Audi repair cost: anti roll bar etc

[ramseydan]

Hi All,

I had my 2002 A2 repaired recently, because of the legendary 'thumping' noise coming from underneath the front footwell, when going over bumps and stuff..... turned out to be the anti roll bar.

It cost £638 to fix!! Does this sound fair for a 2002 car? I am thinking of writing to Audi to complain about this situation in a 4yo car!!

They had to replace both the front track rod ends, anti roll bar bushes and link arms, and carry out a 4 wheel alignment (apparently!). This cost £407 in labour alone, does that sound right???

Any comments would be appreciated


Dan

[dickhilt]

Hi Ramseydan,
My car is suffering the same symptoms at the moment. It's a 2001 '51 car but had only covered 29000 miles. I bought it from a well known car supermarket with just a 30 day warranty and so far they've replaced at least one anti-roll bar bush and both drop links and the damn thing'
s still rattling and thumping over even minor undulations. It will therefore have to go back.
I think the price you've been charged for labour is very excessive. I don't know what's involved but can't imagine it would take a skilled mechanic more than two hours labour to sort out.
I'd be interested to know how Audi justify that price so keep us posted.

[crb1011]

had my anti roll bar and drop links replaced by a vw dealership and it would have cost around £200 but was covered by a warranty.
In my opinion the whole thing,anti roll bar, bushes and drop links on both sides should be replaced all at the same time more cost effective

[Ricardo]

Mine was knocking, went to a friends garage, replaced the anti-roll bar bushes all fine now. £6 each for bushes x2, £6 each for mounts x2, £60 labour.

[GrayB]

Mine was knocking, went to a friends garage, replaced the anti-roll bar bushes all fine now. £6 each for bushes x2, £6 each for mounts x2, £60 labour.
Might depend on the age of the car - the older models have the antiroll bar bushes integral with the bar, so the whole thing gets changed! Which is when it starts to get expensive... The subframe has to be dropped to get the bar out - which is why Audi say the alignment should be redone. Our tame mechanic was prettty sure that the subframe went back in the same place, so we took a chance...

[bye_bye_alfa]

mine had integtral bushes, but so I had to buy a new roll bar, this cost £60, the new one has replacement bushes on so will be around £4 for the parts next time.

Mine is an 02 (june).

bba

[Ricardo]

Mine 52 - November.

[shao_khan]

For main dealer the prices sound about right - the alignment is something like 4 hours (If I remember right) so at the best part of £100 per hour in main dealer it soon mounts up.

I think the only thing you could do is ask Audi if they are willing to contribute given it is a known problem.

[chantelle01]

Hi ya

I had the exact same problem as you- by the sound of it every single thing that got replaced onyours i had on mine! In addition to that i had a coil damaged so both springs had to be changed and mine came to 900 quid. This was done by an audi specialist. They have to do the tracking to be fair otherwise the next thing that would go is your tyres and trust me thats happened to me before! And as we dont have a spare tyre in the back i had to get it towed and ordered in from kwik fit! Mine is 5 year old and i have to say this has really made me wonder on whether to keep the car- and i love it as well!

Hope you get it sorted

Chantelle

[Skipton01]

Mine is 5 year old and i have to say this has really made me wonder on whether to keep the car- and i love it as well!
Now that you've spent the money and got things sorted, you might as well keep it, especially if you love it.

Cheers,

Mike

[GrayB]

I think the only thing you could do is ask Audi if they are willing to contribute given it is a known problem.
Our tame (ex-Honda) mechanic did say that if the anti-roll bar problem had happened on a Honda, it would probably have been recalled....

Needless to say, Audi wouldn't acknowledge that there was anything wrong - despite the fact that they had to redesign it!

[ortiz]

Hi Ramseydan,
My car is suffering the same symptoms at the moment. It's a 2001 '51 car but had only covered 29000 miles. I bought it from a well known car supermarket with just a 30 day warranty and so far they've replaced at least one anti-roll bar bush and both drop links and the damn thing'
s still rattling and thumping over even minor undulations. It will therefore have to go back.
I think the price you've been charged for labour is very excessive. I don't know what's involved but can't imagine it would take a skilled mechanic more than two hours labour to sort out.
I'd be interested to know how Audi justify that price so keep us posted.
hi , im new to this club . just thought id mention iv e got the same problem with mine 51 plate . its not the bushes that are rattleing . had audi dealer to check for me and they told me the anti roll bar collers where deactive. what they mean by this is that where the bush ataches around the the bar, the older types had plastic between the bush and the bar. its the plastic that wears and causes the rattle. they revised the bar as it does not use the plastic washers anymore and therefor the inside hole of the bushes is alot thicker to take up the extra room. i bought a new bar this week seen the difference right away. looks very tricky to change though.

[mkvrnn]

I've also just had a quote from the local Audi Dealer (Listers, Coventry) to replace the a/r bar and bushes (not the links at each end of the bar) - £505 My car is a 2002 02 reg with around 48k.

I was astounded. I've done this job on various cars in the past and it has normally taken 10 minutes and cost a couple of pounds each for the bushes.
It's usually just a matter of undoing 2 bolts holding the D shaped metal bracket which clamps the rubber D bush in place. The D bush often has a split so that it can be removed from the bar without detaching one end.

I'll do the job myself on the A2 but haven't had a chance to look at it yet. I wonder if the new bush can be cut to enable it to be fitted without removing the bar? And if I do have to remove the bar I'll take the car to a good tyre fitter afterwards for a £15 alignment check rather than pay VAG £200 for their Optilan check.

It seems like a really appalling piece of design by VAG if replacing a very simple rubber bush is going to cost £500+ every 40-50k miles.

[mkvrnn]

I've now got around to doing the job.
Audi supplied new rubber bushes for under £5 for the pair. The first one took about 10 minutes to remove and re-fit, so I was wondering why Audi wanted over £500 to replace the whole bar!
When I came to do the other side I found that there was a nylon collar around the bar which the rubber bush fits around. Obviously this part had broken and fallen off on the first side I did. But the new bushes they supplied were obviously designed to fit straight on to the bar without the nylon collar, so I simply removed the one remaining collar and fitted the bush direct to the bar.
After a long phone call to Audi I've finally established that the function of the nylon collars was to stop lateral movement of the bar. It seems that these collars were either causing wear problems or breaking, so Audi's solution was to modify the bar by incorporating steel collars as part of the actual bar.
So with my setup at the moment I need to find some way to prevent the bar moving sideways. Any ideas??? Clamp colllars would be ideal but at the moment I can't find a local supplier.

[N00N00]

Audi Uk have agreed to meet me half way with the cost of this repair.
(although I have ahad a reasonable amount of hassle with one other issue on the car so this may be part of the reason).

Talking of known issues, how much should it cost to replace a flasher unit?, thanks.

[spike]

Hi N00N00
The flasher unit SHOULD take no more than 30min to fit plus £25 - £30 for the part. I say 'should' because other members have been quoted up to £130 to replace the flasher unit.
There are some good fitting instructions on the forum if you are tempted to have a go.

Cheers Spike

[Heather]

I had new flasher unit last month - cost £20.96.

Did query the new fuel filter being £45.68 though as the last one (also fitted by Derby Audi) was only £23.45.
They checked the part No's and said that the newest one 8Z0127401B was the right one and the one they put on last time, two years ago 8Z0127435 was the wrong one for a 2003 TDI!!!

[ecoangel]

Seems the 1.2 TDi is afflicted by anto roll bar issues as well!

i had the drop links done over a year ago.

Today with pre MoT inspection, Teeside Audi want to change the bar and two bushes for £321.56

Say it will take them 3.5 hrs and this is 30% off usual labour price.

Surely we need to sign an anto roll bar petition and get it out to Audi UK or Winterkorn's replacement in DE - seems like such a common and expensive to fix A2 fault.

[Heather]

My A2 had new off side drop link for anti roll bar at 22,025 miles and new front anti roll bar, bushes and top strut mounts at 30,473 miles, luckily done under warranty!

[mjs4x4]

Just had mine done by an independent in Richmond (N. Yorks) - £60 for the parts + 2 hours labour £50.

How can Audi quote 3.5 hours for such a simple (and common) job?


Mike

[N00N00]

Seems the 1.2 TDi is afflicted by anto roll bar issues as well!

i had the drop links done over a year ago.

Today with pre MoT inspection, Teeside Audi want to change the bar and two bushes for £321.56

Say it will take them 3.5 hrs and this is 30% off usual labour price.

Surely we need to sign an anto roll bar petition and get it out to Audi UK or Winterkorn's replacement in DE - seems like such a common and expensive to fix A2 fault.

Price seems expensive to me- perhaps make them aware you know the original design was defective and has been modified.

[simondh]

I had a variation on this problem; After some work on the N/S suspension carried out at the local Audi dealer (broken spring covered by 3rd party warranty) I noticed an occasional "clonk" over larger bumps. Over the last few weeks it became worse so out came the spanners last night.

What had happened was the anti roll bar (earlier plastic collar design) had shifted to the n/s of the car by about 50mm and the cranked part on the o/s was rubbing against the subframe over bumps. I slackened the clamps and moved the bar back, not sure how long before it moves again.

In reply to an earlier post further up looking for some form of lateral location I did think of the small "u" clamps used with wire ropes and slings.

It's frustating to have a car ahead in design terms in many ways but let down on something as basic as this !

[arallsopp]

Yep.

Just had mine in for the same thing. Routine service on my 53 plate 34k finds an issue and I get a category A (immediate attention!) flagging the 'front anti roll bar and bushes cracked + 4wa + bolts for steering rack and subframe'. Labour costs of £437 bring the total to £590.72:eek:

Goodness. I wouldn't mind too much, but they also found the front brakes were a bit corroded (its true, I rarely brake. Hell, I rarely drive) which is going to cost £323.20, including over £170 labour for fitting new discs and pads.:(

All in, my routine service ended up costing an additional £1040, which I do feel is a bit on the steep side. Hey, at least they didn't charge labour on replacing the tyre sealant repair.:rolleyes:

If it helps, by God I love her :D

[bretti_kivi]

at my last service they appear to have "tightened things up" - which means they overtightened the coupling (koppelstange) between the bottom wishbone and the suspension turret (so that's also screwed after 2000 kms @ £30 and 1.5 hours) and they probably overtightend the anti-roll-bar end-couplings too.

at least they didn't charge me for it.... and i need new shocks anyway, (after 40000 miles) so i think i'll try and do the whole thing at once.

Bret