Water pump failure

[adwoodrow]

:(

200 miles from home yesterday the engine overheated on my 1.4 TDI. After lots of hassle trying to get an Audi dealer to look at it I left it at Crawley Audi and got the train home.

Call back later to tell me the waterpump has failed, and will cost £550 to repair and no goodwill is forthcoming from Audi. The car is only 4 months out of warranty, has covered 62k miles and has a full service history.

Is this reasonable, I would have thought the water pump was designed to last the life of the engine.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Alex Woodrow

[runboy]

There is a misconception that on the stroke of midnight of a warranty expiring, the maker can wash there hands of the product. OK, a 50p hammer made of glass may not be expected to last long (OK, weird example but you get my drift) whereas a £15k car is expected to put in a good life.

I would do some searching for wording for a strong letter (try trading standards, complaint websites etc) and fire off a letter. Whilst you may not expect a 100% refund of repair, some % towards it would be sensible from Audi. Otherwise are they saying that their £50k A8 is disposable after 3 years?

Steve - 2002 1.4SE petrol, Silver, black/black interior, Then an identical replacement 2003 A2. Now a Toyota Corolla 1.6 T-Spirit

[adwoodrow]

Does any body know if the waterpump is a cambelt driven one? I understand that a lot of Audi TDi's are, and if so I suspect the camblet change which was less than 1500 miles ago may have played a part in the failure, but I need some evidence before I speak to Audi again.

Thanks