I was curious if anyone else has had problems with a garage not performing the correct maintenance on your vehicle.

I recently brought my A6 Quattro to a local garage for timing belt service.

Serpentine, Timing, Water Pump and I THOUGHT pulleys, and tensioner's, were to be replaced.

I got my car back, It ran a bit funny, took it for a ride about 70 miles. The car was making a very loud almost metallic "tinging" sound. I called the garage who did the work right away, and brought the car down.

They told me the AC Compressor pulley clutch was bad, and making the noise. They kept the car for 2 days, and returned it. When i received the car back, it was smoking, and had very weird "throttle" issues, and ran very funny when idle.

So i decided to take the car to town for some errands, and while i was out, the car broke down, lost power and all the dummy lights came on, towed it home, and then to the garage who did the previous work.

When i returned to the garage to get the report on what was wrong with the car. The mechanic showed me what appeared to be a mangled bolt and pulley.

He told me it was a "stationary pulley" and that it caused the timing belt to break. He also continued to tell me, "he could not have for seen the problem". I'm really not buying this, and i feel completely ripped off. The mechanic said the car would not start with a new timing belt, and that i would need CAM/Piston work.. or something of the sort

So my question is this, Is there any truth to what this mechanic is saying? Or should he have replaced the pulley's, after a proper inspection? I feel that my car being dead is the fault of the mechanic. Am i wrong?

Sorry to all the pro's, there are probably a massive amount of mistake in this post, but i'm just looking for more info.

 

I HATE COMPUTERS SOMETIMES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Damn I just typed you a BIG reply and my comp just lost it all. So here goes again.

Hi. Sorry to hear about your situaltion.

The usual protocal is that the idoler and tensioner pully's get changed when a TB job is done.

Check the receipt to see if it mentions TB kit or pully's on it. If it does then the work should fall under warrenty.

As for the work needs to be done now. You should not need new pistons or cams, but you will need some new valves, seats and stem seals. I know that with the 12v engine it will need 5 or 6 valves changing, probably more if it's the 30v and the garage will charge you $30 to $40 each for valves for the 12v motor and $20 to $30 for the ones for the 30v.

The pistons should have little more that a scratch in the top of them from where the valves hit them and from what I have read on many posts on here will be fine.

You will also have to have new head gaskets and head bolts. There is also the dreaded labour costs. This is not going to be a cheap fix. (get the thermostat changed too. You can only get at it if the TB is off and it's only about $10)

I suggest calling around some garages who have experience with Audi cars and ask them what they parts they change when carrying out a TB job and try to build a case that your garage did not know what they were doing when they took on your job. I think this might be your best shot at getting them to fix your car.

I hope at least some of this is helpful and good luck.