s tronic mechatronic woes..

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costello

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soooo im getting a little tired with this car,2010 2.0 tfsi.it had the oil consumption issues fixed in oct last year after months of hassle and stress,then a month later it had to be flatbedded to audi because the starter motor had packed in,(680.00 for that and a new battery),after all the worry i bought an audi warrenty in jan of this year to protect me against any big issues in the future(700.00)..last week i get a gearbox malfunction light on when it lost torque on reverse,took it to audi who say it needs a mechtronic repair..i tell them i have a warrenty and they say they will phone audi warrenty and get it sorted...i get a phone call half hour later to say they are not going to honour it as the first gearbox oil change was done at 48000 instead of 40000.the second change was done at 79000.
i go a bit mental and tell them it's got a full history and has obviously ran fine for the last 34000 miles,and the late oil service was done way before i owned the car and the previous owner must have it done along with mmi service intervals plus the mechatronic issues are well known as dodgy,..tough says audi you going to have to cough up 1000+ to get it fixed,and of course the warrenty is useless as regards any future gearbox issues.:rage:
apologies for the long post but i just needed to vent,..
any ideas on recourse i can take?audi uk,warrenty company etc?,
any advise,sympathy or offers to buy a nice a4 allroad with are appreciated!:grin:
 
Costello, im so sorry to hear your **** news.
personally I would go through Audi UK and put a huge complaint in, the first oil change being late has nowt to do with the issues your having now.
good luck mate and you have my deepest sympathy.
if I will the lotto any time soon i'll buy u a brand new allroad lol
 
Thanks bud,i've just got off the phone with audi customer service and put forward my complaint,i was respectful but firm,pointing out the good service i receive at my local dealership but the shoddy audi warranty service and the even shoddier mechatronic box!! they promised to get back to me within 24 hours with some news,not holding my breath but you never know...
 
My warranty company paid out on a claim late last year, for me it was the mechatronics ECU repair kit. It can throw up numerous faults depending on what part of the PCB gets affected first.
My fault was something like 'torque restricted due to clutch temperature' with a message of 'gearbox malfunction you can continue driving'.

Audi washed their hands of it due to a tune.

Is the diagnosis the mechatronics unit, or the ECU, do you know? Because one is £1200ish and the other is £3600ish.
 
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on the original call and diagnosis i was told the told the mechatronics unit needs replacing..when they me rang me back up later and told me the warranty was being rejected they told me it was just the repair kit,like you say 1200.00 or so..
 
Firstly sorry to hear the bad news.
Audi HQ are pretty useless tbh, it's down to dealer discretion on any goodwill.
The 38k mile thing basically says the box hasn't been cared for as it should have been, and therefore they'll reject it.
Mine had this repair done by prior owner and full service history, a lot at Audi, and I got no help when my clutches went, Audi said it needed a complete new box...
 
Thanks raz,I know from your posts you have massive (and expensive!) Experience of this issue,I had nothing to lose by going down the customer service route,the parts on order and will be fixed this week,just wanted to put my case to them re the warranty,they listened to what I had to say and asked me what would be my ideal outcome,I Said apart from not owning a clown car I have no confidence in, it would be that the warranty would be honoured and they would cover the repair,with me paying the excess on an already expensive warranty,
I'll update with any developments
 
Check the T&C's of the warranty. If it wasn't made clear to you when when they sold it to you that the gearbox wouldn't be covered then I would cry fraud.
 
Audi warranty isn't worth the paper it's written on - they wouldn't honour an MOT claim on my A4 because I couldn't find the previous MOT certificate (even though it is available online!).

1. Did you buy your Audi through an Audi used approved dealership ?
2. Has it been through a used approved dealership in the past ?
 
The car was bought from an Indy dealer,my first Audi and probably my last..
All services were carried out at a vag specialist,with the exception of the last couple where I've had it done at Audi along with any repairs,mot etc
What gets me is they authorized the piston repair no problem based on the complete service history...seems a con they would suddenly void the warranty claims based on things like timing especially when we go by the mmi to tell us when serviceable items are due..
 
They'll just refer you back to the handbook I'm afraid vs the MMI, doubt that would flag the oil change at all.
The piston repair is a public known issue so that's where the repairs are more given, but even then they've been not paying it all if wrong oil or missed services, they'll try anything not to pay.
I referenced recalls on boxes and technical bulletin releases worldwide for similar issues I was getting, and their response "it's a different market and environment to them", ie we haven't had enough complaints to cause us to act on it so screw you and cough up...
Like you, it's made me lose faith in the brand. You only need to search the net for the amount of issues and repairs done on these. Audi need to take responsibility but won't ever if they can help it...goodwill, they don't know the meaning. They've lost too much on the piston issue to offer it up
 
I can't prove my theory but I bought my B5 S4 in 2001 when production was about to stop and I had no major problems with that car. Although the B8 S5 is still in production I am expecting that my 2015 model will also be trouble-free. I wonder if the buyers of the B9 S4 will do so with attention to the risk that Audi will have included some new 'design faults' in it?
 
So the saga continues,fully expected to get my car back today but I get a phone call a little while ago to tell me the following..
"We've ordered and fitted the new circuit board but in doing so we found the wiring loom to the mechatronic board has snapped..it's a special order item and unfortunately won't be available for 7/10 days..but we will cover the cost of that"
So I will be without a car for another 10 days but they said they will foot the bill for the" new unit",I will just have to pay the original quote 900:00..
I've no idea what the wiring loom is,but it sounds like they want to replace the whole unit...watch this space
 
Sorry to hear your bad luck with this car. You tried to do the right thing buy getting a warranty however you have discovered what I and many other people know and that is they are generally not worth the paper they are written on. There are so many get outs on most warranties and you have discovered how easy it is to not honor this. I would look to try and get the money back that you have paid for the warranty. Were you told when you took it out that the gearbox would not be be included in the warranty, They could have told you that as they would have known the history of the car. I would say that you were mis sold the warranty.
I can see many problems occuring with DSG boxes on older cars in the future. People aren't going to want to spend the money on gearbox oil changes every 40K miles. It's a pretty poor show from Audi, Think they would be trying to raise the bar a bit after dieselgate not trying to dodge what Is really there responsibility for producing something that is so borderline as far as reliability is concerned.
 
Hi ds,I bought the warranty online through the Audi site,I specifically looked to make sure ALL gearbox and related components were covered as that was my only major worry,your thinking matches my own on the mis selling,esp when they know the cars history from the piston rebuild..
After a bit more digging I found this issue is alarmingly common on s tronic/dsg boxes,more weird is a tsb for early cars requiring a replacement of circuit board AND wiring loom..the very part Audi claim to have snapped today..I can't help thinking I'm being fed fairy tales and paying for the privilege whilst Audi quietly do what they should have done in the first place only they should be doing it a no cost,as it stands I'm without a car for 2 weeks,paying a minimum of 900:00 and I'm still unsure of exactly what is being fixed on the mech box,circuit board,wiring loom?.or whole box
 
Btw the Audi cam diagnosis was error code g488.
After a bit of research this apparently controls gears 1-3 I think,my dash warning came up when I lost torque in reverse,gears 1-7 have always been pretty smooth. I would have thought the error code would have been linked to reverse gear,maybe someone on here with software knowledge can shed some light..
 
I got all kind of Xmas trees on my dash including that error. It's one of the sensors but it seems that if it can't find a gear due to speed problem, mech unit sensor shot, or clutches you'll get this amongst others. It wobbles if it doesn't engage fully so tries to protect the gears from damage.
Mine would vary better the error codes as the gears took it in turns to miss. Never had it come up on reversing though, just loss of torque.
Hopefully then it's just that bit replaced and good to go...
 
costello said:
Hi ds,I bought the warranty online through the Audi site,I specifically looked to make sure ALL gearbox and related components were covered as that was my only major worry,your thinking matches my own on the mis selling,esp when they know the cars history from the piston rebuild..
After a bit more digging I found this issue is alarmingly common on s tronic/dsg boxes,more weird is a tsb for early cars requiring a replacement of circuit board AND wiring loom..the very part Audi claim to have snapped today..I can't help thinking I'm being fed fairy tales and paying for the privilege whilst Audi quietly do what they should have done in the first place only they should be doing it a no cost,as it stands I'm without a car for 2 weeks,paying a minimum of 900:00 and I'm still unsure of exactly what is being fixed on the mech box,circuit board,wiring loom?.or whole box
Click to expand...

Sorry to hear the news.

Speak to other Audi dealers whom might quote you different this has happened in the past even without a warranty you can possibly get the cost lower.

did they not give you a lone car whilst in at the dealers?
 
So an update,audi uk phoned me today to tell me any discretion on parts not under warranty are at the dealers discretion,she said she will phone my dealers to see what else they could do,..the dealers phoned back and said they are now replacing the whole mechatronic unit.
i have to pay the original price they quoted me for the circuit board repair,which they discounted anyway and audi uk and the dealers are going 70/30 on the rest of the expense approx 3k.
obviously as circuit boards are part of the whole box i can't see how they can bill me for the repair kit,i'm just taking it as i'm being asked to pay approx 900 for a 4 k repair bill.
the other issue is the lack of my car for the next 10 days,no offer of a courtesy car from my dealers who obviously feel they have done enough ,although audi uk thought that leaving me without transport was a bad move.
 
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yep agreed,courtesy car would have been nice but i'm trying to count my blessings,hopefully a new mech box will sort out the issues and after the engine rebuild last october,the new starter and battery in november,my car will run like its been designed to....hopefully:smirk:
 
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+1 on that - its worth a go.

On the wiring loom (which is the term for wires and cables bundled together), as I understand it the need for PCB replacement was due to the fact that it was badly positioned and/or unprotected from the heat of the gearbox. If so this would affect the wiring too. I suspect that in removing the old PCB the tech flexed the end of the loom enough that, having already been affected by the heat, it snapped, as per @Skard's comment.
 
yep,when i get the car back i plan on phoning audi to refund my policy money based on the fact they had the cars updated service history and still sold it with cover which they would never honour,not sure what they will say but we'll see....the turbo will no doubt go pop then!:grumpy:
 
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Warrenty direct cover mech units for any of you who's warrenty is up or finishing soon. Not helpful to the op but may save the rest of you.
 
update,so i get my car back today with a 900 bill as a contribution towards the mech unit(which audi broke!)...when i start the car i notice i have 5 miles of fuel left,no probs as the petrol station is opposite the audi garage and it shows they have done a decent road test,i go to fill up and find the rear quarter covered in vertical scratches down to the primer,all around 12/15 inches long!..drove it straight back to audi ,they have apologised for the inconvenice and asked for the car back so they can rectify it.
17 days without a motor and its got to back in again next week on another work day so they can repair the damage,this saga is like a joke only not in any way funny
IMAG1981
 
apologies for the image size..and my grimacing angry face,i was pretty peed off when i took this pic outside of the dealers!
 
Not the kind of selfie you want to be taking. That is a ridiculous amount of damage, you can't do something like that and not notice. I would be bouncing off the walls if it was me.
 
OMG I'm sorry mate. I would be so so so so ****** off. Hope it's getting sorted for u. I would be telling them u want an rs4 or rs6 full of fuel until they fix that damage!!!
 
Apparently got an a4 waiting for me next Wednesday,and the repair should be done within the day...Yep indeed having a zip round in anything with R.S on it would certainly be appreciated but no such luck..:unamused:
 
This is a joke man. ..they need to sort you out and reduce the price of the fix giving thier mistakes!!!!
 
Really can't believe I'm writing this..drove my car approx 20 miles in total since having it back yesterday,put it in reverse and the gearbox malfunction warning popped up,only this time is was limited driving gears so had to nurse it home in gears 2 and 4
I turned the car off at when I got home and restarted it and no warning came on,took it for a half Mile run and all seemed ok,went through all 7 gears and reverse without an issue,I've just phoned Audi again an I'm currently awaiting a call back...I'll let you know what they say but I'm feeling pretty sick about the whole fiasco
 
So they want to collect the car in the morning on a flatbed as they do not want to risk me driving it in limp mode they will deliver a courtesy car at the same time,no indication on what could be wrong but they say they will rectify asap...guess I'll wait and see
 
Jesus bud just reading all this now, what a saga

This is exactly why I don't trust garages, but with some things you have no choice so what can you do, gutted for u mate hope it all gets sorted soon
 
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