Help Please So I’ve bought a lemon

Breezey

Breezey

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hi guys,

Just bought a B8 S4 manual after searching for months with a desired spec. Test drive seemed fine no clutch judder. Got it home after 300 miles all is well. Gone out in it today and there was a judder on pull away, I’m instantly thinking DMF so im about 5 miles from home pull away with a little bit of haste from the lights and the clutch is slipping majorly.

I’ve come from a 130bho diesel straight to the S4, driving it yesterday I did think it was overley quick. With the clutch going with just 50k miles it’s obvious it’s been fettled with so I’m looking at a stage 2 clutch of some kind. I’ve done some reading on Audizine and people are saying to do the clutch fork aswell? Could someone give me some advice on clutch / flywheel setups assuming my car is atleast a stage 1 (how do you tell if stage 2 looking st the pulley?)


Thanks gents
 
@Breezey, is this a private sale or did you buy from a dealer. If the latter I wouldn’t necessarily expect a slipping clutch to be covered by a warranty but the car has to be fit for purpose at the point of sale.
 
jdp1962 said:
@Breezey, is this a private sale or did you buy from a dealer. If the latter I wouldn’t necessarily expect a slipping clutch to be covered by a warranty but the car has to be fit for purpose at the point of sale.
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From a private dealer they are just going to deny all responsibility No real point in trying to claim I don’t think?
 
audi upgrades
Breezey said:
From a private dealer they are just going to deny all responsibility No real point in trying to claim I don’t think?
Click to expand...

Dont ask, dont get. They might help because you've not had it long...I think it's worth asking the question
 
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I’ve phoned, as I suspected he was sure the car was good when it left “we test them thouroughly” he could t commit to anything and is speaking g to his manager. Told me to get quotes and ring them and the will “see”. Expecting to be mugged off here. I do want to keep it as it’s a straight car, it’s jsut my luck the clutch has failed.

I feel it’s certainly had a stage 1 done though. The previous owner has fitted junk EBC red stuff pads and dotted discs absoloulty shocking so that’s getting replaced.
 
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Breezey said:
I’ve phoned, as I suspected he was sure the car was good when it left “we test them thouroughly” he could t commit to anything and is speaking g to his manager. Told me to get quotes and ring them and the will “see”. Expecting to be mugged off here. I do want to keep it as it’s a straight car, it’s jsut my luck the clutch has failed.

I feel it’s certainly had a stage 1 done though. The previous owner has fitted junk EBC red stuff pads and dotted discs absoloulty shocking so that’s getting replaced.
Click to expand...

Must be pretty gutting mate. Did the dealer offer any kind of warranty? Most indie dealers give 3-6months third party warranties don't they? I agree, you will probably have a fight on your hand even with a warranty, what with it being a 'wear and tear' item, but given its only been 300 odd miles, I think you have a decent case to say the fault wasn't purely down to you?

Only heard bad things about EBC and never bed a fan of dotted/slotted discs so I'm with you on that front...!
 
DrEskimo said:
Must be pretty gutting mate. Did the dealer offer any kind of warranty? Most indie dealers give 3-6months third party warranties don't they? I agree, you will probably have a fight on your hand even with a warranty, what with it being a 'wear and tear' item, but given its only been 300 odd miles, I think you have a decent case to say the fault wasn't purely down to you?

Only heard bad things about EBC and never bed a fan of dotted/slotted discs so I'm with you on that front...!
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Thanks mate I’ll try but I’m not holding my breath. Gutting as it’s cleaned me out buying the car! Never thought I’d be happy to go back to work on the 2nd! I take it the RS4 clutch would be different as it’s a different engine? I’m not too clued up on the B8 just yet sorry for the noob questions.


I’m after ideas on brakes aswell or do I jsut put stock ones back on?


Edit : yea 3 months return to base which is ideal when i can probably do 5 miles max on my clutch, that only covers engine transmission and main components not wear and tear.
 
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I have brand new genuine front S4 discs sitting here in the garage if you interested bud. These cost £415.
I’ve since sold car. Can do them for £200 posted.
 
ruairi83 said:
I have brand new genuine front S4 discs sitting here in the garage if you interested bud. These cost £415.
I’ve since sold car. Can do them for £200 posted.
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i would happily take these off your hands mate but i won't have the cash until the end of jan unfortunately, buying it has wiped me out let alone the clutch its going to have to sit in the garage for a month minimum until i can afford to repair it.
 
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PicardDoubleFacepalm-1.jpg
 
Gazwould said:
?
http://www.audi-sport.net/xf/threads/ebc-redstuff-ceramic-brake-pads-for-the-rs3.217570/

As long as you got a proper retail receipt , it's 6 glorious months of satisfaction from the Consumer Rights Act of 2015 .
Click to expand...

I was subjected to a bloke across the pond on the A5OC forum. He was a mad track driver with a supercharged V8 B8 S5. Carbon fibre hood, stripped out interior, the lot. He had used a lot of different brakes and pads on his car, and spoke about how he very nearly had a bad accident on the track one day with EBC. He nicked named them 'Every Body Crashes'.

Now obviously he was tracking and pushing them hard, and in all likelihood they are just fine for road use, but if they don't cut it on the track, why bother? I know it's just one blokes opinion, but he clearly knew his stuff and had plenty of experience behind him.

http://www.a5oc.com/forums/s5-performance-mods/29280-performance-break-pads-rotors.html

As always, feel free to disagree, but he had a lasting impression on me unfortunately...!
 
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As above my 3.0 TDI running 380bhp managed about 5 laps round Castle Combe before the brakes gave out, They never actually faded just had a lot of vibration so I backed off and came back in. In normal driving they work absolutely fine, red stuff all around. Before this I had genuine Audi Pagid pads and they were not as good as the Red stuff pads.If you clutch has gone at 50k the car is probably mapped or has been abused severely. Or possibly a combination of both. Have a look at the state of the pads if it's been driven hard they may be well past the best.
Brakes were fine after about 20-30 miles driving back home. The vibration was some pad pick up on the discs. This was in 2015 and I still have the same pads on the car now.

Not going flat out, this was the first time I had ever been on this track and I was on holiday at the time in Bournemouth with the caravan so didn't really want to push it.
 
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audi upgrades
Breezey said:
i would happily take these off your hands mate but i won't have the cash until the end of jan unfortunately, buying it has wiped me out let alone the clutch its going to have to sit in the garage for a month minimum until i can afford to repair it.
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I’m in no panic and havent advertised them so Message me when your sorted bud at end of January or so.
 
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Plenty of S4 owners on here running EBC discs and Redstuff pads without any issues. Me included
 
Plenty of S4 owners on here running EBC discs and Redstuff pads without any issues. Me included
 
ianv5 said:
Plenty of S4 owners on here running EBC discs and Redstuff pads without any issues. Me included
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I don’t like the judder you get from dotted discs, hopefully someone will want them end of jan.
 
I meant standard discs are fine. I hear of plenty of issues with drilled, dotted etc. Standard Ebc discs and redstuff pads are fine for fast road use. I am running Stage 1+ and have no issues
 
What did the dealer say and did they get back to you ?
Can you ask the dealer to send you a receipt ?
 
Hiya.

You could reject the car and ask for a full refund if its not as described. This might encourage them into splitting costs.

Good luck

Sent from my HTC 10 using Tapatalk
 
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Pinky1959 said:
What did the dealer say and did they get back to you ?
Can you ask the dealer to send you a receipt ?
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Nothing happening until tueday, receipt? the disc and pads were on the car from the previous owner.
 
Breezey said:
Thanks dude I was looking at Sachs performance 15% over stock would be around 375LB/FT which should be stage 1 figures no problem. Replace the oem flywheel at the same time I assume?
Click to expand...

Yes . Get an LUK flywheel.They make the OE Audi ones but are less to buy
 
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Sorry to hear about your troubles, sounds like the clutch has had a rather tough life.

Just to comment on the brake pads. EBC has gone through different pad material over the years, and there has been some instances where they didnt get it right. However that's quite a few years back now. I had EBC yellowstuff on my car before and they were great. Switched to S5 brakes and just wearing out the stock pads that came with it and then go back to Yellowstuff. Redstuff isn't really designed for the track but is great for the road. Yellowstuff is a mix between the two, bit more aggressive on the discs but boy they stop well.

ruairi83 said:
I have brand new genuine front S4 discs sitting here in the garage if you interested bud. These cost £415.
I’ve since sold car. Can do them for £200 posted.
Click to expand...

Brembo OEM cost £107.52. Audi pads are usually Pagid or something else along those lines. You pay the extra for the branding, QC and warehousing etc etc. They are certainly not worth £415 or £200 for that matter. Sorry mate.
 
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TimberVD said:
Sorry to hear about your troubles, sounds like the clutch has had a rather tough life.

Just to comment on the brake pads. EBC has gone through different pad material over the years, and there has been some instances where they didnt get it right. However that's quite a few years back now. I had EBC yellowstuff on my car before and they were great. Switched to S5 brakes and just wearing out the stock pads that came with it and then go back to Yellowstuff. Redstuff isn't really designed for the track but is great for the road. Yellowstuff is a mix between the two, bit more aggressive on the discs but boy they stop well.



Brembo OEM cost £107.52. Audi pads are usually Pagid or something else along those lines. You pay the extra for the branding, QC and warehousing etc etc. They are certainly not worth £415 or £200 for that matter. Sorry mate.
Click to expand...


Not knowing it was a stage 1 already when I bought it who knows how long it’s been on there! I’m just not keen on the whole braking setup each to their own I guess!






Getting some steep prices for replacements my local specialist isn’t too bad for genuine clutch £320 labour, £399 for the oem genuine clutch plus the fork and all the other bits like the bolts etc.

It’s the flywheel where I’m getting the Vaseline out! Audi want £1060 I can’t belive it! **** takers! Thoughts ?
 
LUK flywheel from GSF is £400 at the moment, pair this up with the Sachs performance clutch. Hat do we think?
 
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That sounds about right regarding the Audi price. LUK makes the flywheel so sounds right re. the clutch and flywheel combo.

I'd get that amount back from the dealer, private dealer or not, by law they need to give one year warranty on your car. They sold you a lemon, clear as day. They can say we didn't know, but by law it doesn't matter.
 
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Well if it turns out that the car is Stage 1 mapped, at least you can offset the cost of a remap against the cost of a new clutch.

If all it needs is a new clutch I wouldn't exactly deem it a "lemon"

As for EBC Redstuff pads, I was under the impression that these are some of the best pads you can get!?!
 
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ion2211 said:
Well if it turns out that the car is Stage 1 mapped, at least you can offset the cost of a remap against the cost of a new clutch.

If all it needs is a new clutch I wouldn't exactly deem it a "lemon"

As for EBC Redstuff pads, I was under the impression that these are some of the best pads you can get!?!
Click to expand...
Exactly my thoughts just hope it isn’t an eBay special remap!


Wanna swap discs and pads ?
 
Dealer is paying £1250 towards it ! I can’t argue with that really! If I shop around I’m sure I can get it done for that
 
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@Breezey I recently bought an A4 B8 1.8T (a 2010 single owner, Audi maintained with 49k miles on the clock) from a private dealer. I transferred the money in to his bank account, no receipts and picked up the car from his house. Within 48 hours of ownership the following was identified and work carried out to fix:

1- New battery
2- Brand new Instrument Cluster as the old one had flicker
3- Water Pump due to leakage
4- Bent viper arm
5- One ltr oil topup as the last service was done around 7k miles ago.

All of the above was done by the dealer at his expense.

On the day I was bringing back the car it went in to limp mode. Work carried out after that:

1- Spark plugs on cylinder 2 and 4 replaced along with coil packs.

Start the car next morning and the engine oil light comes up again. The car had only done 400 miles since the last top-up. So, the alarm bells started ringing and I got ready for the dreaded B8 oil consumption problem. Went back to the open the boot to take out the oil to top-up and was unable to open it from boot lid. With key and inside was fine.

I bought the car as a DD for my wife to do school runs and other bits and not for the problems stated above.

Long story short, the car is now back with the dealer and money that I paid in my bank account. All I did was sent him an email listing all the problems and that I was coming to drop off the car at his place over the weekend. And all this happened before Christmas.

I also spoke to DVLA and they asked me that I was covered under consumer act and the dealer should take the car back if it has that many problems. They also advised me to contact local trading thingi if I had problems. An email with all the facts did the trick for me. I’d suggest you drop them an email and either get the car sorted out by them or get your money back.

Just remember; it is your hard earned money. No one has the right to screw you over.

Like @jdp1962 said, you don’t get if you don’t ask.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
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Breezey said:
LUK flywheel from GSF is £400 at the moment, pair this up with the Sachs performance clutch. Hat do we think?
Click to expand...
I've been running this for over a year now with stage 1 making 400lbft torque and no issues. I found that the DMF was always out of stock to order on the gsf site. I ended up driving to the Leeds branch to pick it up, which was wasn't too bad for me but bear this in mind when trying to order it, u may have to travel to get it

Sent from my PRA-LX1 using Tapatalk
 
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@Breezey - prior to reading that you now have some contribution from the dealer, I was going to suggest that you should have legal protection if they sold you a modified car without informing you. As you know, most insurers insist on being informed about modifications so you could have a claim refused.
 
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