Cracked Isofix mounting plate

[Rudders]

Last weekend I noticed that one of our children's car seats seemed to have a little movement. After checking, I can see that the isofix point is part of a plate which I assume is welded to the cars floor. However, the plate has a large crack right across the top of the isofix point and is at the stage where if I twisted it, I'm pretty sure I could physically pull the isofix mount off. Has anyone experienced this before? I can see a part number (8KO 802 696) but after speaking to my local Audi dealer, they've advised this isn't available seperatly and you have to buy the full section of floor which goes under the rear bench and up into the boot, this itself is about £300 but I'm guessing that labour on that would be massive.

I'm a bit stuck about where to go with this one so any advice / suggestions would be appreciated. Luckily we have 1 seat which can be fitted with belts instead of isofix but that will only buy as a short amount of time as that seat needs replacing shortly (damn children keep growing!) and we will then need to be able to use both sets of isofix points

 

[Nilz]

There is isofix on the front passenger seat, if you need to use that....

 

[Mario]

You could remove the rear seats and take it to be tig welded in place. You would need to re-paint the area around the weld before re-fitting the seats, but it would be stronger than new as long as its done by a good properly coded welder.

 

[Damian_S]

I would be asking Audi to repair FOC as it's a safety related issue and the mounting provided by them is not suitable for the purpose it was intended to be used for, I don't see how it's any different to a seat belt mount coming away from the floor/sill/B-Pillar.
What potentially could happen to that mount in the event of an accident? some people are far less car orientated than people on this forum, someone else may have never noticed the issue until too late.

 

[Chop.]

how old are your kids, both my boys have been in the recaro seats for a while and they are belt fassend

i'd be putting that back to audi as a safety issue, or the garage you got the car from tell them you'll get the ombusdman involved

deff wouldnt be using it though

 

[gary_a4_quattro]

I'm with @Chop. on this, I'd certainly be discussing the issue with Audi Customer Services UK - Genuinely I'd be really surprised if they didnt take this issue extremely seriously, the potential failure of this doesn't bare thinking about.......

 

[desertstorm]

How old is the car, Has it been involved is an accident at some point ? . I would say get it welded up by somebody who knows what they are doing or if you don't so that remove it so nobody else tries to use it at some point in the future.
If the car is newish and hasn't been involved in an accident then I would expect Audi to resolve the problem as it's very much a safety issue that should never have been allowed to get out the factory.

 

[Rudders]

Thanks for all the replies and sorry for the delay. It's an early 2009 car, I've owned it since Jan 2013, never had any accidents under my ownership and am pretty confident it's all original paintwork so would be surprised if it'd had any repairs before my ownership either.
Audi UK customer service were very uninterested, even after I played the whole safety issue card. I managed to get it looked at by my local dealership yesterday and they're going to be seeking advice from the warranty dept as to what may be possible as a good will gesture - fingers crossed!
If Audi won't resolve it, then I will get it welded. Unfortunately the car seat my son (3) has and the one my daughter (2) will be going into shortly are both rear-facing seats and both swivel also meaning that they can only be fixed with isofix and not belts. My daughters current seat can be belted, so I'm using that on the faulty side until the issue is resolved one way or the other.
I will post back with the outcome just in case anyone has the same issue in the future

 

[nrf77]

Hi Rudders,

appreciating this thread is more than 3yrs old, I am interested in how you resolved this in the end?

I am in exactly the same situation here - Isofix mounting plate was attached to the child seat Isofix bracket (when I went to remove the child seat to clean it) and totally floating from the chassis of the seat of the car. Mounting plate part number same as yours but ending with a 5 instead of a 6.

I also called an Audi service centre, who recommended I got in touch with Parts, who suggested to get the car booked in for an investigation. This happened (at the cost of £99...) just for the technician to acknowledge that the isofix mounting plate was fractured and that the part needs to be changed. In all this the service centre stated the crack does not look like a manufacturing defect and, with the car being our of warranty, the costs of repair would fall on me, even though I stressed the mounting plate is a safety critical item meant to last for the overall life of the car and meant to sustain accidents, which is why the mounting plate is not checked at MOT like other safety critical items (e.g. seat belts, brakes etc.). No reaction from the service centre, which advised me to try and recover the repair cost via my insurer and pointed me to a body repair centre, given that anyway this type of labour does not fall under the remit of the service centres.

Talking to a body repair estimator, the Isofix mounting plate is actually welded onto the chassis of the car seat so, even though the plate itself costs like £10 as a part, the overall fixing and repair would cost £1K, mainly on labour also given the fact that the fuel tank will need to come out. n all this the part is on back order so an order has been placed to understand if we are talking about months before the part even becomes available.

I called the Audi customer service too and, as you experienced: the car is out of warranty and it is clear it is very unlikely they will admit it is their fault. A very negative Audi customer service survey is going out today for sure.

I am still in the process of collecting information to understand the best course of action here. Any advice?

 

[rum4mo]

A part being on backorder normally means that there has been a bigger than anticipated demand for it, so if I'm correct in what I've written, then Audi knows quite a lot have been failing worldwide. So what have they been doing to stop this happening?

 

[Pie-eyedpiper]

Back order will also mean that it's a part of that rarely get ordered, hence dealers won't stock it.

 

[rum4mo]

Back order will also mean that it's a part of that rarely get ordered, hence dealers won't stock it.

From experience of asking for parts to be ordered in for me, "back order" means there is already an action open to restock these parts but the supplier has failed at this time provide parts to satisfy orders, for a part not normally requested, you will get told that they are not available from central warehouse stock and as yet no confirmation can be given as to when they will become available.(been there done that!)

 

[nrf77]

I have ordered the isofix part (on backorder) through a repairer. Aim was to get an estimation from Audi as to when the part would become available. After more than a month of silence the part has shown up.
Now I have the part with me and 1K£ estimation for the work ... My insurance (Direct-line) says they only cover in case of accidents and to them this is a manufacturer issue. So the advise from Audi to recover the repair cost from my insurance was not valid.
Not sure what to do next here...

 

[rum4mo]

Well now that you have confirmed that Audi UK don't view this as being their problem, maybe you need to give this issue some serious public visibility via Honest John and/or good old BBC Watchdog, I would not bother with contacting any HM Gov departments as they will not be bothered with "small" issues like this!

Bad press is your only root to satisfaction now.

 

[nrf77]

I am also thinking about emailing a letter to Audi UK using the contacts in the post below:

https://www.audi-sport.net/xf/threads/who-can-i-send-an-audi-complaint-to.386517/

as from this thread it looks like the owner of the thread had a positive outcome.

 

[nrf77]

I have followed up using the Audi executive contacts above and got a prompt reply clearly stating the argument of component failing beyond the warranty period. And that is Audi's final decision.