Car sits higher after only changing shocks?

[johncbradley1]

Took my car in for a service at an independent Audi specialist who informed me all my shocks where worn out and needed changing. Quoted £720.

He's changed all of them but now my car is sitting a good 20mm higher than before. It's the black edition and as you may well know, sits lower than the standard A5. I've had the car since it was 4 years old and had only covered 30k miles and my old photos of it shows the ride height hadn't changed until this shock replacement.

Mechanic is saying the shocks are definitely the same as the ones he's taken off mine.

Is there any reason my car now sits this much higher?

Not a fan of how it looks at the moment.

 

[NHN]

They take a little while to rest at there correct position, are you 100% sure they're the right parts & he has put any mounts or bushes in correctly as that's quite a difference tbh, if it was 1 hour later I'd say wait for the suspension to settle.

Ask him for the part numbers he used then check if that correct for your BE.

I'd be surprised if the shocks needed replacing tbh, it's not a 20 year old car & it looked fine.

 

[johncbradley1]

They take a little while to rest at there correct position, are you 100% sure they're the right parts & he has put any mounts or bushes in correctly as that's quite a difference tbh, if it was 1 hour later I'd say wait for the suspension to settle.

Ask him for the part numbers he used then check if that correct for your BE.

I'd be surprised if the shocks needed replacing tbh, it's not a 20 year old car & it looked fine.

5 days later and is still as high.

He’s going to have a look at it this Wednesday but it’s my gut feeling that he’s put the wrong shock absorbers on and doesn’t want the hassle of changing them for the correct ones.

 

[johncbradley1]

5 days later and is still as high.

He’s going to have a look at it this Wednesday but it’s my gut feeling that he’s put the wrong shock absorbers on and doesn’t want the hassle of changing them for the correct ones.

But would using the standard shocks raise the car like that?

 

[NHN]

5 days later equals he's done something wrong & I reckon wrong shocks or something fitted wrong.

Be there when he strips out & get part numbers of correct shocks & check he's fitted them to your car as per Audi would.

Something is amiss, did he fit aftermarket?

 

[johncbradley1]

Probably mate. I asked him

5 days later equals he's done something wrong & I reckon wrong shocks or something fitted wrong.

Be there when he strips out & get part numbers of correct shocks & check he's fitted them to your car as per Audi would.

Something is amiss, did he fit aftermarket?

Heres the update.
The ones he put on are the Neox which are on the left. The middle is my old one and the one on the right is same as mine from the factory.
The Neox’s bottom isn’t rounded off like the original so it’s not sitting in position right, and it’s likely that is the cause.
So he will replace the front 2 with the Sachs and is charging me an extra £40 each because they are that much more expensive so the job has cost a total of £800.
Just thinking now about the rear shocks not being the sport variant but the seem to sit right, it’s just the front that’s too high.

 

[8YARWY]

Jeeeeez you’d think he would check the new part against the old before fitting


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[8YARWY]

Jeeeeez you’d think he would check the new part against the old before fitting


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[johncbradley1]

Jeeeeez you’d think he would check the new part against the old before fitting


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You'd of thought so wouldn't you.
I think this will be the last bit of work he will do on my car to be honest. Not happy now that he's told me he can only do the work in 6 days time. I've waited 6 days already (up until this morning) since I told him the issue, only for him to tell me the parts are different. I thought he was going to do the work today!

Also the fact that he uses the wrong and cheap parts doesn't inspire much confidence.

 

[NHN]

So let me get this right, he fitted the wrong shocks even though was supposed to be OEM & he wants to charge you more to rectify the issue, urmm are you mad, he messed up so there should be no cost to you if the info you're proving is accurate, I'd go back & say I'm not paying for the job to be rectified due to your mistake, morals should kick in.

 

[johncbradley1]

So let me get this right, he fitted the wrong shocks even though was supposed to be OEM & he wants to charge you more to rectify the issue, urmm are you mad, he messed up so there should be no cost to you if the info you're proving is accurate, I'd go back & say I'm not paying for the job to be rectified due to your mistake, morals should kick in.

When I first took it to him, I asked will he use good quality parts and he said “I only Use OE parts”.
Is there a difference between OE and OEM?
I’m ****** off about it too mate and like I said in my last post, I won’t be using him again.

 

[NHN]

OE means original equipment as in Audi original parts, so he lied & fitted cheap aftermarkets, go back to him & tell him this, that's unacceptable behaviour tbh, he should.nlt be charging you a penny.

If he specifically said OE quality, that means non audi, but tbh you've been quite confident in what he told you so I still say he messed up.

He needs to fix it for free labour wise & if price for parts is more, then fairly charge you the actual extra cost only for the shocks etc he used & tbh show you the purchase invoice.

 

[johncbradley1]

OE means original equipment as in Audi original parts, so he lied & fitted cheap aftermarkets, go back to him & tell him this, that's unacceptable behaviour tbh, he should.nlt be charging you a penny.

If he specifically said OE quality, that means non audi, but tbh you've been quite confident in what he told you so I still say he messed up.

He needs to fix it for free labour wise & if price for parts is more, then fairly charge you the actual extra cost only for the shocks etc he used & tbh show you the purchase invoice.

He may have said OE quality. I can’t quite remember. Ill give him the benefit of the doubt on that, and i ran a quick price check for the Sachs and they go for around £100 on Euro Car Parts, the cheapest groping for around £70. I couldn’t find anywhere online that sells the Neox shocks, so ill have to take his word for it because i don‘t want to be too intrusive, with him working on my car. If I p**s him off he could do something insidious ‍

 

[8YARWY]

He may have said OE quality. I can’t quite remember. Ill give him the benefit of the doubt on that, and i ran a quick price check for the Sachs and they go for around £100 on Euro Car Parts, the cheapest groping for around £70. I couldn’t find anywhere online that sells the Neox shocks, so ill have to take his word for it because i don‘t want to be too intrusive, with him working on my car. If I p**s him off he could do something insidious ‍

Probably a subsidiary of another company

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[NHN]

Never heard of neox shocks in my life so I'd be surprised if they're of an equal quality, that aside still pretty shabby as I wouldn't say they're even OE quality, now Sachs is a big name.....

 

[8YARWY]

Never heard of neox shocks in my life so I'd be surprised if they're of an equal quality, that aside still pretty shabby as I wouldn't say they're even OE quality, now Sachs is a big name.....

Same here.

Why not just use Sachs / Bilstein etc.


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[NHN]

Exactly, but times are hard & garages are trying to survive I guess.

 

[Dippy]

OEMs make OE parts.
The trouble with the word "quality" is that it can mean different things to different people. I would say "OE quality" to mean in every way identical to the OE part including dimensions, but just not made by the original OEM and probably cheaper. However for other people it might refer to the part from a 3rd party manufacturer who produces reliable parts, but it might not be exactly the same (as opposed to a 3rd party which makes copies as cheaply as possible and not only might it be different but also unreliable).