Well so far I got a couple things knocked off the list and have saved myself over $600 Audi quoted me $200 part & $99 labor for Left Tie Rod End - went to ECS and got BOTH L & R inner's, ends, boots, and hardware for $179 shipped. Still came under by $21 of Audi's quote and got 4x the parts! Installed them all myself so saved another $100 on labor there. Ordered my Left upper rear (curved) CA for $61 shipped (saved $240 there) and found a wonderful indy vw/audi shop in the pittsburgh vicinity that installed it in < an hour and was $95 AFTER tax. His rate is $65-70/hr as opposed to Audi's $90++/hr. They quoted me over 4 hours for that job...3 of which they would sit back there with their thumbs up their asses! Went to pepboys after this was all done, I currently have the 3 yr unlimited wheel alignment agreement, so that saved another $100 for an alignment (granite, Pepboys' is probably not as good as Audi's alignment - however, it's done and for free lol). The car is riding SO much better now, and the steering is unbelievable since I changed both the inner & outter TR's. The only thing left is the right rear axle seal. I'll call Paul (Indy shop) and see what kind of price he can get me on that. I'm sure it will be < the $200+ Audi quoted me.

 

^^ Cool... nice to get deals.

 

See what pisses me off with these mechanics and what not is that you go in for them to solve a problem (front end noise) they come out and you have a list of "problems" the last two inspection problems would run you $445. Why do they need to point that crap out.

A while ago when i had a nice jeep, it wouldnt hold an idle without dieing they said it was my warped cylander head (it was warped and the codes came on). of course they insisted that it wasnt any of the sensors. I take my car, clean off the IAC (idle air controller) abd it runs like a champ.

But sorry for the rant. It just makes me mad. But thats what you should expect. Almost always.

Good luck with your issue.