jdkirkk

In my opinion, Team Imports in Merrillville, Indiana, may not be the best place to expand your Audi experience, as they have pretty well ended mine, and the idea of a "someday" S6 Avant. However, many years of BMWs taught me that all dealers are not equal, so there should be a glimmer of hope out there for my fellow club members. My 2002 A6 Avant developed serious left-rear suspension problems that went undetected for the last two 10k checks under the original warranty, and many $$$ later may not be resolved yet. Al, at CPT, has correctly diagnosed and corrected most of the problems, and his comment to me was "it wasn't the cars fault."
Since a serious failure in this area could toss the vehicle into oncoming traffic, and since the original root of the problem seems a stripped thread on the swaybar which, when loose, messed up all sorts of stuff (and might have been that way out of the factory), I thought the folks in Auburn Hills might be interested, but they weren't, so the whole mess goes to NHTSA. The feds do not dream this stuff up; I kept all of the parts in a box in my garage.
Incidentally, the "Gold Level Plus" extended warranty I purchased for $3k from this dealer has only partially lived up to its promise; so that's more wasted money.
The managers parting shot was ". . .I would prefer that we end our business relationship as of right now. If you are threatening Team Audi w/ slanderous statements then I must tell you to govern yourself accordingly."
So the corporate answer then becomes "we can't fix it but if you complain we will sue you." The head of Audi Motorsport, Dr Wolfgang Ullrich, worked long and hard to bring those R8's down the Mulsanne Strait and to international fame; how sad that his legacy is so dishonored by the marketing folks.

4Driver4

". . .I would prefer that we end our business relationship as of right now. If you are threatening Team Audi w/ slanderous statements then I must tell you to govern yourself accordingly."

Engrish much?

Shameless in Chicago

I think there's probably a lot to that story that you left out.

jdkirkk

Yes, there was, and it just gets worse, but brevity is encouraged in these forums. There were only around 1800 of these vehicles built, so the idea is for owners to take a look at that left rear suspension.

skabaru

you would be better off actually explaining the problem in detail, the symptoms and the remedy...

jdkirkk

2002 A6 Avant, mileage now is 41k, symtoms started around 28k, and noise was the first signal.
(1)An occassional "thump" from the rear; I checked the back of the car for something rolling around, or loose in the spare wheel well, or elsewhere; there was nothing loose.
(2) "Thump" became consistant and isolated to hard right turns, especially uphill turns, and was reported to mechanic for a 10k check.
(3) "Thump" became metallic in nature; it was no longer a sound like a bushing, it was metal to metal. Reported to mechanic and was diagnosed as a need for a brake job on the rear wheels.
(4)Viscous fluid on my garage floor at the left rear wheel. I checked and it wasn't brake fluid, it turned out to be from a ruptured shock, a first in my ownership/knowledge of cars. At this point I went to CPT and they discovered a loose antiroll bar, misdircted brake line, damanged suspension elements and so on. They did take photos of the area before they did the work of correcting the situation.

cfdfireman1

who is the company that wrote your ""Gold Level Plus" extended warranty", it's not Audi right?

skabaru

so what was the cause of the problem? the loose antiroll bar? that seems odd, since the anti roll bar is not necessary, and I have driven with a broken rear antiroll bar...

Just to be fair, I have had leaking/ruptured shocks before...

DaveyKid

jdkirkk

Its my understanding that only around 1800 U.S. '02 A6 Avants were built. I assume the front suspension arcitecture was probably the same as the sedan, but the rear may have detail differences due to possible loading of the extended cargo compartment. The anti roll bar is not necessary to suspend the car, true, of course. As I understand it, the loose anti roll bar flailing around started the problem, and would probably have been the end of it had it been secured early on, although Al at CPT was upset with some other things in that area. I have never had, nor heard of, a shock being ruptured to the point it spewed its fluid on the garage floor.