Day before yesterday I was driving back from lunch, and noticed a little smoke coming from my left side vent (the one by the driver side door that above the headlight switch) so I went to pull into the closest parking lot. By the time I pulled in the parking space (which was almost right away) my **** was a baby fireball! By the time I got parked I noticed a small flame when looking down into the vent. I went into the store and ran out with a pitcher of water.... No luck. I figured out at that point that it was an electrical fire, so I got the fire extinguisher, and succesfully put it out. I called Audi and had it towed into the dealer, I also asked if there were any possible related recalls that could have caused this. He replied that "yes, there was a recall for the headlight wiring harness; it was replaced in October of 2004." Now, I bought my car in November "04" so that was a month b4 I bought it. Long story short, I went into Audi and made them show me were the defective wiring harness was, (they reluctantly complied) and low-and-behold it was unmistakablely the cause of my electrical fire! Now, I'm in the midst of them trying to shirk responsibility, and dump the bill on my insurance co. I am an engineer myself, and no fool, so I took pictures of the problem area, and its surroundings to solidify my conclusions. The Audi reps seem to have already made their mind up that its not Audi's liability, but I know for a fact that it is.... What do I do so I dont get screwed!?!? And in the event that the liability IS on Audi, what am I rightfully entitled to? Any helpful info you have is GREATLY NEEDED...

Thanks alot guys!

~ST82ST8

 

the word "recall" is enough they didn't sort the problem, if you have receipts for the work dine you are in the winners box

 

I would suggest you get your insurance company involved.
1. In case you get stone-walled with Audi, it would be better if your insurance company wasn't late to the party, so-to-speak.
2. You may decide it's just not worth the hassle doing it yourself.
3. If the claim is going to cost the insurance company enough $$, they may even hire a forensic engineer to determine the cause of the fire - and they would pay for it.
4. If enough proof, insurance company will subrogate against Audi.
5. Thi is a 'comprehensive' loss - shouldn't cause your rates to go up (unless you have had a bunch of them - in which case they would non-renew you.)

 

You should ask if the "JC Recall" has been performed on your car

Its just a piece of felt tape and a plastic guard that goes on the crossmember behind the headlight switch

 

i imagine the jc recall is the one the dealer is speaking of. if the recall was performed audi isnt liable. you need to take your claim to the dealer that performed the recall.

 

AudiTech04 Yes, it was the JC recall, and from what my Audi service rep told me, it was performed in October 2004. They (Audi), however, are in contact with my insurance company and have scheduled a dual inspection of the car this week. The Audi rep from corporate called me last week, and told me that if it was indeed the recalled harness, "Audi would make it whole again" for me. ;-) I'm quite pleased with that, since I observed the harness already, not to mention saw it when it caught fire.... and I'm 99% positive that the headlight wiring harness IS the culprit.

Now, only thing I'm worried about is wheather or not audi will replace my car in the event its totaled. I would love for them to be able to fix it again, but it may cost too much to repair with all the fire damage.

 

OK GUYS, GOOD NEWS! AUDI CALLED TODAY, AND THEY HAVE DETERMINED THAT IT WAS THE JC RECALL. THEY WILL BE TAKING FULL RESPONSIBLITY FOR THE REPAIR OF ALL DAMAGES. THX ALL

~ST82ST8

 

I knew that

 

What is this the 3rd or 4th one? I can understand the original enginnerring error due to the sheer stupidity of the audi engineers. But you think they would at least get the fix right.

 

wow, how much do you think it costs audi to replace one of those JC recall? Sheesh, you'd think they would do it right.