Audi warranty denial....

turbo said:
Yes I spoke to Audi customer services once I knew the local dealerships position on the matter. They were not helpful saying warranty disputes are handled by the dealerships only and not Audi UK. I was instructed by my solicitor to send my letter to VWFS who are the finance company (and therefore owners of the vehicle) to complain. We will see what transpires from that in due course...
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Does your solicitor specialise in probate or something? That is a very odd move to shift blame on the finance company when modifications are at play. They'll be even less sympathetic than Audi as they actually have an interest in the vehicle.
 
dLockers said:
Does your solicitor specialise in probate or something? That is a very odd move to shift blame on the finance company when modifications are at play. They'll be even less sympathetic than Audi as they actually have an interest in the vehicle.
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I was thinking that, aren't you in breach of the terms and conditions by modifying a financed car as basically it isn't even your car.
 
Dandle said:
Have you found out how much the repairs are to get it going again?
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Well they quoted me £1500 for a battery so the conversation pretty much fizzled out after that. I can find the battery online for £300...

I am contemplating just asking for the car back because these large fuses being replaced 'could' alleviate most of the problems but I need to see how the finance company react first. At the moment I have the dealer the car is at asking for payment for a steering rack they have fitted. They never said that this would need to be paid for by me and I would not have authorised its replacement if at any time they were not going to cover it with the warranty. I made a point of asking this at the time reference the parts replacement and the warranty covering it and was advised that it would be covered (they knew full well about the ghost being on the car at this point as well).
 
Did they get you to sign anything (paper or electronic) to authorise the works on the steering rack? It's a little cheeky of them to try and charge you for it if they didn't tell you it wouldn't be covered by warranty.
 
turbo said:
Well they quoted me £1500 for a battery so the conversation pretty much fizzled out after that. I can find the battery online for £300...

I am contemplating just asking for the car back because these large fuses being replaced 'could' alleviate most of the problems but I need to see how the finance company react first. At the moment I have the dealer the car is at asking for payment for a steering rack they have fitted. They never said that this would need to be paid for by me and I would not have authorised its replacement if at any time they were not going to cover it with the warranty. I made a point of asking this at the time reference the parts replacement and the warranty covering it and was advised that it would be covered (they knew full well about the ghost being on the car at this point as well).
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This gets more messy by the day - Seems to be a huge communication issue.

You must have agreed something for them to fit a new steering rack.... They won't have just gone ahead and done that without confirming first whether the customer is paying or warranty. No garage will just fix stuff that comes in the door without knowing how they are getting paid.

Also fixing fuses yourself on a financed car sounds like a recipe for disaster - Changing fuses and "hoping" the problem goes away doesn't, to me, sound like the best idea.

Finance company will just refer you back to dealer - They won't get involved and even if they do, you fitting an "unauthorised immobiliser" won't help your situation.
 
I would NOT inform the finance company. That opens a whole new can of worms. At the moment you're on the hook for a few thousand in repairs maximum. Whatever needs doing could probably be repaired by a VAG specialist for substantially less than at the Audi main dealer.

If the finance company told you to settle and you'd still have to repair the car, could you afford that/finance it elsewhere? Or they would be perfectly within their rights to just authorise the repairs at the Audi dealer and have them send you the bill for repairing their car.

This may be one of those first loss, least loss scenarios where you just get the car fixed as quietly and cheaply as possible.
 
booyaka said:
This gets more messy by the day - Seems to be a huge communication issue.

You must have agreed something for them to fit a new steering rack.... They won't have just gone ahead and done that without confirming first whether the customer is paying or warranty. No garage will just fix stuff that comes in the door without knowing how they are getting paid.

Also fixing fuses yourself on a financed car sounds like a recipe for disaster - Changing fuses and "hoping" the problem goes away doesn't, to me, sound like the best idea.

Finance company will just refer you back to dealer - They won't get involved and even if they do, you fitting an "unauthorised immobiliser" won't help your situation.
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When you book the car in at any Audi dealer (probably ANY car dealer) there is always a clause in the document they get you to sign to say you'll pay for any repairs. You may not remember it, but they wouldn't have done any work on the car without an authorisation. If you didn't sign an authorisation then fair enough, they've just given you a new free steering rack, but my guess is you signed an authorisation at some point.
 
Sounds like a bit of a nightmare. It is one of the reasons i have never entertained the idea of modifying any new car/car under manufacturers warranty i have had. It just isnt worth the potential issue of them worming their way out of things.

This sounds like the worst possible scenario to be in as well - you have fitted after market electrical gear...and now you have a major electrical problem that they can't solve.

However, the correspondence from them all sounds very "if/but/maybe" so I think they are possibly hedging their bets that you may just give up, and are in fact unsure of what to do themselves (ie whether they can legally get out of repairing it)

I think it is worth requesting clearly defined answers from them ie "Please state for my solicitor whether you will definitely be honouring the warranty or not, and if not please state why and provide evidence as to why you deem this to not be a manufacturing fault"

I wouldn't settle for any more mealy-mouthed wording. You need definitive answers/a definitive response from them.
 
The £1500 will be for the 48v battery not the 12v.

It is a messy situation to be in. I’d get the car back and off to a specialist to look at it and pull the fault codes although I wouldn’t be surprised if the dealer clears them before releasing the car.
 
WJA96 said:
When you book the car in at any Audi dealer (probably ANY car dealer) there is always a clause in the document they get you to sign to say you'll pay for any repairs. You may not remember it, but they wouldn't have done any work on the car without an authorisation. If you didn't sign an authorisation then fair enough, they've just given you a new free steering rack, but my guess is you signed an authorisation at some point.
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No the only authorisation I gave was when the car first went into them. This emailed authorisation was for them to perform a diagnostic (which is exactly how it was worded in the email I received from them) and nothing else. They then called me up and told me what they wanted to replace, I said ok and that's covered under warranty? To which they said yes it would be and that was the end of the conversation. I have not signed for or emailed an authorisation for repair work on the car that could mean a cost implication to me.

The dealer the car is at are obviously not going to help me sort the car out - that much is clear. They are looking for problems to wash there hands of the car. Should I contact them and get this steering rack issue cleared off? This would then allow me to recover the car to an independent garage and go from there?

In the meantime these issues with warranties and recovery damage can play out in the background...?
 
I think you need to lawyer up with someone more appropriate than current solicitor. I wouldn't suggest taking the car back as that creates a whole other paper trail that you don't want to have to deal with, and more variables in the overall story.

Are they flat out refusing to fix the car? I don't see how they can say warranty is not valid without knowing what the actual problem is. Is there not a level of pragmatism you can convince them to, to swap out with a known working 48v and fuses and then do further diagnosis but go no further?

The story is quite clear that there has been no issue for a substantial period of time. Unless there has been a "slow leak" I can't see how it is a shut door on you... very disappointing behaviour.
 
Also, have you posted on a proper Audi specialist forum? Audiworld?

Edit: My best pal @paradigm may be able to help. I did a quick Google on Q7 issues and water ingress into modules seems to be a very common problem. I remember para mentioning something about water ingress into his car (was that even an Audi)?
 
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Martynt74 said:
Not worth just trying to go through insurance and be done with it?
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At this stage it is not a bad shout, at least it buffers you from the initial cost and then they can use their legal recourse to settle the claim (providing you have legal cover)?
 
won't finance company check warranty status, with Audi, when they hand back car anyway, so, maybe unable to prevent that being communicated already,
updating finance company when you know there is an issue could be a contractual obligation anyway.

Pursue Insurance on what basis - damaged by whom ghost, rac ?

Ensuring that the old steering rack is preserved(later independent engineer forensics) along with the ecu error log are probably what I'd prioritize,
perhaps by having a receipted email communication with dealership manager, audihq copied.
 
Lol what. Why would insurance pay for this.

A car with no body damage obviously didnt crash.

When they get an engineer to look at the car you'll also get caught lying.
 
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