Help Please Dealer Responsibility?

[Voodoo1976]

Hi.

My 2010 B8 Avant Quattro is in for discs and pads all round, interim service and MOT. It’s with a main dealer and I was quoted £925 all in which when compared to my local garage who I’ve used for years was comparable - as I’m considering selling privately I thought for the extra £50 I’d continue with my main dealer stamps!

So.....I got the call yesterday explaining that a ‘bit’ more work was needed! When trying to remove the calipers the ‘bolts’ have seized resulting in one snapping off, the rest were ‘soaked’ and then forced off but were still damaged “amongst other things”.......they have now quoted me an extra £1100 on top of the £925 to fix the issue......on top of all that another £700 to replace the rear shocks.

Any ideas:
1. What may have caused the bolts to seize completely on a fairly normal wear and tear part that has resulted in the extra cost.
2. WTF bolts cost £1100!!
3. Where responsibility lies....if it’s a fairly normal occurrence then I’m reasonably happy to accept it but should they be forcing components apart (I guess what else could they do?)

The Audi cam has an issue so they can’t send me any videos yet of exactly what has happened.

I take the view that the work needs doing so will stump up the extra cost but would appreciate any thoughts in case I’m chucking money away - it’s just the extra £1100 that’s a bit galling

Thanks, thoughts appreciated

N

 

[DieselJake]

£925 for discs and pads, £1100 to fix seized bolts (which is common on most cars anyway far as I know) and £700 for shocks, so £2725 for stuff that should surely be £900 max (including labour at most places... suppose your profile does say Hertfordshire though and places do generally charge a couple quid more the closer to London you are, let's say maybe £900 - £1100 max all in, maybe a bit less if you source bits yourself).

If I got this call I'd be saying put it back how it was and I'll go somewhere else, heck for that price I'd probably do it myself and I hate touching cars that cost a few bob, I mean the worst thing about all this is it probably won't feel much different after and if you were selling the car soonish I bet another bloke would never know, not sure what they're putting on but I'd be going for drilled and slotted discs, performance orientated pads and maybe even putting different shocks in... but I guess that's just me, quite like to upgrade when things need replacing.

 

[Voodoo1976]

The original quote for £925 was for the Brakes, service and MOT and was as per Audi’s fixed price service tariff. As mentioned my local indy garage could only do marginally better (all incl VAT).

Unfortunately as they butchered the bolts it was undriveable so at that point I didn’t have much choice.

They’ve had it three days and hopefully collecting tonight so will try to get to the bottom of the £1100 before I part with my cash.

Agree that I’m not going to see this money again as it’s just maintaining value not adding anything.

N

 

[cyhliu]

Sorry to hear about this, surely they should have contacted you before carrying out the 'extra' work to check if it's okay, not everyone has a spare £1100 hanging around, I mean if it was less £100 I may have been okay, but over a grand...seems like they knew that once they snapped off one of the bolts, you would have little option but to hand over the money.

And it can't be the first time they have experienced something like this, I would expect they would have some sort of procedure they follow when encountering seized bolts?

 

[forty3]

They not heard of heating up stiff bolts?

I'm sure they're not ripping you off for work that wasn't needed but maybe their practices are poor resulting in additional cost to the customer?

Definitely worth having a conversation with the dealership explaining your concerns and trying to reach an agreeable price.

 

[Owyn]

Pretty awful, any mechanical fitter worth their salt can tell when a fastener is about to give up. This should be the point they decide to sacrifice the fastener to get the job done and save the rest of the kit. Even at Audi prices then the fasteners should be £15 a corner at a maximum.
What on earth have they managed to wreck to cost £1100 considering you were already in for the brakes. They must have lost control of a 9" grinder.

 

[LukeyC]

So Audi broke a bolt that was manufactured by Audi, and yet they want you to pay for it?

The way I see it, either the bolt was poorly manufactured and not fit for purpose, or they had an incompetent technician work on your car.

Either way, I wouldn't be footing the bill.

 

[Voodoo1976]

Hi All,

So bit of an update here, essentially crap information provided when they requested authorisation for the work.

There were issues with bolts seized on all four corners, only one actually snapped and the parts to replace cost pence. The 'actual' problem was the fact that most of my nearside front wheel 'assembly' on the hub and around the suspension had to be replaced - caliper, some shield thing, wheel bearing etc etc. I drive my car down lanes for 50 miles a day and effectively that corner takes the brunt of the pot holes and crap edges on the roads - I should have kept the huge 4x4 I had before the S-Line Audi!

The guys at Audi showed me a full A4 page list of new parts too numerous to list but the short version is after much more of an explanation at the dealership I'm much more comfortable in parting with my cash - it was £2600 in the end including discs, pads, rear suspension & mounts, front nearside issues, service and MOT - not cheap but I'm relatively okay with it.

The car genuinely feels like new, all the annoying rattles have disappeared! ;o)

Thanks for the comments/suggestions - I appreciate I could have done it a bit cheaper elsewhere etc but sometimes (if you're not very practical) it's worth the extra ££

N

 

[LukeyC]

That seems much more reasonable now we know more. Glad you're happy in the end OP, that's all that really matters.

Question is, how are you going to feel driving down those country roads and hearing every thud/bang now!?

 

[DieselJake]

Just need to do something like this haha

 

[Voodoo1976]

That seems much more reasonable now we know more. Glad you're happy in the end OP, that's all that really matters.

Question is, how are you going to feel driving down those country roads and hearing every thud/bang now!?

I'm going to drive down the middle now ;o)

 

[Voodoo1976]

Just need to do something like this haha

hah - where do I sign....