S3 Manual Gearbox Leak - Help Required

[Ramayya]

Hi,

I had my Audi S3 (Dec 2013) in for an MOT and oil change in my local dealership. The car only and always been serviced by this dealership and never missed any of its scheduled maintenance. During their complimentary check, they discovered a potential oil leak in the gearbox, their suggestion was "washdown and recheck".

A bit of background, when the car had 12000 miles (February 2015) the following work was carried out to it (quoted from the service record):

"Checked for oil leak around gearbox area, removed under trays and confirmed leak from gearbox casing. Removed gearbox and casing to reseal and then refitted to the vehicle. Refilled gear oil, bled clutch and carried out road test. All ok at test.

Now the car has 55000 miles and is conveniently out of its warranty period since the last time they worked on it. This was around the same time last year.

Do I have any bases to be paranoid thinking that they probably knew this since last year but never did anything?

Is there anything I can do to make them cover these repairs?

I am very disappointed in regards to the quality of the car...

 

[George.s]

If you have always been going to this garage with this car I would think they would help get this repaired under goodwill as it was noted at last visit and repaired when under warranty. But the repair has not lasted. Or call Audi warranty and ask if they have a record of it getting done on last visit and as it has not lasted who is responsible for the bill to correct it this time round

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

 

[wab172uk]

Agree with above. If the oil leak has happened before, and repaired by Audi under warranty before, you could argue the repair was substandard, and Audi should either fully repair the leak, at their cost, as they were supposed to do in the first place, or worst case, heavily contribute to any costs you may incur for the repair.

As long as a fault is diagnosed while still under warranty, they should be obliged to repair even after the car is out of warranty.

 

[Ramayya]

I spoke with the service advisor this morning, who in the beginning was a bit reluctant to admit this was done before. When I provided the evidence she said this was done 2.5 years ago and now agreed to what it was. She proposed to wash it and re-evaluate in about 500miles.

I expressed my concerns about the oil levels and driving the car in the meantime and she said they will have the mechanics ensure it is ok before I drive it away.

In the meantime, I have dropped an email to Audi UK customer services explaining the issue.
Should I also ask to speak with the service manager when I go to collect the car later on today?

 

[AudiNutta]

Don’t see why making yourself know to the manager would be a bad thing if the advisor isn’t going above and beyond.

If the problem has recurred then you should have grounds because it’s a repeat problem and they didn’t repair it properly. But it might be a case of proving it’s the same problem before they will repair for free and for that you may have to pay for investigation and trust their word on the outcome?

It might be nothing. Grandparents A3 was in a few months ago, they called and said we have found an oil leak on your engine and will investigate. Called back up and said no we were mistaken, there isn’t one.

 

[wab172uk]

I spoke with the service advisor this morning, who in the beginning was a bit reluctant to admit this was done before. When I provided the evidence she said this was done 2.5 years ago and now agreed to what it was. She proposed to wash it and re-evaluate in about 500miles.

I expressed my concerns about the oil levels and driving the car in the meantime and she said they will have the mechanics ensure it is ok before I drive it away.

In the meantime, I have dropped an email to Audi UK customer services explaining the issue.
Should I also ask to speak with the service manager when I go to collect the car later on today?

Once your email is read by Audi customer services, they would contact the service manager anyway. When I've had issues before, both with Ford and VW, I always copied the dealership in to any letters / emails. That way, the dealer couldn't argue that they weren't away of any problems, or any complaints made against them.

TBH, If Audi customer services are anything like VW customer services, you're in for a potentially painful ride. VW customer servicers have no power to enforce anything. They are merely 3rd party mediators between yourselves and the dealership. Ford on the other hand ........... get sh1t done !

 

[alpesh26]

TBH, If Audi customer services are anything like VW customer services, you're in for a potentially painful ride. VW customer servicers have no power to enforce anything. They are merely 3rd party mediators between yourselves and the dealership. Ford on the other hand ........... get sh1t done !

Audi customer services are just mediators like VW, they dont really have any authority and will just put you in touch with the dealer which you can do yourself, i guess it's logged with Audi if you go through customer services.