Greetings... would like to get some input on an ongoing situation I'm experiencing with preowned 2014 Q5 I purchased about two weeks ago from a non Audi dealership.
After taking delivery of the car, I noticed that the adaptive cruise control would routinely throw an error when engaging indicating that the ACC sensor was 'blocked'. I inspected the radar unit and noticed it had appeared to have been dislodged from whatever was holding it in place beneath the grill. I took the car to an Atlanta area dealership for evaluation. The service adviser approached me with an estimate for $775 to have the the radar unit re affixed properly and for its calibration. He also suggested that I have brake fluid flushed and a fuel injection cleaning for an additional $400. I knew of course that the car didn't need either of those services. The brake lines were flushed about two months ago (in Audi's database as it has Audi care). When I purchased the car, it came with a 3 month warranty provided by a third party warranty company. They quickly authorized the repair to the radar unit and I was told to return to the dealership in a few days when the part arrived to have it installed. When I started the car in the dealership parking lot, I got a new warning concerning the adaptive headlights. This error, indicating that they are 'defective' had never appeared before. Without moving the car, I went back into the dealership and spoke with the SA who told me that it's a 'new problem' and they would need to run a diagnostic to figure out what is going on. I really didn't like that answer. I speculated that while they were inspecting the ACC radar something happened causing this new error to emerge. When I explained these concerns to the SA, he said "if you want to be argumentative, I will just cancel the part order and everything else and you can go to another dealership". I was really making an effort to avoid getting angry with them as I wanted to get the issue resolved. I spoke with the shop foreman who explained that the ACC radar also controls the adaptive headlights and the errors are related. While I found this explanation to certainly be plausible, I thought it odd that it suddenly appeared after they were working on the car. As a side note, when they gave me the initial estimate there was a line indicating that a full diagnostic had been run and the only error was the ACC. They took the car back to the service bay and tell me that another diagnostic tool that was not working when they initially tested the vehicle suddenly started to work and the error code concerning the headlights had been thrown for several days. The service manager continued to assure me that they would resolve the issue when I returned but his assurances weren't particularly compelling. How could this error have been occurring for a week and it didn't show on the driver information display until now?
I really am not sure if I should return to the dealership or go elsewhere. They already ordered the part and I don't want to run into issues with the warranty company. I was considering emailing the general manager. This dealership generally has a good reputation and I've bought cars from its sister BMW dealership before and have always found them to be top notch. If he hadn't tried to scam me on the brake line flush and fuel injector cleaning or told me that I was being 'argumentative' for asking logical questions about a potentially very expensive issue with an expensive car, I probably wouldn't be so worried. It's just the totality of all these particulars that have me concerned. I should also note that the car is still under factory warranty but the SA told me Audi wouldn't pay because it's not a defective part. Not sure how accurate that is but at the time I really didn't care because the third party warranty was footing the bill.
Would really appreciate and feedback on this situation. Thanks!
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