It was the first day of spring and the A/C compressor started to kick in as it was warmer outside. Suddenly the compressor makes a loud noise and then noise like the belt is slipping and I felt loss of engine power. I keep driving the get the car out of traffic and the noise becomes a loud rattling inside the engine compartment, immediately followed by smell hinting me of a major fluid leak. Steering was ok and no smoke, it was just the smell, which made me blame it on the compressor. I was pulling over and the engine actually stopped, I think becuase the compressor was getting locked up. The ac pulley clotched seemed still egaged even after I had cut off the ac. To make the long story short, I take the car to an independent audi/vw shop. I got the diagnosis (after $200+) and they tell me the compressor needs to be replaced and also the 'receiver/dryer'. I'm not familiar with a/c systems but they said it's a piece that needs to be replaced when work is done with the compressor/a/c which is the case now. They also charge $500 for flusing the ac system. Total repairs and parts amount to about 2500. The only thing I wasn't too sure about was the dryer thing, but again i'm not familiar. The total amount splits almost equally in parts and labor. Hourly labor 104. Does that sound right to you guys? I don't have too many options as I'm sure the dealership is way more expensive. This indy shop has good reputation and I have taken my car for a service which came about 60% of the dealership cost. I think they are trustworthy but I just wanted to check if in the forums if anybody thought this sounded right.

thanks a lot for any comments.

 

Yes the compressor locked up on you. The reciever/dryer (accumulator) is a canister on the low side of the system that basically "catches" debris that float in the a/c system. So if the compressor blew up there is most likely metal debris caught in the accumulator which could either plug it up and cause performance problems, or it might break loose and go into the new compressor trashing it in the process.
Its kind of a rare problems though, the reciever/dryer shouldn't need replacing, but the shop is just trying to cover their *** so they don't end up buying you a new compressor if something DOES happen.

 

well I found out a little over a week ago that I need a new compressor myself. and of course, no warranty on my car sooo it's all out of pocket, quite the expensive repair especially since I've only had this car about 2 months.

 

thanks guys. Yeah, i didn't think the car was too old to run into this kind of problem. I've onwned the car since new. It's a 04 3.0 Avant. It only has 49k miles on it. I had the dealer replace the power steering pump while it was under warranty... they claimed the steering pump tends to have problems on the 3.0 engine... i hope your's doesn't go bad soon... or it probably did and it's been replaced already.

 

eesh i hope it doesn't go bad on me, and if it does it needs to wait a year lol, luckily I have some savings, that i continue to build, to pay for these surprise repairs.

 

Thats a load of BS, they only say that because the repair book pays so well to replace them. Power steering pumps DON'T go bad on B6 audis.....period. A hose may break, or come off, thats about it.
If you have a doubt about a repair shops repair estimates, look up the repair on Haynes and see what it pays, if its a rediculous amount of hours then there is a chance it will be upsold. Take 2.7T motor mounts for instance, when the first few mounts went bad, the repair book says to take out the motor to replace them....26 hours of labor. Did we take out the motor? No, completed time 1.5 hours, paid 26 hours. Of course audi caught on pretty quickly so they made us clock at least 15 hours to do the mounts. This is completely legal to boot, they don't have to show you how long it took to do the repair.

 

My car has the same problem. I thought it was the turbo forever. This loud whining, NAAAAAA sound would come from my engine at low to mid level acceleration 2.4K to 4.5K RPM, and also when the auto climate control system kicked on. I thought it was the turbo cuz it came on with the turbo, but I soon realized that was a coincidence. The sound also comes on when the turbo is off plenty of times. ITS THE COMPRESSOR!! My research has shown its basically a standard problem that around 100K miles audi's compressor starts to fail, makes this annoying loud humming/buzzing NAAAAAAAA sound, then eventually it blows up and fails completely. A good $1500-$2500 repair. Just another reason not to own or buy a used Audi with high mileage.