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Audi A4 S Line repair - Is my garage ripping me off?
Hello HJ,
The chain drive to the oil pump on my Audi A4 S-Line 55 Plate has snapped whilst driving; the oil low pressure light came on flashing and I had the car collected by my breakdown company.
At the garage, they told me that - if I was lucky - only the oil pump would need replacing at £800 total but they wouldn't be able to tell until they had removed the sump, etc. Once inside, they told me I had been lucky and the oil pump shaft could be re-built but they could see the clutch was worn out and would need replacing for a new total of £1400 approx. The engine had been noisy so this made sense.
The oil pump has been fixed, the clutch replaced and I was expecting to collect the car today. However, they are now telling me that the Turbo also needs replacing.
My question is could they really have not known this beforehand and are they ripping me off? If they are ripping me off, is there anything I can do about it? If the original estimate had been for £2.5K approx (I don't have the estimate for the Turbo yet), I would not have had the car repaired. Now that I'm already in for £1400 approx, I don't think I have any choice other than to have the rest of the work done even though I'll most likely be selling the car at a loss on the work. Very grateful for your advice.
The chain drive to the oil pump on my Audi A4 S-Line 55 Plate has snapped whilst driving; the oil low pressure light came on flashing and I had the car collected by my breakdown company.
At the garage, they told me that - if I was lucky - only the oil pump would need replacing at £800 total but they wouldn't be able to tell until they had removed the sump, etc. Once inside, they told me I had been lucky and the oil pump shaft could be re-built but they could see the clutch was worn out and would need replacing for a new total of £1400 approx. The engine had been noisy so this made sense.
The oil pump has been fixed, the clutch replaced and I was expecting to collect the car today. However, they are now telling me that the Turbo also needs replacing.
My question is could they really have not known this beforehand and are they ripping me off? If they are ripping me off, is there anything I can do about it? If the original estimate had been for £2.5K approx (I don't have the estimate for the Turbo yet), I would not have had the car repaired. Now that I'm already in for £1400 approx, I don't think I have any choice other than to have the rest of the work done even though I'll most likely be selling the car at a loss on the work. Very grateful for your advice.
Asked on 25 February 2015 by MontyB
Answered by
Honest John
Unfortunately I think what has happened is that they have discovered that the oil pump drive failure starved the turbo bearings of oil, leading to overheating of the turbo and consequential damage. They did forewarn you that they might find more problems when they opened up the engine. But they would not have known that the turbo had also failed until they put the engine together and tried to start it again.
Tags:
technical issues
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