trigoe

Yep... new thermostat. 1400 bucks. One of most common of all car repairs in my experience (I don't think I've owned one car than hasn't had a thermostat go at some point).

Sonnen audi in norcal says it's a huge job just to get to get at the thermostat. Completely buried in the engine. Deep. A full day to get at it. A full day to reach the thermostat of a car. Unbelievable.

Car just barely is out of Audicare, of course.

My first... and I promise, my last Audi.

Joe85STi

Most cars are like this nowadays. More and more stuff to cram. If you're mechanically inclined, it's not that tough of a job and it'd probably only cost a couple hundred dollars if that for parts and a rental for a few days. I did my timing belt and thermostat on my last audi (01 A6), took 3 days but wasn't difficult. Just have to take the front end of the car off.

You could also take it to a good indie shop and probably save a good amount of money for a better job. They don't call it the stealership for nothing.

Don't think that you're going to get into a BMW or Merc and find a different situation.

RickFLS4

I don't think AudiCare would have done much for you. However, an extended warranty likely would have covered it. I paid $3,600 to extend my warranty to just under 125K miles.

As stated above, expect similar issues and costs with just about any car.

Sundowner

the thermostat is UNDER the supercharger. royal pain to get to.
You should go in and pitch a fit over this. the thermostat was recalled on many 2010's and 2011's. If yours wasn't replaced, then scream. if it was replaced, then scream louder that they put defective parts on your car.
don't be afraid to call Audi corporate over this.

Timmay

Yeah the same thing happened to my 06 Audi A3. The transverse mounted engine makes it a PIA to get to apparently. The part itself is cheap but if I remember correctly it took the techs 3 or 4 hours of total labor time to swap it out. I didn't pay $1,400 but it was something like $500 or so. Was not expecting to pay that much for a cheap part. Labor always gets you.

NWS4Guy

It is NOT that big of a pain to get to. Drain the SC coolant loop, remove a few screws, pop out old T-stat and new one in. No ne gaskets needed for SC, just set it back on, screw it down and refill/bleep the coolant loop.

Anyone taking it to the dealer for anything but typical service is asking to get reamed. The cost is less than half that, and labor will run 2 hours (though it will take less to actually do it).

TDIII

What Sundowner said...

My 2011 ate the thermostat at 59,000 miles. I was aware that there had been a campaign but my VIN fell outside of it. I raised hell and AOA covered all by $250 of the cost.

This is a well-known issue with the 3.0 V6T. And a ridiculous one at that!

Timmay

Anyone know if this affects 2014 model year S4s?

brooklyn86

To my knowledge it was a recall for the B8 (2010-2012) generations, not B8.5 (2013+).

Someone correct me if I'm wrong

Timmay

Good, thank you. I do hope that's correct