Ouch-

My first repair since I bought my A4 B5 from a family member in Nov. Great ride, low mileage. 118 k.

My cabin was smelling of burned oil, so I figured out one or both of my cover gaskets were leaking. I rode like this for a couple months and endured it. One BMW/Audi/VW was charging me 3-400$. Sounds expensive for 45min job. I waited and waited, fell upon another garage by chance and asked them for an estimate. 156+tax.

Cool, sounds reasonable.

Nah, Forget it.
1 day later. 711$

Turns out my crankcase breather hose was busted too. 115$
A piece of my air intake duct is actually missing. 90$
My spark plug wires were mushy at the ends 180$
(the mechanic recommended I get new ones-not sure about that one)
Valve cover gasket 80$

2.5 hours of work at 65$.


I checked all the parts myself, so he didn't make up any of it. My spark plug wires were full of oil. My crankase breather hose was as brittle as a twig. For the air duct part, I have no idea.

Conclusion, it always amazes me how expensive foreign cars are. I had an BMW E30 before so I am not a stranger to repairs. But, paying 80$ for a piece of plastic blows my mind. My car was running pretty solid before I went in. My gas mileage was about 8-9l/k in the city and 6-8 on the highway. I wasn't losing alot of oil. I was just afraid my spark plugs would get full of oil and they were pretty wet. I had to do it.

As far as the mechanic, I think he's honest. Though, I see the parts for cheaper online. I always wonder if they skim off the parts. If he does, I figure it's not more than 20-50 $ in total.

So, Im gonna drive it today and probably won't notice any difference. Since, I got the car for only 3500$, I am still ahead of the game. We'll see after a full year.

I'm in Montreal, so if you have a great garage let me know! I'd like to hear your comments.

 

65 bux an hour is alot better than the rates around where i live, but yep parts are expensive and labor is even more expensive.. that stuff would be relatively easy to fix on your own actually so you would have saved alot of money in labor. If your mechanic gets his parts direct from the dealer that would drive the price up quite a bit too.

 

I was considering doing the valve cover gaskets myself, but I figured the price was too good, for me to trouble. When He showed me the other stuff, the engine was already all opened up. I was already committed.

As for the parts, they don't come from the dealer.

In the end, doing it myself would have probably saved me 150-250$. I just picked it up, it runs the same. Looked in, They seem to have done a good job.

Guess I'm helping the environment with my 115$ crankcase breather hose.

 

Couldve helped yourself too by electrical-taping it. Many of us have done so with no I'll effects. Intake ducting can be found for a couple bucks from someone in classifieds as well. I hear you on the car already being in there but definitely DIY next time - a lot of this stuff can be handled easily and "alternate" repair methods done for some things, which can save you a fortune. The longer you're here the more you'll see of this stuff. Glad it's fixed though and yeah, $65/hr is a steal for labor on an Audi.

 

I hear you.

I'm not much of a mechanic and I still have the new car jitters. The car has been pretty much babied.

After analysis, everything he did looks really simple. And you're right-in the long run it will cost me alot less to do stuff myself. I already regret changing the spark plug wires which were about 3-4 years old. But, then again-I couldn't compare them with any other ones.

There's so much info these days, that it's probably getting real tough for mechanics to pull a number on you. I still don't trust any of em. I'm sure they break **** on purpose or push stuff out of functioning order.

Killer mags by the way. That's exactly the look I'd go for with the A8 brakes and add red calipers. I've got a real classic look with the chrome trim on black, and I dont' want it to look too murdered out.

 

Sounds like the mechanic your working with is reasonable though, the parts arent cheap and 65 bux an hour isnt bad. Sounds like everything that has been replaced made sense, although what are you referring to when you say spark plug wires? There isnt a distributor or anything, the coil pack sits right atop the spark plug, do you mean the wires running to the coil packs were in bad shape? 180 might be steep for that, but everything else seems good.

 

No, his is a 2.8L. Our cars have the coils at the front of the engine and normal spark wires running to the plugs. To the OP, I know there's is another forum member in Montreal (he's coming to our spring meet here in NY in a few weeks), and maybe you guys can meet up sometime. Go to the Regional forum on the main page, choose tge Northeast subforum, and check the sticky post for the meet - he posted in there. If you're available you should come too. It's gonna be a blast and you two could caravan together.

As for my car, thank you - I'd recommend the A8 brakes to anyone. I definitely liked those wheels a lot but I'm kind of a wheel ***** and tend to change it up, so AF member tware4021 now has those wheels (they're Flik Wasp 18" wheels in gunmetal), and I'm now on 19" TSW Volcanos in hyper silver, which I may not ever get rid of lol I just haven't updated my sig yet is all

 

Nice to know, i'll check out the other member. I don't think I'll make it to NYC, I just did my NYC trip this New Year's.

As for the styles on my Gabriella, I think silver rims with thin spokes would look the best. I think with tints and dashes of chrome, I could get a nice classy sleeper look. Eyelids would be nice too.

The grand finale would be a PS-tuning supercharger and a discreet supercharger badge where the S4 badge would be.

But, I live in the city and I can never open the car up anyway. Plus, I have the tiptronic. Without the stick, it feels silly to have a supercharger.

...hey, actually-I got a question, did you guys change your belt tensioners with your timing belts? The former owner of the car did the belt at 96k's without changing the belt tensioner. The mechanic got my brain wheels turning on that one...i called the dealer and he said, those things could last a really long time.

 

The meet is in Binghamton and Ithaca, a good 3-4 hours closer to you than NYC. As for the tensioners, that seems to be the fail point more than the belts. I would not leave a tensioner in there - that needs to be changed asap.