Letter to Audi

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thomas

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A2 FSI 1.6 Fahrzeug Ident. Nr.: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Amtl. Kennzeichen :xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Dear Sirs,

I am writing in response to your most recent letter, which I received on Friday 13.02.04. in which you again refuse to take our problems with AUDI seriously.
This is the second A2 which we have purchased, our dealer Röchling, took back the first A2 which we purchased there, after it gave us so many problems. I’m sure you can understand how dissatisfied we are that this second A2 has spent 70 days in the workshop since we picked it up 7 months ago. According to your letter, Herr xxxxxx at Röchling informed you that all the problems with this car have been repaired; this is just not true. According to your own reports ( the car having been taken back by AUDI for testing and spent 3 weeks in Neckarsulm with the Ing. Herr xxxxxx ) the whistling noise out of the petrol tank area is “Stand der Technik” and cannot be repaired. The mysterious source of white dust which is to be found everywhere in the car, has also not been found and the open sky gives us problems on a regular basis. But I’m sure that you can read all of these unsolved problems in your computer database, as they have been communicated to Herr xxxxxx
( Kundenbetreung) numerously. Indeed AUDI has in the past given us a watch and a wallet in recognition of the problems that we were having and, it now seems, in the hope that we would accept them and keep quiet. A watch and a wallet do not, however, solve the problems we have with the car.

We are most dissatisfied with the way our problems have been dismissed, indeed just to give you an indication of how incompetent your customer services hotline can be; our A2 was equipped with a “Sprachangabe Funktion” for the mobile telephone, however it never worked and in the end AUDI and Herr xxxxxxx had Röchling convinced that it wasn’t installed in our model. We are part of an A2 club and members of this club were able to give us the instructions as to how it works, we passed these on to Röchling and they were extremely “surprised” when it worked.
The most recent spell in the workshop was because the outside mirrors were not heating, this problem required the car to spend 10 days in the workshop before it could be repaired.
It took this long for AUDI and Röchling to figure out, communicate and repair the problem. I’m not sure who was more incompetent here, AUDI who don’t seem to be interested in dealing with customer problems, or Röchling, who are discredible enough to take the questionnaires ( Kundenunmfrage for when a car spends time in the workshop and the customer should rate the service) which we received from AUDI promising favours in return for them…. We gave Herr xxxxxxxx 3 such blank questionnaires.







-1-










The only thing that we hear from Herr xxxxxx at the moment is “ wir haben alles für Sie getan, wir können nicht mehr tun”. As head of a department by the xxxxxxxxx AG & CO KGaA I could not dare to treat my customers with such ambivalence and at this point my next company car will most certainly not be an AUDI. The fact of the matter is, the problems have not been solved to our satisfaction and if within a period of 4 weeks we do not get a satisfactory reply to this letter we will feel obliged to turn this matter over to our lawyers and to discredit AUDI in ADAC and Autobild magazines through our A2 club.
What we ask it not the impossible, we are simply asking for an A2 free of problems that does not have to spend weeks on end in the workshop.

Regards
xxxxxxxxxxxx

What you think ????? We wait and see!!!!!

Michelle&Thomas
from Ireland & Germany
1.6 FSI
http://www.audi-a2.co.uk/europe16.htm
The Book of Life begins with a man and woman in a garden. It ends with Revelations.

O.Wilde A Woman of No Importance
( O.Wilde: A woman of no Importance)
 
I think you`ve got two options

1. go to another dealership,it clear you don`t trust your dealer Röchling anymore. A "healty" relationship with your dealer is very important.

2. sell your A2 and buy another car, no A2 for you. A new A2 would have the same problems as this one, because you would be "looking" for the same problems in a new one (even if they are not there)





[img=left]http://www.home.zonnet.nl/e.van.woudenberg/a2 small.jpg[/img=left]A2 1.4 TDI S-line
Ipaq 3870 + TOMTOM II navigator


Homepage

My car


:)and having fun driving it:)
 
thomas
The white dust thing may be related to problems with ealrier A2 and the CC unit which was pumping out small alu particles from a coating of some kind. A few other people on the forum reported it and affected A2's had parts of the climate system replaced.

But yours is a new A2, so why?

Steve - 2002 1.4SE petrol, Silver, black/black interior, Then an identical replacement 2003 A2. Now a Toyota Corolla 1.6 T-Spirit
 
The mysterious white dust may containt Cr6+.

"Hexavalent chromium-based ("chrome") compounds are among the most efficient and cheapest corrosion inhibitors available. The trouble is, hexavalent chromium is a suspected carcinogen, and is highly toxic."

Maybe worth a quick question to AUDI - get them to confirm that it doesn't
 
true ????
quote:Originally posted by The Stig

The mysterious white dust may containt Cr6+.

"Hexavalent chromium-based ("chrome") compounds are among the most efficient and cheapest corrosion inhibitors available. The trouble is, hexavalent chromium is a suspected carcinogen, and is highly toxic."

Maybe worth a quick question to AUDI - get them to confirm that it doesn't

Michelle&Thomas
from Ireland & Germany
1.6 FSI
http://www.audi-a2.co.uk/europe16.htm
The Book of Life begins with a man and woman in a garden. It ends with Revelations.

O.Wilde A Woman of No Importance
( O.Wilde: A woman of no Importance)
 
we have this white dust since we've had the car. Audi supposedly did tests on it and sais that it was organic. We never saw a test report and don't entirely belueve them...as our dealer told us that they have never been able to extract any do to a tect...once you touch it it disintegrates...its sort of like chalk.
But now after reading your mail I'm really worried...could it be this stuff??





quote:Originally posted by The Stig

The mysterious white dust may containt Cr6+.

"Hexavalent chromium-based ("chrome") compounds are among the most efficient and cheapest corrosion inhibitors available. The trouble is, hexavalent chromium is a suspected carcinogen, and is highly toxic."

Maybe worth a quick question to AUDI - get them to confirm that it doesn't

Michelle&Thomas
from Ireland & Germany
1.6 FSI
http://www.audi-a2.co.uk/europe16.htm
The Book of Life begins with a man and woman in a garden. It ends with Revelations.

O.Wilde A Woman of No Importance
( O.Wilde: A woman of no Importance)
 
Most new cars contain evaporators without Cr6+ due to the new European Legislation banning the use of Cr6+ in the surface treatment process from June 2005 (if my memory serves correct).
However I do believe the majority of older cars (maybe including the A2) did use Cr6+ during the surface treatment process. I believe the dust itself may only be the surface treatment (i.e. organic material, as AUDI told you), however during the surface treatment process, it is almost impossible to remove all traces of the Cr6+ material (which is used to etch the surface of the evaporator). Now in most cases this wouldn't be an issue, since the surface treatment material stays attached to the evaporator, however if it becomes airborn in high quantities, then it may be a good idea to get confirmation that Cr6+ is not used in the manufacturing process.

I am aware of many cases of this white powder coming from the A2 evaporator, and I am very sure that AUDI are totally aware of the problem, hence may have already made provisions to remove Cr6+ from the process hence still have problems with surface treatment adhesion (i.e. without Cr6+ etching)

The Stig

P.S. I do not have any evidence for the above info - it is purely conjecture

edited section in bold
 
new letter to audi thanks everybody for your help

one for all and all for one !!!!!


unfortunately we have still received no reply to our attached letter. We have however been continuing to inform ourselves about problems with A2s and in particular the remaining problems with our A2 which we have listed for you.
The following has come to our attention in regard to the white dust problem.

Our evaporator (Verdampfer) was also changed in order to solve this problem. The new one that was installed in the car had a completely different form and serial number as the old one. Our dealer took photos where the differences can be seen. However it did not solve the problem. According to our sources only the cars from the following years have had the problem of the white dust solved through an exchange of the evaporator; as you can see our car was built musch later.

Optimiertes Teil: Teile Nr. 8Z0 820 103 B

Ab folgenden Fahrgestellnr. wurde das Problem gelöst:

Fg.- Nr. 8Z 2N 019960 Linkslenker mit Ottomotor; etwa 20.11.01
Fg.- Nr. 8Z 2N 020095 mit Dieselmotor; etwa 21.11.01
Fg.- Nr. 8Z 2N 020368 Rechtslenker mit Ottomotor; etwa 22.11.01

According to our sources Audi is aware of many cases of white powder coming from the A2 evaporator. And it may be due to Cr6+ being used in the treatment process. Many models used Cr6+ during the surface treatment process although most new cars contain evaporators without Cr6+ due to the new European Le






gislation banning the use of Cr6+ in the surface treatment process from June 2005.
This would not be an issue in the cars if the Cr6+ material remains attached to the evaporator however if it becomes airborne in high quantities it could be the cause of the appearance of white dust.
"Hexavalent chromium-based ("chrome") compounds are among the most efficient and cheapest corrosion inhibitors available. The trouble is, hexavalent chromium is a suspected carcinogen, and is highly toxic."

As you can imagine I was very worried and angered upon receiving this information and would like Audi to recheck the source of this dust in our A2.

I can no longer accept all the problems attached to our car and request that Audi takes the car back and repairs all the outstanding problems.
Our dealer does not feel that they are capable of solving the problems and Audi have forbidden them to give us any further information. Reports regarding the most recent repairs have even disappeared.

We are completely unsatisfied with the service and the arrogance that Audi has shown us.

If you engineers need any help regarding the above mentioned problems they can look under the following sites: http://www.audi-a2club.de/ http://www.a2forum.net .


Yours sincerely
Michelle Giblin
Thomas Giblin

Michelle&Thomas
from Ireland & Germany
1.6 FSI
http://www.audi-a2.co.uk/europe16.htm
The Book of Life begins with a man and woman in a garden. It ends with Revelations.

O.Wilde A Woman of No Importance
( O.Wilde: A woman of no Importance)
 
If I remember my Erin Brochovich that Chromium is nasty stuff. I would either consult a solicitor to make things formal or contact a consumer affairs outlet such as What Car or Watchdog, they love this stuff especially if Audi cars will be linked to a cancer causing chemical. I suspect this is why Audi are being careful

Good luck,

Phil
 
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