Shayana

Hey all--
OK. I take may car in for the 5k service yesterday. Then I drive it home. Tonight, after a total of about 5 miles, I notice the rear tire is flat. I'm about one mile from home.

In the tire is a brand new screw. This is the third time in ten years that I've found a new screw in a flat tire aftre taking the car in to the dealer's shop. I think this is a function of some endemic carelessness--like doctors and nurses not washing their hands enough in hospitals and spreading infections.

Anyway, thats not the end of my gripe. I couldn't get the lug nut covers off with the tools I had--I have a sport wheel setup but the car was delivered with the little hexagonal silver covers on the five-spoker wheels, not with the little black plugs I've seen on other seven-spoke wheels. SO I call the 800 number on the roadside assistance labels Audi just mailed to me. Number discontinued! I call my dealer. they give me a new number.

I call the new number. They tell me to look for some tweezerlike apparatus. Not there. I do find a weird tool shaped like a musical note, which does help me work out two of the lugnut covers but not the rest.

My dad arrives with a compressor. We put some air in the tire. I drive the car to the dealer. I notice that the Dunlops look pretty beat up for one mile of slowspeed travel on the rim.

I am highly bummed. If my tire is shot I will really be highly bummed. Anyone ever successfully blame a flat on their dealer's messy workshop?
--Shayana

PeteP

I had the exact same sort of experience at a Chrysler dealer a few years back. Fortunately tire was repairable (at my own expense). I was sure that the new body panel type screw had to have come from the dealer but no way to prove it.

Give it the dealer try. Maybe they care enough about customer goodwill that they will help you out on replacing the tire.

Andy Hedin

<center><img src="http://131.107.68.28/a4org/Plastic_Lugbolt-Cover_Removal_Tool.jpg"></center><p>This is the tweezer-like tool needed to remove the "dust caps" from the lugnuts on your A4. The musical-note-like tool (made out of metal, correct?) is used to remove the center caps on A4's equipped with 15" alloy wheels. Using that tool to remove your dust caps will scratch the heck out of your rims. If you can't locate the tool, ask your dealer for one as you'll need it in the future.

Andy Hedin
'97 A4 1.8Tqms, Garrett 1.0 Bar, ABT Filter, Borla Exhaust, European Headlights, more...