Dashcam footage of Audi S4 B8 3.0T Customer Car Abuse by VAG Technic in Dudley

[Tman_]

I originally made a thread on another forum about my seized 3.0T engine
Below is a link to the dashcam footage of VAG Technic abusing my car, who had worked on it shortly before the engine seized and aren't interested in even inspecting their work.

Apologies if I've posted in the wrong section!

So, I originally found VAG Technic on YouTube and thought I'd give them a chance as they looked to be somewhat skilful and trying to make a name for themselves. I sent them my Audi S4 3.0T on 24th Aug 2021 for a timing job. Their quoted 2-4 weeks turned in to 8 and when I finally got the car back the engine was noisy and burning 2x more oil than previous to their work. I reported the issues multiple times to VAG Technic and they told me "it's normal" - sadly my engine ended up seizing 1505 miles after their work.

Over 2 months have passed since my engine failure, and I have not yet had the engine touched in hopes that VAG Technic would be able to accommodate me in their small shop, to at least properly inspect their work and parts but I've not had any luck. They've given me every excuse in the book from "We're too busy" to "We didn't touch the bottom end" to "Your car is modified" and my favourite "Waiting for official response from Audi about DECLINED warranty for your car"???

Per citizens advice I ended up sending them an official complaint detailing all my issues from delays, the unwanted flush which may be related to engine issues, their disinterest in inspecting work under warranty, and also my displeasure at the fact that my dashcam was disconnected outside of their shop opening hours, but not before recording them as they take my car off the trailer, rev it from cold and then going for a cheeky quick joy ride at over 70mph in a 30 zone.

They never even bothered to reply to my letter, so as a last ditch attempt to try and get some sort of action or compromise from them I uploaded and shared with them the footage of my dashcam and told them it's going public if they really want to rip me off, to let everyone know how they treat customer cars. After all, since when was a "test drive" even necessary before a timing job? It was clearly a joy ride without respect of customer property, they had no right to do that and even had the cheek to say to my face "just make sure you warm it up then the engine will last" when I collected my car.

There's their typical blasé response to seeing the footage, no doubt they've gotten away with this crap for too long this many times: clicky clicky
Funnily enough, the next thing I know I get a fraudulent copyright takedown notice by none other than VAG Technic, in attempt to try and suppress this footage showing them abusing a paying customer's car. Naturally I've submitted a counter-claim for fair use exception...

This was a prestigious well-known magazine featured car in excellent condition, around 85k miles. I treated my car with respect and spent a lot of time and money making sure it was always running well to maintain it's value and my pleasure for years to come. It really just rubs me the wrong way how these cowboys have taken the mickey at every step from start to finish, along with my £5000, and I'm now down another £7500 for a replacement engine, plus a likely loss in resell value of my car due to the fact that a big chunk of the engine service history is now irrelevant...

So here it is, I've uploaded to a bunch of sites to be shared on various forums, I'll admit it's nothing out-of-this-world crazy, but for what it's worth I just want to get the word out there about just another dodgy garage. The clip you see at the beginning is from their own video they made of my car which you can find on their YouTube channel by searching their company name.

Video mirrors are all linked here at https://linktr.ee/vagtechnicabuse

And yes, I was repping the Audi-Sport number plate holder

 

[NHN]

Ok so what was the 5k for, as timing adjustments seems expensive.

Tbh spirited drive isn't unheard of for garage's in allure of powerful cars, so that, although isn't nice for you to see, isn't usually that bad, although could be warmed up more of course fair point.

But, I'm trying to understand what happened, so what are the engine issues & any inspection taken place yet?

I do have to ask, if the engine was that noisy, bad, why did you take the risk driving until it was corrected, btw not blaming you

 

[Tman_]

Ok so what was the 5k for, as timing adjustments seems expensive.

Tbh spirited drive isn't unheard of for garage's in allure of powerful cars, so that, although isn't nice for you to see, isn't usually that bad, although could be warmed up more of course fair point.

But, I'm trying to understand what happened, so what are the engine issues & any inspection taken place yet?

I do have to ask, if the engine was that noisy, bad, why did you take the risk driving until it was corrected, btw not blaming you

The £5k was total, off the top of my head the timing job was around £3.5k including chains, tensioners, etc. The rest was for other parts like new front suspension, engine mounts, pcv & intercooler (the last 2 of which I'm pretty sure didn't need doing especially pvc being 1 year old, but I followed their recommendation)

I don't think their actions in this video caused all that much damage, I just wanted to share as these guys are messing me around, as a cautionary tale to those thinking of sending their pride & joy to a small garage

I didn't actually notice the engine noise until I got back home, they had the car for 8 weeks so my mind was in other places and I probably wouldn't have remember exactly what it sounded like before. At idle the noise was present but first I assumed it may be the new parts like chains getting bedding in to the sprockets or something. After a few days I noticed it wasn't going away and when driving some familiar routes listening to the sound bouncing off cars/walls/fences I realised it was much noisier under slight acceleration (any more and it would be drowned out by the exhaust noise) so there was definitely something wrong, as well as oil consumption being way higher than before, but they weren't interested

 

[NHN]

The B8 suffered piston ring issues with oil usage vastly, but on the 2.0 not heard of the V6 supercharged.

Ok so it was a a complete timing chain job, does sound like they may have dropped the ball.

How does 1 prove this is the question.

 

[Tman_]

The B8 suffered piston ring issues with oil usage vastly, but on the 2.0 not heard of the V6 supercharged.

Ok so it was a a complete timing chain job, does sound like they may have dropped the ball.

How does 1 prove this is the question.

That is indeed the question, my plan is to send it to a reputable shop along with an expert witness during inspection who can write a court report, then take this to small claims for refund and damages... All considered I'm willing to front the cost as it's just too much of a co-incidence

 

[NHN]

Yeah but evidence would possibly be shrouded by the damage anyway, hard one, but considering you gave them 5k & engine goosed, kinda worth the investment.

It's pretty poor for them to ignore the situation tbh.

Of course we don't know if it's there fault, however, garage's have been known to close down then reopen under new name at times to avoid paying any claims against them, which is crappy.

 

[Garrett 69]

garage's have been known to close down then reopen under new name at times to avoid paying any claims against them, which is crappy.

I had this happen to a mate of mine some years ago. He took his AMG in to a "specialist" in Bradistan. The cost to put it right was over £20k. The garage quickly closed down and re-opened in another name. My mate didn't end up out of pocket though, he sent 4 Hiab wagons and 12 brick shithouse blokes in and lifted all their equipment out

 

[NHN]

Unfortunately these days that kind of action isn't going to fly, although in certain situations, I agree with 100%, cause those types shouldn't take on the job unless they can fulfil, I know my limits.

 

[VAGTechnicLTD]

Hi All,

I'm the owner of this business , I'm actually shocked by what's going on .... We are still communicating with the owner of this vehicle . He rang us at midnight when he broke down , and my business partner picked up the phone and was informed that the engine might be seized from the information he told us. (confirmed with other mechanic after checks)

I was on the phone with him personally and we did offer him to recover the vehicle at our cost , inspect the engine and see what's going on. Unfortunately that week we had all 3 ramps stuck so I couldn't provide him an exact date when the car would go on the ramp but the plan was ASAP once one ramp is free. We also agree that he can be in our permises the whole time while we will work on hes vehicel .We also inform the owner if we did something wrong we will cover the cost of repair, but in case everything that we did is fine he will have to pay us labor for taking the engine apart and that was the point where it got bad. We were fully blaimed even before the inspection was done. After we recive text message that he dont trust us we offered him to go with Audi dealers. But again .... we contacted Audi ( very long proccess when it comes to warranty ) and they told us they can do such inspection ,but if any of listed parts DID NOT FAILED there will be out standing bill £140.00 / hour approxametly 30-35H labour. Also Audi advise us if the car was tuned it might effect any warranty on the parts .

This S4 was runnig around 480 BHP with upgraded pulies ( no extra cooling ) decat .

We also done a video of the whole job how we took the engine out and everything what we find and done is on there. From the footage you can see the PCV , water pump, thermostat is siliconed down what shouldne be done like that. So before us deffenetly someone was working on the car.

We dont know till now what happend , we did drove the vehicle before the job was done and after it was done. Owner took the car and the engine siezed up aproxemetaly 5 weeks later.

From conversation what I have with the owner , he did confirm he done oil change him self , with 5L of new oil and ad 1L of old oil what was drained from the engine.
Hes also saying it was FULL but who knows now ....

. From the expierence I know when we do oil change to the top of the dipstick we put around 7.5L-8L.

Dont blame the owner that was the moment ... but it did happend shortly after this oil change....

We would still like to get the inspection done to proof that we done nothing wrong.

To the footage of car abuse .... We take these cars for Dyno/ remap as well several time the engine goes to 7000 rpm and without any isues .

So far thats all what I can say , letter from the owner was send out from tactics before christmas 23rd December to us and we were not working, we did informed the owner that we receive the letter and our solicitor will answer him.

Peace out !

Tom

 

[Devilz]

Two sides of stories, totally contradicitng one another. Hope all get's sorted in the end for both parties.

 

[Raiden]

I wouldn’t be happy if my car was driven like that and says to me if they didn’t notice the camera then they are not very observant or just don’t care. I know I’m one to talk but the MD’s grammar isn’t great either. Then his bods talking about customers sheds as well just says to me they don’t get many great cars through the door so why is that?

Years ago I had TTS Roadsport in Bedfordshire work on my car that had a fault. Never fixed it and took it to VAGTECH in MK who found the muppets had superglued certain parts instead of actually replacing them. Absolutely shocking!!!!! We’ve all been there mate. Hopefully it will get sorted. My trick now with anything like that. Pay on a credit card and if anything goes wrong get your card company involved as the job would be covered under section 75


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[NHN]

A person's grammar shouldn't be a deciding factor on there ability to do a job properly & by no means am I supporting either side here, but I've known people who years ago were brilliant with vehicles, much much better than some of today's mechanics, whose grammar was a little lacking, I think we need to concentrate on the vehicle problems not vocabulary.

He does raise some questions though, which would be good to see if we're a contributing factor, maybe not, but can't be discounted currently.

 

[NHN]

I'm curious about the comments on the oil change, is this true, without checking the S4 oil litre volumes needed, but 2 litre difference & old oil mix isn't how I would service my car, hearsay currently of course.

When you can siliconed down, can you expand on that?

 

[Tman_]

Hi All,

I'm the owner of this business , I'm actually shocked by what's going on .... We are still communicating with the owner of this vehicle . He rang us at midnight when he broke down , and my business partner picked up the phone and was informed that the engine might be seized from the information he told us. (confirmed with other mechanic after checks)

I was on the phone with him personally and we did offer him to recover the vehicle at our cost , inspect the engine and see what's going on. Unfortunately that week we had all 3 ramps stuck so I couldn't provide him an exact date when the car would go on the ramp but the plan was ASAP once one ramp is free. We also agree that he can be in our permises the whole time while we will work on hes vehicel .We also inform the owner if we did something wrong we will cover the cost of repair, but in case everything that we did is fine he will have to pay us labor for taking the engine apart and that was the point where it got bad. We were fully blaimed even before the inspection was done. After we recive text message that he dont trust us we offered him to go with Audi dealers. But again .... we contacted Audi ( very long proccess when it comes to warranty ) and they told us they can do such inspection ,but if any of listed parts DID NOT FAILED there will be out standing bill £140.00 / hour approxametly 30-35H labour. Also Audi advise us if the car was tuned it might effect any warranty on the parts .

This S4 was runnig around 480 BHP with upgraded pulies ( no extra cooling ) decat .

We also done a video of the whole job how we took the engine out and everything what we find and done is on there. From the footage you can see the PCV , water pump, thermostat is siliconed down what shouldne be done like that. So before us deffenetly someone was working on the car.

We dont know till now what happend , we did drove the vehicle before the job was done and after it was done. Owner took the car and the engine siezed up aproxemetaly 5 weeks later.

From conversation what I have with the owner , he did confirm he done oil change him self , with 5L of new oil and ad 1L of old oil what was drained from the engine.
Hes also saying it was FULL but who knows now ....

. From the expierence I know when we do oil change to the top of the dipstick we put around 7.5L-8L.

Dont blame the owner that was the moment ... but it did happend shortly after this oil change....

We would still like to get the inspection done to proof that we done nothing wrong.

To the footage of car abuse .... We take these cars for Dyno/ remap as well several time the engine goes to 7000 rpm and without any isues .

So far thats all what I can say , letter from the owner was send out from tactics before christmas 23rd December to us and we were not working, we did informed the owner that we receive the letter and our solicitor will answer him.

Peace out !

Tom

So, firstly, my calls (yes at midnight when I was stranded on a major road) were not answered. Though to be fair they did text me to try and troubleshoot some basics.

"That week" was irrelevant because I didn't actually believe this to be anyone else's problem until much later (I only contacted them after reviewing the dashcam footage and adding 2+3)

VAG Technic has always officially told me they stand behind their work, but when I asked them to deal with it they are just toooo busy. Case in hand, latest time I asked, they said they're booked for 5-6 months!! Until June - because I only represent 0.05% of their customers? (image)
On the (recorded) phone call they promised me to recover my car, but like I said after asking for a date or even time frame they said "we're too busy" during the phone call I agreed to send it to Audi and someone will foot inevitably the cost, but typically they never got back to me...

After roughly 1 month of messing around I sought legal advice, I was told if they don't resolve the issues in a reasonable timeframe, without unreasonable inconvenience, then I can claim loss of confidence meaning I can use a local shop to diagnose the issue and bill them later....

I contacted one of the local Audi dealerships and they offered to inspect the car. Might as well point out that regarding the tune, this is nothing new because as you can see in the dashcam footage VAG Technic were well aware of this (not to mention my private messages confirming this) yet they chose to take my money despite their legal obligation to warranty their work...

The "video" they made of my car, like a powerpoint slideshow, sadly didn't really show much despite VAG Technic taking an additional £100 from me when all I asked for was some photos (yes I'm willing to compensate if it helps you out and you want to help me out!)

The PCV was replaced by a certified mechanic with myself present, and there was never any issue with it since, silicone or not, however VAG Technic recommended I replace this along with the left-side intercooler so I agreed upon their recommendation (at a cost of about 2.5x market value for parts) to replace everything despite not having recognising any symptoms of issues with these parts beforehand (and I've had pcv and the right-side intercooler fail before)

More on the engine oil issue later... the engine was noisy and reported multiple times before my oil change, after my messages were dismissed I took initiative and in actual fact the engine ran a lot quieter than it had been since getting my car back...

Regarding the car abuse, everyone call tell the attitude of these guys, from their voices and the way they drove my car without a care in the world, they're not serious mechanics, anybody who is serious would not disrespect a paying customer's property in such a way. I asked for one thing and that's a timing kit, since when does that require any kind of test drive, let alone a joy ride in 1/2nd gear on a 30mph road... is that your idea of a dyno??

Leagues below an acceptable level of respect let alone service

I'm curious about the comments on the oil change, is this true, without checking the S4 oil litre volumes needed, but 2 litre difference & old oil mix isn't how I would service my car, hearsay currently of course.

When you can siliconed down, can you expand on that?

VAG Technic are claiming that I changed the oil and only put in 6L when this is clearly misrepresenting what I told them via whatsapp: (image) Just another example of their sleazy behaviour. I changed the oil to a proper motorsport oil because after reporting the engine noise and oil consumption issues to them they just didn't care. Changing the oil actually helped the noise, and even now the oil level is still at 80% so it was clearly refilled properly... it helped but seems it was just too little too late. Filter is rated for 10,000 miles so why would I change it if VAG Technic changed it 1300-odd miles ago? Mixing old and new oil isn't what I would usually do but at that time is all I had and they told me on the day I collected the car that they had just changed it, so figured a few litres of a 1300 miles old long-life oil would be alright to test if this would help quieten down the engine.

 

[Simon]

What did you collect the oil into before re-using it?

also was there any oil loss with the failure, if not it would rather suggest that with only 80% of what should be there that there wasn't enough in it?

re the test drive, I see nothing unusual at all there, a couple of short bursts of throttle is nothing, I think you are rather over egging the pudding with that and trying to make more of it than it is.

 

[Tman_]

What did you collect the oil into before re-using it?

also was there any oil loss with the failure, if not it would rather suggest that with only 80% of what should be there that there wasn't enough in it?

re the test drive, I see nothing unusual at all there, a couple of short bursts of throttle is nothing, I think you are rather over egging the pudding with that and trying to make more of it than it is.

Naturally I filled it properly it's not rocket science lol (image) it showed almost full on MMI and roughly same on dipstick up to max indicator (not 80% of total oil capacity) it took about 6L I didn't measure I just warmed it up and filled to decent level

Drained in to a clean oil pan... where else?

And I'm sorry but that "test drive" was no testing, it was a joy ride. First gear pulls, what is that supposed to test for? Hell, why even test drive a vehicle when I sent it in for a timing job requiring zero diagnosis of anything? If anything further driving is just raising the risk of damage due to timing component failure? It was trailered the 100 miles to VAG Technic for that reason even though as you can see in the video it still drove fine. Not to mention them driving recklessly and illegally, totally unprofessional, if you don't see anything wrong with that then OK.

 

[Garrett 69]

Am I right in thinking this car has a Stage 2 tune? I'm guessing so as it's around 150BHP more than stock. No added cooling?

Is it still running the original oil pump as well? If so, I think therein lies the problem - too much heat and a lack of lubrication.

 

[Tman_]

Am I right in thinking this car has a Stage 2 tune? I'm guessing so as it's around 150BHP more than stock. No added cooling?

Is it still running the original oil pump as well? If so, I think therein lies the problem - too much heat and a lack of lubrication.

Right +150 over stock, but considering it's been problem free for 50,000 miles including Europe road trips in 40c French summer, driving 10+ hours at a time, and considering it's driven properly (not like in that video), the fact I have torque pro app running 99% of the time to ensure all parameters are good, and I have oil temp gauge enabled in dash so I know what's going on temp wise - suddenly the problem is going to be the oil pump and too much heat right after their work? If it really is oil pump related then it's likely to do with the work by the garage as they have been the only ones to ever touch it

 

[NHN]

Right +150 over stock, but considering it's been problem free for 50,000 miles including Europe road trips in 40c French summer, driving 10+ hours at a time, and considering it's driven properly (not like in that video), the fact I have torque pro app running 99% of the time to ensure all parameters are good, and I have oil temp gauge enabled in dash so I know what's going on temp wise - suddenly the problem is going to be the oil pump and too much heat right after their work? If it really is oil pump related then it's likely to do with the work by the garage as they have been the only ones to ever touch it

Thats a fairly good reply tbh & tbf

 

[Simon]

My view is you have a decent case here but being so overly defensive does not help your cause and these are reasonable questions to be asked. The failure occurring so close to your oil change is always going to attract questions and you need to be prepared to accept that and have answers ready.

I don't think the histrionics around the test/joy ride do you any favours at all tbh.

 

[Garrett 69]

Ok so what is the actual mileage on the car? It does sound like possible oil pump failure.

 

[Tman_]

Ok so what is the actual mileage on the car? It does sound like possible oil pump failure.

Right around 86k

My view is you have a decent case here but being so overly defensive does not help your cause and these are reasonable questions to be asked. The failure occurring so close to your oil change is always going to attract questions and you need to be prepared to accept that and have answers ready.

I don't think the histrionics around the test/joy ride do you any favours at all tbh.

Yea maybe, but whether my car issues come down to their fault or not the video still showcases unacceptable behaviour and I'd want to know if I was considering sending my car to them.

 

[MELenium]

Is this your car?

 

[Garrett 69]

Let's be honest, that particular brand of hooning can be found in the vast majority of garages, not just this place. Stealer garages are amongst the worst offenders.

 

[Simon]

Let's be honest, that particular brand of hooning can be found in the vast majority of garages, not just this place. Stealer garages are amongst the worst offenders.

OP's car is a saloon

 

[Garrett 69]

OP's car is a saloon

What has the body shape got to do with driving like a CNUT?

 

[Simon]

I was replying to the poster before you…

 

[Garrett 69]

So you quoted my post?

 

[Simon]

Ooopps so I did! My mistake.

 

[Tman_]

Is this your car?

This video is not about my car, but on the thumbnail you can see my car behind him in the background

Their video of my car is here (clicky)

Talking about videos... their fraudulent copyright claim failed and my original video on youtube is back up