Aircon question with Dual Auto Climate control

[Kempysue]

Okay. My car went in and it was diagnosed that a stone chip has also hit my air conditioning unit causing £709 worth of damage. Not a good day :-(

Same here... My 1 month old Audi S3 has suffered stone damage to the condenser. Clearly a design fault. I'm going to reject my car as not fit for purpose unless they repair it and install a stone guard. I don't need an £800 bill every couple of months!!

Will use the reference number above so thanks for that J
et Andy xx

 

[holly35]

Which models does this affect? All , or just S3s? Dual climate only ? or inc manual a/c SE sportback models?

 

[Kempysue]

Which models does this affect? All , or just S3s? Dual climate only ? or inc manual a/c SE sportback models?

Have a look at the front bumper grill - is there a big area where a stone could get through? There is on my S3. My car is a month old and already the air con condenser has a stone through it so the air con isn't working.

 

[Ecosphere]

Have a look at the front bumper grill - is there a big area where a stone could get through? There is on my S3. My car is a month old and already the air con condenser has a stone through it so the air con isn't working.

You meaning where the fog lights would otherwise go? Would have cost Audi all of about £2 to fit a mesh in there.

 

[Migwire]

You meaning where the fog lights would otherwise go? Would have cost Audi all of about £2 to fit a mesh in there.

No, she means in the big, iconic open mouth grille which Audi are famous for.

 

[carys3]

Sounds similar to this post: http://www.audi-sport.net/vb/showthread.php?t=216978

 

[audi888]

Hmm just started anew post... scared my issue could be the same as everyone here, only few months old. Definitely a bad design, will use your Ref Jet_andy. Fingers crossed.

 

[E S Blofeld]

Mine went at the weekend. Took it to Audi today and the condenser has no gas in it and the air con is not working. Turns out a stone has damaged the radiator, same as others on here. It's remarkable they have such a huge gap where stones can get through. It's a design fault for sure. Awaiting the dealers reply to see if they will cover any of the cost for the repair. They have already said straight away its not covered by warranty so I've not got my hopes up. Will push for the work to be done FOC by Audi UK but if can't agree that with them then I'll be selling my car and ditching Audi completely. You can't charge £40k for a car and have something like this wrong with it. My concern is it goes again within a week it gets fixed. The cars only 6 month sold. How many times am I expected to shell out for the same repair during a 3 year ownership due to this design fault. Once a month, once a year, once a week!! It's not acceptable. I was going to order the new RS3 but if this isn't resolved sensibly then they forget it and I'll go an buy an A45 AMG instead. Not happy today.

 

[jet_andy]

You need to contact Audi UK Customer services directly and complain.
Although there's quite a few occurancies on here, I think it is fairly unlucky for it to happen. I had that car three years and it didn't happen again, and I've had a saloon now for over a year with no issues at all, (hope that doesn't tempt fate...).
Still agree it should be better protected though.
And I've heard similar stories from many other manufacturers - it's not just Audi.

 

[DelbertMaltbug]

I now have the same issue on my Q7. Audi UK nor the dealer will accept liability for the puncture caused to the condenser ands so I have issued a small claims court application although Bath Audi are denying responsibility. I wonder how many times this needs to happen until a small modification is made with a wire mesh to prevent such ingress? I paid £801 to get mine fixed (on a £72k car) and am trying to get this back.

 

[Kondax]

I think there's definitely a "good" case against them with the number of people I've seen who have had this exact issue