It seems to have always helped in my case.
If your Cats were plugged and you have several misfires, a misfire sends unburnt fuel to cats and destroys them.
Next, too many misfires at once-All over your coils are not going to gang up on you at the same time so the problem must be before them. i.e. ignition module that controls them ( or a burnt harness or valves-Hope not )

That would be a good direction to start for them. or you could start if your able by looking through the Bentley manual for the location of the Ignition module and a way to test it.

If I were you I would consult the forum and ask your repair center WHY? Why did this happen if you are getting an I don't know then your problem may never get resolved.

Toyota kept telling my wife it was a fuse( fuses don't just blow they need to be shorted.(and I asked them what shorted the fuse?) So they repaired the end damage not the problem that caused it, (5 Times! they should be ashamed)

I now own 2 Audi's and find they are nice to work on and well engineered. A little less roomy under the hood then my Suburban was but burns a lot less fuel. I never liked that Toyota anyway- it smelled funny.

In the end I will say Do not **** off your mechanic! Do not yell! If you do yell at him. Do not return to him. Trust me on this. Mechanics are dealing with unhappy people and auto problems all day. Have you ever been happy your car broke down or paying a mechanic to repair it. (you know bottled up anger that's dying to escape in the most evil of ways remember the guy who's room got robbed while he was on vacation but they left his camera and his toothbrush. he though he got lucky didn't he.

 

That's what he exactly did, isn't it? The "forum" advises him to take the car to someone who "knows the car", which he actually did. But that didn't solve his problem, did it?

Great advice! Since he already took the car to the "mechanic" (dealership), he shouldn't return and drive it the way it is (running like crap), just not to upset the frail-minded mechanic.

That's pretty much like a "vicious circle" theory, isn't it? No problem-solving in sight...

 

Yes... What I really should have said was "take your care to someone who actually knows the car an cares enough to diagnose the problem.

The thing I was getting at is that although this was a dealership, who is suppose to have Audi Certified techs, the reality is that most techs are only ASE certified. If this dealership cannot find the problem, nor care to, take it somewhere else.





ps; sorry for the hijack. We now return you to your normally scheduled problems...

 

Actually, a lot of audi techs aren't ASE certified nor do they have to be. They just have to be audi certified to work on certain models (new cars mostly) and a lot of dealers slack on this. Most dealers have 20 techs and only 4-5 of them actually know what they are doing under the hood of an audi. There are also several stages of audi certification, certified, expert, master and master guild. I was a master guild before i left the dealer. How about this fun fact, only about 45 people in the entire US are master guild certified (has taken every model classes and all basic audi systems) Its not easy to get there though, like 800+ clock hours of training. However! Cars these days are actually easier to diagnose, not harder. People are ******* getting dummer!!!!! Cars now a days tell you whats wrong with the damn things and people still can't figure them out! My advice to you is to have the shop forman at audi look at it and get it fixed the right way. The forman has usually been around the block and he can find out whats wrong with it really quick, which is what the tech should have done, ask the forman for help.

 

Thanks for that tip. I will have the foreman look at it. I'll keep you guys updated.

 

Audi Tech is right on it I am currently going to school to school to be a Technician and there are alot of idiots there. the dealership has the cool things called scanners i think audi's is called a 1051 i think it allows the technician to see what all of your sensors are reading like your knock sensor CMP CKP and other sensors the missfire has to be diagnosed or you are going to keep dropping $700 on CAT's every year

By the way auditech i am tempted to go to the Audi Academy wich would get me the classes just over Certified all done in like 16 weeks do you think its worth it?

 

Its a VAS 5051/5052, and yes the audi academy is worth it because the training is free, if you can get into it that is.....

 

I had a long discussion with the dealership today. From the information that I have collected over the past couple of months my conclusion was that they replaced the catalyc converter without diagnosing the underlying problem correctly. A weakness in my case was that this happened 3 years ago. And, in their defense, everybody seems to agree that it is hard to reproduce a problem that only happens once in a while and that the codes don't always indicate what the problem is.

But that is not my problem. That is why I go to a dealership and pay tons of money to get a problem diagnosed and fixed.

I wish someone would give me money for not doing my job.

Well, as you can see from this rant, it did not end well. Apparently, the dealership does not take pride in their work. "There is nothing they can do for me."

If the mods are ok with it, I would be happy to disclose the name of the dealership. Take your business elsewhere. These guys don't deserve it.