The Cause of the Noise - At Last!!!!

Hi Guys,

At Last, the cause of the noise mentioned in recent and some not so recent, threads has been found!

It is a hydraulic engine mount. Well, it's only taken since September 2004 to diagnose..... Anyway, because the fault has finally been diagnosed 5 months after the warranty period, although the fault was first asked to be investigated whilst the car still had a year left on the warranty, at only 20k and a further 2 times after that, Audi STILL want me to pay! They are making a contribution of 70% of, no, no wait for it, 70% of the cost of the part! All the labour comes out of my pocket, leaving me about £340ish to pay. The car has still only done 34k, should this part fail at such a low mileage? I thought at least double that and you might have some concerns.

Well, Audi, your generosity is spoiling us! Guildford Audi guys are doing there best to sort it out, all seem to be most helpful there. I don't think that this is reasonable or fair for Audi to expect me to pay for a fault that they are unable to diagnose in 2 1/2 years. I'll have more news later today.....

What do you think?

Agree not reasonable or fair. Audi UK definitely have discretion and they do use it.

For example I had a couple of minor warranty bits done for free after warranty expiry on my other Audi. In that case the reason for it being overdue was (arguably) partly my fault - I left it slightly late booking it in for the last service before the three years were up, and the earliest they could do a courtesy car was a couple of weeks later. No quibbles. My dealer? Guildford Audi!

Good luck, keep calm, be reasonable with the dealer and keep them on your side - they're the ones who will best plead your case with Audi UK.

Cheers, Richard.

If you want further advice, try Consumer Direct on 08454 04 05 06.
They will tell you your rights & what to say to the dealer to give them a fright.

Thanks all. Audi UK will not budge at all on their offer, the part is about £95 so they will be paying about £66.50. But lets just remember that that is what the part is charged at, not what they buy it for, so their contribution is actually even less.

The guys at Guildford Audi are really trying their best and have been excellent at keeping me informed, etc and have also offered to contribute more towards the labour cost.

My other half spoke to Customer Services, well they really should call it brick wall! The girl really isn't going to win any awards! Didn't know they still performed lobotomies....

I have to agree with everyone too. Audi should pay up as the fault was first reported well within the warranty period. Just because the cause could not be found is not the customers problem but down to the Audi dealership. My advice would be to find out where you stand legally go to the CAB and ask them or failing that go to watch dog (if they still exists)

Having spoke to the Missus:
Under the sale of goods act, goods are expected to be of satisfactory quality for their purpose. Obviously this mount is faulty & has been for along period of time, therefore not making it fit for purpose.
The warranty timescale has absolutely zilch to do with this. Under your statutory rights you have for greater power than the warranty, and these mean up to 6 years, not the 3 of the warranty.

Thanks all. Audi UK, will not budge an inch further, I work out their contribution to be about £25 from their pocket. Guildford Audi have offered to discount the labour further now reducing the cost to £270.

It's not about the money at all, it's just the principal of it really, again Audi want me to pay for another one of their mistakes. It is such a shame that the dealer and the owner have to stump up for something that Audi SHOULD cover.

Do you know what else really got to me, the, well I was going to say person, but I think robot is more likely, on customer services says, 'well we've already done a repair on good will out of warranty'. This is the ABS wiring that has been going on since the car was only a few monts old and have only just managed to find a solution for! It's not good will Mr Audi, it's just fixing a design fault that should have been a recall!

The definition of good will, according to the dictionary is "friendly, helpful, or cooperative feelings or attitude" Can't find any other meaning, maybe Audi have their own dictionary?

Quote the trades discription act to Audi and see what happens. My lad did this when he had problems with his peugeot never seen a dealership pay out so quick.

Have you considered this line to CS?

"I really don't know where to turn from here. I've been happy with the A2, but Audi's technicians and customer service in general has been a lot less than I'd hoped for. I've been suggested to send details of the extent of the faults in the car and the length of time they took to diagnose thus pushing the car out of warranty to [insert any of a number of well-known car magazines here]. &c. &c."

It worked with a Rover dealership a while ago... If the trades description act doesn't get them worried, a bit of bad press might - especially if the dealer is implicated as a bunch of snivelling incompetents who can't operate a spanner if it isn't connected via USB...

Hi Fiona
I was relating your tale of woe to a neighbour who worked for Audi Marketing a couple of years ago. The comments regarding Customer Services came as no surprise because the department is manned by contract staff from one of the motoring organisations. No wonder they don't give a damn.

Cheers Spike

PS. any thoughts on the 'chip' or is your mind on other things at the mo.

Hi Fiona,

I just wanted to offer you my sympathy.

It seems that no matter how much money we throw at products these days, once they have our hard earned cash, after sales becomes non existent. I can feel your frustration from here.

To say that ‘Audi’ have let you down is an understatement. Any manufacturer worth their reputation should be prepared to acknowledge design faults or parts that under perform their anticipated life expectancy.

It would seem that you have a very strong case, given that this has been a long term fault that the dealer attempted to resolve when the vehicle was still under warranty.

I agree with Rob, Gareth & crb1101. By quoting ‘Trade Descriptions’ and ‘Sale of Goods’ and if necessary contacting the ‘CAB’, this may well be just what is needed to let ‘Audi’ know that you are one customer who is not prepared to be ripped off.

Every now and then we need to remind these ‘big companies’ that it is the ordinary man & woman in the street that make them such a ‘big company’ in the first place.

I wish you every success in your pursuit of justice.

Kind Regards,

Darren

Once again thank you all. When you get this barrage of quotes about warranty and 'if only you'd done this', you begin to doubt yourself, so it is nice to know that I am right to persue this.

I am going to collect the car today. I will pay the £270, but I am going to make sure that they know that this will not be the end of it.

I took your advice a called Consumer Direct, they said that under the Supply of Goods (Implied Terms) Act 1973, the warranty means nothing if the part supplied was not fit for its purpose. They also said, and I find this very interesting, that if you report a fault whilst the car is in warranty, the warranty period is suspended until the fault is fixed. So I reported the noise in September 2004, so the time stops there, so my warranty period should now start again from Tuesday when the fault was dignosed, so with a 3 year warranty I still have a year left on this part!

I'll let you know how I get on when I pick it up later. My Mum is in hospital so I have a other things on my mind at the moment, she should be out on Monday, so Audi, Monday it really begins!

Hi Fiona,

Sorry to remind you of this problem you had. Do you know which part was causing the problem?
You said is was a hydraulic engine mount. I am wondering if you know what part it was, perhaps from the workshop report?
I am having problems which may indicate worn or damaged engine mounts.

Thanks,

Robbie