Warrenty about to end!

JamesS

Member
Hi guys, I have owned my 2004 A2 1.4TDi Sport 90hp for coming upto a year now and l have to say l'm really quite pleased with it. But with the 3year Audi warrenty running out on the 1st of march l am desperate to get any work l can carried out by Audi before then. Especially as my local garage now charge just about £100 per hour labour!

I have a couple of things that need checking as follows, have any of you had these problems or is there anything else i could get checked out before its to late?

1. The drivers seatbelt dosent retract properly sometimes, particularly when its cold and damp. In fact theres so much slack belt i can pretty much hook it over the steering wheel!

2. Sometimes when l start up the engine it quite violently jerks into life almost as if theres a loose engine mount. Is this just a characteristic of the engine? Its only done 24,000 so an engine mount seems unlikely.

3. I also wouldnt mind getting all the front suspension checked over as there seems to be a lot of forum threads relating to worn antiroll bars and bushes.

I am getting the 1st MOT done a month early at a local non dealer garage as well just in case they find anything.

Many Thanks James
 
Hi James,
I would simply take your A2 to the dealer with the list as you describe. Dealers will carry out any and all warranty work, I did this with the Passat I used to own and a previous Golf Mk3 GTi, you can't make any claims after the expiry date but anything picked up before will be coved even if the work is carried out a reasonable time afterwards -delays in obtaining parts or capacity issues in the workshop etc.. The seat belt should be replaced. The engine vibration fixed also. The front suspension should also be checked, but if they find nothing wrong or normal wear and tear no warranty work would be done. I had recently to replace the anti roll bar on my 1,6FSI, I used VAG parts see this site (approx £55 delivered inc bushes) and my local VW dealer fitted it at £65 per hour (2 hours), so much cheaper than at the Audi dealer.
 
I like the idea of a month early MOT (as I shall be in this position in Oct with my A2).
Would it be an Idea to pay a VAG garage to look over the car and check it out for problems prior to the end of the warranty.

doctor
 
Thanks for the replies, the only reason l'm going to an independant garage is because l have used this same guy for years now on previous cars and l know l can trust him. Its not that my local Audi garage isnt trustworthy but l got the feeling last time l was there that l was very much small fry, and not really worth bothering with. Perhaps they arent that interested in looking to hard for faults on a car under warrenty when they have £50k A6's to sell and service!

With regard to the engine sometimes jerking into life when l start it up l thought it might just be a 3 cylinder thing and was wondering if anyone else had noticed it?

James
 
Hi James
My 2001 tdi occasionally shudders into life in cold weather. I did wonder if it was due to a faulty glow plug but this has not shown up on a diagnostic scan. I'll let you know if I find the cause.
Regarding your last months of warranty - It would be worth having a diagnostic scan done as this could highlight fault codes which may not be immediately obvious during normal driving. As some of us know by bitter experience your Audi dealer will have no interest in diagnostic data provided by a third party, so, If your unlucky and the scan does highlight problems, put together a story around the fault codes - its low on power, the temp gauge drifts sometimes, the car has suddenly started misting up inside and you suspect the climate control is not working - you get the idea. With any luck the dealer book the car in and run a diagnostic check - only to find out what you could have told him 2 weeks earlier.
On earlier cars, the glove box light and boot light switch are known to fail so you could also check these out yourself

Cheers Spike
 
Just a thankyou for your replies(Mark,doctor and spike) and an update. Firstly the car went straight through the MOT which was a good start and my local mechanic couldnt find any wear to speak of on the front suspension.

Next stop Audi for seat belt change and investigation into engine jerking on start up(under warranty). The seatbelt was changed no problem and is a massive improvement, I would reccomend anyone to get theirs changed if they are not happy.
Then the starting problem Audi diagnosied a glowplug fault and changed it. unfortunatly this didnt make any difference and after a couple of weeks trying to convince myself that there wasnt actually a problem l decided to get it checked again. I called around Audi(Yeovil) today and got a mechanic to sit in the car and see what he thought. And the answer he wasnt sure either so offered to do a free dianostic(car now out of warranty) just in case any fault codes were present. So 10minutes later he returned and he didnt think there was a problem as no fault codes were present. He puts it down to the quirky 3cylinder engine and the fact that it just depends on how it fires on start up. Its not a big jolt just a small jerk through the steering wheel and not everytime l start it. So hopefully case closed.

Thanks again James
 
Hi James
Ref the engine shudder when starting. I just did a routine check on the battery and the 'magic eye' is black which indicates it is not holding its charge. My car is almost 6 years old so some deteriation in battery condition is expected so maybe the loss of CCA (cold cranking amps) performance is the reason it struggles to spin the engine over compression from cold.
Your car is a lot younger but it may still be worth having the battery checked out.

Cheers Spike
 
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