Chronic Car Buyers Anonymous

qbrozen · October 2021

@xwesx said:
I had such a facepalm moment this morning when my wife asked, "so, when are you planning to winterize the Crosstrek?"

I cannot believe it! I completely forgot about that. Completely.

Is it not in PA still? If it is, what exactly does winterizing it mean? If in AK… same question.

xwesx · October 2021

qbrozen said:

Is it not in PA still? If it is, what exactly does winterizing it mean? If in AK… same question.

No, it is here in Alaska now. My wife insisted on bringing it home.

Winterizing mostly means adding heaters to it, such as a pad on the oil pan to warm the oil and a heater for the coolant. Problem is, if I use a plug-type block heater, I will need to drop the entire exhaust system off the engine to access it (and the actual heating effectiveness is crap), and, if I try to use a circulating heater, I will need to figure out the plumbing to accomplish that, as well as possibly needing to modify it.

Either way, it's messy work that gets coolant everywhere, and I don't look forward to doing it on the icy ground. Definitely something I should have done while we were in Ohio; it just wasn't anywhere on the radar.

cdnpinhead · October 2021

I really liked the circulating heater I used on my MGB in Edmonton, but the heater hoses were very simple to access, and there was all kinds of space in the engine compartment. The water temperature gauge came well off the peg even when it was 20 or 30 below, and the car started like a charm.

oldfarmer50 · October 2021

xwesx said:

qbrozen said:

Is it not in PA still? If it is, what exactly does winterizing it mean? If in AK… same question.

No, it is here in Alaska now. My wife insisted on bringing it home.

Winterizing mostly means adding heaters to it, such as a pad on the oil pan to warm the oil and a heater for the coolant. Problem is, if I use a plug-type block heater, I will need to drop the entire exhaust system off the engine to access it (and the actual heating effectiveness is crap), and, if I try to use a circulating heater, I will need to figure out the plumbing to accomplish that, as well as possibly needing to modify it.

Either way, it's messy work that gets coolant everywhere, and I don't look forward to doing it on the icy ground. Definitely something I should have done while we were in Ohio; it just wasn't anywhere on the radar.

For me winterizing means spraying oil or fluid film in the doors and rockers. On lost causes like the cargo van I just hit it with rust converter to slow down the inevitable. Some go into storage.

qbrozen · October 2021

For me, winterizing means scraping the ice off before driving.

stickguy · October 2021

I can do it quick, since it just means throwing the scraper brush (which I likely will never use) in the trunk.

normally I just leave the "good" car in the garage whenever the weather is crappy. Harder to do, when you only have one car in the family!

ab348 · October 2021

Since I bid farewell to the Cutlass I have taken to parking the ATS in the garage for the first time. Remarkable how much smaller it is, lots of room on all sides. Will be nice not having to clear snow/ice off it.

sda · October 2021

ab348 said:
Since I bid farewell to the Cutlass I have taken to parking the ATS in the garage for the first time. Remarkable how much smaller it is, lots of room on all sides. Will be nice not having to clear snow/ice off it.

I’m sure it is a pleasure to protect the ATS in the garage. Have you heard from the new owner of the Cutlass after it made the journey overseas?

xwesx · October 2021

Well, y'all are fancy-schmancy.

"I've got yer ice scraper right here!"

ab348 · October 2021

sda said:

ab348 said:
Since I bid farewell to the Cutlass I have taken to parking the ATS in the garage for the first time. Remarkable how much smaller it is, lots of room on all sides. Will be nice not having to clear snow/ice off it.
I’m sure it is a pleasure to protect the ATS in the garage. Have you heard from the new owner of the Cutlass after it made the journey overseas?

Not a peep. Don't know if he has it yet or not. In some ways I'm just as happy not hearing from him.

mjfloyd1 · October 2021

@tifighter said:
This 996 is the bees knees-
https://bringatrailer.com/listing/2003-porsche-911-carrera-4s-87/

I never warmed up to that headlight design

andres3 · October 2021

benjaminh said:

andres3 said:
Someone mentioned a harmonic balancer issue with the Audi 3.0 V6. That might be it. In hindsight I did notice idling at times the idle was rougher than it should be in terms of vibration QUALIFIER for an Audi.

Typically, at idle, your not even sure the engine is on at times, so any vibration can be noticeable. It was very minor though, and didn't think anything of it until........

I was thinking perhaps a bad motor mount as those are known to be a maintenance issue.
Apologies in advance for the number of questions. Feel free to ignore any or all of them.

Was a replacement engine c. $14k + labor? If so, how much might labor be for that?

Have you decided if you're going to try to reach out to Audi?

Is it possible that the previous owner didn't just drive the car hard, but also modified the software that runs the engine in some way? Is it possible oil changes were skipped?

I'm still trying to get my mind around engine failure at 45k. Seems like something that might happen in the 1960s, but not on a car of the 21st century. Does it seem to you like a completely freak event, or as you've researched this have you found other cases of Audi engines failing at similar mileage?

I like questions, so feel free.

Regarding the replacement engine, it was $14K from Audi so no labor included in that. I'm unsure on labor.

The manager wrote this about investigating the current engine:

Mileage is at 43,878 (confirming exact mileage)

To further diagnose the engine the best course of action would be to remove the engine and transmission from the vehicle. Then tear down the engine to figure out what’s wrong with it.

Figure about 8 hrs of time for that, roughly about 2-3hrs of it would be time not normally spent if the engine was simply replaced.

I'm not sure if I'm to take that as 8 hours total to replace the engine with another one, but if so, figure about $900 labor. Less if I forgo the forensic analysis.... Of course, I'm not sure he included "put new engine back in" as we were just talking about the difference in what he'd have to do anyway no matter what vs. diagnosing the current engine.

I've decided reaching out to Audi is too much work with the roadblock in play.

I may do the buy back request, but if an engine is available before 20 working days are up, that's pointless too as I don't want to waste a month before pulling the trigger to spend my own money to get this car rolling again.

I doubt the car was previously modified as no one has mentioned a "TD1."

It is possible that the 35K service was done at the dealership at less than 32K miles, but that the 5K,15, 25K were done late if at all (though doubtful). I remember looking at the maintenance records and being satisfied at purchase this car was taken care of. It is possible the AZ Audi dealer doing the service was using 99 cent store dino-oil instead of synthetic....

My research indicates this was a freak event and low mileage engine failure is unheard of in the 3.0T(Supercharged).

I suppose this is why you have a 50K mile warranty, but the problem occurs when your time is up because the original owner didn't drive the car much it's first 5 years.

Engine failure sucks. Doubly when it's before 100K miles. The only bright side is telling yourself that engine failure while piloting an aircraft would be worse and more hair raising.

explorerx4 · October 2021

A friend of mine has a 97 993, so air cooled. Yum!
He had a couple of 996's, fun but they are just not the same experience.

corvette · October 2021

mjfloyd1 said:
never warmed up to that headlight design

Hoovie said he regretted modifying his to look different. The BAT car has a great interior/exterior color combo, though.

corvette · October 2021

@andres3 - at $14k, even on an only six-ish year old car, I'd at least investigate a used engine.

mjfloyd1 · October 2021

@andres3 - did you ask the Audi shop foreman if they interrogated the ECU? I’m not sure they would initially check the ECU since it is out of warranty and you have not authorized further checks on the motor.

jmonroe1 · October 2021

@qbrozen said:
For me, winterizing means scraping the ice off before driving.

For me I’d like winterizing to mean I become a snowbird but so far that hasn’t happened. I’m not giving up though. Some day, some day.

jmonroe

benjaminh · October 2021

andres3 said:
....I've decided reaching out to Audi is too much work with the roadblock in play....

Thanks for your answers.

I missed something and/or I'm just lacking in knowledge, but for whatever reason I'm not understanding about the "roadblock in play" as a reason for not contacting Audi.

au1994 · October 2021

jmonroe1 said:

@qbrozen said:

For me, winterizing means scraping the ice off before driving.

For me I’d like winterizing to mean I become a snowbird but so far that hasn’t happened. I’m not giving up though. Some day, some day.

jmonroe

Winterizing = remember to put a fleece pullover in the Jeep. Done.

corvette · October 2021

Winterizing = throwing an ice scraper and a tub of salt in the back.

oldfarmer50 · October 2021

corvette said:
Winterizing = throwing an ice scraper and a tub of salt in the back.

Put a tub of salt in the back because the road salt isn’t rusting the car fast enough?

ab348 · October 2021

This article may be interesting for owners of late-model Mustangs. Apparently they have a similar jacking problem to the one @corvette described on his Prius recently. The aftermarket has a solution however!

https://www.hemmings.com/stories/2021/10/20/jacking-rails-are-a-must-do-mod-for-late-model-mustangs

sda · October 2021

benjaminh said:

andres3 said:
....I've decided reaching out to Audi is too much work with the roadblock in play....
Thanks for your answers.

I missed something and/or I'm just lacking in knowledge, but for whatever reason I'm not understanding about the "roadblock in play" as a reason for not contacting Audi.

Based on the maintenance records showing the car regularly serviced by an Audi service department and it having such low mileage engine failure is unthinkable. I would not hesitate to escalate to Audi for support.

mjfloyd1 · October 2021

@sda said:
Based on the maintenance records showing the car regularly serviced by an Audi service department and it having such low mileage engine failure is unthinkable. I would not hesitate to escalate to Audi for support.

Still need to have ECU checked.

Some Audi dealers were Stasis or APR dealers. I had my RS7 APR tuned at an Audi dealer.

sda · October 2021

mjfloyd1 said:

@sda said:

Based on the maintenance records showing the car regularly serviced by an Audi service department and it having such low mileage engine failure is unthinkable. I would not hesitate to escalate to Audi for support.

Still need to have ECU checked.

Some Audi dealers were Stasis or APR dealers. I had my RS7 APR tuned at an Audi dealer.

Would Stasis or APR Audi dealer void the warranty? If so I’m surprised the Audi dealer would subject their customer to that risk.

stickguy · October 2021

No, normally authorized dealers doing approved updates is factory blessed. Like Volvo polestar and I think BMW has the same stuff. And Ford dealers installing Rousch stuff.

mjfloyd1 · October 2021

@sda said:
Would Stasis or APR Audi dealer void the warranty? If so I’m surprised the Audi dealer would subject their customer to that risk.

Stasis would for sure void warranty. APR you can get an APR plus (IIRC) that matches factory warranty. The plus is lower HP/torque. Otherwise it is pay to play for higher HP/ torque tunes ( unless you get aftermarket warranty and they don’t figure out that it is tuned. ).

These are not factory approved “updates” for Audis.

As far as I know, only Polestar is factory approved and factory warrantied on Volvos. The others can sometimes be had with “factory matching”drivetrain warranties but the those tend to be pretty expensive.

oldfarmer50 · October 2021

stickguy said:
No, normally authorized dealers doing approved updates is factory blessed. Like Volvo polestar and I think BMW has the same stuff. And Ford dealers installing Rousch stuff.

When I had the Ford Performance gear installed on my car they swore up and down that it didn’t void the warranty. Of course you never know until the engine blows up and you try to make a claim.

Of course my upgrades were pretty mild but I think most manufacturers build a little leeway into their motors. Redline on mine went from 6500 to 7500 rpms so the lower figure must have been a fairly low stress limit.

andres3 · October 2021

benjaminh said:

andres3 said:
....I've decided reaching out to Audi is too much work with the roadblock in play....
Thanks for your answers.

I missed something and/or I'm just lacking in knowledge, but for whatever reason I'm not understanding about the "roadblock in play" as a reason for not contacting Audi.

The roadblocks are as follows:

Tow the car to an Audi dealership.
Pay Audi dealership to come to same engine replacement diagnosis/recommendation.
Then seek out assistance from Audi which is a long shot due to the age of the car in time, and the fact it was bought used from a non-Audi dealer.

It might payoff, but seems like a long shot and more time wasted. The advice is that Audi will likely say no when they have the leverage to say "your way past your 4 year warranty!"

andres3 · October 2021

mjfloyd1 said:

@sda said:

Would Stasis or APR Audi dealer void the warranty? If so I’m surprised the Audi dealer would subject their customer to that risk.

Stasis would for sure void warranty. APR you can get an APR plus (IIRC) that matches factory warranty. The plus is lower HP/torque. Otherwise it is pay to play for higher HP/ torque tunes ( unless you get aftermarket warranty and they don’t figure out that it is tuned. ).

These are not factory approved “updates” for Audis.

As far as I know, only Polestar is factory approved and factory warrantied on Volvos. The others can sometimes be had with “factory matching”drivetrain warranties but the those tend to be pretty expensive.

Once upon a time Stasis was factory approved with full warranty. Don't know how many years that lasted though. I found the APR plus program to be ridiculously expensive. Of course, I'm batting .1000 on tuned Audi's and .500 on untuned Audi's, so go figure.

andres3 · October 2021

mjfloyd1 said:
@andres3 - did you ask the Audi shop foreman if they interrogated the ECU? I’m not sure they would initially check the ECU since it is out of warranty and you have not authorized further checks on the motor.

Do you mean for TD1 triggering tunes in the history, or for the crank sensor failure stored from my freeway "incident?" Yes on the latter.

Shop stated engine replacement recommendation came in part due to "Paired with cam/crank correlation faults stored in the ECU."

mjfloyd1 · October 2021

TD1 - if it is TD1 then no point reaching out to Audi for assistance

28firefighter · October 2021

You have a long history of Audi ownership, @andres3. I think it would be worth a tow to the Audi dealer and see if they can good will some or all of a replacement. While nothing of this magnitude, my Dad has had good luck with his local dealer and they've gone to bat with Audi over these issues, even long out of warranty.

andres3 · October 2021

mjfloyd1 said:
TD1 - if it is TD1 then no point reaching out to Audi for assistance

Yeah, you guys got me starting to lean towards letting Audi say no. I hate having to tow it again though. And the "good" Audi dealership is further away than the "lesser" one.

andres3 · October 2021

Then I have to calculate if they offer "halfers" and the dealership labor rate is $70/hour higher.... and probably will charge me more hours, but compared to $14K that might be easy math.

sda · October 2021

andres3 said:
Then I have to calculate if they offer "halfers" and the dealership labor rate is $70/hour higher.... and probably will charge me more hours, but compared to $14K that might be easy math.

Call Audi customer service and diplomatically make your case. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

mjfloyd1 · October 2021

@andres3 said:
Once upon a time Stasis was factory approved with full warranty. Don't know how many years that lasted though. I found the APR plus program to be ridiculously expensive. Of course, I'm batting .1000 on tuned Audi's and .500 on untuned Audi's, so go figure.

Stasis had its own warranty for the drivetrain “signature “. It was fine until Stasis went bankrupt.

http://stasisengineering.com/support/warranty-and-compliance

andres3 · October 2021

mjfloyd1 said:

@andres3 said:

Once upon a time Stasis was factory approved with full warranty. Don't know how many years that lasted though. I found the APR plus program to be ridiculously expensive. Of course, I'm batting .1000 on tuned Audi's and .500 on untuned Audi's, so go figure.

Stasis had its own warranty for the drivetrain “signature “. It was fine until Stasis went bankrupt.

http://stasisengineering.com/support/warranty-and-compliance

You are bringing back old memories.

Stasis = Alcon brakes, GIAC tuning software, and I wonder who else they paid to put their "name" on others' engineered products. At least they picked good partners to work with; certainly not low bidder stuff.

benjaminh · October 2021

My Mom used to say something like, "The worst that could happen is that they could say no." Just a thought.

https://www.audiusa.com/us/web/en/support/contact-us.html

andres3 · October 2021

benjaminh said:
My Mom used to say something like, "The worst that could happen is that they could say no." Just a thought.

https://www.audiusa.com/us/web/en/support/contact-us.html

Oh I called and spoke to someone, they put me in the cookie cutter que, meaning, take it to a "stealership" and get it checked first and foremost.

benjaminh · October 2021

We got another letter from the dealer where we bought my wife's Honda CR-V three and a half years ago. They are offering 27,700 in trade, which is slightly more than we bought it for. But the new ones have an msrp of 30,600 + about $4k adm, and so it doesn't seem worth it.

andres3 · October 2021

So, being in CCBA - I was thinking I need something with good gas mileage to run my long daily commute, and CA gas prices being as high as they are.

Saw a '07-'10 generation Civic on the road, thought that would work, but then remembered the sound system is crap.

What gets good mileage, doesn't cost more than a '15 S4 with 44K miles, and doesn't have a sucky sound system?

andres3 · October 2021

sda said:

mjfloyd1 said:

@sda said:

Based on the maintenance records showing the car regularly serviced by an Audi service department and it having such low mileage engine failure is unthinkable. I would not hesitate to escalate to Audi for support.

Still need to have ECU checked.

Some Audi dealers were Stasis or APR dealers. I had my RS7 APR tuned at an Audi dealer.

Would Stasis or APR Audi dealer void the warranty? If so I’m surprised the Audi dealer would subject their customer to that risk.

ECU came back clean!!!

"We did check for TD1 and it is NOT currently flagged."

qbrozen · October 2021

What do you consider good mileage?

andres3 · October 2021

qbrozen said:
What do you consider good mileage?

My lightbulb just went off like fireworks just now!!!! Even better idea that's more in line with this board!!!

Buy another S4 of the same generation ('13-'16) with less than 80K miles and drive that until something other than the motor fails (fingers crossed). Then, swap the motor into my current S4, and drive that until something other than the motor fails (fingers crossed), Then, I'll have an extra part for everything, literally!!!

This is the equivalent of throwing money at a problem to make the problem go away, but it looks like it might cost me only about double to just over double a new motor, and I get all the other parts a car has thrown in!!!

If I buy up all the used B8.5 S4's out there, I'll have the best junkyard ever to drive S4's until retirement.

To answer your question I'd take anything that averages 27.5 MPG or better in mixed driving with my heavy foot and higher highway speeds (85 MPH being common).

mjfloyd1 · October 2021

@andres3 said:
ECU came back clean!!!

"We did check for TD1 and it is NOT currently flagged."

Excellent news! I would definitely tow it to an Audi dealership and see what Audi corporate says.

benjaminh · October 2021

Maybe stickguy's lease app shows some okay deals in the LA area?

After the power of the S4, I think you'd find most Civics to be quite underpowered. The exceptions would be the Si models, but they only come with a manual transmission.

if you can find a CPO Acura ILX or TLX 4-cylinder I think you'd like them better than a Civic. Good mpg, but still not close to the power you're used to. But Acura's CPO warranty is 7 years and 100k miles for the engine and transmission. The base stereo on an Acura is equal to a top-of-the-line Honda stereo.

CPO VW GTI?

New Hyundai Elantra N-line?
10 year 100k warranty + 0.9% financing for 60 months.

https://www.hyundaiusa.com/us/en/vehicles/elantra/n-line

https://www.russellwestbrookhyundaiofanaheim.com/new/Hyundai/2022-Hyundai-Elantra-anaheim-efb3ef870a0e09b007f3cb9b51ca3e78.htm

oldfarmer50 · October 2021

qbrozen said:
What do you consider good mileage?

Mitsu Mirage can get 50mpg but even I notice the sound system is bad.

stickguy · October 2021

sounds systems can be upgraded. Especially on older cars that are not as integrated. a 2007 Civic, easy peasey.

andres3 · October 2021

stickguy said:
sounds systems can be upgraded. Especially on older cars that are not as integrated. a 2007 Civic, easy peasey.

Do you remember the '07 dash on the Civic? It's like an Alien's face. Now the '05 Civic, easy peasey.

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