Audi Service - some advice please

Big Chris

Big Chris

Big Chris

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Joined
5 Apr 2004
Posts
5,461
Location
Bloxham
Car: Audi A6 Avant 45 TFSI
Age: Bought new in September 2020, 70 plate so 3.5yrs old
Mileage: 39k so about 12k a year
Usage: mostly A & B roads on daily work commute, school run, I don't drive it hard by any means

It had an oil & inspection service yesterday at Audi Oxford and there were a couple of findings which I wanted some opinions on.

1. They've said front & rear brake discs & pads are 70% worn so don't need doing immediately but will soon. Their quote is near enough £1,800 for this. Am I right in thinking this is ludicrous? By my reckoning I've still got a good 6-9 months use in them, is this something I should get done elsewhere with a reputable garage, or best done by Audi themselves? I've had the car from new and these are still the original discs & pads so not had to replace them until now.

2. They've advised the rear lower spring mounts are worn and need immediate replacement at just shy of £500. Is this to be expected on a car of this type/age/mileage/usage? Appreciate this is a somewhat subjective question given wear is no doubt linked to how the car is driven, but I'm far from an aggressive driver and it's not like the roads I drive on are tank traps. I've not had a car from new before so unsure if this is about right for spring mounts to need replacing. I asked the technician who looked over the car and he said, "yeah it can happen" which didn't really help.

Lastly, the fuel consumption seems to have taken a dive in the past few months. For more than three years since new I was getting about 450miles from a full tank of regular unleaded (around 58 litres full). This has dropped to around 375 in the past few months, doing exactly the same journeys with no change in driving style. If anything, since I noticed it drop I've been consciously easing off more yet still getting obviously less from a full tank. Again I mentioned this to the Audi tech and he said "it must be your driving style" which was again less than helpful. Does MPG naturally fall off over time or could there be something else going on under the hood?
 
1) Seems very expensive unless there is something special about the disks I am missing.

I would be tempted elsewhere.

2) would not say that is common. I thought you were going to say snapped springs which would be more common. this is generic though may be more common for your car .. unlikely I feel !

Mpg super subjective. Do you normally see a dip in winter is it comparable to last winter? Would not expect a drop off over time not like that anyway. Feels like there may be something up causing this.
 
Does anyone else drive the car?

I would be surprised to see failed suspension parts like that on a relatively new car with that mileage, but British roads have become a disgrace.

40k for a set of pads is reasonable and today garages love to do disks far more than they use to but that is the going sort of price.

I’d probably find a decent Audi specialist to nose over the areas for a second opinion.
 
Is one wheel or brake warm after you've driven it? Could be handbrake or caliper sticking slightly to cause the the increased fuel consumption, alto you would expect that on an old car.
 
If there is no longer any warranty on the car then take it elsewhere for a second opinion, or, if there is a warranty or not, then you can still take it to a independent Audi specialist who tend to be cheaper...
 
Thanks for the input so far.

It's just me who drives the car, and I actively avoid potholes where I can so unless it's to be expected that lower spring mounts wear after 40k miles of average driving I will question that and get a second opinion I think.

What's the feeling on £1,800 for new discs & pads? Seems to be opinions that this is both about right and too expensive?

On the MPG, tyre pressures are checked regularly and treads all are 5mm or 6mm having been changed in September last year where they were balanced and laser aligned. I've not had any seasonal dips in consumption in the three years I've owned the car and the MPG remained the same after the tyres were changed last year for 4-5 months until recently.
 
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The brake price is high, there is a couple of different sizes for your model assuming you have the bigger ones you can get Zimmerman disk/pads all round for £420 from autodoc. Even if a garage want to mark them up and charge £300 for fitting still half the price.
 
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would be worthwhile monitoring your consumption since the cars been serviced, see if it improves any at all. I see you check your pressures regularly, what are you putting on the tyres compared to what is recommended? even a small change in psi can have a dramatic impact on overall MPG.

£1800 for discs and pads for a non RS model Audi is eye watering, i would fully expect any decent indy to be less than half that for a decent brand of discs/pads stole a reg of a 20 plate tfsi 45 a6 to run a price compare and even spending out on brembo discs/pads all round along with new wear sensors and fitting kit i could only get the parts to £550 allow at most 2 hours labour if the mechanic wants to nip out for lunch before tackling the rears and bill you for it and your still half the price the dealer wants
 
If you price up the parts on the likes of Eurocarparts it comes to around £650 if non RS and they give you the option to have the parts fitted locally.
Will be a lot less than the rip off Audi prices.
 
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Ok thanks guys, I will tell Audi to foxtrot oscar and get the brakes done elsewhere when the time comes.

Looking for an independent Audi specialist to have a look at these mounts too.

As for tyre PSI, I keep them at 36 which is the recommendation in the manual - tyres are Goodyear Eagle F1 255/40 R20.
 
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As others said I would stop going to the main dealers and find a good indie/VAG specialist. I would only ever use a main dealer while a car is under warranty as Ive had issues with several of them.

I bought an approved used VW T-Roc R last year and the rear discs were badly corroded, I had several of their techs including their "Master Tech" have a look and explain that it's fine. They quoted me just over £2000 to replace the discs and pads all round if I wanted to. I bought the car anyway as it had the exact spec we were after, and later found the inside rear pads were completely seized and doing nothing. So I spent £600 at a good local garage and they fitted new pagid discs/pads all round while doing some other bits.
 
I paid for the extended warranty which includes servicing so will carry on with that at Audi, but I think I'll find a good alternative garage for this other kind of stuff going forward if they're going to try and fleece me every time anything else needs doing.
 
Will the warranty not cover the issue with the springs? I'm surprised it doesn't if it's the official Audi warranty on a car that's reasonably new.
 
Apparently not, they've said the mounts are worn rather than defective and that it "can happen". I'm going to question it further though as it's far too vague for a £500 bill.
 
Rear spring mount as in the rubber things? They shouldn't be worn on a 4 year old audi. 20 year old Vauxhalls one are still in good shape even after being pulled off 20 times.

Don't vag dealers send you a video tour of all the issues?
 
Fuel consumption could be a few things, try running a decent fuel cleaner through the engine, they are direct injection and rely heavily on the spray pattern being perfect.

There is other other things like the intake clogging up with oil/carbon deposits from the breather system, this is down to the direct injection again, in the old days injectors were installed on the intake runners.and the fuel would keep the intake clean.

A lot of vag people go for walnut blasting, this requires removing the intake manifold to carry out.

Pads and discs as others have said have a ring around different garages, the price is rather high, again make sure decent brands are installed, ferodo, ate, trw are among the best and pretty sure the latter 2 supply Audi at factory.

The rear spring seat seems a little odd, usually this is a rubber pad, the cost is probably down to labour as it's quite a lot of man hours to change them, the rear suspension is multi link with a lot of adjustments possible, once it's undone will also need full 4 wheel alignment, but I would be getting a 2nd opinion on this bit as has been mentioned it's not common to fail, my 20 year old a4 ones were replaced purely because I was swapping the springs out and I thought might aswell change them while I'm there, but there wasn't anything wrong with them when removed.
 
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red eye said:
Rear spring mount as in the rubber things? They shouldn't be worn on a 4 year old audi. 20 year old Vauxhalls one are still in good shape even after being pulled off 20 times.

Don't vag dealers send you a video tour of all the issues?
Click to expand...
If they are the same as the ones fitted to A4's then they are a very common issue, I was told mine were failing after 4 years and only 18k miles..
www.audiownersclub.com

Rear suspension bushes

Hi I've an 2016 A4 b9 Avant which I've just purchased Rear bushes look perished..images attached for comments. Has anyone else come across this issue? Is it expensive to fix? How thick should the bushes be? Cheers
www.audiownersclub.com www.audiownersclub.com
 
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