Hi,

I am in need of some advice regarding my car it has just come from an Audi dealership and has had a flywheel change as it was on it’s way out. Upon collection I was told by the advisor that, there was another code stored. When the car previously went to another dealership when I was first trying to get the flywheel diagnosed (a good few months ago). But was never made aware of at that time about this issue. The code was for a valve body replacement which I wasn’t told by the dealership. Anyway 24 hours after I have gotten the flywheel replaced, and got my car back, I now have a sign that shows “gear box’s fault safely stop the vehicle”. It just stays on D1 and doesn’t change/shift gears, the car just goes and the revs just going up as soon as you accelerate. If I switch it off and then switch it back on the sign disappears, A the car is perfectly fine again shifting like normal. Until the signs comes back again.

Can anyone advise what it can be? Or why did Audi do my flywheel instead of the valve body problem if it was still stored on the system and I guess on the ECU.
 

Hello ? ( could you please amend your name to its actual - if not possible, please let us know and we will arrange for Admin. to do it for us). 
Anyway, this is likely to sound pessimistic and dismissive, but I really don’t think anyone on here can be expected to diagnose the cause of your current issue, without access to the vehicle. 
If this were mine, I would be returning to the dealer who carried out the work, without delay, and getting them to re-examine it. 
Did you settle the (expensive?) bill by debit or credit card. 
Kind regards,

Gareth. 

1 hour ago, Magnet said:

Hello ? ( could you please amend your name to its actual - if not possible, please let us know and we will arrange for Admin. to do it for us). 
Anyway, this is likely to sound pessimistic and dismissive, but I really don’t think anyone on here can be expected to diagnose the cause of your current issue, without access to the vehicle. 
If this were mine, I would be returning to the dealer who carried out the work, without delay, and getting them to re-examine it. 
Did you settle the (expensive?) bill by debit or credit card. 
Kind regards,

Gareth. 

Hi, Gareth

I have asked the dealer to look at it again and see if something has been done wrong but, They are adamant that the issue lays in the Valve body and are quoting 5.5K !!!! for the car to be fixed now. Also regarding the bill for the works, I had used a service called bumper finance.

Matt.

It is not clear to me what the problem was that initially caused you to visit the dealer in the first place. Was it the error message and staying in D1, or was there some other symptom? What I am trying to get at is whether there were two faults with the car of which only one has been fixed, or whether the valve body fault was wrongly diagnosed as a flywheel fault.

3 minutes ago, cliffcoggin said:

Matt.

It is not clear to me what the problem was that initially caused you to visit the dealer in the first place. Was it the error message and staying in D1, or was there some other symptom? What I am trying to get at is whether there were two faults with the car of which only one has been fixed, or whether the valve body fault was wrongly diagnosed as a flywheel fault.

Hi,

The first reason why I had gone to Audi about 3 months ago was to get a diagnosis of the flywheel as it was on it way out, As the rattling and vibration an harsh gear changes was getting worse this then was confirmed to be the DMF for my car. I had then taken it back to Audi to get the work done and has been replaced. Upon collection of the car the advisor had then told me there was another fault code that was showing to do with a valve body which I wasn’t aware of, 24 hours later I am getting the gear box’s fault safely stop vehicle and all the things I mentioned when the sign comes up. I’m just really p’d off that before the flywheel work was carried out that they didn’t tell me about the other problem with the valve body. 

OK. There was definitely a fault with the dual mass flywheel which has been satisfactorily fixed. DMF breakage is not uncommon so there is nothing contentious there.

Then we come the valve body fault and error message. Were any symptoms present when you took the car for the flywheel repair, or was the problem apparent only afterwards?

Before flywheel repair car was driving fine no valve body problems or symptoms at all just the noisy DMF falling, gears where shifting fine no slipping or anything to suggest body valve that needed to be repaired or replaced. Once changed I get this message on dash. 

Matt.

It is evident from what you described that the valve body fault was introduced while the car was under repair. To my mind that makes the garage that did the work responsible for putting it right, however it will undoubtedly argue that it was co-incidence or an existing fault, and hence will deny liability. It's going to be tough proving the dealer's responsibility, and given that the repair cost is going to be £5500 it may need to go to court for a settlement. It is certainly worth appealing to Audi UK, but I would simultaneously consult a solicitor for advice on your options and your chances of winning.

Whichever route you take to resolve the problem is going to take a long time. Months or possibly years in fact. If you want the car repaired now you may well have to pay for the work in the hope of recovering your costs at a later date. That is a choice only you can make.

Sorry to be so pessimistic. Justice does not always prevail.

56 minutes ago, cliffcoggin said:

Matt.

It is evident from what you described that the valve body fault was introduced while the car was under repair. To my mind that makes the garage that did the work responsible for putting it right, however it will undoubtedly argue that it was co-incidence or an existing fault, and hence will deny liability. It's going to be tough proving the dealer's responsibility, and given that the repair cost is going to be £5500 it may need to go to court for a settlement. It is certainly worth appealing to Audi UK, but I would simultaneously consult a solicitor for advice on your options and your chances of winning.

Whichever route you take to resolve the problem is going to take a long time. Months or possibly years in fact. If you want the car repaired now you may well have to pay for the work in the hope of recovering your costs at a later date. That is a choice only you can make.

Sorry to be so pessimistic. Justice does not always prevail.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts it is much appreciated, I know this wasn’t going to be A easy process. I have now contacted Audi head office and have raised my issues and concerns with them (Fingers crossed] but not expecting anything. I have a friend, who also is giving me some legal advice who is a Solicitor about what the best route is and what are my best outcomes.

Common Good practice is to carry out a pre repair diagnostic health check to A protect the garage from pre existing faults and B to give the customer pre warning to faults that they may not be aware of, I can see this from both sides that to put your car in for a new DMF shouldn’t result in a undrivable car being returned but also changing a DMF while a time consuming job is relatively straight forward. Are the Audi dealership that replaced you DMF saying that the previous Audi garage have a record of another fault saved against your car, if so request proof of this as it’s your vehicle should be accessible to yourself upon request