ajmilan

For warranty and recall work, definitely. (This keeps us on-topic in the thread!)
For accident repairs, yes - I want genuine parts.
For consumables (brake pads, rotors, etc.) - no no no. A very reputable and cheaper alternative exists in my area.
Tires - Sam's Club. Good prices, warranty, free rotation.

angrypengu

Always, for all of my cars ever since I've owned cars.

hcuorg

My apologies. I just wanted to bring it up as someone mentioned about warranty work on a part a customer supplied.

KevinGary

Same here!

Sk8

I'm not sure if this has been posted before but it seems quite informative.

https://transistor-man.com/audi_48v.html

​​​​​​it may answer some questions regarding the BSG issue.

ThomasWShea

I had not seen that write up, which goes into awesome detail. He quoted us (myself and @retom) back in Jan. 2023 - though we did learn more after that. He clearly has a higher electrical knowledge than we do. I might reach out to him to tell share more info / ideas with him.

Rubberbumper

I just scanned this article; way over my head, but it does make me continue to wonder if using the auto stop/start (or not) is a significant contributing factor to alternator failures. If I understood, he talks about an undersized battery and the effects of the 48 volt "assistance" going up an extended hill/climb as possible aggravating factors to failure. If I got that right (and perhaps I didn't), then cars that are used with the auto S/S turned off all/most of the time, would not be operating the car in a way that strains the system.

Anyone else have a take on this?

Steve

Jdsengineer

all I know is I've been turning off the start/stop for the last year and a half ever since this came up on the forum. We only take short trips, 30 min at the max, fearing maybe longer trips might build up heat in the alternator. Kinda sucks that we only use the car for errands and not travel, but it is what it is.

angrypengu

This write up is killing me. Right when it gets good, the article ends. DAMMIT.

Based on my own data collection and while I only understood 80% of what he wrote, it is in line with what I see. While the battery is 'extremely' undersized, it's within spec for what Audi designed it to be. Draining the battery while the BSG is doing its thing does show a very quick ability to discharge energy when going up a hill or whatever.

Turning SS off will help but keep in mind the BSG is active at most stages of the rev curve and very active when driving aggressively. The battery does get thermally limited quickly. That thing gets hot quick.

ThomasWShea

i do not believe his theory on what the bsg is doing is correct tho. that is what i want to talk to him about. my theory is that the bsg is strictly used to spin the engine up to a certain rpm when the engine is at zero load and off, i do not think the bsg is contributing output that would move the vehicle even one inch.