Car broke down in middle of Germany

[IRONy_MAN]

Hi All just dropped by to say that I ve took the car around Europe to visit some people...cleaned the car...v-power diesel..in Midlle of Germany at 160kmh the car refused to pull...lost all the power but no faults or sensor on the dash...in the back my wife with my new born(3 months) managed to park in a car park (broke the law by entering on the No entry area). I ve stopped the engine put the key back car was perfect at idle...again I was trying to move the f...ing car nothing...called audi to pick it up...I do have Audi extended warranty but didn t upgrade the road assistence this was maybe my fault. Anyway they ve said that someone can pick the car to take to closest dealership but no other assistance for my wifey and my son...luggages ...for420€ but the guy over the phone suggested I should give a call to ADAC (AA of Germany). Over three hours and some phone calls with operators that can t speak english..I ve convinced a lady from the petrol station to give them a ring in their native language...the guy came over...he was amazed buy the facts that no flashing lights been on display...he started to look @The engine with no avail. Connected his obd reader...values on egr valve negative ...he said that egr valve most likely clogged and that he can t fixed on the spot. He towed me at a hotel over the road..230€ ...plus the hotel room as my other booking was three hours away from the break point. Cost to take me there 1600€. Obviously I ve said no way...so parked the car at the hotel and he started again to look for issues...bad blue smelly smoke from exaust and the coil light on dash but just after he towed me. He did say that he can t fixed there for sure and I was kinda unlucky(no s*it) because on Saturday the mechanic at closest Audi centre won t be able to fix the car and because Monday And Tuesday is kinda of bank holiday in Germany he suggested that I should stay at hotel till Wednesday..remember...tired with a new born in a rather cold German night...at the hotel the heating system seemed to have some quirks so my wife been very uppsed that our baby will get sick...and we ve started to call people from different parts of Europe to come and collect us..no one available...next morning after three hours a bad sleep we ve decided to travel by plane from Frankfurth airport...no plane to our end destination (Romania)just to Budapest (neighbours) cost €500 plus taxi...€200... hate flying but landed well to Budapest another taxi to Romania..€100..the car still left at hotel full of luggages..and baby stuff...luckly the people over the hotel accepted (not easy) to keep the car in their car park for 24 h maximum. Got home at 9 pm and now I m writing from a garage in Austria going in Germany to pick up the car..with a rented platform truck..€1000 plus other small bits... I ve tryed to get the car back to London but the costs been absurd and I ve decided to take it to Audi Romania as we ve planned to spend a while there. And now the fun part: I ve managed after 7 phone calls to get someone from Audi uk to advise me( having an extended warranty) how and what s the best to do...after doing a bit of research over the net I ve seen massive failure of egr valve and dpf system after recall..I ve done mine in good faith in 17 Nov 2016..and afterwards the car developed a strange wine noise like that when dpf regen is on..after the recall I ve had the car for a check at Audi Wimbledon and their engenieer said that this is normal sound for a tdi although the car didn t sound like this before..anyway after telling them (audi uk special line)what I think that caused this fault with the car they started to pass me to 4 different people..didn t know that Audi uk have a special line for emission recall..a top position lady from Audi told me a very nice story about how the recall is super safe..stopped her brutally telling my story...she changed suddently like she knew what I was about to say...and offered to pick up the car...but I was traveling still through part of Europe with the keys in my pocked. She gaved me a code and suggested to take the car on a truck..to Audi Romania and they should have a look and with that code comes an authorisation for repair with the mention that this might be a good will gesture from F ing audi. Left my wife and my new born to sleep and here I am ‘guarding’ my driver somewhere in Austria. This journey is 15 h one way...and 15 h back. After working so hard over the summer I ve tought that a nice holiday is something that I deserve. The car been serviced just by Audi no matter the costs...fuel just the top(low ash)...every day instead a 2 miles trip to work and back..10-15 miles like a lunatic so my precious german quality car to get hot...never stopped a reggen by will...after the recall the reggen of dpf started to be every once a week(150miles). The car is 66 300 miles and dead in Germany with a potential huge bill on the way. On Honest John you can find more people having the same issues. I m happy that my wife and my little boy are safe now. ****** off on my cherished AUDI . Thanks for reading and keep update as soon as I get back..Monday morning maybe...

 

[Gazwould]

What a kerfuffle . And has happened to thousands , they actually run out of new egr's to fit at dealerships at one point .

The egr was a weak component anyway prone to failure compounded by the emissions update asking it to recycle even more sooty exhaust gasses , this enriches the soot levels in the final exhaust gasses through incomplete combustion that the dpf has to deal with , thus more regens .

All bad , soot and fuel gets into the engine oil , update causes power loss , loss of smoothness and less MPG , all denial lies by VAG .

At the earliest opportunity warranty wise I would invest in a dpf gutting egr off Stage 1 remap and every aspect of the engine will improve .

 

[IRONy_MAN]

Yes Gaz sounds good but how can I recover all my £££invested in all this s*it? Plus I ll get the dpf gutted plus egr valve off and in a few months time someone will stop me and check the car because they(dvla) will expect people with Vag cars to alter the dpf and they ll act acordingly so more £££ for me afterwards. Adi

 

[Gazwould]

You've been listening to too much government scaremongering .

Considering the amount of members here not one has been stop checked for dpf , how would they tell anyway ?

 

[gary_a4_quattro]

Sorry to hear of your bad fortune Ade, hope everything gets sorted and covered by by the Audi extended warranty

 

[rum4mo]

Horrible story, yes not too much English being spoken in Germany, but not much German being spoken in UK. I've only taken my own cars abroad twice, once an 10 year old Cav GSI 2000 4X4 and once a 2 month old Passat 4Motion and that went okay, now I'd think very seriously about taking my 2011 S4 "on tour" - a use that it is made for, we only fly and hire, yes flying is horrible when taking the complete experiences into consideration, but not getting your own car problems is good, as well as being on the correct side of the car.

Edit:- too late and not intended as a kick in the groin, but did you really take your car and family abroad without buying additional breakdown cover? That is a no no, I'm sure that you now understand that and will know better next time.

 

[IRONy_MAN]

Horrible story, yes not too much English being spoken in Germany, but not much German being spoken in UK. I've only taken my own cars abroad twice, once an 10 year old Cav GSI 2000 4X4 and once a 2 month old Passat 4Motion and that went okay, now I'd think very seriously about taking my 2011 S4 "on tour" - a use that it is made for, we only fly and hire, yes flying is horrible when taking the complete experiences into consideration, but not getting your own car problems is good, as well as being on the correct side of the car.

Edit:- too late and not intended as a kick in the groin, but did you really take your car and family abroad without buying additional breakdown cover? That is a no no, I'm sure that you now understand that and will know better next time.

Yes you te right on that my bad...I was so super confident in my AUDI but anyway I ve called ADAC and the chap told me that no one will work on my car till Wed...small baby no food or clothes..I had to do something about it. But definitely for the future If I decide to go again for such a long journey by car I ll pay for road side assistance. Thanks for advice and opinion. Adi

 

[AudiLeon]

I risked it last year on a trip round Europe. This year i decided to take out breakdown cover. The risk you run

 

[rum4mo]

One thing, but this probably will only be relevant to folk with older cars, my mate took his roughly, at that time 10 year old SAAB 9-5 to France a few years ago, he used the AA's European cover for that trip, I the turbo failed and his breakdown provider got it recovered to a garage nearby, after a few days they issued their verdict and the price to fix that car was stupidly high, so high that his recovery provider invoked their small print about just binning the car and handing him the scrap value! He knew his was crazy as he fixes his own cars (so why did his car breakdown then?), so he struck a deal with his recovery provider and they shipped the car back to his home, then he fixed it for very little but had to buy lots of bits as Johnny Froggy had binned or lost a lot of removed parts! This year, again a trip to France and another maybe 15 year SAAB 9-5, this trip worked out okay, he was using First Call, but the day after he got home, he went out on business and the car died on him, now that was good timing! Anyway 911 Recovery was sent to sort the car if possible, they only had a light weight generic OBD2 scan tool so failed to work out what the problem was so they took the car home, but as he did not read the small print, he has to pay for any recovery that is not followed up by a car repair in "their" designated garage - this time he is trying to tell First Call to "go away" but I can't see that working for too long! So, make sure that you read the small print on these agreements/contracts! BTW it looks like the failure was just an expired fuel pump, not too good diagnosing by 911 Recovery?

 

[IRONy_MAN]

After 30 hours of driving to Frankfurth (Ger) got th car at Audi Romania they ve told me that my egr seems clogged and the turbo might have oil in for some reasons...obviously As I was expecting these people here can t find my extended Warranty with Audi neither know whats the code that audi uk gave me for to show that someone agreed that my car should be investigated/fixed by an Audi garage around Europe. So no car at this point..€1500 paid already and the car(nice bedding after 5 h of body treatment) sits at audi with engine apart but no one to say how when..who...called them 5 mins ago(Audi Uk)..but no one is at the office now and someone will call me back...this sounds like a f...ing cliche already right...

 

[rum4mo]

Sounds like Audi UK or maybe Audi full stop, have little idea of how their system will interface with agents in differing countries - so much for the time and money they spend on their "house" magazine - no international connections at all, all smoke and mirrors!

 

[IRONy_MAN]

Yes you’re right...they seem completely different brands..have no ideea what s what and not just because it s Romania it s not a dodgy place or smthng ...looks alike all their buildings around uk..expensive cars...short skirts...alot of s*it attitude.

 

[IRONy_MAN]

Went to Audi Romania again and they have no idee what Audi uk are about...the designated guy for my problems at Audi Ro is a cool guy so he was telling me that they had a visit from a big douche at Vag Porsche to put the shame on them for not pushing people to get their cars “fixed” under 189 EA...and this chap replied that most of his customers are his friends and he can t push em to do it...and the Porsche guy said that to do it without their will and if someone discover this thing should advise them to go to court..(bribing the court in Romania is not something new)...the chap from Audi drives one of their cars and said that I was a sucker for going at Audi to get the update..he said that his customers came back after the recall complaining about low mpg and lack of torque...and this is a engineer at audi. Can t you believe such a thing?!?!? I don t care if just one person reads this topic but one person should be less scammed by these greedy pigs.

 

[Sandra]

Went to Audi Romania again and they have no idee what Audi uk are about...the designated guy for my problems at Audi Ro is a cool guy so he was telling me that they had a visit from a big douche at Vag Porsche to put the shame on them for not pushing people to get their cars “fixed” under 189 EA...and this chap replied that most of his customers are his friends and he can t push em to do it...and the Porsche guy said that to do it without their will and if someone discover this thing should advise them to go to court..(bribing the court in Romania is not something new)...the chap from Audi drives one of their cars and said that I was a sucker for going at Audi to get the update..he said that his customers came back after the recall complaining about low mpg and lack of torque...and this is a engineer at audi. Can t you believe such a thing?!?!? I don t care if just one person reads this topic but one person should be less scammed by these greedy pigs.

Have you spoke to customer services at audi uk?

 

[IRONy_MAN]

Have you spoke to customer services at audi uk?

Hi Sandra yes I ve called them 5-6 times today and the lady that suppose to help me wasn t able to pick up,so someone else and he wasn t even clear on his name...asked a few times who s he and he just replied that he s public relations manager...and then the idiot told me to get my car in uk to audi to see it...after I ve paid€1000 for a truck from Germany to pay like €3000 to take it to UK...and I supposed to enjoy my holiday...at the end of the day that top manager lady answered my call and decided to call these guys here to see how can they help. They offer some sort of support for people they have had the recall done...but first you need to make a lot of noise...at one point I was so angry that I ve said that I ll take the car in front of their Milton Keynes head office and I ll take the weels off and put messages on the car to show people that Audi/vag people are nothing more that a bunch o gready a**holes.

 

[IRONy_MAN]

Ok today got the bill and estimate of the job/parts: broken turbo axle so turbo failure on a 66 300 miles...€1900

 

[IRONy_MAN]

Although took the car in March at Audi Wimbledon for a winning noise like an owl and the technician said that this is perfectly normal and turbo s ok. Nice..

 

[bobby singh]

Jeez what a mess
Just some extra information I've had in the past a turbo shaft break on a CR170 B8 from excessive exhaust back pressure (blocked dpf)
Maybe have them measure how much deltap you have using the dpf pressure sensor.
This is too late for you but if its just the egr that has a fault you could block it (by adding a plate) just to get you driving again to a safe location.

Then you can decide to map it out or replace it.

 

[IRONy_MAN]

Jeez what a mess
Just some extra information I've had in the past a turbo shaft break on a CR170 B8 from excessive exhaust back pressure (blocked dpf)
Maybe have them measure how much deltap you have using the dpf pressure sensor.
This is too late for you but if its just the egr that has a fault you could block it (by adding a plate) just to get you driving again to a safe location.

Then you can decide to map it out or replace it.

Thanks for help Bobby I as thinking at the same thing cos I ve read in the past that a blocked dpf might affect the turbo to fail...what you say might be different but I am literally at Audi now and the technician says that on vcds no error just for egr...but egr threw the fault because the shaft got snapped and the egr didn t get enough pressure..not very clear for me though...but I might drop you a visit when back to work some’magic’ if I ll keep the car. Thx. Adi

 

[bobby singh]

No problem
Good luck

 

[rum4mo]

How is the repair coming along?

 

[IRONy_MAN]

Hey new turbo fitted (£1200) plus some oil coolant and I ve pushed for a new air filter and I was right the old one was full of mess. Anyway the egr apparently is ok and the dpf ash load is 3%...drove the car for 350 miles and seems awesome plus the wining noise and the ****** whistle stopped. Now the though job is left ..get my money back from extended warranty...thx for asking. Adi

 

[rum4mo]

Good enough so far, at least you are back mobile again, hopefully as you have been in touch with Audi UK during this event things should work out okay, if they don't I'm sure you will make sure that the world and his mother know about it!