Hurts me in the wallet that is. The maintenance costs are driving me a little nuts.

So far over the past year for parts and labor:

$400 MAF Sensor
$1700 Steering rack/ differential seals
$1000 Airbag Control Module
$1600 Front end control arms/ tie rods

Total: $4700 in repairs

With the $2750 in upgrades/ mods I've done this past year, I've spent $7450 in one year on a 10 year old car!!! Hope she knows I love her....

 

That at the dealer?

 

it sounds like you paid way too much for the repairs. it should've cost half the amount you paid. 1600 for CA replacement is robbery.

 

all those prices are outrages they are all double what they should be

 

Yeah you are paying way to much! I got all my front end suspension parts tie rods upper and lower control arms for both sides for $300! 6 hrs of my own labor and it's done.

 

the thing that kills you on these cars is paying for the labor. if u did some thing ur self u'd save alot. not sure if u did or not but by looking at those prices my guess is you've been taking it to a shop.

 

There are other members on here in your general area. If you spring for beer and pizza they may be willing to help out. DIY repairs are essential to keeping these cars affordable - as you're learning, they'll kill you otherwise. The kicker is that these cars are actually pretty easy to work on. Basic tools plus torx and Allen bits and you can do pretty much any repair. And yeah you definitely took it up the trumpet on those charges - even if you continue going to shops to have the work done, for the love of Christ find another shop. I can practically hear them laughing all the way from here in NY.

 

yea man especially the MAF sensor.. mine **** the bed one cold winter night, so i ordered a lightly used one for around 100 bucks.. and the switch out took about 10 mins tops in the cold.. steering rack paying someone to do it cost me about 600.. and if someone quoted me 1600 for control arms and tie rod ends i would of prolly kicked him in the cash and prizes and used blocks of wood in my driveway before i paid that much haha.. not pickin on you or anything at all man.. but youre gettin throttled by whoevers takin care of your car.. i hope you find a much better mech. or take on more DIY work cause thats def no fun to lose that much money..

 

Pretty much all the mechanics around here that work on Audis charge $100/hr. Maybe Seattle is just overpriced. I just had the control arms/ tie rods done yesterday, and the complete kit was $750, and with 7 hours of labor for installation and alignment at $100/hr it was $1450. Tax brought it up to $1600. For the Airbag control module, I think the price of just the module was $700 or $800, and then with an hour of labor and tax, brings it up to $1000. For most of these, just the parts make up over half the price. I don't know how to work on cars and don't know anyone in the area that does. I've had this car for 3.5 years now, but this past year has been particularly expensive. Keep crossing my fingers that I will be able to go for a little while without having to replace something...

 

another thing you can do is try to buy the parts on your own. seems like these "shops" overcharge for parts you can get at a much cheaper price on your own. kind of like the timing belt situation. ive heard mechanics charge 350 for a timing belt job parts...on ecstuning.com the entire kit costs $180~.