Audi Rant

[Broccoli B]

Just need to get this off my chest, and want others to know.

I own a 2003 Audi A4, i bought it as a certified used car 3 or 4 years ago so it had a 100,000 mile warranty. 2 weeks ago while driving home on the highway an exhaust valve in #2 cylinder broke and essentially ruined the engine. Dealer has quoted my $5700 for a replacement re-manufactured engine, installed. My car has 100,902 miles on it.

I naturally called Audi to see if they could provide some assistance on getting my car fixed. I have been talking with them and providing them information for 2 weeks while they keep saying "we want to make this right" Now today they call me to tell my there is nothing that they can offer me except for $2000 toward the purchase of a new vehicle. So now essentially they have wasted two weeks of my time while i could have been getting my car fixed.

For the devils advocates, my car is well maintained and has had 100% dealer service its entire life.

Now i must decide if it is worth $5700 dollars to fix a car that is valued at $8000.

The kicker to this is I paid the car off about 1 week before it went tits up.
end rant

[DRAGON88]

Ouch, was it still under warranty?


Oh, and welcome to dealing with AoA or VWoA. Both tremendous PITA to deal with. Sorry to hear about it.


As an aside, I've never seen a valve do that. Where it fractured off was quite strange as well...

[chavez]

Broccoli B, I'd shop the replacement around for the best price, suck it up, and just do it.

Then continue to drive the car for a long, long time.

Sucks man. At least in the end you will still be driving a pretty nice rig.

[pet575]

I think you shouldn't get too concerned about putting in the new engine so long as cost < vehicle value. Sucks that it just got paid off, hopefully it holds out for another 100K once you fix it.

[DRAGON88]

Just out of curiosity, was the spark plug in cyl2 damaged at all?

[Hollywood]

[fish6942]

Get more estimates on the engine replacement. I'm certain the price can only go down. There has to be a reputable local shop around you to do the work. For instance, we don't live in a metropolis but we are fortunate to have a nearby shop that works almost exclusively on Audis and VWs.

[churchy]

Is this something that insurance could help with? Seems like you could pay a deductible and be up and running.

[timmy]

look for a used replacement engine, like from a junkyard

[ky1e]

One of the cars I was looking at was the Audi S5, but I decided against it because of the problems I have heard with getting the car serviced and God forbid having to get the car fixed if anything goes wrong.

[8824]

Our warranty is up in a few months on the Audi. We are definitely trading it in before the cert expires.

Sucks man. Shop that price.

[Suprahunter]

Go with the used engine and trade it in for an American car.

[Lop]

[J_DOGG]

Did you say it blew up and caught on fire???

[brew]

[Bambamski]

great cars, super pricy to fix and nobody can really fix them but the dealer. That's the reason I'll never own one.

I'd see if there is a shop that can fix your Audi that isn't a dealership. Might be hard but worth it. You might get a break on price.

I had a warranty issue with my truck after it was over 50 km and they weren't going to fix it. My only saving grace was they bumped me a week because the mechanic was on vacation and I told them I went over the KM because of that. I had to fight though. Warranties aren't forgiving at all.

[Chattwake]

http://www.everdrive.com/partdetails_V1.aspx?sku=5003053&utm_source=google&utm_medium=googlebase&utm_campaign=shopping

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/2002-a4-3-0l-engine-91k-miles-tested-with-warranty_W0QQitemZ390161553285QQcmdZViewItemQQptZMotors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories?hash=item5ad770d785

http://www.importperformanceparts.net/imports/pek-eaudi.html

[Broccoli B]

Nobody drives the 3 liter, 1.8T baby!

I decided I am going to let the dealer fix it, there engine cost $800 more than the closest bid I got, but comes with more attached accessories. it is also a re-man with a 1 year warranty. heres to hopefully another 100k miles.

I have also been thinking about getting the clutch and flywheel replaced while the motor is out. Do they have a way to determine how much wear the current parts have?

[churchy]

[Broccoli B]

I don't think so, but have never tried.

[Chattwake]

Looks like you can get a 1.8t cheap. or get it rebuilt with one of those kits I forwared to you. New engine in a 100k+ mileage car is not that smart unless you plan on putting another 100k on it.

[shaggyboarder]

Used engine sounds like the way to go... Any lsx swaps or kits for that car?

[Broccoli B]

I have found used engines in the $2500 range with about 100k miles on them. That just seems like too big of a gamble to me to justify the savings.

[DRAGON88]

[Chattwake]

What about the rebuild kits that I linked to?

[DRAGON88]

Could always have the block bored out to 2l, do forged internals and do a GT28RS setup on it.