RE: Carlsen general comment was Re: P/N for Cover hold down screws - V8 & 20vI5

["Buchholz, Steven" <Steven.Buchholz@kla-tencor.com>]

> Has it been anyone else's experience that Carlsen and Audi dealerships in
> general need the exact part number to find/supply may Audi parts?
> 
> Just a minor nit pick really, but since most don't have the microfiche
> this
> seems like a quandary.
> 
... when you look at the fiche and how it gets organized you might get a
feeling as to why this is difficult.  Due to the fact that each frame on the
fiche covers one small part of the car, there may be parts that you might
feel are related that are on totally different sections of the fiche.  Most
of the time it is either impossible to discern the actual physical
relationship of parts from the exploded diagram, or the picture on the fiche
is WRONG.  My most recent example of this was when trying to get heater
hoses for the 4kSQ ... the picture on the fiche looked totally different
from what I saw on my car, but we ordered the part that looked like it went
to the right place ... and luckily got the correct hose.  

I too have problems with the wrong part ordered when I try to order over the
phone without having gotten the numbers from the fiche.  If you notice, most
parts departments have a viewer set up in such a way as to show the picture
to the person on the other side of the counter.  I think this may also be
one reason why dealers like Carlsen make the old fiche somewhat available.
I can look up the parts myself and be pretty sure that I'll get what I want.
I don't know if they thought of this too; but like in this case, I often use
the fiche to help others find part numbers.  The folks in the parts
department at Carlsen are amazingly busy when I go in there ... it could be
that Linda thought that these screws were not available separately based on
her memory of another situation ... she may never have even looked at the
fiche for the '91 200q.  I'm not saying that this is the way I think things
should be, but you can't be too surprised.  I also look at the discount that
I get from a convenient dealer source, so I'm willing to help make their job
a bit easier ...

IME it is not just an Audi problem.  I needed to replace the screws that
hold down the ECU on my Beemer ... they have the CD-based parts catalogue
... which took them quite some time to locate after checking several frames
...

I've gotta say that anyone who does do their own maintenance on their cars
can do themselves a big favor by getting even a small format fiche reader
and trying to get a copy of the fiche for their car.  I know a lot of
dealers are hesitant to do so, but perhaps if you use the "... then I can
look it up myself and give you the part number" argument you might be able
to make it fly.  You may be able to even buy new copies of the fiche from
the dealer ...

Steve Buchholz
San Jose, CA (USA)