missing one record, oil sludge.. what to do?
10-13-2006, 05:47 AM
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missing one record, oil sludge.. what to do?
Hello everyone,
Thought I'd post here since AW has been around for so long (10years is ANCIENT in internet time).
Alright so I bought my 2002 a4 1.8t with 51,200 miles on it about 3 weeks ago from a private dealer. The dealer and I have a 50/50 warranty for 30 days should anything go wrong.
Alright so for the first two weeks theres absoltely no problem with the car. During the second week, I get the red oil light in the DIS so I pulled over, checked the oil and sure enough the pressure was fine. I didn't make too much of it at first until I started reading all sorts of posts here and on AZ. Now that got me worried so I took it to the dealership this wednesday to see if it is the oil sludge problem and to get it fixed under the extended warranty for that.
Well.. I drop the car off and they tell me that they'll charge me $107/hr until they can find the problem but if it is oil sludge, then that cost would be included in the warranty. Ok.. that sounds fair enough so I leave it there. The service adviser (asst service manager) I spoke to tells me that it'll take a few hours to diagnose the problem and he'll call me back later in the day.
Well, after the diagnostic has been done, he tells me that the car has records for its 10k,20k,30k, and 40k service but is missing a 5k service and a 50k service. A 5k service, wtf? I knew he was bull****ting me then so I told him my maintenance manual mentions no such 5k service. He says he'll check on that but that I still need to do the 50k service before the warranty can take affect. He says he'll call me back tomorrow with more details and something like "we'll work this out."
The next day I get a call back from my service adviser (asst service manager) and he tells me that my car has its 10k, 20k, 30k, and 40k records on their system but the 40k service was performed at 34,000 miles. Because it was done so early, he says theres has been no service done to the car (that they have records of) since 34k. Because of this long period of no service, they can't cover the problem. He even suggests that I take the car back and bring it back in later sometime... wtf?
What's strange here is that the my car's first owner (I'm the second) had the car until 51k so he could have easily gotten the free 50k service done and had ample time to do it, but did not. Another thing is who does their 40k service at 34k?? I'm thinking there might be a story behind this, something like.. he went in to do his 30k service, and audi performed the 40k one. When he went back to do his 40k service, they told him that it had already be done.. and so he probbaly went to a 3rd party place to get his oil changed and thus Audi doesn't have records of it.
Alright my car just got out of audi's warranty since it has 51k on it so I call my dealer (who I bought it from) and they tell me that they do an oil change before any sell any car. Ok, so an oil change was done at 51k that I do have the records for. The private dealer's manager tells me to contact Audi of america directly and explain my situation, that they should be able to better assist me since this is a known problem on the a4s.
Ok, so I call AoA's customer service and get assigned a reference number and am told that the service manager for that audi dealership will contact me in the next 24-48hours with Audi's position on the matter and what my options are.
Now I'm fairly certain that he is going to repeat the same thing and say that because no service has been done to the car or since i cannot provide the records for the car from that time, the car cannot be fixed under their warranty.
I've spoken to the private dealer and the manager there says he will see if he can find any records of the car or will try to speak to my adviser himself and see what he can do, but it still seems like to me that I'm pretty much going to be screwed however much it'll cost to get that sludge issue fixed.
It's next to impossible for me to get the records or get in touch with the previous owner so I can show them to the dealership...
Is there anything else I can do? Right now my car is at the dealership and I will be going over today to return the free rental (they only gave me 3 days).
Sorry for the extremely long first post! I'm just frustrated and I guess I continued to ramble on
Thought I'd post here since AW has been around for so long (10years is ANCIENT in internet time).
Alright so I bought my 2002 a4 1.8t with 51,200 miles on it about 3 weeks ago from a private dealer. The dealer and I have a 50/50 warranty for 30 days should anything go wrong.
Alright so for the first two weeks theres absoltely no problem with the car. During the second week, I get the red oil light in the DIS so I pulled over, checked the oil and sure enough the pressure was fine. I didn't make too much of it at first until I started reading all sorts of posts here and on AZ. Now that got me worried so I took it to the dealership this wednesday to see if it is the oil sludge problem and to get it fixed under the extended warranty for that.
Well.. I drop the car off and they tell me that they'll charge me $107/hr until they can find the problem but if it is oil sludge, then that cost would be included in the warranty. Ok.. that sounds fair enough so I leave it there. The service adviser (asst service manager) I spoke to tells me that it'll take a few hours to diagnose the problem and he'll call me back later in the day.
Well, after the diagnostic has been done, he tells me that the car has records for its 10k,20k,30k, and 40k service but is missing a 5k service and a 50k service. A 5k service, wtf? I knew he was bull****ting me then so I told him my maintenance manual mentions no such 5k service. He says he'll check on that but that I still need to do the 50k service before the warranty can take affect. He says he'll call me back tomorrow with more details and something like "we'll work this out."
The next day I get a call back from my service adviser (asst service manager) and he tells me that my car has its 10k, 20k, 30k, and 40k records on their system but the 40k service was performed at 34,000 miles. Because it was done so early, he says theres has been no service done to the car (that they have records of) since 34k. Because of this long period of no service, they can't cover the problem. He even suggests that I take the car back and bring it back in later sometime... wtf?
What's strange here is that the my car's first owner (I'm the second) had the car until 51k so he could have easily gotten the free 50k service done and had ample time to do it, but did not. Another thing is who does their 40k service at 34k?? I'm thinking there might be a story behind this, something like.. he went in to do his 30k service, and audi performed the 40k one. When he went back to do his 40k service, they told him that it had already be done.. and so he probbaly went to a 3rd party place to get his oil changed and thus Audi doesn't have records of it.
Alright my car just got out of audi's warranty since it has 51k on it so I call my dealer (who I bought it from) and they tell me that they do an oil change before any sell any car. Ok, so an oil change was done at 51k that I do have the records for. The private dealer's manager tells me to contact Audi of america directly and explain my situation, that they should be able to better assist me since this is a known problem on the a4s.
Ok, so I call AoA's customer service and get assigned a reference number and am told that the service manager for that audi dealership will contact me in the next 24-48hours with Audi's position on the matter and what my options are.
Now I'm fairly certain that he is going to repeat the same thing and say that because no service has been done to the car or since i cannot provide the records for the car from that time, the car cannot be fixed under their warranty.
I've spoken to the private dealer and the manager there says he will see if he can find any records of the car or will try to speak to my adviser himself and see what he can do, but it still seems like to me that I'm pretty much going to be screwed however much it'll cost to get that sludge issue fixed.
It's next to impossible for me to get the records or get in touch with the previous owner so I can show them to the dealership...
Is there anything else I can do? Right now my car is at the dealership and I will be going over today to return the free rental (they only gave me 3 days).
Sorry for the extremely long first post! I'm just frustrated and I guess I continued to ramble on
10-13-2006, 06:46 AM
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The sludge warranty is still valid, the question is whether the maintenance...
is considered acceptable. From what I've seen, Audi dealer's systems aren't linked, so dealer A can't see on his system what dealer B did for services to your car. Is there any indication in your service book that another dealer did any services to the car, especially the 10k intervals? If so, that might be the missing link to help you.
Btw, I also have a 2002, and there is no 5k service requirement. Good catch! I'm not sure whether to read that as a potentially crooked service manager, or one who is just confusing the many different models and their respective service intervals.
If the 40k service was done at 34k, that's just plain wrong, and it'll be interesting to see what AoA does with the dealer and you.
Sorry I don't have any more to offer. Good luck, and keep us posted on the results, good or bad. We'll try to help out with info as best we can.
Btw, I also have a 2002, and there is no 5k service requirement. Good catch! I'm not sure whether to read that as a potentially crooked service manager, or one who is just confusing the many different models and their respective service intervals.
If the 40k service was done at 34k, that's just plain wrong, and it'll be interesting to see what AoA does with the dealer and you.
Sorry I don't have any more to offer. Good luck, and keep us posted on the results, good or bad. We'll try to help out with info as best we can.
10-13-2006, 07:01 AM
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I did 40K at 34K as well
I did the same thing. I was on my last day before my 5-year free maintenance program was expired. Dealer was willing to do all possible 40K tasks and I also bought an extended warranty. Yes, for 5 years, I reached only 34K miles. I was told that a typical 40K maintenance would cost about $700.
No 5K service is required, but I did the oil change every 5K.
No 5K service is required, but I did the oil change every 5K.
10-13-2006, 07:02 AM
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Re: The sludge warranty is still valid, the question is whether the maintenance...
I bought the car from a private used car dealer in Fairfax, Virginia. Right now my car is at the Audi of Tysons Corner in vienna, va.
When I bought my car, it didn't actually come with a service book -- I was able to look at a similar (same year, engine, etc) A4's service manual to see if there was any mention of a 5k service.
I should be getting a call later today from the service manager at the audi dealership but if I don't get a reponse by 3pm, I'll call AoA directly and see what the status of my case is.
I didn't think that the dealership would do a planned service so early (by 6,000 miles before the actual planned date).. Its almost as if/should be against their policies. I can understand if it was 2k or so earlier, but a whole 6k?
Shouldn't the dealership have to prove that the lack of service between these intervals is the direct cause of the problem? They can easilly pin it off and say since theres a missing service record, we don't know if the vehicle was maintained properly, but I don't think that implies a direct cause of the problem.
When I bought my car, it didn't actually come with a service book -- I was able to look at a similar (same year, engine, etc) A4's service manual to see if there was any mention of a 5k service.
I should be getting a call later today from the service manager at the audi dealership but if I don't get a reponse by 3pm, I'll call AoA directly and see what the status of my case is.
I didn't think that the dealership would do a planned service so early (by 6,000 miles before the actual planned date).. Its almost as if/should be against their policies. I can understand if it was 2k or so earlier, but a whole 6k?
Shouldn't the dealership have to prove that the lack of service between these intervals is the direct cause of the problem? They can easilly pin it off and say since theres a missing service record, we don't know if the vehicle was maintained properly, but I don't think that implies a direct cause of the problem.
10-13-2006, 10:49 AM
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If you can't get AoA to cover, then get some AutoRx right away.
I would do 2 applications (or maybe 3) using Rotella T-Syn 5w40 and then move on to 5,000 mile changes using an A3-rated synthetic from now on.<ul><li><a href="http://auto-rx.com/">http://auto-rx.com/</a</li></ul>
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10-13-2006, 01:04 PM
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Here's the maintenance records for my car...
I have an 02 a4 avant 1.8T that I've been driving for almost a year.
Previous owner took it to the dealer for service according to the indicator in the dashboard. From what I know this indicator is for 10,000 miles or 1 year, whichever comes first.
Here are the records he gave me for the services listed in the manual (every 10K or 1 year, "covered" means dealer paid for it):
Date Mileage Description
02/04/03 6251 10K service (covered)
01/09/04 15160 20K service (covered)
09/17/04 24488 30K service (covered)
02/02/05 30463 oil&filter change (car was at dealer for a recall and I guess they threw in an oil change)
05/17/05 33955 40K service, brake fluid flush
09/17/05 39000 oil&filter change (at Independent shop)
11/22/05 43204 50K service (covered)
He originally bought the car in Feb 2002, so the first year he only put on 6251 miles, and the service indicator came on and he took the car to the dealer. After that it looks like he drove the car more frequently, but he still took the car for service according to the indicator on the dash. As you can see from the list above, even when he decided to get (or got suckered into getting, not sure) additional oil changes and the indicator was not reset, he still went in when the indicator called for service, so 40K was done at 34K and 50K done at 43K.
Sorry for the long post, but maybe this explains the service part.
Previous owner took it to the dealer for service according to the indicator in the dashboard. From what I know this indicator is for 10,000 miles or 1 year, whichever comes first.
Here are the records he gave me for the services listed in the manual (every 10K or 1 year, "covered" means dealer paid for it):
Date Mileage Description
02/04/03 6251 10K service (covered)
01/09/04 15160 20K service (covered)
09/17/04 24488 30K service (covered)
02/02/05 30463 oil&filter change (car was at dealer for a recall and I guess they threw in an oil change)
05/17/05 33955 40K service, brake fluid flush
09/17/05 39000 oil&filter change (at Independent shop)
11/22/05 43204 50K service (covered)
He originally bought the car in Feb 2002, so the first year he only put on 6251 miles, and the service indicator came on and he took the car to the dealer. After that it looks like he drove the car more frequently, but he still took the car for service according to the indicator on the dash. As you can see from the list above, even when he decided to get (or got suckered into getting, not sure) additional oil changes and the indicator was not reset, he still went in when the indicator called for service, so 40K was done at 34K and 50K done at 43K.
Sorry for the long post, but maybe this explains the service part.
