Bonnet Alignment

co55ie

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Hi there I purchased a new Sline A3 about a month go and have noticed that the bonnet protrudes by about 3mm or so rather than meeting flush with the front grill. The accuracy of the fit of both the frontgrill / bumper and boonet is poor in general

I took the car back to the dealers and the booked it for realignment but then said that was how it was supposed to be after they looked at it and I looked at a couple of other cars they had and they all looked pretty much the same .

Has anyone else noticed this on their cars ? as I think it looks pretty awful myself and its leaving the leading edge of the bonnet open to heavy stone chipping .

It seems like they have facelifted the car and not reworked the parts to fit properly together to me
 
My sportback (same front as yours) is the same.
It's not a 'smooth transition' from bonnet to grill.
The bonnet protrudes slightly ahead of the grill,like a kid with an over-bite.
Never really noticed,certainly can't say it bugs me.
Can't see why moving it back 3mm would make it less susceptible to stone-chips either.
 
If I look at my car from about from about a 45 degree angle from the front it actually looks like the bonnet needs properly closing. The chrome grill surround doesnt fit the bumper properly on the radius edges at the top and the bonnet well its miles out.

Very poor quality in my opinion I wouldnt expect this on a 6k car myself.

The cars look like they have been involved in an accident and not been repaired properly.
 
Worse,or better,than this ?

Photo-0069.jpg
 
I think it appears worse on my car perhaps because its red which further accentuates the poor panel fit or certainly seemed to when I had a look round some other cars at the dealership which where silver and grey.

I will take a pic and post it up
 
bonnet.jpg


it looks a lot worse in the flesh

If you click on the picture and zoom in on it you can see what I am on on about
 
it does indeed. And looks far worse in person
 
Who the hell signs off a car like that from the factory ?
Who then PDI's it and deems it ok at the dealer ?

Looks like there's a couldn't give a fig attitude right down the line.
 
It does make you wonder


Someone from Audi Uk is coming to look at the car as the bonnets, grills and bumpers on these faclifted do not fit together properly .
 
Ach,it just goes to prove they are mass produced crap,like any other car.
 
bowfer said:
Ach,it just goes to prove they are mass produced crap,like any other car.

You stating the obvious again Bowfer mate, thought we'd established this about a year ago! :)

From my ownership experience, PDI is just a cursory glance - 4 wheels, right colour, no sheet metal missing = pass. Not really what I'm looking for them to do.

Co55ie - is yours a 3 door? There was a similar thread to this a few months back about bonnet alignment and gaps between the bonnet and front lights, do a search to find it, it may help. Can't remember who raised it?
 
Yep it is a 3 door.


I have tried doing a search for bonnet etc but couldnt find anything related.

As I said above its not just my car all the ones I have seen are the same ,I guess alot of people must just not care or not have noticed, the problem is the panels etc are clearly not the right shape or size.

I am looking forward to hearing what Audi Uk have to say when they view the car.
 
Search on 'wipers' as someone moaned about bonnet clearance and on 'headlamp' as somone moaned about gaps around them.

Unless anyone can remember who contributed to these threads?

Come on, let's help the poor guy out, he's new!
 
I know for a fact that there is adjustment in there - reason being, my grill was cracked on delivery. Waited weeks for part, they had car all day and when I collected it the gap was worse than yours!
I created hell (big mistake as they then rushed the 'refitting' and left the car out in the yard for me to collect. It was no better, but they'd gone home so I drove home too.
Rather then drive the 2 hours back up to Inverness, I took it to a VW garage in Fort William, bunged the mechanic an extra £20 (cheaper then the petrol to Inverness) on top of whatever he got paid to sort it and it came back better but not perfect. I am just waiting for it's first service to get it done again!
Hope that helps a little.
 
Did you just go up to the service desk in the VW dealership and ask them to fix it? Do they do that sort of thing?
 
Co55ie - check out the thread 'Acceptable Audi build quality?' which has just resurfaced, that has some useful info in it.

As mentioned, there's another on bonnet aligned and wipers somewhere.
 
cdb2 said:
Did you just go up to the service desk in the VW dealership and ask them to fix it? Do they do that sort of thing?

No - nothing's that simple!

They used to do Audi work too and said they still had all the manuals - it took a bit of charm, and the cheap bribe, to persuade them to have a try at it, and even then they 'made no promises' that they could do it!

That's probably why it's better than it was but still not right.
 
do cars still have adjustable rubber stops at the front corners of the bonnet? if so i would screw them in a turn or so, see if that drops the bonnet front slightly. worth a try i adjusted these on several other cars and improved things a lot, never had to on A3 as it seems to fit fine already
 
Thanks for the input, I found the threads and had a good read.

I was contacted today by Audi UK who are coming to inspect the car , Will post the results so If anyone else has the same problem they can cause a stink to.
 
you can adjust the bonnet with the rollers inside
 
After taking the car to the dealer I purchased the car from whos initial reaction was that the bonnet neeed aligning and didnt look right but later decided it didnt aligning and thats how they are ,I contacted Audi to complain and was contacted by a chap who wanted to come and inspect the car on behalf of Audi UK this was on a friday. He said he would have a look at some A3's over the weekend and call me the following Monday to arrange a convenient time to come and view the car. I received a message the following wednesday saying sorry he was very busy and would contact me the following monday. No phone call the following Monday again, what a surprise .So I called him myself today and gave him a piece of mind as to both the quality of the service and the quality of my wonky car . Guess what he is contacting me next monday to arrange to inspect it :motz:

Not what you expect when you spend a considerable sum of money. Dreadful service. Shame I am not a millionaire or I would be tempted to launch the car through Audi UK's head office with one of those hydraulic rams they use on top gear and be done with wasting my time :smile:
 

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