In November 2010 the car started to knock and shake when accelerating and decelerating. I took it to Audi service (with 62,262 miles) and was told the transmission needed to be replaced. The total cost to repair was around $6,500. The dealer and Audi picked up $5,500 of the repair and I had to pay the balance of $1,000. I argued that the car was only 12K miles beyond the warranty and expected such an expensive car not to have such a major repair only after 62K miles. Try as I may, I could not get Audi to pick up the entire bill. After the repair I wrote the General Manager of the Audi dealership to find out the root cause of the transmission failure who said that the Germans do not divulge such information.
This past February the engine light came on and Audi Service said that one oxygen sensor and fuel injector cylinder six were faulty. I had the fuel injector replaced ($627.28) and decided to hold off replacing the oxygen sensor (approx $550 to replace). The Audi service rep told me that he doesn’t see many failed fuel injectors.
Question - is it unusual that the transmission fail after only 62K miles and does the fuel injector cylinder six failure an indication of potential problems with the transmission?
The answer to the second question is no. The fuel injector has no relationship to the tranny.
For the answer to the first question, you may want to stop at the bookstore and peruse a Consumer Reports guide. They indicate reliability on differente cars systems, such as trannys.
Sincere best. Along with a big dollar luxury car come big dollar repair costs.
You can usually find Consumer Reports at the public library. There is an annual book that should have the information. It is a rating of much better than average, better than average, average, worse than average, and much worse than average. It seems to me that a failure at 62,000 miles is early for any brand. But it does happen. We had a transmission failure at 59,000 miles on one of our cars. Fortunately, we had a 60 month/60,000 mile warranty and the manufacturer picked up the bill. The car has 140,000 miles on it now and the new(er) transmission runs just fine.
While it may not help you feel any better, VW/Audi did you a favor by picking up most of the cost. When Mrs JT took the car to the dealer, he was ready to charge us the full fee for replacing the transmission. We and the dealer were happy when the extended warranty came through for us. Back to you: I think you were lucky, give my experience.
You are VERY lucky they picked up most of the transmission. Why are you cheaping out on the O2 sensor? It’s a common maintenance item, and very important to the efficient running of your engine. ???
“expected such an expensive car not to have such a major repair only after 62K miles”
That’s what they do. Expensive cars, especially European ones, are FAMOUS for requiring more service than ‘regular’ cars.
@Topean The Audi dealer didn’t owe you a thing.
They picked up $5500 of that $6500 repair.
Most dealerships would have let you pay all $6500
The glass is 85% full and you’re seeing it as 15% empty.
"The Audi rep said he doesn’t see many failed fuel injectors"
That doesn’t mean anything.
He’s telling you that so you don’t feel the Audi brand is bad
If the Audi dealerships were replacing injectors left and right , he would still have told you that “he doesn’t see many failed fuel injectors”
I worked at a Benz dealership for many years. High end cars and customers. There were some pretty unreliable models. And there were plenty of pattern failures. Yet customers would always be told, “Yeah, this is the first time we’ve ever seen one of these go bad”
Years Ago, I Worked At A Volkswagen/Audi/Porsche Dealer, Twice, For A Total Of Several Years And Drove Those Vehicles During The Time I Worked There.
It Was The Real Deal. I Worked For A Man Named Helmut.
Now that I don’t work there, I don’t buy or drive Volkswagens, Audis, or Porsches.
In my opinion Audis are not for everybody. I think you have to acquire a taste.
Some people never do.
Your situation sounds normal to me, except you lucked out with coverage beyond the warranty you were buying with the car.
I agree with the crowd. You were out of warranty (by more than a bit) and there’s no recall here, so count your blessings that they paid most of the cost.
If you hope for your car not to have major repairs, an out-of-warranty Audi is not the car to have.
I found the injector online for $110. I assume the O2 sensor is also $100 or so. Paying$500 for sensor install is rough. Is sensor in a tight spot? But Audi techs are not cheap. Can bobs garage put on the O2 sensor?
I just looked on rockauto. Even an airtex is $118. Obviously an Audi dealer will use their own brand, and it will cost way more than $118. Let’s say their cost to you is at least $200.
Let’s say they charged 2.5hrs and their hourly rate is at least $125.
2.5hrs x $125 = $312.5
oxygen sensor = $200 (probably more)
tax (in my state I believe it’s 8.75) = $44.84
Comes out to $557.34
If the hourly rate is higher, if more time was charged, if the part was more expensive, we very quickly arrive at $627.28
Thanks to everyone that took the time to answer. This is the first time I’ve written to get advice online on anything and I really appreciate everyone’s excellent input!!!
As an FYI - the injector labor cost was $403 ($130/hr) or 3.1 hrs, $156.69 for the injector, $14.88 for the repair kit, $20.00 for misc charges, plus sales tax $32.71 (I’m in Madison, WI) - total $627.28.
Oxygen sensor - I will get this done but check at another auto repair place in town. Right now I have the yellow engine warning light on so if something else were to happen I wouldn’t know about it.
I understand that I should be delighted that Audi picked up $5,500 for the transmission but I bought a highly engineered German product. Having a repair that is worth more than 10% of the original value of the car is unusual and unacceptable but I understand it happens. I worked in Europe for many years and dealt with German engineers who were sticklers for perfection, reviewed our quality process ad nauseum and if something failed even though it was out of warranty they wanted it repaired for free so I thought my Audi would not have a major repair after only 62K. In the end, I love my Audi A6 and hope to keep it for many years.
European cars in general are NOT known for their reliability.
Some guys may chime in, saying what a great specific car they have.
Don’t get me wrong, German high end cars are very nice.
But statistically, there’s a pretty good chance that very expensive, unforeseen repairs will be neded in the car’s lifetime.
When I was at the Benz dealer, MANY car’s transmissions failed entirely or needed mechanic repairs WITHIN the new car warranty period. The cars I’m thinking of were model years 2006 through 2009. So I’m not talking yesterday’s news here.
Some of Benzes most high end systems were unfortunately also the most problematic.
There was in fact a brake system that was so problematic that they actually did away with it and went back to a more conventional system.
FWIW, a car’s price has no correlation to its reliability. Some British ultra high end cars have dismal reliability.
So don’t feel bad.
This was not an isolated incident.
There are plenty of high end car owners out there who can sympathize.
Well, u do seem comfortable letting Audi shop change injector. But I am not sensing the same love for having them change the O2 sensor? U did not say which O2 sensor needs to change. Is it in the exhaust manifold or downstream where it may be easier to reach under the car? I do not know if intake had to be removed to change injector? Maybe it would have Been easier to change O2 sensor than?
Per the invoice the O2 sensor is described as “oxygen sensor heater circuit malfunction”. Hope that tells you the location. There was no cost difference between replacing the O2 sensor and injector at the same time vs doing them separately.
I went into Audi service because the engine light came on and once they looked at it and told me that the O2 sensor and injector were faulty I decided to have just the injector as this is critical.
I want to shop the O2 to see what I can save. FWIW, in today’s mail I got a 10% off coupon from Audi to service the O2 sensor.
The O2 sensor is left side pre-cat. Audi will do it for $527 but I found a repair shop specializing in European cars (Porsche, Audi, BMW, Mercedes) that will repair it for $310. That’s a big difference!!!
U would think changing sensor was a simple task. Buddy had 05 4cyl Altima. Needed cam pos sensor. After shop inspection fee, initial car touching fee, Monday morning tech hung over fee, it was $550 to change sensor. Funny, sensor is on top of motor and I can see it from 10 ft away.