MikeT

Audi A3 TDI fiasco

25 posts in this topic

A fellow I used to work with who is now semi retired bought a new Audi A3 TDI in 2011. He loved the car initially, the economy, the torque, the fact that it was a "clean diesel".

He became concerned last September with the news that VAG had cheated on the emission tests and maybe the car wasn't so clean after all. When I saw him about a month ago he said he would be joining one of the class action lawsuits that was starting up in Canada. His car has been religiously maintained at the Audi dealer in Victoria since new, in fact, it was last serviced in March, he told me. The service advisor said to him at the time "you are one of our best customers, always servicing the car here and on time!" Total km at the service was about 115,000.

So today he popped into the office for an update on something he has been working on and he said that his A3 had "blown up"! What????

It seems he had been driving up to Comox on the Inland Island Highway where the speed limit is 120, and the car lost power while it was shooting great gobs of blue smoke out the back. He had it towed to Victoria and rented a car to continue his trip to Comox and then Powell River.

The dealer called him with the bad news a couple of days later: engine has been utterly lunched, need a new one, estimated cost is $17,000. Oh yes. It seems there were metal particulates in the oil and fuel and whether that was the cause of or a symptom of the high pressure fuel pump seizing is not known.

He has since been trying to get a settlement from the dealer/Audi Canada to repair the car largely at their cost. The first step, they said, is for the engine to be torn down at his cost, $2200. They would also draw a fuel sample to ensure that that was ok. Turned out that the fuel was indeed ok - he used Shell V Power diesel only - and it was just a random engine grenade. Or maybe not so random: he researched the 2 litre TDIs on the web and found that this is a rather too common problem. He is consulting a lawyer but so far has been playing along with the process and the $2200 teardown is underway.

Meanwhile the buy back concept (with values fixed at the September 2015 date) was floated by VW for the U.S. TDIs and so his thoughts turned to Audi just buying his car back as is at its pre-blown engine value. I said that's not likely to fly because no doubt the bought back cars would not be crushed, but rather would be resold (possibly without updates to their emissions systems) in the Third World or what have you.

I will update if I hear more, as time goes by.

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That sucks! I think we've hit the technological limit for ICE's when it comes to performance, fuel economy, and small displacement. Everything now will be at the expense of reliability.

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Well that's one way to avoid buying back the car for Audi/ VW. Blame it on the owner and hope he goes away.

Unfortunately that is a typical approach to many a claim. Deny, deny and deny and maybe they will go away and give up in frustration. Lawyering 101

And yet if Audi/VW really cared about the customer and their future in Canada and possibly N/A this presents a perfect opportunity to step up and make it right.

Or maybe the dealer hasn't taken it up the ladder yet.

Keep us posted Mike, please.

Edited by SmartED

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In car entertainment - ICE?

Internal Combustion Engine - I forgot that not everyone is up to date with EV driver lingo.

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17 grand??? I could buy a new-in-crate Peugeot 205 Turbo 16 Group B engine for less.

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Well it is an Audi, and he did take it to the dealer.

Another example of why it's necessary to use a good diesel additive. In Canada compliance with libricity and cetane requirements are voluntary. Even though Shell is a top tier fuel retailer, the additive pack is still blended in afterward, and the fuel stations are generally privately owned.

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I've not been particularly fond of my 2.0 TDI in my '10 Golf thus far. Power, yes, quiet, yes, fuel economy... not quite my old '00 ALH TDI. I just thought to myself "I should sell this one and fix up my old '00", started the car, and it seized. Punishment I suppose for thinking of selling it. I don't know why it's seized but it is. I think the timing belt may have skipped a tooth. Car sat all winter maybe the tensioner seized up or.... I dunno. And I just replaced the A/C compressor last summer, which, as you can imagine, wasn't cheap. Oh well.

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I would also mention Shell in the law suit that this will bring, and provide all fuel filling receipts if possible so neither company can dodge the bullet, blame fuel they are involved, blame the car maker they are involved too.

Problem with these cases is the dealer not willing to go to bat and be professional, they should.

I keep a folder with every fueling bill for this situation and stick with one station as much as possible (Petro Can in my case, best diesel in my area).

It will have NO impact on the value of the car if it is bought back, this is a court case settlement and he can provide all maintenance receipts to prove it was not neglect...

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VW's consumer confidence and trust is just in the shitter these days. I don't know what they're going to have to do, but man it would take a heck of a lot to get me to set foot in a VW or Audi showroom.

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Posted (edited) · Report post

VW's consumer confidence and trust is just in the shitter these days. I don't know what they're going to have to do, but man it would take a heck of a lot to get me to set foot in a VW or Audi showroom.

Last year I went into the local dealer to look into the VW E-golf as an eventual second vehicle as we may need one of our vehicles to be 4 seat in the next couple years. The sales person made a point of ridiculing electric vehicles in general and then when I pointed out I was driving a smart ED cast serious doubts on my sanity of driving a smart anything on the highway. Too funny.

Anyway, this past winter we drove an E-golf in California. I liked some things about it better than the Leaf, some things less. Last week I went back to the VW dealer and again asked about the timeline for seeing them available in Canada. This time the gentleman was professional and polite but informed that they would not be selling electric vehicles anytime soon as it didn't appear that VW has any interest in selling Electric in Canada. So if the 4 seat thing comes to pass it will probably be a gen 2 leaf as I can't afford a Tesla. Besides, the leaf dealer is only 60 KM away. :)

Edited by John & Angela

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So, three months after his 2012 A3 TDI engine grenaded, he is back on the road again. Audi Canada covered much of the cost but he had to pony up ~ 3 grand I think. Now that the car is done, the buy-back/owner compensation package is about to be announced. He figures that since he will be keeping the car, the compensation might just about make him whole again on the blown engine.

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Yeesh. I hope it doesn't happen again. Were they ever able to conclusively determine what the cause was?

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It was failure of the turbocharger that sent shrapnel into the intake manifold, plus high pressure fuel pump failure too! Apparently this is a relatively common issue with this particular engine. Aside from polluting too much ;)

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Jeezus. That's terrible! Is it just the Audi version of the 2.0 TDI, or is the VW version the same?

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Not a car suited for remote arctic regions during winter then. Broken down engine there could be a matter of life and death.

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In car entertainment - ICE?

Internal Combustion Engine - I forgot that not everyone is up to date with EV driver lingo.

HPFP prob let go. . quite common on the CR's

WTF? Does everyone understand THAT in the era of old pharts trying to keep up with texting lingo?

Edited by yukoner

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In car entertainment - ICE?

Internal Combustion Engine - I forgot that not everyone is up to date with EV driver lingo.

HPFP prob let go. . quite common on the CR's

WTF? Does everyone understand THAT in the era of old pharts trying to keep up with texting lingo?

Haha. :icon_smile:

For what it's worth I could't figure out what HPFP was either.

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My bad thought the world of automotive assumed :lol2: They also have a problem with their IC's (Intercooler for you old farts) freezing up in the winter then TB (Timing belt) tensioners deciding to bugger off as they please, Thats the reason why I'm driving primary MK4's and Mercedes instead of a newer VW's.

Edited by dmoonen

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On ‎15‎/‎06‎/‎2016 at 7:41 AM, marchanna said:

      On ‎15‎/‎06‎/‎2016 at 2:17 AM, yukoner said:

On ‎25‎/‎04‎/‎2016 at 5:07 PM, marchanna said:
  On ‎25‎/‎04‎/‎2016 at 4:34 PM, tolsen said:

In car entertainment - ICE?

Internal Combustion Engine - I forgot that not everyone is up to date with EV driver lingo.

On ‎26‎/‎04‎/‎2016 at 0:15 AM, dmoonen said:

HPFP prob let go. . quite common on the CR's

WTF? Does everyone understand THAT in the era of old pharts trying to keep up with texting lingo?

Haha. :icon_smile:

For what it's worth I could't figure out what HPFP was either.

LSHMFTFO = laughing so hard my toupee fell off 

Old Scooter.gif

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