I have a 2009 A4 Avant CPO with 98,800 miles on odometer. I had the car for little over 3 years. Last week, the engine wouldn't start and had to get the car towed to a dealer nearby. The dealer told me that the engine seized and that I have to put a new engine in. I was under assumption that the repair would be covered under the CPO warranty, but the dealer said that the time lapsed about 4 months ago.

The dealer quoted $12,000 for new engine which is more than trade-in value of the car. I still owe about $10K on the loan with Audi Financial. I'm at a loss as to what I should do. I did contact Audi Care, but they are only offering $2500 discount on the repair which is not very meaningful at this point. The car has been maintained properly with all the oil changes and new spark plugs at 50,000 mile mark. I only use premium gas. I don't understand how an engine less than 100,000 mile can crapped out without a warning. At around 45,000 miles, the engine has been re-bored with cylinder rings by the dealer because I was losing about a quart of oil every month. This could possibly contributed to the pre-mature engine failure.

Does anyone have any suggestion? Should I pursue a lawsuit? If so do I have a valid case?

Please help!

 

I'd ask for more detail around the "seizing" of the engine. That term is usually used when an engine is starved for oil (lubrication), but if they cured the oil consumption problem with the boring and new rings I don't understand why it would seize. Unless the problem was not cured and you ran the vehicle on too low oil.


Another possible reason is a timing belt or tensioner failure which could cause the pistons/valves to crash and bind up the engine.


We need a better explanation before we can make suggestions.


But you have my sympathy. It's a crappy situation, especially with a loan balance.

 

As I mentioned has anyone bothered to check the oil. If the owner didn't buy an aftermarket dip stick I am sure the dealer has one. Being the engine is sized the MMI won't work so you need to check it manually. I'm betting its out of oil.

 

The car has been towed to an indy shop yesterday as the Audi Care wasn't caring enough to provide any meaningful assistance on my situation. I'll know soon what cause the engine failure. But I can assure you it's not due to lack of oil. I've been monitoring oil level closely as the car was due for an oil change soon. Last time I checked which was about a week or so ago, oil level was almost full. The engine boring job did work on my case. I don't loose engine oil that much since the fix was done.

 

OK now that we know that the oil was full and the motor is sized then when they open it up it would be interesting to see if more then one piston locked up. If you had bent valves or a broken timing chain the motor would still turn over unless you put a valve through a piston. Then again when that would happen you would hear the noise. If it were broken rings it would still run but not very good. Then if you had a few of the main bearings size the motor won't turn over. What kind of noise does the starter make when you try to start it.

 

The indy shop took a look at the engine yesterday and said that the crankshaft is bent and would need to take the engine to a machine shop to get an estimate on the repair. The shop owner says that it's probably cheaper to just replace it with a used engine.

So now I'm shopping for a used engine and can't decide if I should stay with the same model year. I remember hearing somewhere that later engine model (2012 and 20111) would not have the oil consumption issue, but with 2009 and 2010, there is a chance I end up with a bad engine. Any opinion on this?

Also does an engine from A5 2012 year model would fit in 2009 A4? It seems like it would, but wanted to make sure before I order one

 

I think you're in uncharted territory as far as swapping engines from newer models. I would assume if the engine codes were the same, the swap shouldn't be an issue. Sorry to hear about your troubles. Obviously, with any manufactured material, there is bound to be failures along the way. I'm pretty surprised that Audi wouldn't help out on an 5 year old engine under 100K miles that experienced a complete catastrophic failure. What I'm really curious about is how the engine seized and the crank bent without the car running. You said you tried to start the car and it wouldn't crank, right? It's not like you were driving then all of a sudden it died. Did the indy mechanic give an educated guess as to why he thinks if might of happened?

 

You must have early production 2009 a4 with the caeb motor. Check around the forum there was issue about the crankshaft bearing bolt snapping in half.

 

As mentioned how does he know the crank is bent. What did he do to determine this. Tell him you want to see where it is bent. If he found it he should be able to show you. TRUST BUT VERIFY