Batlou

Thanks for the tips...

I checked all of the hoses. It turns out the Main air intake where it connects to the engine was not connected. In addition while I was checking all of the air intake hoses there was a tremendous amount of "lint" like stuff trapped in the intake just before it enters the filter. I took some pictures and cleaned it all out and put it in a zip lock.

I will be visiting the shop tomorrow to show them what I found. Funny how they charged me for 1.5 hours labor to check all of the intake systems and determine it was a MAF Sensor yet there was a very large intake hose disconnected and enough lint in the intake to stuff a zip lock sandwich bag. They must have really been looking hard.

Batlou

Thanks for the help. I just spoke with the shop and they pitched a fit because they charged me for 1.5 hours of labor and I found the main air intake hose where it connects to the throttle body was completely disconnected. This was easily visible with only a minor, non-professional, inspection. ughh

I am sure there are plenty of credible shops out there but these guys were ready to do another 500 dollars worth of work on a hunch. This does not include the 114 they already charged to do the inspection and determine the cause.

My guess, they hooked the VAG-COM up and ran the diag. Diagnosed the problem without ever even opening the hood. ^%#@*&@*#!!!

Batlou

It's a 2000 2.8 V6. Not sure if they are compatable or not.

dorsal900

You didn't say if they refunded your $114 or not, just that they gave you a hard time. If not and you paid by credit card, I wouldn't hesitate for one second to call your credit card company (the Customer Service number is on the back of your card) and dispute the charge. I own a retail store that accepts cards and this happens when customers are dissatisfied, AND have already tried to but could not get resolution from the vendor (in this case the repair shop) - and sometimes while we are working on correcting what went wrong and it's taking a while, but that's another story. In my opinion, the shop outright screwed you. This is one of the risks for vendors in accepting cards and one of your protections in using them to pay your bills (in case you're wondering where the 20+% rates come in).

The shop will try to defend themselves that they did in fact perform a diagnostic scan and therefore a chargeable service was provided; your counter argument is that this is how they decided to address the problem that they created in their prior work, and the scan was necessary only because of unsatisfactory work from the first visit. If you are feeling nasty, you may want to dispute some of the previous visit's charge as well (you never did say what work they did) - but that's up to you.

And, as I said on a post below, you really, really need to find another shop - this is total BS and infuriating.