My 2002 A6 is with the dealer for diagnosis/repair. My level of trust of this dealer is zero. I would like your thoughts on their diagnosis and cost estimates for repair.

History:
1) Car was misfiring w/ blinking CEL. Went into shop for repair. Dealer replaced ignition coils under the Audi recall. I did not pull the codes myself, so not sure which cyclinders were misfiring. Dealer did not indcate which codes it had pulled. Told me my car was fixed an sent me on my way.

2) After leaving dealer, car again begins misfiring and CEL is blinking. I call them from the road and they give me attitude and it's not their fault the CEL is still blinking and the car is misfiring.

3) Service manager argues with me that the torque converter (code 741) that I chose not to address is the cause of the misfiring engine. He also tells this to Audi Corp customer service after I file a complaint....they blindly agree with the dealer (i.e. "we are not mechanics and have to trust our dealers")

4) After I convince the service manager to stop blaming the trorque converter, he blames me. "We often get into this situation when a customer misdiagnosis thier car and we fix the wrong thing"

5) After convicing the dealer to take the car back and provide real diagnostics, they are telling me it is the exhaust cams and intake followers. Estimated cost of $3,100 or replace the entire cylinder heads for $3,800.

Your thoughts? I do not trust these guys at all. If this appears to be a reasonable diagnosis, I will be taking the car to a non dealer for repair.

This dealer is terrible. In fact, after the original problem they refused to return my calls for 2 weeks. Even after audi corp escalted to the VP of service and the general manager, no one would even call me back. Anyway, sorry for the rant but after being w/o a car for 2 weeks, not being called back, lied too, and then blamed for the initial faulty repair, I am a bit untrustworthy of this dealer.

 

I'm not a professional, but I think that connecting a bad torque converter to engine misfiring is utter non-sense.
It sounds like you have on your hand a true "stealer" that doesn't want to cut their losses (coils, mechanics' paid time for working on the car - if they actually changed your coils, etc). Even the fact that they changed the "cause" of the misfiring from a "bad" TQ to some "bad heads" problem should raise eyebrows; it speaks volumes...

 

Chefro: Thanks, and I agree this is all nonsense. Especially when the diagnosis went from bad TC, too my fault, to replace your cylinder heads. BTW, in between, the problem was carbon build up in the fuel injectors.

Audi corp will only deal with you of your car is being seviced by an Audi dealer. This is the only reason my car went back to the dealer in the first place. I understand the concept behind this but if you have a dishonest dealer it puts the customer in a bad spot. I will have no recourse with Audi Corp if I go to an independant mechanic.

 

Yeah, All b.s.!

It could be so many things and that's why this site is here.
It could be a bad connection with the coil terminal, bad wire, bad spark plug, bad injector... or worse but probably not. But your not going to find it by guessing.

Have an independent source pull the codes with a vag-com and post those here! I had this problem and Audi told me it was the injectors, I asked them how do you know that? he said it was his expert opinion! I told him I just pulled each one cleaned them, tested the solenoids and performed a volume test on all 6 at the same time and they are fine. My problem ended up being the valve seals.

The only way to fix an Audi is to be involved with this forum and do it yourself!

Honestly if Audi had better mechanics they could make a fortune. Maybe I should open a shop...

 

Jack, I'll be the coffee and doughnuts boy... Any openings?

O.T. (guess I'll gut my tranny in the summer... more likely the TQ is the culprit for that old "vibration")

 

First off I moved back to NY I'm not kickin' sea shells in Southwest Florida anymore.

An Opening, You bet, I know of a brand new bay with radiant heat in the floor! hmmmm...

and NY is stuffed full of Audi'$...

BTW Your commute is going to suck!