[V6-12v] all quiet on the AUDI Front

[George Tur]

On Saturday 20 March 2004 09:32, Clive Young wrote:
> okay so whats going on ..its WAY to quiet. I can't believe with all these
> AUDI's none of them are breaking ! :-)
>
> We need some complaints / stories/ fixes to keep the juices flowing.
> Anybody got any updates on fixes? ,I think as a group to be successfull we
> need more feedback from guys who ask for advice, let us know if fixes help
> and what things you find when fixes don't help. As a small community of
> motorheads we need as much info as we can get to make us stronger. Okay so
> there we have it, at least maybe I have made some AUDI controversy ! It
> would be nice to know if any progress or anything has been tried on the :
>
> 1.    Hesitation problem somebody had with the Automatic, and the vibration
> 2.    The oil leak that was suspected in the Valley Pan gasket  ( A
> procedure for that pig of a Job sounds great ) 3.    Our teeth counting
> timing belt procedure ! any body try it ?
>
> anyway just my .02c Canadian ..well actaully its getting close to .02cents
> American ...ouch ..go Euro ...oops i think I just made more controversy :-)
>
> Clive
>
**************************
No feed back about any of the items you've listed above, but I do want to vent 
about the latest go around with the local audi independent. 

Brought the wife's 1995 A6 in to get a bunch of items done: such as a hood 
latch spring, replace windshield washer sprayers, check out a whining noise 
from the the tranny/drive shaft area when the car is cold and replace the 
reverse light switch. Now the items that concerned me were the whining noise 
and the reverse switch. I think the whine is coming from the drive shaft that 
was replaced last year, the same shop, and I want to catch any problem before 
it goes to far. The reverse switch has to be replaced because it is a safety 
issue and it is required for the state motor vehicle inspection. 

Any way the car has been in there a number of times to get these items done 
and because of the shops or the audi dealer's parts screwups the work was 
delayed. This last time the shop promised that they had all the parts and 
that they would have the car out the same day. Well I get a call late on 
Friday from the shop saying that they are having a problem with the reverse 
switch. It seems that in trying to take the unit out they stripped the screw 
heads, so now they can't get any purchase on the screws. I drove over to the 
shop to take a look and see, actually I couldn't see them but I felt it and 
tried the torx head screwdriver on it, that the screws retaining the reverse 
switch are stripped and that the spot they are located in are impossibly hard 
to get to. The mechanic at this point asks what he should do. My thought is 
why are you asking me since I'm paying you for your expertise, but I respond 
with, did you try penetrating oil first before you played around with it? The 
answer is no. So, I tell him try penetrating oil and if it doesn't come out 
then you'll have to button it up because we need the car for this weekend 
since we made plans and we had been promised that the car would be done on 
that Friday.

Well, we come back from running errands and see that there is another message 
from the shop saying that the car is ready for pickup. We go over to the shop 
to pick up the car and find a bill in it for the work that was done. The bill 
shows charges for the windshield washers, and hood latch spring and it shows 
2 hours of work to tear down and button up the reverse switch. Now I believe 
I shouldn't have been charged for that time. If they had completed the work 
then yes charge me for it, but in this case the work was not completed and 
since the car had been promised for that day we have made plans accordingly. 
I think it's unfair for the shop to charge me for incomplete work that was 
caused by their mistake. 

Sorry about that long rant, but I had to dump somewhere and Clive did ask for 
it..:-) My real question here is, is there a way to get at the screws that 
hold the reverse switch from the top? From what I could see the only way to 
get at the reverse switch was to remove the transmission mount and reach in 
from underneath, which doesn't give you much room to work in. Also are there 
any tricks for extracting the screws aside from penetrating oil. There is 
very little room and you can't see the screws at all, you can only work with 
them by feel. 

George Tur ... frustrated with Audi mechanics