Two days ago I had a series of emergency red dash lights pop up, some stuff I've never seen on mine, basically all saying something is wrong with the oil. I have only one place in town that repairs european cars, so i took it there, needless to say, i don't trust this guy, I went in there and he found a LAUNDRY list of things to fix.
I told him i was strapped for cash, but he said each thing NEEDED to be replaced or else it blows up basically. I took it home to sit in my drive way for the weekend (as I left I talked to the actually guy who looked at my car, and he said only the oil hosing and CV joint (I saw this, there was a large crack) were a must.
I included the parts and service printout they gave me to show everyone, it is just under $2,000. I have thoughts ranging from
1. Get a new credit card to pay for this....
2. " " for just the CV and oil hosing
3. Go to a cheaper american/asian repair place and roll the dice
4. Sell my car =( ?

I am driving a 2000 a4 1.8T, black leather, heated seats, 5spd manual, great paint, everything looks reeeal good on it except the maintenance listed.

Anyone with experience with these cars, lots of them, or the standard prices of repair, please please help. I live in Clemson, SC

 

All I can say is learn to use a wrench. Everything there except for the CV is doable for a novice. Oil changes, scans, valve cover gaskets, spark plugs and O2 sensors are DIY oriented. CV joints, not so much for the beginner. Shop around for parts on the internet as those prices are the high end of full retail. For instance, the O2 sensor quoted is $240 when online you can get them for around 60 bucks for a universal or a direct replacement made by Bosch.


Another red flag is 7L of synthetic oil? Our 1.8T engines only take 4.5-5L. Spark plugs should run you $2.00 a piece for NGK copper core BKR6E that alot of people use on their 1.8T's.

Shop around and you will save yourself a huge amount of money. Learn to wrench so you don't get gouged as Audi's need normal consistent maintenance. Get yourself an eBay Vag-Com cable for $20 and use the free version of VCDS so you can check and clear your own codes. Good luck.

Doug

 

thanks for the response doug. Two things that pop right out at me are 1. When I asked for a print out of all the parts and prices so I could do some work on how the hell I am going to pay for this, he hesitated a lot, said they usually can't but he will, and then said "don't worry that the part #s are all X'd out


2. Funny you say he is ripping me off on the Bosch o2 sensor...this place is independent, but they are sponsored by, and deal bosch.

After having a few days to think, It feel like this guy is trying to take me to the cleaners. Why would his parts be so expensive? Is he just purchasing high end parts? Or are they they same, just over charging me, and thats why he XXX the product numbers?

 

Another quick question. Doing research on these parts specifically....
1. How do I find the exact CV I need? I know its front driver side, but do I need the whole cv axle, joint, etc? I'm seeing a lot of varying parts or parts groups for the CV.

2. "Oil Cooler Hosing" is listed for about $300 on my estimate. Did he mean to write "housing" or "hoses" or just replace the whole thing? A replacement oil cooler seems to be around 80, and the housing seems around 10-20, what oil cooler part is this ripoff artist getting for 300??

 

I don't think the guy is ripping you off per se, as all of the things on the list need to be done at some point, and all shops mark up parts. Just a matter of what needs to be done now.

Sounds like the oil cooler issue, o2 sensor and CV issue need to be done. If you have wrenching ability, you can do the coolant flush, valve cover gaskets, tail light bulb, spark plugs in the driveway.

Use Audi/VW pink coolant (not green) from the local VW dealer, get a valve cover kit from blauparts.com, and get some plugs at Autozone.

Good luck.

 

The point of my post was to encourage you to learn to wrench on your car. If you are not willing to get a little dirty, then you are at the mercy of the shop. They are not ripping you off. They are doing what you are unwilling or don't know how to do and charge accordingly from their shop rate manual and price list on parts. The parts will be at what looks like upper retail so if you don't want to deal with finding your own parts, once again you are at the mercy of the shop. This is why it is good to get multiple quotes when doing any work on your car.

To save money on parts, what I have done in the past is ordered the parts online or from a local shop at a lower price and get the shop to install them. That way you are in control of how much the parts cost and all they are charging you for is labor. I don't know if your shop is willing to do that or not, but that is an alternative if you don't want to lift a wrench. In addition to that, getting parts online will take time for shipping so if the job is urgent, for the shop quote, you are also paying for convenience of not having to deal with a time constraint, searching for parts, availability, ect. For me, doing it myself gives me an excuse to buy tools so I am willing to get dirty. Good luck.

Doug

 

Im actually quite willing to get dirty and do it myself, I'm a engineer by trade, I like to tinker, I'm mostly just unsure of which are the EXACT parts I would need to get because there seem to be so many variables. I would certainly at least be happier with shopping my own parts and getting them to do it if nothing else.

There are several variables of parts that I need, or pieces vs full kits, or things like "oil cooler hosing", still don't know what that means. I am going to a few more places to day to get second opinions, hopefully I can get them to be more specific.

 

If you search on ecstuning.com, you'll get the part numbers. Additionally, there's a sticky in this forum that is useful for searching VAG parts, though it was giving me broken links the other day.

Blauparts.com has good kits for things like the valve cover gaskets and maintenance jobs like the timing belt.

eBay is a good source for things like trim pieces or used OEM parts, once you know the part number.

Also, get a copy of the Bentley Audi B5 manual. I have the electronic version and it's invaluable for figuring out the layout for example of the different oil cooling parts.

 

thanks again all who responded. I took her into 3 more shops today, to get second opinions. Each one had nothing but bad things to say about the first place I went, but were indifferent to everyone else in town, so it does seem like I picked the worst.

They all agreed, the CV axel is toast, the best quote I got was around 100 parts, 120 labor. NO ONE else recommended changing the oil cooler hosing, the gasket cover, or the O2 sensor, they all said they looked like normal wear, nothing to warrant replacement. Huge, huge relief.


Having said that I want to get better under my hood, and I got one of the local mechanics to do the CV, and let me hang out while he takes things apart to learn a little, and he said if I brought in a new 02 sensor and or plugs he would show me how to put them in for free.

I'm still somewhat worried about the oil situation, for now I was told by most of the other people to get it changed, keep an eye on it a few times a week, watch for the codes to come back if anything is wrong. They all seemed like the hosing, the O ring, and the gasket cover were things that wouldn't blow up anything else if they did slowly go....

 

sidenote, with all this inspecting, we noticed 1 of the front tires is getting close to needed a replacement, and the other front, pretty close also, the 2 on the back are fine tho. I have pirelli p5s right now.

Whats your opinions of replacing 2 tires at a time? I know some people say you have to replace all 4 at once with quattros, and they all must be the same tire. I've also heard as long as the margins are within about 5% of each other it won't matter.