Audi of America screwing me

[simona]

My b7 S4 with 63k miles misfired a month ago and my extended warranty ended in May 2011. Audi of Oakland did preliminary diagnosis. Problem cannot be found and they need to take out the engine to perform further diagnosis. They want to charge me 7k for that. After a month of going back and forth with Audi of America. They will not pay ANYTHING.

I am guessing this is an engine tension-er problem and Audi of America is not willing to work with me on my low mileage S4.

Audi just lost a life long customer. I convinced my wife to get a Q7 6months ago too.

[hungdaddy]

Wow...I am sorry to hear that. Did Audi of America wrote you a letter or talked to you? Or was it the dealership that told you that Audi of America denied the claim?

[Laszlo@034]

My b7 S4 with 63k miles misfired a month ago and my extended warranty ended in May 2011. Audi of Oakland did preliminary diagnosis. Problem cannot be found and they need to take out the engine to perform further diagnosis. They want to charge me 7k for that. After a month of going back and forth with Audi of America. They will not pay ANYTHING.

I am guessing this is an engine tension-er problem and Audi of America is not willing to work with me on my low mileage S4.

Audi just lost a life long customer. I convinced my wife to get a Q7 6months ago too.

Sorry to hear about your warranty issues...

Have you considered having an independent repair facility look at your car? We employ factory-trained technicians, and would be happy to perform a free inspection on the car for you.

Let me know if you'd like us to take a look at it!

[SoCalS4Avant]

Between 034 and JHM (not too far away), you seem to have some solid support and representation close by.

I would like to hear more about your issues. I don't recall seeing you much in the B6/B7 S4 section, but would encourage you to spend some time in there, and share what's going on - as well as keeping everyone updated.

The more all of us know, the more we can all help.

[simona]

Audi of America took 3 weeks to get back to me. Audi of Oakland couldn't do anything without charge without AOA. Towed my car to Freddie at East County European yesterday. He quoted me less then 3k to take out the engine.

I get on from time to time but only write/reply when I see its is required, do not like to BS.

Frank Santos and mechanic Cory at Audi of Oakland were very honest. Some of their old timer mechanics remember Freddie. They both agree its a better idea to not have an Audi stealership do anything so big at full charge.

[Kem]

Man that sucks, these 4.2s are not cheap to work on out of warranty.

What other problems is the car experiencing, and what codes are you throwing? If it's just misfires make sure to check all coilpacks first. The two most common catastrophic issues are the cam tensioners/chain guides and the cylinder wall scoring issue. Telltale signs of scored cylinder walls is heavy oil consumption and can be diagnosed by a compression/leak down test. People with cam adjuster issues have also seen heavy oil consumption, how is/was yours?

Also if it is timing chain related you'd probably hear it rattle especially on startup. Have you ever experienced that? 1-5 seconds of rattle is normal but if it continues for longer it may be trouble.

You can find a lot of info in the S4 forum, and this thread catalogs catastrophic engine failures:
http://www.audizine.com/forum/showth...pdate-12-03-11

Lastly, I would keep on AoA. Write them a letter everyday, start a post about your experience on every forum and create a blog talking about and show it to AoA. See if you can't bully your way to getting them to cover your engine.

Audi of America took 3 weeks to get back to me. Audi of Oakland couldn't do anything without charge without AOA. Towed my car to Freddie at East County European yesterday. He quoted me less then 3k to take out the engine.

I get on from time to time but only write/reply when I see its is required, do not like to BS.

Frank Santos and mechanic Cory at Audi of Oakland were very honest. Some of their old timer mechanics remember Freddie. They both agree its a better idea to not have an Audi stealership do anything so big at full charge.

[simona]

Its not the coilpack or spark plug issues. Audi of oakland checked. I am sending emails to the president of AOA and their customer relations director. I can keep sending emails to AOA but I think they will just reference the case number I opened.

Before the misfiring, the car was running fine. After the misfire I drove it home less then 1mile and has been towing to all the shops since.

[simona]

Update 1/3/12: Emailed CEO of AOA last week and got a reply within an hour. Brad Hollister, the executive case specialist called me yesterday asking for my expectations and will be calling me today.

[andre5]

Nice. Good luck!

[coolgraymemo]

Update 1/3/12: Emailed CEO of AOA last week and got a reply within an hour. Brad Hollister, the executive case specialist called me yesterday asking for my expectations and will be calling me today.

hope all goes well...

[ecrew16]

Good, AoA got back to you

[jrclutch55]

Your car was out of warranty, why should they be responsible for anything?????

[simona]

Your car was out of warranty, why should they be responsible for anything?????

seems like you didnt notice the details of my situation. Timing chain issues usually happens to S4's with 100K plus miles. Mine is only 63k. I never mod the engine or ecu and can count the number of times in 1 hand that I floored it.

[simona]

update: After a week of waiting for Brad Hollister their executive case specialist's response. He asked me to tow my car to Audi of Oakland to have their Technical Field Manager to inspect my car. I towed there Monday, he is having their guy look at it today.

[tpliquid]

seems like you didnt notice the details of my situation. Timing chain issues usually happens to S4's with 100K plus miles. Mine is only 63k. I never mod the engine or ecu and can count the number of times in 1 hand that I floored it.

buy S4, drive like grandpa

[SeKKeY]

oil changed often?

[simona]

buy S4, drive like grandpa

Ha, good one. I deserved that. Dont need to floor it with a V8. Just watch the rpm and downshift.

[simona]

oil changed often?

a week or 2 before its due and well under mileage. All at Audi of Oakland, they have all my records.

[Kem]

Good luck simona, keep us posted.

[simona]

Brad from AoA negoiated to pay 50% of the cost to fix or replace my S4's engine. Best case scenerio will cost ~10k to replace the bend values. Worst case scenerio will cost 20k with engine replacement.

[audistew]

Thanks for the info. I have an 05.5 S4 Avant with an apparant tensioner issue. I have ~80K miles on a car that has been driven much like simona. I service ahead of requirements, not after. 2 weeks before the failure I had services performed and no diagnostic errors. My dealer wants a $5K retainer just to assess the damage. I have two 0 compression cylinders on one bank. The rest is normal.

I have been spending a lot of time researching this technical failure and I'm sorry to say this is not an anomoly with these motors. Specialized Audi shops are all too familiar with the problem.

I live in Ottawa Ontario so I have been dealing with Audi Canada with no success. The car is actually an imported US model, so that is not helping my case.

Audi's line is that the car is out of warranty, too bad. I have invited Audi to inspect the car and if they find any sign of abuse or neglect I would be more than happy to accept I got a substandard product that didn't live up to expectation and cover the costs. They seem reluctant to accept that invitation.

[null]

holy shit.. the $ dealer wants to charge for this, is absurd. 7Gs? I remember when I could buy few cars with that money..

[simona]

Finally got my car back after 2 months at Audi of Oakland. Total cost is 11k. Tensioner broke which cause the timing to be messed up. All the 20 valves on one bank were bent along with a BUNCH of parts. Cory the mechanic is an expert engine puller/installer. He even tuned the engine to my Stasis exhaust. I paid half and AoA paid half.

[MiracleWhips]

Sounds like a fair deal considering you were well out of warranty.

I could think of $11k better spent though, sorry about that. :-(