Garage wants £2,000. Car still wont drive

[DylanJ]

So, I have an Audi A3 (8v). 1.8Tfsi S-Tronic (2013).

A bit of context: The car has done 70,000 miles, serviced yearly and not abused. Worked absolutely great no issues. I left the car to sit for 2 months and then I put a new battery in it (Varta, same one, Audi recommended I believe) and the car would not go into drive (gearbox malfunction warning), Engine etc.. every thing else is perfect.

So, I plugged in my VCDS to get an idea of what was going on and there was 2 codes for "Gear selector 1 cannot be regulated" and "Gear selector 3 cannot be regulated".

I called a local Audi Specialist garage and they came and collected the car for diagnostics, and advised that I should get the mechatronics unit refurbished/rebuilt for £1,600 (adding the diagnostics costs its £1,900 and change).
They called today to say the rebuilt mechatronics unit didn't fix anything and it might be a problem with the gearbox itself which would be a further upto £3,000 give or take.

I'm just looking for advice really on what to do and if any of this sounds right, S-Tronic gearboxes and mechatronics unit I know almost nothing about. And im currently out of pocket £2,000 and my car is literally in the same state.

 

[northpole]

they are right.... both faults pointed to the mechatronic unit (the ecu for the gearbox) so that is the first point of call... but if you've never had the oil and filter of the gearbox replaced... well than you are looking at internal damage and the best solution for the dealer is to replace the entire gearbox. but you could ask them to put in a refurbished gearbox the price should be lower if they won't find a VAG specialist in your area that deals with these things as you should be fine with a refurbished gearbox... basically internally they'll replace the lot, hydraulic valves, plates, mechatronic unit etc etc etc... thing is you've got a brand new mechatronic unit so it should not be added to the price.

Also the oil inside these boxes is like liquid gold and and oil change (with filter and gaskets) sets you back just under 400 pounds so you can do the math... for the dealer it's the best solution to replace the entire gearbox... so i would be telling them you better discount me as i just paid you 2000 pounds for a new part that doesn't work.... simply said, they applied a fix that should be discounted completely as a new gearbox comes with it's own mechatronic unit.

if they don't offer any discount tell them you'll fight them legally.

 

[fOomad]

N’ont-ils pas l’obligation d’obtenir des résultats ?
Si la réparation n'a pas fonctionné, ils ne devraient pas vous la facturer.
Ils devraient déduire ce que vous avez déjà payé pour la nouvelle boîte de vitesses.

 

[DJAlix]

So, I have an Audi A3 (8v). 1.8Tfsi S-Tronic (2013).

A bit of context: The car has done 70,000 miles, serviced yearly and not abused. Worked absolutely great no issues. I left the car to sit for 2 months and then I put a new battery in it (Varta, same one, Audi recommended I believe) and the car would not go into drive (gearbox malfunction warning), Engine etc.. every thing else is perfect.

So, I plugged in my VCDS to get an idea of what was going on and there was 2 codes for "Gear selector 1 cannot be regulated" and "Gear selector 3 cannot be regulated".

I called a local Audi Specialist garage and they came and collected the car for diagnostics, and advised that I should get the mechatronics unit refurbished/rebuilt for £1,600 (adding the diagnostics costs its £1,900 and change).
They called today to say the rebuilt mechatronics unit didn't fix anything and it might be a problem with the gearbox itself which would be a further upto £3,000 give or take.

I'm just looking for advice really on what to do and if any of this sounds right, S-Tronic gearboxes and mechatronics unit I know almost nothing about. And im currently out of pocket £2,000 and my car is literally in the same state.

A good mechanic would have removed the box, inspected and tested both the mech unit and box in order to arrive at a meaningful diagnosis, at least that's what the companies I work with do.

 

[northpole]

A good mechanic would have removed the box, inspected and tested both the mech unit and box in order to arrive at a meaningful diagnosis, at least that's what the companies I work with do.

that is what they should've done.. but they clearly didn't and went only off the diagnostic faultcodes (which is normal these days) simply because of the nature of the S-Tronic.. 9 out of 10 times it's the ECU (mechatronic) that causes the problems but when the oil services haven't been done to the S-tronic ( same goes for the other 2 auto gearbzes used by audi) internal damage will be the reason for the faultcodes.... most vag independent specialist garages would literally look inside the box first before concluding that it's just the ecu that is the problem.

Longstory short: they should replace the gearbox and only charge you the difference for getting the new gearbox... all the extra cost is their headache.

 

[JohnM100]

Many garages swap the par most likely to have failed rather than true motor engineers doing a more thorough remove & test.

For those flagging gearbox oil changes:

* The 1.4 & 1.8 front wheel drive had the 7 speed dry clutch DQ200 gearbox which didn’t need gearbox oil changes..
* The 1.8 quattro had the DQ250 wet clutch 6 speed gearbox that needed oil changes every ~38k miles

If you have the DQ200 7-speed box and your car was built before April 2013 (from memory) then it should have had a recall to replace the synthetic gearbox oil with mineral oil. As you say yours is a 2014 then this should have right oil from factory fill.

 

[northpole]

Many garages swap the par most likely to have failed rather than true motor engineers doing a more thorough remove & test.

For those flagging gearbox oil changes:

* The 1.4 & 1.8 front wheel drive had the 7 speed dry clutch DQ200 gearbox which didn’t need gearbox oil changes..
* The 1.8 quattro had the DQ250 wet clutch 6 speed gearbox that needed oil changes every ~38k miles

If you have the DQ200 7-speed box and your car was built before April 2013 (from memory) then it should have had a recall to replace the synthetic gearbox oil with mineral oil. As you say yours is a 2014 then this should have right oil from factory fill.

Mineral oil degrads in a few years time, and that is a fact ( hence the reason they started to make synthetic oil that can hold it's cleaning and lubricating qualities for longer periods of time).
There is no suchs thing as never needing to do an oil change on a gearbox, period end of story... If you've ever pulled a 5 year old DQ200 from a car and checked the oil you'll not what i'm on about... they say it's not needed because they used lifetime oil... lifetime oil also has a shelf date, and lifetime in dealer eyes is what? max 10 years than they rather not see that car ever again. basically it does take away the need for an oil change every 38k but honestly... once you see that how much the oil resembles treacle after just 5 years you'd be like me and change it asap.

but back to dealer service: they wouldn't replace the oil if it's the DQ200 unless they looked into the rest of the box. The DQ200 mechatronic ecu has it's own oil circuit valves etc... so at least while changing that Mechatronic unit they should have replaced that oil.

 

[JohnM100]

I’m not disagreeing with you on what *should* be done for longevity. When I had manual cars I’d change the gearbox oil around every 50k or 5 years and the smell of that stuff really catches in the throat.