Advice please: On Audi Ripping a Mate off IMO. £4k+ Bill !

[VWKD]

A friend of mine has 2005 A3 3.2V6 Sportback DSG with 90k on the clock.

He took the car to Audi Main Dealer for a service which came to £900 as it needed brake discs etc..

Anyway when he went to pick it up the guy at the desk went to collect the car from the garage and was quite some time. Eventually he walked back to the show room and said he wasn't happy with the way it was driving saying it was misfiring and would my mate be able to leave it with them for an hour to look into it which he duly did.  An hour later the technician said they still hadn't got to the bottom of it and could he leave it with them over the weekend which he duly did.

He then received a phone call Monday morning... in short they said his cam chains were stretched and that he was looking at 5.5k+ to get them changed (he's be lucky to get that for the car) !  HOWEVER because he was a loyal long term customer (has had Audi's for 20 years or so with them and always gets them serviced with them) they would knock 20% off the cost and  knock the £900 service bill off he had just paid  for the service as they should have spotted this before carrying out the service work.. So on top of the £900 he just paid he has now just paid £3268 as he needed the car back and didn't see another choice.

To me this sounds outrageous.. he bought the car from them new, gets it serviced when required, it has only done 90k (surely nothing for a 3.2V6), is a mature driver so doesn't thrash the   off it..

Does this sound right to you guys? Any advice for him?  Is it worth contacting Audi UK?

thanks in advance.

[jhtrophy]

To be fair the car is 7 years old, but that does sound an awfull lot of money, how much is an engine? I would ring Audi uk explaining his loyalty to the brand putting in he was ready to order a rs3 or something but feels his loyalty is not paying off.

[E30Dom]

This was a problem on the r32 which shared the engine... Either speak with APS of Brackley to see what they'd charge or get on R32oc.com and ask, sure people can tell you what they paid to fix it...

[VWKD]

Thanks for the replies guys... he's off to speak to the manager today for a chat to see what he makes of it.

He decided a while back to keep this until the new A3 comes out and then chop it in for one of them and it won't be a base model annoyingly he wants a 5 door and they are another year after the release apparently so looks like it'll be a while before he upgrades.

[sub39h]

this is a know issue with the early A3 3.2/TT 3.2/R32. if you google around there's a few threads on this. there's quite a useful one on Audi-sport. i think Audi admitted it was a faulty chain design that was causing the problem and they may have paid out for other people's cars. work having a look around, this is a known issue in the early engines

if you pay out of pocket sadly £4.5k or so seems to be the going rate... or at least that's what one member paid. i've found a thread here that says it should cost more like £2.5k from a main dealer:

http://www.audi-sport.net/vb/new-a3-s3-sportback-8p-chassis/83311-fao-experts-victims-3-2-stretched-timing-chain.html

[VWKD]

Cheers for that SUB39H very interesting...  I spoke to APS and they quoted £1350 all in to change the chains somewhat cheaper than the stealer were charging !

Anyway he managed to get them to knock off a couple more hundred and that was it so he has the car back with 2 year warranty on what they did and he's trying to forget about it.

Thanks again for all your advice.