New Piston needed

[Jerritt]

I just had my entire timing system changed including the valves. After completion the car was started and a cylinder misfire was triggered in Cyl 3. The mechanic is saying I need to replace the piston and ring as it reads only 30psi in the compression test. They quoted me block replacement $2340:
1900 labor
400 used block with pistons
40 new gasket

does anyone know of a cheaper way to do this? the labor is obviously the killer in this repair. Is there no way to change a piston without removing the entire engine from the car?

[bakedziti]

I don't believe so. At the very least, you'd need to be able to tighten the bolts that hold the piston connecting rod to the crankshaft, which I believe are tightened from underneath the crankshaft. Not to mention getting the crankshaft bearings in place.

[Jerritt]

I was told by the mechanic that it has to come out because the two bolts on the oil pan need to be removed and if they werent there then they could do it underneath. I reached out to AOA and the rep said she will be forwarding on to her supervisor as the second stage of my oil consumption was never completed even though I took it to Audi for them to do so. They replaced the turbo where they saw a leak and thought that was the end of the oil issues I was having. When the oil issues continued i brought it back only to find out I was out of warranty and they were quoting me crazy prices. Had the piston rings been replaced per Stage II consumption protocol I wouldnt be having these issues today. Theyre looking in to seeing if her supervisor will approve stage II now even though I am over 100k miles. I seriously dont feel like ponying up another $2300 for this car.

[Jerritt]

Well the pistons are fine. Turns out my Intake Cam had a lobe for one of the Valves in cyl 3 that rotated 15 degrees and the intake cam needs to be replaced which means new lower timing cover from what Im told. Total cost is $1700... 800 on labor, 100 on gaskets and sealants, 160 on lower cover, 590 on intake cam. I asked if the lobe could just be rotated back and they said no, it has to be replaced. I asked why the lower timing cover needs to be redone if we just redid it and havent driven the car since. They said that it bends easy and they cant re-use the old one. I asked why they didnt catch the lobe rotation when reattaching the Cam after complete timing job and they said they didnt look at it. It was only 15 degrees off and they dont usually check the lobes. Clearly it wouldve been a smart idea to do so and wouldve saved me $1100

[X Y Z]

What shop did you bring your car to? Sounds like they did a shit job of replacing the timing components and probably shouldn't be working on Audi's... Why did they replace the valves in the first place? Cam lobes don't just move 15 degrees btw, sounds like the tech screwed up....

[Jerritt]

What shop did you bring your car to? Sounds like they did a shit job of replacing the timing components and probably shouldn't be working on Audi's... Why did they replace the valves in the first place? Cam lobes don't just move 15 degrees btw, sounds like the tech screwed up....

My valves hit my pistons and were all bent. The lobes can and do rotate with enough force. If a valve cant go down and there is no more room for the cam to rotate at that lobe it will move it.

[X Y Z]

My valves hit my pistons and were all bent. The lobes can and do rotate with enough force. If a valve cant go down and there is no more room for the cam to rotate at that lobe it will move it.

That makes more sense, did your cam chain or tensioner fail? In that case I agree with you, they should have checked the cams for damage while everything was apart.

[Dub_prime]

If this was the dealer I would push to get some sort of discount for them being careless when inspecting the car prior to repairing it. I'm sure that kind of damage to the cam is rare but I'm sure they could have found the problem prior to buttoning everything back up.

[Jerritt]

That makes more sense, did your cam chain or tensioner fail? In that case I agree with you, they should have checked the cams for damage while everything was apart.

Yea, that was in the original post. Had entire timing system done minus cams. Did tensioners, guides, chains, valves.

[X Y Z]

Yea, that was in the original post. Had entire timing system done minus cams. Did tensioners, guides, chains, valves.

My mistake, it didn't make any sense why the cam would be damaged prior, I was thinking the tech screwed up while installing the new chain or incorrect timing caused the damage after the work was done.