FiveStarSAMz

19 hours ago, Magnet said:

Hello Steve,

I’m sure both of the posters on this thread will benefit from your advice on a good engine reconditioning facility, and hopefully the chances of an optimistic outcome by contending Audi’s unreasonable conditions. That would indeed be something to hang onto. For what it’s worth I share that sentiment, but I think it’s only fair to point out that any ‘fight’ with an international organisation is going to be costly, and realistically outside the scope of an average owner - however savvy they are. 
Yes contend the dictate, but be realistic in the chances of success - apologies, I appreciate this is coming over as pessimistic, but certainly tempered with a fair degree of realism, and certainly no disappointment after the legal costs have been paid. 
‘Why would Audi conduct an oil consumption test .. if end result will be a firm no..’? I think Sam can answer that one by  having to pay £280 for the test! Business is business, and they are not going to advise the owner not to get it done. 
Yes, what’s good enough for the U.K. is not acceptable to the US of A, but they fight an international organisation on at least a State basis, and not on an individual USA owner level. 
I genuinely hope for a reasonable outcome with both these cases, since liability exists, but I can only wish them well in their attempts, since I guess there isn’t any legal assistance on here that would help and support them with sound and reasoned argument. 
I still think the often-one-man- band classic car engine reconditioners might be a good fall back, which might allow a financially viable outcome. 
Many thanks and kind regards,

Gareth. 

I may have not made it clear but Harold Woods Audi actually did advice that I should not do the oil consumption test until I get Audi UK to sort out what I want which is for them to cover the repair cost. So I haven’t actually done any test yet, and haven’t paid the £280 for the test yet. 

7 hours ago, Jonno S3 said:

Thanks for both your valuable inputs.

I guess it all boils down to how much effort you are prepared to put in and how long you are prepared to live with a car as is.  I understand Sam has sentimental connection to his car so in this instance worth letting it play out as long as it takes.

I live in a small village and have to rely on my car to get to work, at the moment I am working from home but that's set to change very soon, I have no way to get to the train station without my car.

Also I don't tend to get attached to anything material, I love the car as a driving machine but its just a car to me so just not worth the stress of having to deal with Audi UK if its likely to go back and forth for months and with an unfavourable outcome. 

As for other manufacturer's, I had a 12 year old BMW that was recalled and repaired for free, this was a £200 part and probably 2 hours labour so nothing in the same league and I know Subaru would not have fixed the similar issue on the 2.5 boxter engine for free. 

For the age my car is in great condition, if I spend the money getting the engine fixed I know I have a good car for the next 5-10 years if I wish to keep it however I know I will never get that money back, if I sell and buy something else I have no idea if I have purchased a lemon.  

I will let Audi have a look, will refuse a ridiculously priced oil consumption test and see what happens, if its looking unlikely I will offload it. 

BTW, I contacted Marc "Elvis" Priestly as he had an engine rebuilt on wheeler dealers but the company he used specialise in Mini, good guy and we conversed for a while. 

This kind of leads me into another question.  What second hand buys would you recommend as a good solid car in terms of reliability?  On the list I have the following.

Renault Megan RS 250
Vauxhall Astra VRX
Mazda 3 MPS
Ford Focus ST
Volvo C30 T5

Prior to this S3 I had an A4 with the V6 3.0 litre diesel engine that had all sorts of gremlins so will skip Audi for a while.

As for your last question, personally I’ve not heard great things about French cars but I may be wrong. Also, with the Vauxhall Astra VXR, I’m not sure if it was the Astra vxr Or the Corsa vxr engines but they are notorious for their Piston 4 failing. I think it was Corsa VXR 1.6 engines but do your research with it to make sure. 
 

Personally, I’ve not been much a fan of Fords so My biased opinion would be to stay clear. Other than that I don’t know much about the other two. Probably not helpful with this 😂. But in terms of reliability, the Japanese seem to know what they’re doing. 

4 minutes ago, Jonno S3 said:

Good luck Sam, please let us know what the CAB advise. 

I have my car booked in, strangely enough they didn't offer an oil consumption test just a health check (£60 plus insurance costs for loan car)

Assuming they put an endoscope down the bore looking for scoring, they are likely to find the same as your Sam so I will keep this thread updated.

I have read on a few forums that being persistent with Audi UK might pay off however I cant recall how old those posts were.

Oh, and 10k for a car with only 45,000 miles and a knackered engine is a lot of money.

Thank you! Good luck to you too! Let’s hope we get our cars fixed with minimal inconvenience. I will for sure keep this thread updated. 

Can I ask which dealer you got yourself booked in for? Welcome to private message me aswell. I didn’t really say much when booking. I literally straight asked for a oil consumption test and told them it was consuming a lot of oil. 

1 hour ago, Magnet said:

Thanks Sam,

I think it’s fair to expect the oil consumption test will confirm there is an issue, so if this were me, I would now be commencing to set up my case. 
Let me go back to my yet unanswered question:- How long have you owned this car, and when were you first aware of its oil consumption issue? 
Who was the ‘they’ at your Audi dealer who informed you ‘…..less than 10 years…’? 
My feeling is that you are going to need some professional legal assistance if Audi’s argument continues ( which I believe it will). CAB may be able to advise, and would be a useful first port of call, but I feel you will need to tap into paid-for legal assistance. 
Questions you will now need to ask yourself:- If you fail ( or even partially fail, i.e. you have to make a not insubstantial contribution) do you think it will be a worthwhile expenditure to make to rectify the issue on your 10.5 year old car? 
Personally, I don’t think it is, but…. 
So what do you do? Just keep adding cheap oil? Part with the car and buy something else?  Answers to these will be influenced by the answer to the question - when did you buy it, and how much funds you ‘invested’ in it, and when? 
I think that’s enough to think about for now Sam.

Dealing with Audi:- polite is good and essential, but this needs to be coupled with a necessary degree of firmness and reasoned argument - and that’s where the professionals come in. 
Perhaps you could let the forum know how you get on.

Kind regards,

Gareth. 
p.s. What is the Audi service history like with the car? 
Although my argument about liability should not be influenced by a point in time, realistically, we are all subjected to such time limits with grantees, so….. Difference with this case? Was the owner (you) made aware of this constraint within the timespan of the liability period? 

Hello Gareth and to all those concerned, 

Okay so a little update. Audi Dealer did not do the oil consumption test because of the resistance to pay for the oil consumption test. They informed me that they can still do the oil consumption test but if it was to go for the the new engine repair, Audi warranty department are confident that they won’t be able to do anything and that I will have to pay the large sum of money to get it repaired. So the person I was talking to from the Audi Dealer told me it would be better if I spoke to Audi UK myself before I go ahead and get the test done. So I agreed and I’m literally at the dealership to pick up my car. I guess my target is to get Audi UK to approve the test first and then go back To dealership to proceed. Audi dealer told me that it’s in the technicians opinion that it will fail the oil consumption test. 
 

To answer your questions:

So I have owned this car for 2 years and I must admit that it was consuming oil before but not nearly as much as it is now. I’d say about every 1200-1400 miles it would have to be topped up a litre. I had booked an oil consumption test with a different Audi dealer but cancelled it with the knowledge that it could still pass the test after I found out how low Audis threshold is to fail it. But then about 3-4 months ago it all of sudden starting drinking a lot more about 600 miles for a litre and it just rapidly got worse and now it’s burning a litre every 250-300 miles.

So the person at the Audi dealer, I didn’t get what his job role is but I know his name (I guess I can call him the service advisor?), informed me that diagnostic technician informed him of the 10 years limit and then he confirmed it when he contacted the warranty department. Although this may not be entirely true, as I have seen on other forums that Audi have done it with cars that are older than 10 years old  

I will look into CAB and seeking some legal advice regarding this issue. Maybe I could go to the ombudsman or citizen advice?
 

I do understand your point in your question. Financially it makes no sense to it for building a new engine but I guess I’m struggling to accept that due to the sentimental memories with the car.  It is my first car that I worked hard to buy too. It does only have 45k miles on it so pretty low for the age. I’ve paid around £10k for this car and although it may not seem much, that is a lot for me. 
 

So it has full service history but the last two were done by Audi specialist. During the previous 2 ownerships, the car has been stood for a while and not been driven for longer than 3 years and there’s no service record during this time. And it is due for another interim service which I would ideally like to do after the engines been sorted. What’s the point of servicing a faulty engine? And no I was not aware of any time constraints for liability. 

I guess my next action is to send the polite reply to that email Audi UK and try to get them to authorise it. 
 

I do thank you, Gareth, for your help and appreciate this forum, so far the only forum to actually help me so far. 
 

As always, any advice would benefit!

Kind regards,

Sam

On 1/29/2022 at 9:31 AM, Magnet said:

Hello Sam,

Thanks for being in touch and sorry to hear of your issue.

Apologies for a contra opinion, but I certainly wouldn’t be adopting the approach suggest by Karl in his ‘expletives removed’ post. It will simply generate a tone of animosity, and whatever you think or shout about,  they hold the key to the resolution. 
Diplomatic, factual firm and reasoned, would be my chosen approach. 
If you would like an opinion on the content of your reply, then I think it is essentially good, with the following ‘comments for you to think about’ :- 

Personally, I wouldn’t make any reference to being unable to afford the necessary repairs - that fact is not Audi’s fault, and the comment generally undermines your situation and standing. 
The key fact is that there is precedent here, which means that Audi has previously accepted they are at fault with this issue and have compensated owners - so they are blameworthy. I think you can reasonably maintain that fault and consequent liability does not cease at a certain point time, but ceases when there aren’t anymore cases where liability applies. 
I trust some of the above maybe of help, and wish you well for a favourable outcome. 
As an (important) aside - how long have you owned this car Sam, and when were you first aware of the undue (as opposed to excessive) oil consumption? If this is some period of time, then this may dilute your case, if it can be proved that you have procrastinated. 
Perhaps you could keep us informed on how things develop. 
Kind regards,

Gareth. 

Hello Gareth, 

Thank you for your reply. I do appreciate the help. I have not sent a reply to them yet. However, this morning I dropped off the car to my local-ish Audi dealer to get the oil consumption test. When I was called and questioned about the price, I asked if this was going to be covered by Audi as it is a common fault and well-known issue. They replied saying that this policy is only for cars that are less than 10 years old. My car was registered in July 2011 so that makes it 6 months late roughly. So far, I have agreed to take the bill of the oil consumption test for £280 roughly, but any advice on the approach to take from here on out as I know it will definitely fail the oil consumption test. 

I am aiming to take the polite route and will use the liability still remains argument but any help I get would be appreciated. 

Thanks

5 hours ago, Brizzle said:

Play up like !Removed! mate 

Its an issue they know about and where fixing them, to say they stopped doing it last year is out of order 

 

Play up like what? i believe theres supposed to be an emoji there but i cant see it?

Yeah it sucks. Might write this for a reply. I don't know if i should take a polite approach or a more stern approach. 

Hello,

Thank you for you reply. This is definitely not the reply I was hoping and definitely not what I was expecting from Audi. Since you had a policy to fix cars with high consumption, I find it bewildering to have got a reply to say that this was stopped last year. The issue is very well known as you have implied and the issue still remains with your cars this year like it did last year. 

I would like to kindly ask you to consider taking an approach that you have been taking previously as I am unable to afford the expensive fix.

I look forward to your reply. 

Thanks. 

Maybe I can execute it more better? More stern or more polite? Idk I want to make sure I execute it properly as I do love the car. 

Hello. I have an 2011 Audi A4 2.0 TFSI with the dreaded excessive oil consumption issue. I am aware that Audi would fix the car for free as a gesture of goodwill. My car has mileage less than 50k. I fill up a litre of oil around every 250 miles. 

Can anyone recommend a dealer around the south east / east london or west kent area that has fixed the problem for free? I don't mind travelling a bit to places like crawley or brighton aswell but closer to south east london, the better. 

I emailed Audi UK to kick start things off telling them about the issue and that I was aware that it was a design fault. I am a recent graduate so funds aren't exactly available right now for me. 

They replied: 

Quote

Thank you for your email regarding your Audi A4.

I am really sorry to hear that it is using a lot of oil. Audi did have a policy in place to fix certain vehicle with high oil consumption. Unfortunately this ended last year.

I am really sorry that this was not a more positive outcome. The only advise I can offer is to speak to your local Audi centre regarding this problem.

If there is anything further I can help you with, please contact me on the details below.

Kind regards

Am I done for? 

Thank you in advance.