[s-cars] Head gasket: 2850$ follow-up (longuish too)

[Vincent Frégeac]

Hi all,

First, thanks to Joshua, Bruce, Dave, Bruce, Bill, Marc, Dave, Gabriel,
Richard, Thomas - I hope I didn't forgot anyone - for all the valuable info.
It really helped me to make a deal which was fair for both sides.

So, the end of the story is:
I went to my mech a bit less upset knowing that head gasket jobs can go
fairly expensive but still considering that I should have been aware that
the bill will be twice the last estimate. I let the mech explain the repair
first, without telling him what I was thinking about the bill. Gosh, this
guy is really a car nut. He was so glad to talk to someone who understand
what's under the hood he spent 50 minutes explaining what he've done, what
he've seen, what should be done, what could be done, what special tools he
have, how he started, why he likes european car... He even spent a good 15
min talking about the new Revo system he will receive tomorrow, which can
reprogram the engine chip through the OBDII port, too bad it works only on
newer car, so I still have to remove the chip on my car, but look at this TT
we're doing a head and valve job on it, when it's finished we'll add 40hp on
it in just 10 minutes, this Revo system is so nice and so on and so on...

At the end, I finally told him I had a problem with the bill compared to the
estimate. The guy had a nice reaction. He admit that he should have told me
first, he admit he've done the perfect job without asking if it was what I
wanted, and he proposed to make a fair deal as it was his fault. He was
really looking so sorry to see me not satisfied - and I deal day long with
textile suppliers so I start to know the difference between a guy who is so
sorry and a guy who want to look so sorry. His garage is CAA approved
(Canadian AAA) and his customers are always very satisfied but it's usually
lawyers, president and this kind of people who doesn't care about the bill
as long as their car are reliable and he didn't realize I may not be this
king of guy, etc. So we went through the bill and I marked what I would have
accepted and what I was considering unreasonnable considering it's an 8
years old car with more than 160Kmiles on it. And the guy was really
perfectionist, unreasonnably perfectionist:
- He told me with the job he've done, the head is problem-free for the next
7-8 years!
- While the head was removed, he though that for only a few hundred bucks
more, he should have it refreshed as well so he asked not only for the
bottom end to be machined  but also the manifolds matching surfaces, the
valve seats and valves, and replace the guides and seals and have the head
ultrasonic cleaned to make sure it's clean.
- As the manifold matching surfaces was machined on the head, he though it
would be stupid not to have the manifold surfaced so he sent them as well.
- As the exhaust manifold was removed and the turbo was so accessible, he
though it was a good idea to have the turbo seal refreshed, so he removed
the turbo and changed each and every seals plus all the hose except the
metal ones.
- As I said, as the car was overheating he also checked the cooling system
and found there was some dirt in the radiator, he sent it for ultrasonic
cleaning and check the flow. He also diagnose that the after run system was
not working but, hopefully, he didn't decided to change it all as 20VT
engine rarely activate the after-run cooling system.
- As a safety measure, he also changed the thermofan switch because it was
switching 8C above the speced temperature, the T-stat because it's what he
usually do with a head job and the MTFS  as it was reading 12C below the
spec.
- He also changed 1 stop bulb because it was burn and the too rear bulbs
because the intensity was not the same on both side and it was looking ugly!
 
Besides, the S6 had more problems than he thought. The head gasket didn't
fail, it was leaking because the head was torn. The exhaust manifold was
very close to leaking, with black deposit on the gasket surface at the two
foremost cylinders. In fact, I think it had a very small leak as I had a
leaking noise at high boost which have disappeared now. And finally, the
electric fan was so close to die that it died when he was running it to
check where the noise come from.

At the end, I agreed that repairs for 2100$ was necessary. On his side, he
considered that 2400$ was required as he have to give a 1 year warranty as a
CAA member. So I paid 2400$ but all the scheduled maintenance will be free
at his place in 2005 or for the next 16000 miles, including a 3000 miles oil
change instead of the 8000 miles speced by Audi.

At the end, this head gasket was not cheap but I think if I need to have my
car repaired by a mech, I'll choose the same one. He's so maniac there's no
way he can screw a job and, now he knows me, he knows he's better to make an
good estimate first, and keep me updated so the risk I have another bad
surprise with him is really low.

Dave, your advise was really valuable. When you find a good mech, it's worth
spending a few more bucks than expected to keep him happy so you can
continue your business relation.

So, an expensive happy end to this long story. I hope my experience will
help you to avoid bad surprise in case of major failure.



Vincent.

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