fellow B6ers,

about a month ago i bought my first car- a 2003 audi a4. It was all good until a few days ago when i got a fuel like smell from the engine. I suspect its an oil leak because i checked under the hood and saw an oil leak and no fuel. secondly i had my car checked by a mechanic the other day and he said the hand brake cable had snapped. Just today i brought the car to a local audi dealership to get this stuff fixed. How much do you think it will cost to get rid of the leak, and to replace the hand brake cable? they should call me back soon, but i want to make sure i dont get ripped off!

thanks

 

coming from a dealership i would say it cost alot. Nothing is ever cheap from the stearlership.

 

What's the mileage on your B6? An oil smell could be indicative of valve cover gasket leaks, or cam chain tensioner gasket leaks.

 

it has 105k miles, its going to cost 900 to fix it=/

 

The parking brake cable is a PITA, I bet you oil leak is your valve cover gaskets. I have to do mine soon too, I got the gaskets from ECS for like 20 bucks each. the downside from the dealer is their labor rate, 135 buck per hour is quite pricey.

 

Ridiculous price gouging like this by the stealership is why I became a firm believer in DIY for as many maintenance issues as possible.

You could probably do all of that yourself for under $100.

 

DIY for maintenance is fine....

DIY for repairs is different all together.

Everytime we see a B6 on a tow truck coming in to the dealer. i'd say half the time the owner screwed something up, 25% an independent screwed something up. And the last 25% is its a problem no one can figure out. Usually a sludge oil pressure problem