I'll do it for ya for less than 50% of that - $3150 - for all but the alignment

 

Oh, ya know what?? My bad. I'm an idiot. I was thinking turbo replacement... what a retard I am...
Sorry! I had all my numbers and jobs mixed up in my head. Audi quoted me 40 hrs. labor @$110 an hour for a turbo swap, and this indie quoted me 20 hrs. at $60/hr. His normal rate is $80 or $85, but he offers a discount for ACNA members.
It was the timing belt job that the indie quoted $1200 total, parts and labor. However, compared to your 6 hour quote, is still higher than I've heard others claim.

 

Man, for $7000 my guy will make you stage3 and probably throw in the service

 

Yea over on audizine people do Timing Belts quickly as hell. This are people who have done it maybe 3 times. You would figure a shop has done it a lot more so they should be quick as hell.

 

Dear Fellow members,


Firstly thank you for your wonderful responses to my question. And some members especially Chefro who provided such a wonderfully detailed response. I thought I would provide a brief update on what has happened since then and perhaps some of you may derive value from my experience.

After I received the quote from the downtown Audi dealer, I did two things

1. Posted on www.justanswer.com ; it is a great service where you have independent audi technicians who look at your question and provide response to your question. It is a paid service but very much worth it considering knowledge/information is your dearest asset when you go to a service technician.

2. Then I went to Audiforums and posted this questionnaire to which the forum members responded enthusiastically.

3. Then I searched through audiforums and audizine.com to read through threads of various conversation of technicians in Chicago. I came to a preliminary shortlist of technicians - MobileOne (Glenview), Chicago Auto Center (downtown) and Hollywood Motors Inc (Brookfield).


4. I then called up each of these shops and spoke to the manager and gave a background to my situation. As a sales guy, I know often buyers encourage dysfunctional behaviour by never telling the full story. A happy buyer and a happy seller should always strive to provide full transparency.

I told them that I have heard good reviews about them. Also, that I went to downtown Audi and they have charged me an arm and leg (didn't disclose prices to them). And I wanted second opinion from 3 reputed indy service shops and I wanted to get their feedback.

I posed the same question as I did in this forum to them. Of the 3, 2 responded (Hollywood and Mobile) and I am yet to receive a response from Chicago Auto Center. One of them indicated that they need the estimates of the effort Fletcher Jones provided.

I mentioned that I am happy to provide this information and also shared with him the feedback of the estimates I received from the forum. This way I made sure that they understand that I know my "Stuff" and won't be a pushover when it comes to negotiating effort/prices etc. I believe impression management is important and yet you want to communicate this to them subtly without pissing them off. I kind of sense they don't like DIYers.

I also went to Craigslist and looked for Audi technicians who were doing side work. I just got a set of estimates which were very much in synch. with what has been discussed here. I liked his labor estimates -

"
1. Replacement of Alternator. Labor_3.0___ Parts______
2. Replacement of Battery. Labor_1.0____ Parts______
3. Transmission output seal. Labor_3.5___ Parts -_____
4. Timing Belt. Labor - 7.5___ Parts -_____
5. Replacement of Left front outer tie Rod. Labor 1.0*____ Parts -____ Alignment -_______
6. Replacement of headlight washer pump. Labor -_1.5___ Parts -____
7. Power Steering Fluid flush -___1.0___
8. Coolant Flush -_1.0___
9. Fuel Injection Service - 1.0______
10. Brake Fluid Flush -_.5____
11. Minor Service (Oil change, brake inspection, chassis lubrication, top off all fluid reservoirs) - .3______

If the timing belt(rollers, tensioner, dampner,water pump, and thermostat) is done; the coolant replacement would be included. The alternator would then be an additional 1.00tu.(overlap time subtracted for the bumper and core support.) If you decide to do the timing belt service(w/ water pump etc.) the battery replacement labor and oil change labor will be included.

On the tierod: if it is rusty you may need to replace both inner and outer tierods. I will try to free up first. Unfortunately I do not have an alignment rack so I can only set the new tierod to the same spot. An average alignment is around $99.00-$190.00
If you allready have part prices we can use them or I can get you different ones. Do you perfer OEM Audi direct or aftermarket?

Most of the fluids I have on hand.
As for the fuel injection cleaning; it does work but I would start with a full tank of Shell Premium gas or a product called TECHRON by CHEVRON ($10.00) available at any parts store.

A general inspection is free.

LABOR RATE: $60.00 per flat rate hour."

This looks very promising and a sensible quote and I don't intend to get antsy about 0.5hrs here and there and I am planning to give him a serious consideration. Also, I am planning to order the parts by myself.

Now as I engage this Audi Tech, what are the things "Rules of the road" I need to keep in mind.

Again, thank you all for contributing to this thread.

 

2 for $10 right now at Advanced Auto.

 

Nickos, do you have any records that came with the car?
As Zippy put it, you need to know when exactly the timing belt was replaced (if it was replaced previously).
Since we assume you are at least the second owner, that would help figuring out if you are in dire need to do the TB job or not. If you're miles away from that critical point, then you only need to do a few things.

Let's start from the premise that the Downtown dealer performed the diagnosis check via VAGCom.
There are so many things on that list that don't come up as a VAG trouble codes (tie rod, headlight washer pump, alternator, PS flush, fuel injection service - unless you had cylinder misfires codes, brake fluid flush).

1) The first thing I would do is to get a new battery and install it myself. Probably that would take care of the "battery light". If after that the gauge sits on "14", then it means the alternator needs no replacement.
If that doesn't take care of the light and the gauge sits on 12 or below, then it means the alternator indeed is bad. But I would be only $ 80 in deficit, not $ 200 or $ 290 like at the Audi dealer Downtown.

2) Next, I would have the car scanned again by this new indie shop, and they should convey to me the codes - talking about "transparency" in the service-customer relationship, eh?
Based on the codes and what they mean, I would rule out what exactly needs to be done, and what were just "bill pushing" items. Then start from there.
However, I would really like to know how many miles I exactly put on the car since the last TB replacement.

I presume the dealer came up with the TB replacement "recommendation" based on your mileage and VIN number record, unless they are money mongers and try to present it as being critical for you to do right now.
The transmission "output seal leak" probably was based on a visual inspection. You may need to do that. At this new indie shop's hourly rate it may turn out to be around $ 200 (you need to show them that the part itself can be had for a few dollars, not for $ 75). That's more manegeable and I think we can agree on that.

Good luck, and please do keep us posted.

 

ok well when there doing the timing belt the have to take off the front of the car so at the same time they can do the altenator and water pump. extra labor charges for these should not be charged for the fact that you have to do the same thing to get to all three of these things. im doing my altenator as we speak and it takes 5 minutes to get the altenator off the car and the water pump is right next to it and that doesnt look hard to do either. you have to do a coolant flush for any of these three parts because you have to drain the radiator in order to get the radiator off to swing out the front clip to get to any of those three parts ( tb, wp, alt ). the washer pump is located behind the bumper which you have to take off anyways to get to the tb, alt, wp so why extra labor charges for these? i understand there seperate jobs but to get the alt off and the wp off but damn there not like 3 hour jobs each. if you were in florida i could suggest a audi dealership and i good shop that do nothing but europeans.

 

You may do the power steering fluid flush yourself per: http://www.audipages.com/Tech_Articl...r/psflush.html
You may get parts and service from www.blauparts.com, which is not too far from Chicago, in Wisconsin.

 

I recently got a lot of work done on my Audi just before I left Chicago, he is an Audi mechanic. He used to just come home and do the work in my Garage and brings all the tools he needs. He is extremely friendly and very good at his work he has been working on Audis for the last 6 years, so knows how to fix pretty much anything. I just buy all the parts online and he comes and installs them. Or he can get the original Audi parts at a discounted rate.
I got the following done by him with labor charges
1) Timing belt + Oil Change - $500
2) All 4 brakes rotors & pads replaced + bleeding the brakes - $250
3) Front 2 boots replace - $160

He himself has a 2001 S4 with a 2.7T engine, but it is souped up and chipped. I got his contact thru another Audiworld Member..

Send me a PM and I can send you his details..