Endless Audi issues..:(

Colash

Purchased a 2013 a6 sline back in October 2018 and to be honest from day one it's been heartache . 2 rear lights needed replacing which cost 500plus euro as the dealer wouldn't cover this in the warranty I was given . Then a belt pulley which they did cover but took 2 weeks to sort .now today the clutch has begun to slip . I'm aware the clutch is classed under wear and tear, but I'm.starting to think this car is a bad one . I don't think the dealer will play ball when it comes to clutch replacement under warranty so I'm looking at a hefty bill for this .anyone think I've any grounds for some bit of dealer help on this issue?

Eoinbmw

Not a chance!

SweetCaliber

Sounds like a misfortune unfortunately. What was up with the rear lights?

Clutch would be down to wear and tear unfortunately. How was it when you test drove it? That's generally when I try haggle a bit.

OldMrBrennan83

What did they tell you as a reason for changing the rear lights?

Colash

SweetCaliber wrote: »

Sounds like a misfortune unfortunately. What was up with the rear lights?

Clutch would be down to wear and tear unfortunately. How was it when you test drove it? That's generally when I try haggle a bit.

2 rear led indicators went
Sadly the 2 rear units had to be replaced and cost a fortune .on the test drive the car was great .the clutch only slips in 5th and 6th gear on hard acceleration

Colash

OldMrBrennan83 wrote: »

What did they tell you as a reason for changing the rear lights?

The reason was that lights are classed as consumables ..even though it was a light unit fault and not a bulb .. audi claims their led light units last 21 years !!!!! The dealer I bought from obviously has different opinions

9935452

If they dodnt cover the lights they wont cover this.

Go to a good independent and get the clutch n flywheel done.
I got a clutch n flywheel done on an a4 by an indie last year for 950 . Sachs was the make.
It would have been nearly 2500 main dealer.
They might offer to cover part of it but it will probably be cheaper by independent

What mileage is on the car ?

Colash

9935452 wrote: »

If they dodnt cover the lights they wont cover this.

Go to a good independent and get the clutch n flywheel done.
I got a clutch n flywheel done on an a4 by an indie last year for 950 . Sachs was the make.
It would have been nearly 2500 main dealer.
They might offer to cover part of it but it will probably be cheaper by independent

What mileage is on the car ?

91000 miles when I bought it 94 now ..950 isn't bad for flywheel and clutch tbh ..

SweetCaliber

Colash wrote: »

2 rear led indicators went
Sadly the 2 rear units had to be replaced and cost a fortune .on the test drive the car was great .the clutch only slips in 5th and 6th gear on hard acceleration

Did the two indicators go at the same time? Did the dealer find an underlying problem cause it sounds rather odd for them both to go.

I'd agree about the clutch, get a good indie to do it.

Colash

SweetCaliber wrote: »

Did the two indicators go at the same time? Did the dealer find an underlying problem cause it sounds rather odd for them both to go.

I'd agree about the clutch, get a good indie to do it.

Right went and then left a week later totally.. no underlying problems just put it down to bad luck and water ingress into the unit they reckon .
The dealer never took the car back in for the light units but rejected me over the phone and told me lights were not covered in the warranty I was given

mickdw

I don't know the specifics of the A6 but could you not have got light units elsewhere for significantly less. Used for example.

badboyblast

My 2012 S line suffered the same with the rear LED, one went on me, I purchased a complete unit ( Non brand) for 196 Euros and got it popped in on my next service, I have noticed water getting in near those rear lights so it could be common on the Audis.

I just had the EGR fail on mine also so I got it blanked and deleted Via the software, 250 Euros ( New EGR was 400 for the part plus the labour in an Indie so god knows what audi would have wanted), I would agree with people here, don`t get work done by main dealer except a fixed price timing belt etc as my friend owns an 2010 A4 and the DPF went and Audi quoted him 2500 Euros to replace and a local mechanic purchased a new DPF and fitted it for 850 Euros.

Colash

mickdw wrote: »

I don't know the specifics of the A6 but could you not have got light units elsewhere for significantly less. Used for example.

An audi mechanic told me the cheap led units for sale online aren't up to much and to ONLY buy genuine units as the rubber gaskets keeping the water out are twice the quality of the cheap ones

Colash

badboyblast wrote: »

My 2012 S line suffered the same with the rear LED, one went on me, I purchased a complete unit ( Non brand) for 196 Euros and got it popped in on my next service, I have noticed water getting in near those rear lights so it could be common on the Audis.

I just had the EGR fail on mine also so I got it blanked and deleted Via the software, 250 Euros ( New EGR was 400 for the part plus the labour in an Indie so god knows what audi would have wanted), I would agree with people here, don`t get work done by main dealer except a fixed price timing belt etc as my friend owns an 2010 A4 and the DPF went and Audi quoted him 2500 Euros to replace and a local mechanic purchased a new DPF and fitted it for 850 Euros.

Water Ingress caused mine to fail .It seems alot of early model a6 (2012-2013) had this issue from what I've read online

mickdw

Good used ones would have been an option.
Throwing money at the small things makes it twice as sickening when you have to spend on stuff like clutch where there are no cheap ways out.

Eoinbmw

Colash wrote: »

An audi mechanic told me the cheap led units for sale online aren't up to much and to ONLY buy genuine units as the rubber gaskets keeping the water out are twice the quality of the cheap ones

Valeo are the oem tail light and can be bought online much cheaper than from Audi.

Colash

Eoinbmw wrote: »

Valeo are the oem tail light and can be bought online much cheaper than from Audi.

I thought the same . Until I compared the foam gaskets I referred to earlier ..

porsche boy

Generally they are good, far better quality then the BMW & Merc's of the same time. It seems unfortunate you have had rear light issues, it's not a common problem though. Regarding the clutch, try your luck with the garage you bought it from if you have only driven 3k or so but dont be surprised when they say no. At this stage find a good independent mechanic to advise you and guide you forward.

Eoinbmw

Colash wrote: »

I thought the same . Until I compared the foam gaskets I referred to earlier ..

Did you buy Valeo units online?

Colash

porsche boy wrote: »

Generally they are good, far better quality then the BMW & Merc's of the same time. It seems unfortunate you have had rear light issues, it's not a common problem though. Regarding the clutch, try your luck with the garage you bought it from if you have only driven 3k or so but dont be surprised when they say no. At this stage find a good independent mechanic to advise you and guide you forward.

Thanks for that .I think I'll have to do that in the long run ..

Colash

Eoinbmw wrote: »

Did you buy Valeo units online?

No direct from audi through the mechanic I knew at trade price .. he showed me the different between the two . Seems the cheaper valeo units can be identified by having a black plug on the connector .the genuine audi valeo units have a green plug and beefier gaskets

w211

Actually these lights are possible to open. So if something is possible to open it is possible to repair too.
The all lights can not be faulty, then the driver must be gone bad. The easiest fix if no led chip available are to replace it by resistor. There is more leds than you actually need. If I count right and seen the right model there is about 34 leds, 2 on one heatsink and all are connected flat flex cable.

Edit: 40 led chips. Before you dump these , I can try to fix the led driver and led chips. No promises because it may more complicated than it looks for.

Colash

w211 wrote: »

Actually these lights are possible to open. So if something is possible to open it is possible to repair too.
The all lights can not be faulty, then the driver must be gone bad. The easiest fix if no led chip available are to replace it by resistor. There is more leds than you actually need. If I count right and seen the right model there is about 34 leds, 2 on one heatsink and all are connected flat flex cable.

The whole light unit went bad .including the rear lights which turn on with the headlights..

badboyblast

mickdw wrote: »

Good used ones would have been an option.
Throwing money at the small things makes it twice as sickening when you have to spend on stuff like clutch where there are no cheap ways out.

Would you believe second hand LED units are next to near impossible to get, I waited six months to replace my one and checked every week for second hand stock and no luck.

w211

Colash wrote: »

The whole light unit went bad .including the rear lights which turn on with the headlights..

These drivers looks too simple fix.

Correction, 40 led chips...

LillySV

porsche boy wrote: »

Generally they are good, far better quality then the BMW & Merc's of the same time. It seems unfortunate you have had rear light issues, it's not a common problem though. Regarding the clutch, try your luck with the garage you bought it from if you have only driven 3k or so but dont be surprised when they say no. At this stage find a good independent mechanic to advise you and guide you forward.

Dont agree with that....vw's and audis are always classed as reliable cars in Ireland by some here..if anything happens then its called wear and tear...meanwhile the bmw and merc are classed unreliable by the same people...

go look at the the reliability survey below..
Both mercedes and bmw made more reliable cars in that time period..(although its not looking good for the new models!)

https://www.whatcar.com/news/2018-what-car-reliability-survey/n17811

Anyways back to the problem, wish the op the best of luck with his problems....hope he gets everything sorted out...i would absolutely hound the dealer and try my best to get them to cover the problem under warranty before settling for independent option... even if you just managed to get them to agree to do the work for free and you agree to pay them the cost of parts..??

greasepalm

We had one in and somora or valeo had no listings for our model so had to order main dealers,it had indicator issue which logged a fault error.

badboyblast

Valeo was what i replaced mine with and I took out a Valeo unit, heres hoping that was`nt the second replacement light and my one was the third!

greasepalm

LillySV wrote: »

Dont agree with that....vw's and audis are always classed as reliable cars in Ireland by some here..if anything happens then its called wear and tear...meanwhile the bmw and merc are classed unreliable by the same people...

go look at the the reliability survey below..
Both mercedes and bmw made more reliable cars in that time period..(although its not looking good for the new models!)

https://www.whatcar.com/news/2018-what-car-reliability-survey/n17811

Ahh garage man rubbing hands together:D:D

badboyblast

Anyone had the cooling fan staying on after shutdown more often after getting the EGR blanked on an A6? mine is staying on after shutdown all the time now after blanking the EGR last week , hope its not a sign of the DPF about to go

corks finest

Colash wrote: »

Purchased a 2013 a6 sline back in October 2018 and to be honest from day one it's been heartache . 2 rear lights needed replacing which cost 500plus euro as the dealer wouldn't cover this in the warranty I was given . Then a belt pulley which they did cover but took 2 weeks to sort .now today the clutch has begun to slip . I'm aware the clutch is classed under wear and tear, but I'm.starting to think this car is a bad one . I don't think the dealer will play ball when it comes to clutch replacement under warranty so I'm looking at a hefty bill for this .anyone think I've any grounds for some bit of dealer help on this issue?

On a positive note ,once fixed you have a good chance of having a clear run, unless vv unlucky,id 2 Audis,no problems, admittedly older,an Audi 80/ 100 found them Uber reliable

jmreire

Seems that before it was just the bulb that needed to be replaced,,,but nowadays, you have to replace the complete unit...and this is called "Progress" ???
Using a cheaper OEM light would not bother me..plenty of silicone sealer around the frame and on the lamp gasket, tighten the lamp until the excess silicone is squeezed out, trim off the excess, and off you go. For some one who already has one of these Audi's ( or any other make prone to rear light failure due to water leaking into the lamp ) would be a good idea to remove the lamp, add some silicone as above, for preventative maintenance.

Colash

corks finest wrote: »

On a positive note ,once fixed you have a good chance of having a clear run, unless vv unlucky,id 2 Audis,no problems, admittedly older,an Audi 80/ 100 found them Uber reliable

I like the car .it's a cracker .apart from the issues .I'm hoping after this I get a good run with it .

badboyblast

If it has tits or tyres it will give you trouble : )

ofcork

Shouldn't be happening on so called premium products

Colash

ofcork wrote: »

Shouldn't be happening on so called premium products

I agree .regardless of the clutch ...the light issue was a huge disappointment. Also audi never considered this a recall issue .

jmreire

w211 wrote: »

Actually these lights are possible to open. So if something is possible to open it is possible to repair too.
The all lights can not be faulty, then the driver must be gone bad. The easiest fix if no led chip available are to replace it by resistor. There is more leds than you actually need. If I count right and seen the right model there is about 34 leds, 2 on one heatsink and all are connected flat flex cable.

So just one led " Pixel" ( not sure of the correct term ) in the group will cause the light to fail? And this can be by-passed? That is if you can open the lamp? How will this affect the canbus?

w211

jmreire wrote: »

So just one led " Pixel" ( not sure of the correct term ) in the group will cause the light to fail? And this can be by-passed? That is if you can open the lamp? How will this affect the canbus?

It does not fail because every tiny reflector have a 2 chips. It can not be 1 chip problem. It must be the driver problem because all other should works. I am 100% sure the road safety does not allow that kind of lights if one chip goes then everything be dark. To avoid the canbus error, I suggested to install the resistor for the replacement. These led chips looks to be some kind custom made or not well known model.

LillySV

greasepalm wrote: »

Ahh garage man rubbing hands together:D:D

Do u own an Audi!? Haha

t8010789

I have a 2011 a6 se,one of the earlier ones off the production line for that mark. Imported it in 2013 with 40 odd thousand miles, it now has 105. Pretty much trouble free motoring, full Audi servicing with belt done last year. Does have a couple of niggles, one, the clutch has a judder at take off, it is intermittent and from reading around it could be a thrust bearing problem? Also, there is an electrical pop through the speakers when the car is unlocked or locked. Apart from that, the car is lovely to drive and has plenty of room inside. Slightly concerned that the car is not getting a good blast for the sake of the dpf. No led lights but does pop brake bulbs.

greasepalm

LillySV wrote: »

Do u own an Audi!? Haha

No thanks i prefare a quality built car like mitsubishi built to last,had plenty of audis and vws in ho ho:D

greasepalm

t8010789 wrote: »

I have a 2011 a6 se,one of the earlier ones off the production line for that mark. Imported it in 2013 with 40 odd thousand miles, it now has 105. Pretty much trouble free motoring, full Audi servicing with belt done last year. Does have a couple of niggles, one, the clutch has a judder at take off, it is intermittent and from reading around it could be a thrust bearing problem? Also, there is an electrical pop through the speakers when the car is unlocked or locked. Apart from that, the car is lovely to drive and has plenty of room inside. Slightly concerned that the car is not getting a good blast for the sake of the dpf. No led lights but does pop brake bulbs.

Start giving car a good blast down the motorway and what make of cheap bulbs in use has a bearing in life of bulb.Inspect the 2 filament legs and see if one leg has shrunk due to cheap.

LillySV

greasepalm wrote: »

No thanks i prefare a quality built car like mitsubishi built to last,had plenty of audis and vws in ho ho:D

I’d love an evo lancer! Mitsubishi’s make some very reliable cars.... but I’ve heard bad reports of their l200

Tuco88

No offence I still wouldn't touch a Mitsubishi over an Audi. Honda/Toyota is the only Jap car imo.

AudiAvant

Always say it
Everything is over engineered these days
Crazy money for blingy parts
Just extract as much money from your pockets as they can
All flash
Give me a standard bulb and a replacement lamp for 40 quid in a scrapyard

MetzgerMeister

CIP4....is that you?? :pac:

Colash

Just wanted to update this
. Dealer is meeting me halfway on this which I'm happy with ..

Eoinbmw

Colash wrote: »

Just wanted to update this
. Dealer is meeting me halfway on this which I'm happy with ..

Thats a result!

w211

Colash wrote: »

Just wanted to update this
. Dealer is meeting me halfway on this which I'm happy with ..

May be there is more air on the price?
Please collect the old modules and I try to fix these. If these are fixable, you can earn all the reselling value. If these are not fixable, then sorry.

LillySV

Colash wrote: »

Just wanted to update this
. Dealer is meeting me halfway on this which I'm happy with ..

Good stuff

armaghlad

Apologies to resurrect an old thread.. has anyone had any post emissions recall engine issues? I’ve an 09 A4 and it has served me well, however it has started to sporadically present me with engine mgmt light/glow plug flashing on the dash. Mechanic says it’s egr valve and it’s time to move it on. The car has 146k miles which is heavy enough. I had the car recalled to Audi just over 2.5 years ago, I think they would have fixed it under 2 year warranty had it came up sooner. Is this just age related or what do we reckon? Is it worth fixing cos I know it’s a big enough job