The S4 is at the dealers

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s4mark

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Well the S4 went into Audi this morning to have the suspect suspension creaking sorted out.
Waited all day for a progress call which I eventually got a 5:15pm.

To cut the long story short, I need a new power steering pump which is excessively worn apparently, £595 inc labour. Also i need 2 steering arms which are also dangerously worn, at a cost of £212 for the pair. To top it all off, the creaking has been traced to the fact that 3 of my 4 upper suspension bushes have completely perished. To replace them is £580!

So after he added it all up with labour and VAT, it comes to just short of £1800, for what started off as a small creak.

Have no choice but to have it done as it needs a mot straight away and currently has no chance of passing.

Only good thing is that they have supplied me with a free courtesy car, an 07 A4 2.0T S-Line Quattro with Sat Nav and a few other extras. Apparently as I have an S4, they would not want to give me anything less than an A4 to drive about in, which I thought was nice. It only has 300 miles on the clock.

Cheers all, hope you are having better luck than me
 
your mad mate.. i would have taken it to an independant for that type of work
 
£580 for 4 bits of rubber? Bargain.
I had all four of mine done at an independent for £230.
Steering pump shouldn't be an MOT failure.
Seriously, it would be worth failing the MOT and thus gaining 10 days to get the work done at an independent. Those are seriously outrageous charges.
 
Mine faild the MOT on steering pump as when they had it on full lock on the ramps it started leeking and ****** fluid over them so i think thats why they failed it :(
 
If it's leaking sure as the fluid could present a hazard, but not just if the pump is on it's last legs and a bit noisy
 
claudefrog said:
your mad mate.. i would have taken it to an independant for that type of work
Click to expand...

you may well think I am mad but I have had problems with independent garages and last time my car went wrong. Three garages could not find a problem, the fourth said they found problems and I paid for 2 diffrent parts to be changed as they assured me that it was them that were causing the problems. Not sorted. After the car went back a fourth time they hit the nail on the head and sorted the poblems. After all that, the final bill was only £60 cheaper than audi with a lot more aggro, and taking a total of 3 weeks as supposed to 2 days.

Plus if I pull the car out now to have it fixed elsewhere, I am still going to get whacked with a £250 bill for diagnosis and labour so far.

So yes I may seem mad, but then again I must have been mad to buy the ****** thing in the first place lol:icon_thumright:
 
My experience of audi dealers is shocking. They just take the ****.

It's not about the customer experience any more, it's about them filling their boots with your money and giving you sod all in return.

Fargin Barstages.
 
s4mark said:
So yes I may seem mad, but then again I must have been mad to buy the ****** thing in the first place lol:icon_thumright:
Click to expand...

No, just mad not to take it to a VAG specialist. Then to take it to a dealer on the assumption they know what they're doing is just a frying pan/fire situation.
 
I once enquired at the dealers about a ABS problem I was having, the stealing gits wanted £96 an hour just to diagnose the problem, they said it would take atleast half an hour to diagnose and at most one hour to repair.

So I then took the car to a volks/audi specialist who looked at the car for £32 p/hour and found that the problem was caused by a rear wheel bearing that wasnt alligned correctly, i was charge for 3/4 of an hour. So thinking of it I prob saved over £150 by taking it to the specialist garage.

So in my experience it was a good one using the specialist instead of dealer.
 
well the cars going to be ready tomorrow

the warranty I got with the car is as useful as a chocolate teapot but to my suprise I had a call from the dealer today to say that somehow he has got them to agree to pay for the power steering pump and labour to fit, knocking a big £795 off the bill.

He is also trying to do a discount on parts etc to bring the cost down aswell as some other small bits done labour free
I do agree it is extremely expensive and was a big shock considering I was expecting £300 bill max but also have to point out that there are some decent dealers out there who are honest

cheers
 
audi upgrades
Holy fooook!!!!! £1800????

You wouldn't catch me anywhere NEAR a dealer dude :sadlike:

You should get my friend Dean to work on it next time :thumbsup: (ex-QST).
 
Having spent over £2000 wtih Audi on my 2.8 Quattro on various suspension parts only to finally be told that I needed a new steering rack to fix my noises I told them to F-Off, managed to get some money back from Audi customer services.

I then took the car to a specialist... £150 for a single arm that fixed all the noises. So £2k down the drain.

Audi know nothing, and charge willynilly.

I have a contact that can supply you a full set of bearing arms for an Audi S4 for £450ish... all inclusive. I have just ordered a set for my car. I will be removing mine which currently have covered just 50 000 miles and make no noises... I am just replacing them at the same time as I do my suspension. You can buy them off me if you like?

The power steering pump... I also have one of these had covered just 40 000 miles when I replaced it... as good as new, was absolutely fine, I just replaced it while the engine out. I will send you a PM now...
 
I had Audi look at my 2.8 as I was loosing water and could not find where. In the end they said my water pump was knackered and would need replacing straight away. Cost was over £400 all in so I took it out of there and went to an ex Audi dealer who did the job for £250 with a few other parts but they said they could not find any faults with the pump.

Anyway one week later the car wanted water a gain went back to Audi to tell them I had the work done and it still had a leek so they looked at it again and advised my rad had a small leak and they wanted £350 to do the work once again I took it out and had the work done for £200 all in.

I would never use Audi ever again and I now do most of the work myself time permitting and find forums the best place to run problem through with.

Audi are a con and loose loads of money through bad diagnosis or over priced parts.
 
docurley said:
I had Audi look at my 2.8 as I was loosing water and could not find where. In the end they said my water pump was knackered and would need replacing straight away. Cost was over £400 all in so I took it out of there and went to an ex Audi dealer who did the job for £250 with a few other parts but they said they could not find any faults with the pump.

Anyway one week later the car wanted water a gain went back to Audi to tell them I had the work done and it still had a leek so they looked at it again and advised my rad had a small leak and they wanted £350 to do the work once again I took it out and had the work done for £200 all in.

I would never use Audi ever again and I now do most of the work myself time permitting and find forums the best place to run problem through with.

Audi are a con and loose loads of money through bad diagnosis or over priced parts.
Click to expand...

well said i had the same knockign issue, they replaced 1 arm for £300 inc labour, the next 1 went £300, but the knocking hadnt gone took it back they said its another control and theres 8 in total thought they where taking the ****! looked up and it does ahve 8 arms! ive learnt my lesson ive ordered the whole 8 control arms it + new tie rod ends and sway link bars all uprated parts for £350!! i dont ahve time or tools so my local will fit them along with my new springs + shocks for £250 labour!

find out what wrong and get it done else where!
 
Cars are great, dealers are a waste of time! Mine has got a full audi service history and I have got to the point of age fo car over cost of service. Nice to have a Audi stamp in the book but when they quote £180 for a cambelt change and when you get there to collect the car its become £275, without even a Tel call to say they have changed a sh*t load of other things. Apparently my front speaker was blown and they wanted £85 + fitting, according to them a nightmare to fit........back home, 10 minutes later, loose wire re-crimped and all was fine.
I compalin to them ecverytime the car goes in LOL....biggest gripe is when I fill the washer bottle to the brim and then they cahrge for a bottle of washer fluid....oh and there's the ' you have recieved a free courtesy valet' ...the car was cleaner when i dropped it off!!! rant over!!
 
Under 3 years old fair enough use a dealer, older then forget it. They really aren't interested in anything not under warranty.
 
Under no circumstances would I advocate arson, but after two bottles of wine, burinng down all audi stealers seems reasonable.

When I am president, Audi stealers will be second against the walls. Behind estate agents.

on that subject, if anyone wants to buy a nice refurbished house in swansea, let me know!!!
 
We're not all bad you guys. I work on the service desk in a Toyota dealer and our philosophy for diagnosis is to have a look free of charge (even if it's a warning light we don't charge) then quote a price to repair. We even offer more discount the older the car is too!! I used to be a mechanic too and I feel guilty ripping people off for stuff they don't need.
 
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