smetki

Audi must have a lease strategy, to basically have the engine fail at the end of the 3 year lease. Every egine build after 2005 has the cheap camshaft that wears at the gas pump lobe anywhere between 50k and 100k. Interestingly this is not just the B7, but the B8 platform as well. I have both a B7 and a B8 cars and on the B8 the engine was burning oil from day one. Eventually, Audi had to replace the engine under warranty with less than 50k on the odometer. Compare that with my other 1998 B5 2.8 5V, 300k miles and still going. The B5 engine has not been opened yet, still goes 26 MPG and the compression is as good as new.

I am not sure how Audi plans to be the #1 luxury brand with this disposable engine strategy. Worse, they do not bother importing stick shift wagons after 2007. Now they really lost me.

Supatek

You are leaving out that they have recalled and corrected these issues with new heat tempered lifters and harder steel camshafts. Yes your out of your vehicle for a few hrs but you are receiving a new fuel pump in the process. The b8 had a bad run of pumps but it was minimal and corrected. Also had the cam bridge that was corrected. Audi really has taken care of these customers over the years. You yourself received a new motor and they do this even after the warranty expires an a per case basis. Mistakes happen even on the engineering and manufacturing levels. All manufactures have them. It's how they take care of the customer is what makes a repeat Audi customer just that.

smetki

You are correct that they have corrected the problem at their expense, but it is after 3-4 visits to the dealer, for a cumulative week for each instance. I would take a flawless engine over good customer service.

The flaws do not seem to be manufacturing defects, but rather design defects. Something like unhardened lobe on a camshaft managed to go through design, approval, testing, road trials, etc. Shows a poor system. You are correct that many other manufacturers have this as well. It is always a sure sign of decline. Mercedes, Rolls Royce, Jaguar, Land Rover, they all had this and lumped along until someone took them out of their misery.