Sportback Suspension arm housing CRACKED

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JakeRS3

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Hi Guys,

This is my first time posting on any forums like this so forgive me if I miss any details out that probably would have been helpful.

I have had (in my opinion) a pretty serious failure on my (June) 2015 RS3 8V. The pictures attached hopefully give you as much detail as you need as I don't really have much more that I can add in terms of information. It's worth noting that I have done nothing at all to modify the car and it was bought as an Ex-Demonstrator from a main dealer.

So far I have given the car to another main dealer (Inchcape Group) and they will have had the vehicle for 4 weeks this Friday (Friday 22nd August 2017) and the most I've had is news that they have just started to take the suspension arm apart to "ensure this will not become a repeat incident."

I wanted to post this here for 3 reasons:

1. To raise awareness about this to any other RS3 owners and to let them know that this is even possible! And to watch out for it on their own. (Go and check now as I had no indication of the fault until looking under the hood recently)

2. To ask whether anyone else has seen/experienced anything like this and if so, what they have done to resolve it.

3. To vent other Audi (especially RS3) fans/owners that I have been without my RS3 for almost 4 weeks with no sign of a date of when they will work out what the issue is, much less, when they/if will be able to fix it. In the meanwhile they've 'generously provided' me with a 1.4L A3 which is by all means a 'nice' car but as I'm sure you'll all agree, isn't even close to like-for-like.

As I said, this is mainly to raise awareness of the issue to owners but if anyone has seen anything like this before then please let me know as I'm currently arguing with Audi UK about how shoddy they've been in dealing with this given that this situation and I'd love to know if anyone has experienced anything like this (although I certainly hope not).

Thanks in advance.


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Blimey !! never heard of this one before.
I would expect Audi to sort all issues here free of charge.
This looks like a manufacturing fault (i.e dodgy welding) rather than a design fault - otherwise his would be an issue with other A3 models.
Pretty sure other forum members will have something to say on this.
 
Nasty. Just went out to check mine which is fine, not like yours at all. See pic.

TX.
c6f1c739cf12571a9e5e98ac70701c25.jpg


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Looking a bit dirty under the bonnet there @terminator x ;)

Anyway, that is pretty shocking. As you're doing, keep complaining to Audi UK. It's clearly a fault. If you'd hit a pothole hard enough to do that then your wheel would be in a million bits. Having a 1.4TFSI is also a joke.
 
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Lol never ever look under there tbf :tearsofjoy:

TX.

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Just checked mine, similar age to yours and all OK.

The damage has been there for quite a while looking at the rust buildup, don't think it is a weld issue it looks more "torn".

I wonder if this had an accident before you got and it is a bodged repair?

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As others have said, looks like it's torn more than a weak weld, nothing there is welded.

Maybe driven through a massive pot hole before you bought it, or (God forbid) dropped of jacks or something. Would have to be some major bump to create that.

Hope Audi sort it out for you...
 
OP

You may want to change the subject for this post to "Front Suspension Strut Tower Top Splitting".

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Oh my god that's bad! Can they even repair that? Because you can't replace that section, you can only weld and I'm not sure I would be happy with that whatsoever. Is the car on finance?

You can get a better courtesy car, you need to get your supplying dealer onboard. Audi have several S3's around the country waiting for situations like this, I had one.. twice! Call the Audi replacement vehicle team, I assume you've dealt with them already?
 
Yeah tell me about it. No I don't see any way to repair that as it's part of the chassis. As you say, a spot weld isn't really the solution I'm looking for. If I was rolling around in a couple of hundred pound vehicle I'd be fine with it but not on a 2 year old vehicle that was worth £50,000+ new. No, I bought it outright.

The issue is that I'm 24... So according to their insurance, I'm too young to be insured on anything else. They just offered me an S1 today that I can have from Friday so I'll probably take that for now as at least it's a little more fun. Do you have a number for them? I can't seem to find any specific Audi replacement vehicle team online?


AudiNutta said:
Oh my god that's bad! Can they even repair that? Because you can't replace that section, you can only weld and I'm not sure I would be happy with that whatsoever. Is the car on finance?

You can get a better courtesy car, you need to get your supplying dealer onboard. Audi have several S3's around the country waiting for situations like this, I had one.. twice! Call the Audi replacement vehicle team, I assume you've dealt with them already?
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JakeRS3 said:
Yeah tell me about it. No I don't see any way to repair that as it's part of the chassis. As you say, a spot weld isn't really the solution I'm looking for. If I was rolling around in a couple of hundred pound vehicle I'd be fine with it but not on a 2 year old vehicle that was worth £50,000+ new. No, I bought it outright.

The issue is that I'm 24... So according to their insurance, I'm too young to be insured on anything else. They just offered me an S1 today that I can have from Friday so I'll probably take that for now as at least it's a little more fun. Do you have a number for them? I can't seem to find any specific Audi replacement vehicle team online?
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You seriously need to tell Audi to replace the car, that cannot be replaced it can only be patched and I wouldn't fancy a patched 360hp car. It looks like damamge from persistent pot hole abuse, potentially before you had it and has since ruptured. You are lucky it didn't totally collapse and cause an accident.

Forget cost, if you were in a £200k vehicle you'd expect a £200k vehicle to use while yours is in for work. You expect like for like or as close as when you have the RS3. My friend had an S3 loan when his RS3 went in. He was a little unluckier and had the PFL S3, I had a brand new Saloon.

I am 20 and was 19 at the time, the replacement vehicle team gave me a 1.6 Diesel Astra in GOLD! The supplying dealer went ballistic with Audi UK, it got as high as the Head of Customer Services and the response from him was "Why the hell haven't we gotten this young man into an S3?" Within 12 hours I had an S3 waiting.

I will PM you the number, it isn't really available and is only given to you when you have a car recovered so I kept it close. Call them, tell them the situation and you want a like for like car because it is unlikely you will have your car back for a long while. When they say they have none, tell them you know of the S3's and if they deny you insurance, tell them to speak to whoever they need to to override the computer and if that's the head of customer services at Audi UK, do it.
 
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The more I look at it the more I wonder if it's had an almighty hit. As mentioned above, has it been left with a garage where they've jacked it up, or has someone else driven it?
 
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If it’s been through Audi’s 144 million point check then that’s a serious miss by someone........

Downright dangerous to sell a car in that condition.

The big problem these days is cars can be repaired and go ‘unrecorded’ on HPI databases especially if it’s an owner crashing it(with no other party involved) then getting it repaired and moving it on saying nothing.

Which is a dirty trick for whoever ends up buying it.
 
T-800 said:
If it’s been through Audi’s 144 million point check then that’s a serious miss by someone........

Downright dangerous to sell a car in that condition.

The big problem these days is cars can be repaired and go ‘unrecorded’ on HPI databases especially if it’s an owner crashing it(with no other party involved) then getting it repaired and moving it on saying nothing.

Which is a dirty trick for whoever ends up buying it.
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That chassis sensibly speaking is scrap. No way on earth would I have it back, you'd either have Audi giving you a like for like car on the market or doing an out of this world deal on a new RS3.

It can't be repaired, it can't be replaced all they could do is weld and patch it. But it will go again, it's one of the parts of the chassis under more load than any other. Really shocked by this, I will keep an eye on mine from now on.

You'd have to see if there was any rust underneath because it looks mildly rusty, but otherwise that is a severe bump from a pot hole.. you wouldn't expect that after a crash.
 
AudiNutta said:
That chassis sensibly speaking is scrap. No way on earth would I have it back, you'd either have Audi giving you a like for like car on the market or doing an out of this world deal on a new RS3.

It can't be repaired, it can't be replaced all they could do is weld and patch it. But it will go again, it's one of the parts of the chassis under more load than any other. Really shocked by this, I will keep an eye on mine from now on.

You'd have to see if there was any rust underneath because it looks mildly rusty, but otherwise that is a severe bump from a pot hole.. you wouldn't expect that after a crash.
Click to expand...

How can you surmise not from a crash though ?
It could’ve had a bang on the front corner the wheel pushed backwards so the damper moves with it but doesn’t quite totally fracture the steel, badly repaired, new damper pushed back and bolted to new wishbone, fracture in top metalwork missed/ignored/bodged then new owner only needs to hit some sunken drains / bad potholes a few times for said steel to start fracture and rust even more......

The top area of those struts leads a seriously hard life especially with Mag ride on its hardest setting.
 
T-800 said:
How can you surmise not from a crash though ?
It could’ve had a bang on the front corner the wheel pushed backwards so the damper moves with it but doesn’t quite totally fracture the steel, badly repaired, new damper pushed back and bolted to new wishbone, fracture in top metalwork missed/ignored/bodged then new owner only needs to hit some sunken drains / bad potholes a few times for said steel to start fracture and rust even more......

The top area of those struts leads a seriously hard life especially with Mag ride on its hardest setting.
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What I meant was that even with an accident damaged car you wouldn't expect the chassis to fracture, key structural parts of the car should stay intact.

As the OP mentioned it's an Ex Demo car, so who knows what could have happened and Audi could repair any level of damage without you knowing. My friend had an accident in his Mazda 2 (unrecorded because it was repaired); new petrol tank, bumper, axel, car was jigged back out and it had a new boot pan fitted because the crash was so heavy from the rear the boot pan crumpled. The car has been sold and the new owner will never know unless you looked closely.

The car would never be as strong after a repair, that part is compromised and now always will be. The chassis IMO is scrap.
 
Guys I think I have an answer for this.

Deep in the Audi ODIS system we found a Technical Bulletin related to an issue with 8V Audi A3 type cars where the strut turret top had not been welded "and sealed" properly. This it said, caused water ingress into the joint and therefore corrosion.

The fix IIRC was stated as a rubbing down\removal of the old sealant and new sealant being applied. There were even pictures of where the issues occurs and it seems to me that this is the likely cause of your failure.

Call Alex at Vag Car Coding, he spotted the TB about the issue and can probably help you find the text.
 
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Great post @JamesBaby this is what forums are good for.
 
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Hi Guys,

Thanks so much for all of your help and advise. I have since heard back from Audi and after a lot of hesitation from them, they have informed me that it was caused by a failure of the mag ride. They didn't go into all of the specifics but effectively the mag ride had failed stiff and over time had been hammering into the metal work. It was likely a series of fairly big potholes that over time did more and more damage each time.

I hope this never effects any of you but at least you now know that this is even a possibility and keep an ear out for loud bangs going over potholes as it didn't seem to affect the steering in anyway while I was driving it.
 
And whats happening to the car?

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It the mag ride was "solid" on that side it would be easily felt as it would just feel "odd".

+2 on what the repair/offer will be.

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Well they have told me that the car will be repaired. This will mean a replacement of the entire suspension arm and cutting out the shoulder and re-welding a piece in. Whilst some of the weld lines were already weld lines, there will obviously be some new weld lines too.

I've attached an image of the proposed work to the body that they have sent me. THEY are completely happy that this is a complete warranty fix as was an independent assessor that I brought in from the IAEA. Unfortunately, they are not willing to accept that this may/will affect the re-sale value of the vehicle (because it probably wouldn't from a dealership). So I have suggested swapping mine with a like-for-like in their stock and we are currently going through negotiations as to the value of mine vs theirs now.

The base-line is that they are doing the absolute bare minimum in every interaction I've had with them. They never gave me a better courtesy car after 6 weeks without my RS3 now. They have also said that they won't cover ANY difference in the value of the like-for-like replacement but we'll see how that pans out. They may end up spotting the difference if it's only a small difference.

Let me know if you'd like any more info but to be honest, that's pretty much all they've given me.

@Arcam - All I can say is that I never felt anything TOO unusual with it. The potholes around me are pretty severe in places anyway and they are mainly on the left side of the road and it felt very similar to how my previous car felt (2010 S3) over potholes.
 

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JakeRS3 said:
Well they have told me that the car will be repaired. This will mean a replacement of the entire suspension arm and cutting out the shoulder and re-welding a piece in. Whilst some of the weld lines were already weld lines, there will obviously be some new weld lines too.

I've attached an image of the proposed work to the body that they have sent me. THEY are completely happy that this is a complete warranty fix as was an independent assessor that I brought in from the IAEA. Unfortunately, they are not willing to accept that this may/will affect the re-sale value of the vehicle (because it probably wouldn't from a dealership). So I have suggested swapping mine with a like-for-like in their stock and we are currently going through negotiations as to the value of mine vs theirs now.

The base-line is that they are doing the absolute bare minimum in every interaction I've had with them. They never gave me a better courtesy car after 6 weeks without my RS3 now. They have also said that they won't cover ANY difference in the value of the like-for-like replacement but we'll see how that pans out. They may end up spotting the difference if it's only a small difference.

Let me know if you'd like any more info but to be honest, that's pretty much all they've given me.

@Arcam - All I can say is that I never felt anything TOO unusual with it. The potholes around me are pretty severe in places anyway and they are mainly on the left side of the road and it felt very similar to how my previous car felt (2010 S3) over potholes.
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That is a pretty serious repair having the tower replaced, will the dealer be doing it or a 3rd part bodyshop?

I would be happy if they took the car to MK to have that work down, the welding and resealing of those joints afterwards as well as the car's alignment are critical.

Looking at your pictures again I can see how you might not feel that damage, but if the mag ride was faulty I would have expected the damper piston rod to have seriously bent first before that kind of damage to the strut tower and that you would have felt as the suspension would not have any travel on that side.
 
Arcam said:
Looking at your pictures again I can see how you might not feel that damage, but if the mag ride was faulty I would have expected the damper piston rod to have seriously bent first before that kind of damage to the strut tower and that you would have felt as the suspension would not have any travel on that side
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I did wonder if the OP had any fillings :scared2:
 
JakeRS3 said:
The base-line is that they are doing the absolute bare minimum in every interaction I've had with them. They never gave me a better courtesy car after 6 weeks without my RS3 now. They have also said that they won't cover ANY difference in the value of the like-for-like replacement but we'll see how that pans out. They may end up spotting the difference if it's only a small difference
Click to expand...

Boy you could do without them being so unhelpful after discovering such a defect on a car. Don't mean to be teaching gran to suck eggs, but have you tried getting hold of the top person at the dealership, if you can get to have a meeting with this person and get them on to your side and to sympathize with your situation it might help your case along. I was in a little bit of a battle with the head of service, but got hold of the top man at the dealership and dealt with him from that point, much more satisfactorily :)

Are Audi customer services involved (sorry, I've not re-read all of the thread), if not I'd get a case number going with them - Good luck :)
 
I actually spoke to the head of Audi UK when this all started and he passed us onto his head of customer service and ended up back speaking to Inchcape Group again once the damage part of the issue was resolved. I'm going to approach the head of Audi UK again and see if he can do anything now. Thanks for the advice though, I'll probably approach the head of Inchcape too.

@Arcam - All I can say is that the damage definitely wasn't there when I first got the car and at no point did the steering/handling feel anything other than great, if not a little firm... Noticeably hard over the bumps but no different to the right side either.

It's a third party yeah. It's apparently a place called Summers, where Audi gets all of their warranty work done near me and I've only heard great things from people who have used them
 
JakeRS3 said:
I actually spoke to the head of Audi UK when this all started and he passed us onto his head of customer service and ended up back speaking to Inchcape Group again once the damage part of the issue was resolved. I'm going to approach the head of Audi UK again and see if he can do anything now. Thanks for the advice though, I'll probably approach the head of Inchcape too.

@Arcam - All I can say is that the damage definitely wasn't there when I first got the car and at no point did the steering/handling feel anything other than great, if not a little firm... Noticeably hard over the bumps but no different to the right side either.

It's a third party yeah. It's apparently a place called Summers, where Audi gets all of their warranty work done near me and I've only heard great things from people who have used them
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Removal of that skin will probably be an engine out job Jake, I can't see how else it would be done.
 
JakeRS3 said:
3. To vent other Audi (especially RS3) fans/owners that I have been without my RS3 for almost 4 weeks with no sign of a date of when they will work out what the issue is, much less, when they/if will be able to fix it. In the meanwhile they've 'generously provided' me with a 1.4L A3 which is by all means a 'nice' car but as I'm sure you'll all agree, isn't even close to like-for-like.

As I said, this is mainly to raise awareness of the issue to owners but if anyone has seen anything like this before then please let me know as I'm currently arguing with Audi UK about how shoddy they've been in dealing with this given that this situation and I'd love to know if anyone has experienced anything like this (although I certainly hope not).
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I feel your pain.
My RS3 has been at my local dealer since the 3rd July, whilst i've been driving around in a 1.4 A4 or 1.0 A1 as "thats all that we have". Looks like i'll finally get it back on Saturday 15th September, but the likelihood of me buying another Audi is currently zero. The cars are pretty good, but the dealers are quite simply, appalling.

AudiNutta said:
Removal of that skin will probably be an engine out job Jake, I can't see how else it would be done.
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Yup, most definitely.
If they do whip the engine & box out, tell them to get both brake servo vacuum hose in in preparation - they are very easy to break apparently and as its a back order only part, you're looking at 7-10 days each time. Not ideal when the wrong part is sent on 3 separate occasions.
 
Sir_Dave said:
I feel your pain.
My RS3 has been at my local dealer since the 3rd July, whilst i've been driving around in a 1.4 A4 or 1.0 A1 as "thats all that we have". Looks like i'll finally get it back on Saturday 15th September, but the likelihood of me buying another Audi is currently zero. The cars are pretty good, but the dealers are quite simply, appalling.



Yup, most definitely.
If they do whip the engine & box out, tell them to get both brake servo vacuum hose in in preparation - they are very easy to break apparently and as its a back order only part, you're looking at 7-10 days each time. Not ideal when the wrong part is sent on 3 separate occasions.
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Oh wow it sounds like you've had a bad time of it! So, have you had any financial reimbursement?

What is wrong with your RS3?
 
AudiNutta said:
Oh wow it sounds like you've had a bad time of it! So, have you had any financial reimbursement? What is wrong with your RS3?
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Nope, nothing whatsoever, i probably wouldn't mind so much if i was swanning around in an S3 or similar!!
Tiny bit of blue smoke on cold start, so diagnosed as a failure of one of the valve stem seals - at such low miles (38k) the dealer thinks it must have been a manufacturing fault. Imho not the end of the world to replace, i.e. whip off the rocker cover & change ... easy with the correct tools.
Certainly not a 2.5 month month engine/gearbox out job :sadlike:
 
Sir_Dave said:
Nope, nothing whatsoever, i probably wouldn't mind so much if i was swanning around in an S3 or similar!!
Tiny bit of blue smoke on cold start, so diagnosed as a failure of one of the valve stem seals - at such low miles (38k) the dealer thinks it must have been a manufacturing fault. Imho not the end of the world to replace, i.e. whip off the rocker cover & change ... easy with the correct tools.
Certainly not a 2.5 month month engine/gearbox out job :sadlike:
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Why haven't you got such car? I did on two occasions, S3 Saloon. There is an Audi replacement vehicle team at Audi UK who can dish them out, its easy to get if the car was recovered but may be more difficult otherwise but basically it's a warranty service.

How come it is taking so long? That is insane, it's a 3 day job providing you have all the parts ready... so in a perfect world which none of us live in, haha.
 
AudiNutta said:
Why haven't you got such car? I did on two occasions, S3 Saloon. There is an Audi replacement vehicle team at Audi UK who can dish them out, its easy to get if the car was recovered but may be more difficult otherwise but basically it's a warranty service.
How come it is taking so long? That is insane, it's a 3 day job providing you have all the parts ready... so in a perfect world which none of us live in, haha.
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Absolutely no idea. I was told back in June not to bother getting it recovered & just to bring it into the dealer.
Perhaps it would have been different the other way round?
Soooo frustrating, especially to someone with an element of mechanical ability such as myself.
 
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