[BiturboS4] RE: BiturboS4 digest, Vol 1 #343 - 8 msgs

[Erik J. Engstrom]

JY,

My "shop" is Sonnen Audi in San Rafael. They have a dedicated turbo guy,
visible the second pic link I have attached here.

www.sonnenaudi.com

http://members.aol.com/hiriskconsultant/s4turboreplacement01.jpg
http://members.aol.com/hiriskconsultant/s4turboreplacement02.jpg


I will call on Monday, get a description of it and see if I can get it sent
over to my hotel by fax. I know "metal shavings" were in the history
paperwork. They know exactly what causes this and they were able to hold the
turbo and explain. It is not due to improper warmup/cooling of the turbo, or
a chip, or a foreign object. While all of these items can contribute - the
impeller was sometimes built very loose in the tolerance department and that
many of the k03's fail over time. I drive my car very hard for a stock car
and also for long periods of time (cross country), mine started failing at
36k and were finally replaced at 40k. It isn't a matter of what causes it,
but a matter of when. Unfortunately you fall outside of warranty, which
means that 50/50 is pretty good.

However, on the matter of brake pads or turbos, Audi should be able to
understand how inferior their stock original parts are for these cars. If
you recently passed warranty in a short period of time there is no reason
why Audi shouldn't replace them for free - I disagree with the others on the
list.

According to the big guy working on my motor, the polyglot PhD Finnlander,
those turbos have been failing for a long time over thousands of miles. He
replaces one, two or more turbos a week at Sonnen.

When my work was completed the bill to Audi was $6,000 and would have been
$10,000 to me.

To clarify, I've never had a single problem with having work done on my car.
It has sometimes been difficult to warn the dealer that a problem was
coming. Before my clutch went I was reporting slips that couldn't be
detected or reproduced by the shop for about 8,000 miles. There are four or
five other issues that I detected before either the computer or the shop
could diagnose it. Nobody at a dealer seems to spend any time working on a
car, checking the parts themselves. All seem to rely on the computer... Sad
really, but makes sense with the complicated nature of these cars.

Did you, by any chance, upgrade the car once you were out of warranty?


Erik

-----Original Message-----
From: j y [mailto:jimnetpa at yahoo.com]
Sent: Sunday, April 27, 2003 1:45 AM
To: Erik J. Engstrom; biturbos4 at audifans.com
Subject: Re: [BiturboS4] RE: BiturboS4 digest, Vol 1 #343 - 8 msgs


Is your "shop" an authorized AoA dealer?

If your "shop" is an authorized AoA dealer were they
willing to document your statement about OEM turbo
damage being a warranty item (was it described that
way on your repair order)?

Because I am getting the typical dealer run-around
regarding these shavings.

Nobody is willing to put anything in writing about my
turbo damage - including AoA - I just have a claim
nbr. Supposedly, my problems have been documented, and
my 50/50 coverage will be honored by AoA.

jy