Help Please Dealer trying to empty my pockets. Advice sought please!

Chris Paine

Chris Paine

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OK so I took my B8 S4 Avant into the dealers for an oil change service today. It flew through its MOT just before lockdown and has hardly been used since.

The vehicle health check/inspection they gave me says a broken rear spring (I saw evidence of this so totally true). Worn bushes on the upper control arms (both fronts) and Anti Roll Bars inner bush kit, both worn on front.

I was quoted roughly £1,500 to have this remedied. I know how main dealers operate and why they charge what they do but this sounded expensive even by their standards.

Being self employed I could do without weighing out that kind of money right now but at the same time I want to get these fixed properly. Any links to parts etc are greatly appreciated. I must admit I only got the dealer to service it if I could take my own oil! I don't want to pay their prices for the same stuff.

Anyway what would I usually be looking at for that sort of work? I'll get my local garage to do it as I trust them with all my cars.

Broken spring, I'm guessing you wouldn't do just the one side?
Bushes, would you replace the arms as well?

Etc etc.

Many thanks in advance.
 
The MOT tester wasn't the most observant was he?

I always take mine to a local indy specialist in Lincoln if it something I can't do my self. They would probably charge about £400-£450 inc vat. 2 springs, both arms, bushes and labour.
Check out Ebay for the parts and do it yourself, really not that difficult. You don't need to be paying main dealer prices at your age of car.
It does sound like your stealership is pulling your pants down there.
 
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I have a missing spring one mine, was quoted £160 by an Indy to change all 4 springs if I supply them. You can get kw springs for about £170
 
Thanks for the help everyone. I'd already had a look on autodoc and yeah they're a lot cheaper than euros who are only half a mile away from me.

Re the MOT tester, he's actually the same guy I use as my mechanic. All fully qualified and very experienced. I'll get him to have another look over it and give me a shout so I can look as well.
 
When having the bushes done on my cars I have found it cheaper to do the arms if you are having a garage do it. Most arms come with the bushes pre installed, this is usually cheaper than pressing new bushes into the original arms due to labour rates.

If you are doing it yourself, you pick really. Cheaper but more work if you can press bushes yourself.
 
My mechanic has just told me the same thing as it goes!

After having a look on Autodoc, I'm really curious as to what spec springs to buy for the rear? What length etc.
 
Don't go like for like. Get a quality brand like Eibach or H&R.
Get a second opinion off your mate. The Stealers just saw pound signs when an S4 rolled in.
 
I sorry but I have to agree about Audi main dealers being looking to generate wealth more than make sure that your car is safe and fit for use, I've had the lower arms warning on the 2019 MOT and when I checked them they looked okay, next MOT for once left the Audi dealership and got a good VW Group Indie and now that lower arm bushes issue as disappeared, okay that car is now over 9 years old which is close to when these suspension elements normally need replacing but my mileage at MOT time was still under 26k so I thought that they were at it and as far as I could make out they were. Really not so good as said already when they see the "S" badge they know they have a sucker and abuse them.

Don't get me wrong, if my car needed new suspension arms, I'd jump in there and change them with non Audi but their supplier's products, I'm not against spending money on my cars when they need it - but I'm not into giving work to Audi dealerships just because they want it!

Edit:- being in the service area for Edinburgh Audi at times is just not good hearing people complaining about how they are being treated, okay it is 6 months since I've been there, just buying spares but deposited in the service "holding area, not good to talk about these things, I'd rather "all was good enough" and that I could return at some point with my car, but I'm past that point with them. I understand that some times it will be the customer that is wrong, but my last contact using the service department, for a booked time MOT ended up with the service person asking "well what do you want us to do?" in a very annoyed manner, I said "just to complete the booked time MOT within a reasonably time period and not needing to keep the car from 09:00 until 17:00" - so maybe that was why I ended up with these MOT advisories, I could not get them to understand that I was expecting them to operate in a way that was in line with what Audi had on their website - and that when they asked me when I wanted the car worked on, ie on a booked clock time, and I gave them my desired booking period and they accepted it, they then felt like it was okay to hold onto the car for 8 hours and work on it when it suited them.
 
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I had an interim service and brake fluid change a few months ago at my local dealer. They wanted to charge £586 for front discs and pads because the discs had slight lip. The price takes the pee, especially because that's £150 more than their own advertised fixed price.

I always like a bit of sport when I feel I'm being mugged off, so I asked the service person what the current thickness of the disc was and what the spec was for the minimum thickness, she said I would need to speak to a tech, when the tech came out, she admitted that she didn't measure the disc, just thought it looked a bit low.

The mot tester laughed a few days later when I went and picked my car up from another garage when I told him, he said they were not even half worn.
 
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I had something similar in VW land on my old Golf R. They didn't diagnose the issue correctly and tried to bill me a big list of parts with the comments it may resolve the issue. I went indy in the end and was checked and fixed properly. But it's dealer depending not all are robbers.

Sent from my LYA-L09 using Tapatalk
 
I'm not surprised. The lockdown must have really hurt dealers and so they'll be looking to make extra money wherever they can.
 
Dippy said:
I'm not surprised. The lockdown must have really hurt dealers and so they'll be looking to make extra money wherever they can.
Click to expand...
It hurt my indie but they didn’t try to scam me on my service and MOT this week.
 
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jdp1962 said:
It hurt my indie but they didn’t try to scam me on my service and MOT this week.
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Of course my comment was not intended to suggest that I condone their actions. Most people are aware that I prefer to use my indie MDM Technik and Mark certainly does not scam me. In fact when he did my service a few months back I felt that a tip was long overdue.
 
Boundy said:
I had an interim service and brake fluid change a few months ago at my local dealer. They wanted to charge £586 for front discs and pads because the discs had slight lip. The price takes the pee, especially because that's £150 more than their own advertised fixed price.

I always like a bit of sport when I feel I'm being mugged off, so I asked the service person what the current thickness of the disc was and what the spec was for the minimum thickness, she said I would need to speak to a tech, when the tech came out, she admitted that she didn't measure the disc, just thought it looked a bit low.

The mot tester laughed a few days later when I went and picked my car up from another garage when I told him, he said they were not even half worn.
Click to expand...

Hatfield Audi, while i was have the electronic water pump replaced under recall in 2018(?), recommended that i have the timing belt replaced, given the mileage on my A4. I wish i hadn't stupidly called them out on the phone and had rather asked for a quote to be emailed. The scammers were offering to replace the a timing belt on an engine that has a timing CHAIN! They hadn't even bothered to check the vehicle, they simply thought they try it on.

I spoke to Audi head office but not much came of it. Never again with Hatfield and now it's difficult for me to trust a main dealer after that. My question is, if i had agreed to have the 'belt' replaced, what would they have done once they realised that there was no belt - charge me anyway. admit their mistake, something else?
 
And to contrast that with the VAG indy I have used for years. Whilst my car was in for its MOT I asked them to change my brake fluid. They tested it first, found it within spec, told me it doesn't need to be changed yet.
An honest garage is worth its weight.

Advanced Automotive (formally Mike Raw) VAG specialists in Lincoln.
Highly recommended.
 
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Super Nintendo Chalmers said:
Hatfield Audi, while i was have the electronic water pump replaced under recall in 2018(?), recommended that i have the timing belt replaced, given the mileage on my A4. I wish i hadn't stupidly called them out on the phone and had rather asked for a quote to be emailed. The scammers were offering to replace the a timing belt on an engine that has a timing CHAIN! They hadn't even bothered to check the vehicle, they simply thought they try it on.

I spoke to Audi head office but not much came of it. Never again with Hatfield and now it's difficult for me to trust a main dealer after that. My question is, if i had agreed to have the 'belt' replaced, what would they have done once they realised that there was no belt - charge me anyway. admit their mistake, something else?
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LOL don't get me started on Hatfield Audi, have a look at my thread to see how much 'fun' I had with them, including botching up a propshaft replacement (EML on within a day of driving off and engine cutting out on me on the way there!):

https://www.audi-sport.net/xf/threads/dealer-issue-haldex-rear-differential.407770/
 
Will take a read.

There was chap in there on one of my visits, clearly being d!cked around by them. Let's just say he had no issue with delivering some industrial language to the staff there, who had apparently offered something to him the previous day but was rescinded.
 
Well they blamed my indie mechanic friend of draining the diff oil and that I subsequently drove without it for over a year! They're lucky he didn't go down there and cause some havoc (like he did to them one time previously when they tried fleecing an old lady).
I do have a complaint going on with the Motor Ombudsman over it but I'm not holding my breath, plus I've just part exchanged the car and moved on.
 
Main dealers seem to be getting worse. My son has a 16 plate S 5 coupe which has been back twice for an on going fault. Won't go into all the details here but basically it went out of warranty over lock down & Audi refused to do anything further. They quoted over £900.00 to do the fix they said was required, in the end he took it to a local Audi/VW Specialist who not only found a couple of other little thing the main dealer had missed BUT did all the work for just over £300.00!!!.
 
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RS3 S. said:
Main dealers seem to be getting worse. My son has a 16 plate S 5 coupe which has been back twice for an on going fault. Won't go into all the details here but basically it went out of warranty over lock down & Audi refused to do anything further. They quoted over £900.00 to do the fix they said was required, in the end he took it to a local Audi/VW Specialist who not only found a couple of other little thing the main dealer had missed BUT did all the work for just over £300.00!!!.
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There's a reason why most of them are nicknamed stealers :)
 
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Audi "technicians" these days appear to be a load of young kids, who frankly don't have a clue but the Stealers still think charging top dollar is acceptable.
 
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I take my comment back! My B8.5 S4 went in to Watford today for the recall work, also had a fault show up with the PCV valve. They sorted the problem out for free! Turns out it needed a bit of a clean round there. And I got a free wash too :)
 
Not what CREC owners want to hear - the PCV system was another thing that was revised in the redesign - let's hope yours was a one-off.
 
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Even got a call this afternoon checking that the car is OK! I think they've been reading the notes from Hatfield (along with the ongoing Motor Ombudsman complaint lol) and treating me extra nice, maybe I'm just being cynical!
 
Car owners wanted to be treated fairly, and not taken for mugs. If possible, DIY is always the best option.
 
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