My Current S4 Woes

dsmclark40v

dsmclark40v

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Well in my first month of owning my s4 I've only had it in my possession for a week :crying:

a few days into having it the service light came on but that was no biggy as I planned to get it off the long life servicing anyway, but then it started making an awful grinding/knocking noise on cold start up as can be heard in this video (might have to turn your sound up as I recorded it on my phone)


Then the next day the timing chain started rattling on my way home, so the next morning I get the AA to bring a flatbed over and towed me to audi southampton as its right round the corner from my work. That was on friday the 26th after having the car for a week! I then had to go to Italy for work. it took audi 4 days and they diagnosed that an Intake flap was causing the noise on start up and that the timeing belt tensioner was on its way out. They quoted to do the work for £4711 including parts and £1066 of that was the intake flap!

I then finally got hold of the garage that sold it to me after leaving messages with them to call me back while I was away, They have agreed to repair the car themselves and have paid audi for diagnosing the problem. but they only picked the car up from audi today! infact I went to the bank at lunch time and it went passed me the other way on the back of a recovery truck and the bastid left the drivers window open! luckly it was a nice sunny day I guess otherwise if it had been raining I would have turned round and followed them!

The bloke from Audi said it was a 30 hour job so I think the chances of getting it back this week are slim to none and then Saturday I am off snowboarding for a week so probably won't get it back until the week after.

the engine sounded fine when I first got it and on the test drive so I guess I was just unluckly, I'm pretty gutted tho
 
I feel for you, only having it a week and all that stuff going wrong must make you feel sick to the core. I love the S4's, did you buy the car from a main dealer.
 
Thats pretty rough when you've just got a new S4 :(

Seeing it go past with the window down would have made me livid! Like when they delivered mine back after the engine warranty work and three of the four alloys had gouge marks across them where the ratchets of the straps had been rubbing :motz:
 
Sorry to hear the news mate but least they are sorting it for you, bet thats a major relief!
Think we're going to have to set-up an Audi graveyard the way things are going on here....:blownose:
 
CMD said:
I feel for you, only having it a week and all that stuff going wrong must make you feel sick to the core. I love the S4's, did you buy the car from a main dealer.
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No I got it from an independant. Yeah i'm feeling pretty annoyed, don't even have a courtesy car.

quattrojames said:
Thats pretty rough when you've just got a new S4 :(

Seeing it go past with the window down would have made me livid! Like when they delivered mine back after the engine warranty work and three of the four alloys had gouge marks across them where the ratchets of the straps had been rubbing :motz:
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tell me about it! When I got it up to audi and I went with it in the truck they guy had tightened it up to much on one of the front tyres that the tyre was bent in quite a bit, but I couldn't see any damage to the alloy. I was expecting them to give me a call to say they had it and were starting the work and I was going to have a word about the window. it was probably so he could lean in scratching my door and put his greasy hands all over the steering wheel, hand brake and put hand prints on my alcantara seat :motz:

J7USS said:
Sorry to hear the news mate but least they are sorting it for you, bet thats a major relief!
Think we're going to have to set-up an Audi graveyard the way things are going on here....:blownose:
Click to expand...

I am glad they are sorting it as the AA warrenty they sold with it has a maximum claim limit of £2000 which I think is worthless on a car like that, so I'll have a word about that when I get the car back as well as I was thinking of extending the warrenty when it runs out so i'll get them to up it. Also I hope their mechanic is mustard as its an engine out job and I don't want to have to pay someone else to take it out again a few months down the line. But I am sure I am just worrying about nothing
 
Very sorry to hear this. :( It would be a bitter pill to swallow at the best of times, never mind after only having the car for a week.
 
dsmclark30v said:
No I got it from an independant. Yeah i'm feeling pretty annoyed, don't even have a courtesy car.



tell me about it! When I got it up to audi and I went with it in the truck they guy had tightened it up to much on one of the front tyres that the tyre was bent in quite a bit, but I couldn't see any damage to the alloy. I was expecting them to give me a call to say they had it and were starting the work and I was going to have a word about the window. it was probably so he could lean in scratching my door and put his greasy hands all over the steering wheel, hand brake and put hand prints on my alcantara seat :motz:



I am glad they are sorting it as the AA warrenty they sold with it has a maximum claim limit of £2000 which I think is worthless on a car like that, so I'll have a word about that when I get the car back as well as I was thinking of extending the warrenty when it runs out so i'll get them to up it. Also I hope their mechanic is mustard as its an engine out job and I don't want to have to pay someone else to take it out again a few months down the line. But I am sure I am just worrying about nothing
Click to expand...

I'm gutted too for you as that is one nice Avant, let's hope it all gets sorted soon, i know what you mean about mechanics,mine had an mot last week and the tester looked at me like i had two heads when i asked him to use a floor mat cover and steering wheel cover ( i allready had my own seat cover on ) do they not understand that these are more than just a car to some people, he did comment on how nice my car was inside to which i replied "thats why i want you to use the covers", this still seemed strange to him!!
Thanks.
Matt
 
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BillTheButcher said:
Very sorry to hear this. :( It would be a bitter pill to swallow at the best of times, never mind after only having the car for a week.
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Yeah and after I knew of all the problems that they had and thought the one I'd found was sound.

Atleast they are sorting it out tho and the car is very tidy apart from that small engine fault :think: I'm definatly going to extend the warranty when it expires tho!

The guy was ment to call me this afternoon to give me an update and a time frame of when It would be sorted. It got to 5:30 and no word from the guy so I tried to call him and left a message with someone else there for him to call me back. he called an hour later and left an answer phone message as I had no signal. The message was for someone called Scott which fills me with confidence I then call him straight back and no ****** answers!! I might try and get a courtsey car tomorrow as that might give them a sence of urgency and reaslied that I might have actually bought the car to use it..

I know what you mean Matt. When I pick the car up I am going to go over it with a fine tooth comb and if there are any scratches on marks on seats I will be very cheesed off!
 
Well its been 3 weeks and I am still car-less! I just got back from a weeks snowboarding and was under the [FONT=&quot]assumption [/FONT]that it was going to be ready for my return and they haven't even started it yet!

Had a phone call last thursday whilst on a skilift saying that it was going to be anouther 2 weeks and he was banging on about how it was going to take longer as they had to get anouther car our the way first and wait for the parts to come in as they were going to change all off the tensioners.
He then said did I know that it was an engine out job as he didn't know that even though we talked about it the week before and I even emailed him a picture of the rear of the s4 engine that I came across.

I tried to call the guy up earlier to try and organise a courtesy car and left a message with someone for him to call me back as he was on the other line at the time. That was 4 hours ago...

Not happy to say the least and having to get lifts into work as its a 70 mile round trip and my other car is an old land rover discovery that can only go 50mph because its jacked up and on mud tyres so going on the motorway everyday will just destroy the tyres!

I don't even know where the car is! they said the work is being done by a place called KarTechnics in poole, who are audi/porsche specialist. So atleast I should be safe in the knowledge it will be done right but what with easter coming up as well it doesn't look like I will be getting it back till mid April :crying:
 
I know Kartechnics, although I have never used them myself. I've been there but not for any work, but have found them polite and helpful, so fingers crossed.
 
quattrojames said:
I know Kartechnics, although I have never used them myself. I've been there but not for any work, but have found them polite and helpful, so fingers crossed.
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They have done a bit of work on the car before as there was some stamps in the service book and a reciept from them. So they know the car and have seen it before at least. I did call them up as they had remapped it and I wanted to know what sort of output it was putting out. They reckoned up to 369bhp.

I am getting a Courtesy car sorted for Wednesday as well, and they are trying to find out a date when it will be finished. So I'm starting to feel a bit more optimistic at the moment. They have an RS4 on their stock list so fingers crossed for that :eyebrows:
 
I'll have to drive past a bit more and see if I can spot the car then. Good luck with the RS4 :icon_thumright:
 
quattrojames said:
I'll have to drive past a bit more and see if I can spot the car then. Good luck with the RS4 :icon_thumright:
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Haha I doubt I will get the RS4 its just dreaming! the guy said he needed to sort a car and then tax it tomorrow and then was going to get it over to me, so god knows what car it will be.

Yeah if your passing look out for it and let me know if its with them. Then I might pop over there for a ganders the weekend to get the cd's out of it as an excuse to actually see the car as I haven't seen it at all this month.

I am also really annoyed as I bought an RNS-E and bluetooth module to go in the car before it went wrong and they are sat at home collecting dust! If I had know I would have held off buying them untill I had it back. hind sights a wonderful thing
 
Hope it gets sorted soon mate! I've been without mine for a few weeks now due to the wife being dense and rear-ending someone.

Keep us informed!
 
Cheers Crazy. I saw the thread about your car, that sucks dude hope you get it sorted
 
I drove past today and couldn't see your car, so hopefully that means it's inside :icon_thumright:
 
Cheers James I think it is down there so atleast it is safe inside, and they are starting it Monday by the sounds of it so fingers crossed it could be done by Friday. But with a 4 day weekend coming up I am not going to hold my breath..

Meanwhile someone is going to be dropping off an S3 tomorrow for me to play with until I get mine back
 
I've finally got a estimated date of when I'll get my car back! They reckon the morning of the 9th April. was hoping for the end of this week but such is life! So in the meantime I am stuck driving some crappy 1.4 seat ibiza (instead of the S3 I was promised) which had a massive chunk out of one of the front tyre side wall so I had to put the spare on, and the road noise in the car is deafening! absolutly dreadful little car and it smells funny (couldn't possibly have anything to do with me spilling a full cup of coke everywhere at a KFC drive thru the other day)

On the plus side of this tho it turns out the clutch had been changed 10,000 miles ago, so thats one less thing to worry about when (if) I get it back

But I'm still ****** off that its taken so long as it sounds like they only started work on it yesterday! and that they have been so **** poor at getting back to me! Doesn't help that I am an impatient ******
 
It must be nearly a month ago that the Audi dealer diagnosed the problem and the garage that sold you the car agreed to repair it?

And it's still more than a week before they're going to get the car back for you?! :motz:

At least you've got wheels I guess.....
 
quattrojames said:
It must be nearly a month ago that the Audi dealer diagnosed the problem and the garage that sold you the car agreed to repair it?

And it's still more than a week before they're going to get the car back for you?! :motz:

At least you've got wheels I guess.....
Click to expand...

Yeah I know I am spitting feathers about it. It took audi a week and then I've been fobbed off about when It will be started and when I'll be getting a courtesy car! It will be 42 days without the car by the time I get it back, If I'd have known they were going to take that long I would have asked my insurance company to put it on hold until I got it back as thats a month wasted! They did have a TT that was having the timing belt done before mine but still over a month is ridiculous. I'm going to leave work early tomorrow and go to Kartechnics to talk to them about it as audi quoted 30 hours work which equates to just over 3 days work. So if they started Monday it should be done by tomorrow atleast. So I am now worried that they have been told to fit it in between jobs to keep the cost down. Either way I need to get to the bottom of this as the guy at the garage that sold it to me hasn't been very consistent with whats going on the times I have had to ring him
 
30 hour job my **** tbh. if there mechanics any good he'd do it in half that. My mates a mechaic and just finnished stripping everything but the engine out to replace a few cracked pipes in mine. and he got that done in a day.
 
Nutkin said:
30 hour job my **** tbh. if there mechanics any good he'd do it in half that. My mates a mechaic and just finnished stripping everything but the engine out to replace a few cracked pipes in mine. and he got that done in a day.
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30 hours is what audi quoted me, not sure what the other place quoted. They do have to pop the engine out. so I'd have thought at most a day to get it out, split from the tranny and on the bench. a day to fit the new tensioners and change the manifold valve or what ever it is, then a day to put it all back togeather... unless of course they are getting the apprentice to do it and having to then double check his work.

But yeah 2 weeks on top of the 3 weeks already is a bit of a **** take! I could have cashed the tax in aswell for the month! them ******* about is costing me money!

not to mention them supplying me with a car which wasn't safe!:motz:
 
Well, lets all cross our fingers for the 9th April mate! I have just found out that I am getting my A4 back too. The insurance company finally agreed a contract price with the garage, so happy days. I bet mine won't be ready until about the same time as yours. We should celebrate!

I really can't wait to get rid of my vectra courtesy car too. It's been handy having the car, but it's awful compared to mine.
 
Just read this: Mate it sounds like your having an absolute nightmare. im sorry but over a month for your car to be fixed. Id have been down there every day for a week asking why things haven't started, that way they know your keeping a close eye on them, dont need to be arsy just constantly question why things aren't happening. Thats a good power figure from just a remap on a N/A car, id ask how they got that figure.
on the plus side car looks great from the pics.
Hope it gets sorted soon bud!
 
crazy88 said:
Well, lets all cross our fingers for the 9th April mate! I have just found out that I am getting my A4 back too. The insurance company finally agreed a contract price with the garage, so happy days. I bet mine won't be ready until about the same time as yours. We should celebrate!

I really can't wait to get rid of my vectra courtesy car too. It's been handy having the car, but it's awful compared to mine.
Click to expand...

Thats good news mate, bet you can't wait to get it back
 
S3 Rav said:
Just read this: Mate it sounds like your having an absolute nightmare. im sorry but over a month for your car to be fixed. Id have been down there every day for a week asking why things haven't started, that way they know your keeping a close eye on them, dont need to be arsy just constantly question why things aren't happening. Thats a good power figure from just a remap on a N/A car, id ask how they got that figure.
on the plus side car looks great from the pics.
Hope it gets sorted soon bud!
Click to expand...

Cheers mate, I would have been down there to see them normally but as where the work is being done is about an hours drive each way from where I live I haven't had the chance. I have been calling every other day but the message to call me back rarely got passed on and emails never answered which just added to my fustration. So thats why I am going to leave early and pop in there today (got the v5 and a key on me incase they get funny) Also the guy I've been dealing with is going to be on holiday next week so thats going to add to the confusion of getting it back! and I'd rather pick it up from them than have some muppet driving it to me! be interesting to see if my full tank of v-power is still full as well

Yeah I thought there power figures were a bit optimistic, but they did say based on fuel used and weather conditions (wind behind me) so that was just a best case. would be interesting to get it on a rolling road and see what it is.
 
Well I just got back from going to see my car and was a bit shocked to see it parked up outside, I think they had taken the engine out and then wheeled it outside. But I'm feeling better about everything as the guys there seemed very knowledgeable and friendly. There was a bit of a delay waiting on parts. He showed me some of the stuff that they got in and its the whole intake manifold they are replacing as well as all the tensioners. One of the guys also mentioned about putting a RS4 intake manifold on there instead but I'll have to find out more information on it when I pick the car up.

They also said it should be ready by Tuesday so i'll be getting it back sooner
 
Sounds promising mate :icon_thumright:

I'll take a drive past tonight and make sure they wheel it in overnight!
 
quattrojames said:
Sounds promising mate :icon_thumright:

I'll take a drive past tonight and make sure they wheel it in overnight!
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Cheers James I'd appreciate that. when I was there it was parked on the left hand side nearest the road. Hopefully it won't be left outside over the bank holiday
 
The car wasn't there outside overnight last night mate :thumbsup:
 
fingers crossed for you bud. Theres the top dog i think his name is Jeremy Hicks (might have to double check that) alot of people that have had problems with audi have ended up going straight to him with good results.
 
Cheers guys, and thanks for driving past to check last night James :icon_thumright:

The guy I spoke to down there Kevin seemed very switched on. I'm getting them to service it for me after they do the work as well and to get it off the long life servicing. So altho I had to wait quite a while I should have a like new car and trouble free motoring... for anouther week atleast :lmfao:
 
Still haven't got the car back :crying: Now I am being told Monday. To say I am not happy is an understatement! Apparently the wrong part came in from Audi yesterday and then the wrong part came in again so today they are now waiting for a part tomorrow. So it should be all back togeather tomorrow but they don't want to give it back before a proper road test (There goes my tank of V-Power)

I wouldn't have minded so much if the guy had called me this morning when promised, instead I had to call twice and still didn't get to speak to him the receptionist called me back.

Was really looking forward for getting it back in time for the weekend. But I am now stuck having to drive around in the ****** seat ibiza courtsey car which is more uncomfortable than my old mini.

I called up the garage who sold it to me and was very close to telling them just to keep it and give me my money back!
 
I feel your pain mate, it would be great to have it for the sunny weekend they promise us :(

Still, it will be all the better Monday when it's done :icon_thumright:
 
Really gutted for you fella, fingers crossed for monday though. Better late than never.
 
Well guys so todays Monday and guess what..... No S4 yet. Now being told tomorrow as there is a slight coolant leak and so they have to wait for yet anouther part to come in :mad:

Getting very annoyed now as I will be getting the car back tomorrow afternoon and then I am off to Abu Dhabi for work at 5am Wednesday morning for a week. so I get it back just in time to drive it to the airport ***!! I think I am going to ask the place that sold it to me to extend the warranty for another month as I've lost a month to them poncing about...

Edit:
Just got anouther update.... apparently the coolent leak is now sorted but they have to pop the engine back out to change a valve no biggy... It was idling rough apparently and so it turns out when the tensioners went the chain stretched and damaged a valve. So now looking at Wednesday/Thursday altho I am going to be out of the country so hopefully they are going to deliver the car to my house so it will be there when I get back. Also he said because I haven't had the car in my actual possesion he is going to get the warranty extended for me..
 
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Wow mate, it's a mammoth task getting your car back isn't it!! Hope it comes back this week for you. SHame you're away working though, but it'll be a nice treat for you when it does come back.
 
Certainly something to look forward to coming home to :icon_thumright:
 
Cheers guys. Yeah would be nice to get home to it all ready, although ever the optimist I'm not holding my breath! And mechanicly it will be like new as it will have all new head gaskets and new timing chains. I dread to think how much it's costing them :faint:

I looked at a few S4's privately before this one and would have been devastated if I had bought one of them instead and the same thing had happened!
 
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