AL

Had a 24000KM maintenance appointment made for my 99'A4 1.8TQTipS
at Wed 2:30 15/12/99 and here's the story

Last time my car when in for the 16000KM service, the engine oil
was overfilled I had to drive back to the dealer next morning to
get the oil level adjust, so this time I decide to be "careful",
so I stay at the dealer parking lot after I drop off my car, i
wanted to see how the service was done. after about 10min, a
technician showed up and drove my car to the service bay.

He did the regular maintenance things, then started changing the
engine oil, the guy jacked up the car, drained out the old oil,
lowered the car and put the dealer's oil inside, closed the hood,
then open up the trunk, took out the Mobil1 10W30 i supplied, pour
inside a container, and put the container aside.
Then he put the empty bottle back to the trunk, and drove the car
out of the garage, he thought no one was watching him, but all the
time I was standing outside the automatic garage door, watching
the whole process through the plastic windows on the door.

Hey! this guy is stealing the oil from me!
First, he did not put the Mobil1 I gave to them. second, he took
the Mobil 1, and put the empty bottle back to pretend that he had
used my supplied oil! I was wandering if last time they did the
same thing as well...

Anyway, I stopped him right out of the garage immediately, ask him
why he didn't use the supplied oil? His face became red, and try to
explain some thing like:"your oil is not good, too thin, we use
10W40 CASTROL!"
"hey, this is Mobil One, and it's syn oil" I said
"no, that's no good, if you want to use syn, use Castrol Syntec, you
know, if you use any oil other then Castrol, it will void the engine
warranty" "cause we dealer have some special deal with Castrol, so if
you use Mobil 1, I'll write down a mark that says:did not use Castrol,
and if your engine have develop any problems later, Castrol will not
warrantee the engine, and we will not fix it!" "and you are going to
claim your warranty with Mobil yourself"
I said "I don't know about this, and I don't care, can you just put
the Mobil 1 inside?"
"ok sure, but let me remind you again, your warranty will void"
"I understand, Its ok, please change the oil"

He drove back to the garage, and starting changing the oil.

There's 2 big bottle of Mobil 1 I put in the trunk, I measured 3.5
liter(states in TSB) in the morning, put in the big 5 liter Wal-Mart
Mobil 1 bottle, and wrote down "3.5L" on the bottle and the cap, and
put the rest to the second bottle. He pour in the first 3.5 liter(which
he stole from me), and some how he think it wasn't enough, so he went
back to the trunk, took the second bottle, and put some more in, and
then he checked the oil level stick for several times, then closed
the hood, seems like he got the right amount, so we went to road test
the car, all the time he is keep saying the Castrol/warranty thing,
and I just kept nodding my head, and kept replying "yah, yah, I know...."

Finally back to the dealer, paid for the extra oil filter that did not
cover under the Audi free maintenance program, and took the key thinking
myself: ok everything's fine, nothing to be angry about, nothing to worry
about...
Then I went back to my car, ready to go, but some how I decide to check
the oil level again by myself, guess what I found out, Overfilled again!
It reads about 1cm above the max. mark, so I went back and talk to that
guy again, he checked the oil level, and says: "this is normal, because
after you shut off the engine for a while, the oil drain back to the
oil-pen, so It will looks like this" "you should check the level right
after you shut off the engine" "you shouldn't wait"
so he starts and shut off again, then check the oil immediately, the level
reads right at the max mark. "see, I told you" I said "I think normally,
you should wait for the oil drain back to check the level" (this is mentioned
in the owners manual: )
"no no no, if you wait and check, and if it reads right on the max mark, oil
will running low after the engine start!"
"how much did you put inside??" i ask
"3.8 liter"
"what?" i want to make sure that i didn't heard wrong
"3.8 liter"
"but I think there is a TSB for this, and it says 3.5L" i said
"3.5L? no, that's without filter"
"if without filter, it should be 3L" i said
"no, it's 3.5L with out filter"
"can you drain it a bit?" I ask
"it's normal!"
"please"
"it's normal!"
"come on..."

and then this guy started getting angry:"YOU ARE ASKING TOO MUCH!" and
mumbling some F word, he went back to my car, started the car again,
slam the door close, drove it very fast back to the service bay.
from the sound i heard outside, and the acceleration speed of the vehicle,
I think he floored my car. and at that time the engine wasn't even fully
warmed up. I babied my car so much, I had never use full throttle at least
after 40min of a cold start or before the oil temp. fully up to the normal
operating range. and this guy here, a VW/Audi tech, is tried to damaging
my Audi, the same Audi that I washed it bare handed(no washing sponge, no
cotton towel, nothing but my own skin) at near freezing temp. 4AM in the
winter morning. he is trying to damaging my own property right in front of
me, and I don't think this is the right way to treat a customer.

"Hey, SlowDown!" I yelled
I ran after my car, (yes, I ran) because I don't want to let my car out
of my sight, I was afraid this anger man ganna hurt my car, I saw him
speeded over a bump, at the way to the service bay, inside the dealer
lot, he stopped the car beside an office personal, and they talked about
10sec. then he drove to the back of the lot, where the service bay is
locate. with a fairly quick speed.
when I pass the lady, she said to me:it did not overfilled!
WT... this guy just admitted to me that he put 3.8L in!
i was still chasing my car, so I simply reply "no, he did"
the lady just walk off...

return to the service bay, I stand outside the garage door again,
that guy just opening the hood, and starting loosen the oil filter...

this is most incredible thing ever happened to my car,
this guy is draining the oil.
but, how?
not by jacking up the car, not by taking of the protection plate,
not by using the drain plug which people would normally do when overfilled

this guy just loosen the oil filter, and let all the oil
draining into my car's engine bay!!
next thing this guy did, is pulling out an high pressure car wash nozzle
and try to "clean off the oil" in the engine bay!
I walked to him and ask him to stop, said I will clean it up myself after
I got home. then this guy says "no, you will complain about the oil burning
smell if I don't wash it!" and he repeated several times"it's plain water,
it's ok" then he just go ahead and wash it. lots of water buzzing sound
(the sound you'd only heard at kitchen or heard while a bus driver pouring
water on his bus's overheated brake) and some white steam comes out.
it was about 5:30PM

during the whole time my emotion is fully under control, I talked fairly
calm to everyone, I did not show my anger to any body, I tried to be
reasonable, I even said thanks to that technician after he done all
these terrible things to me.

the dealer is Cowell Motor at Richmond BC Canada
I was fairly satisfied dealing with Cowell Motor before
when the dealer call me to give ranting of the service, I gave then all the
highest ranting possible.
the lady name mentioned above is the service represent at Cowell Motor.
I don't know the technician's name, but I can point out when I saw him.
he is black hair, not relatively tall, and I think he ware a glasses
and base on the experience describe above, and things he told me,

1.he told me to check oil right after engine shuts down (against A4 owners manual)
2.he told me the oil capacity is 3.8L with filter and 3.5 without filter
(TSB number 99-02 date:Apr. 30, 1999. A4 1.8T 3.5L w/filter, 3.0 w/o filter)
3.engines are warranty by the engine oil company
4.he told me about the engine growing noise @2400RPM is cause
by "turbo starts at about 2300/2400RPM"(1950RPM actually, an the sound will
gone if the engine speed is greater then 2500RPM or so, base on his logic,
the turbo stop after 2500rpm)

and numbers of thing he did to me and my car,
1. try to steal the oil I supplied(I think this is against the law, also)
2. drain the oil by loosen the oil filer
3. spry an large amount of water direct to the engine bay
4. bitching some thing like "I'm asking too much", hey..I just want to put
the Mobil one in the engine, and not overfilling, is this too much?

I think he is totally unprofessional, and unable to supply reasonable services
to the customers.

reasons i wrote this letter
I want Cowell VW/Audi give me an reasonable explain on this
I want Cowell VW/Audi pay for the cost of extra oil for the amount of
2 times overfill (this small amount of money means nothing to me, I
just want a bit of justice)
I want Cowell VW/Audi take the responsibility if there's any problem that
cause by spray an amount of water direct to the engine bay within the life
of this vehicle.
I want Cowell VW/Audi take the responsibility if there is any mechanic failure
cause by overfilled the engine oil within the life of this vehicle

Albert Hsu
car license plate number JNT-721

e-mail oppiz@direct.ca

cybera4

FOrward this letter to Mr. Cowell and Cc: the service manager, Mr. Craig or sthg.
I had a bad experience with Cowell too a year ago. They are just too ignorant! I dont suggest u go there again, try clarkdale or the one in North Van.....they probably blacklisted you......

steve

The only difference is that they suplied the synth. oil and they tried to charge me for 5 Liters, and they also ovrefilled the engine. When this happened a month and a half ago, I posted the actuall reciept they gave me on here. I dont trust any dealer that wont let you watch the service. They are so carfull there not to let people watch!

Annon

It was time for my first service and I wanted to use synthetic oil in place of regular oil which the dealership said would be no problem, I would just have to pay the price difference between the two. Well,. Synthetic usually cost 3$ more per liter than regular oil so how much could it be,,.. I said OK<, no problem.
So of course that’s just the beginning of the story. I debated watching the mechanic (through the garage door window because we’re not allowed inside) but figured that since it was raining hard I would just watch long enough to make sure he really is putting in synthetic oil. He was so I left. I came back and hour later and the car was just being driven out, perfect timing. So I made my way to the service counter to pay the bill and was a little shocked by the 54$ price. Seems they charge 2$ per liter for regular oil and 12$ for synthetic (I’m sure if you asked for regular oil instead of synthetic you would still be paying 10$ a liter difference) which of course is high,, but then I also noticed they were charging me for 5 liters (a liter is almost the same as a quart for you US guys).

Hmm,, 5 liters,,, think its over filled?
YUP!
Where do they get these (ahem) mechanics?.

HOLD ON, its get better.
I politely complained and they took the car back inside to drain some of the oil …. which they did by unscrewing the oil filter and allowing the oil to flow RIGHT ON the bottom cover shield thing and the rest of the engine. So what can you do, yell,.. no that get nowhere guess a guy just has to politely walk up to the mechanic and ask if he plans to wash all that oil out of the engine bay (which you know he didn’t intend to do because if he did,, it would have been much less work to take the shield off and drain it properly in the first place.
So in the end, the oil was changed and at the right level, the engine bay was clean and they credited back two liters of oil at 10$ a liter. This still cost 40$ to use synthetic oil (going to bring my own next time or just do it all myself) but WHAT A F#%@ING PAIN it was. I’m going to be so scared to have the major service done.

Ps, if you want to know the dealership.. its on the invoice.

AND in all fairness,, they have been pretty good in the past (except with balancing tires)

another worried Cowell customer

Having one's premium vehicle serviced at the dealership (normally a premium price) one should expect a premium service. Clearly the technicians at Cowell are NOT prepared to accomodate their customers if their wishes are somewhat beyond the routine (at least in these two cases).

The removal of this customer's new oil from the car's trunk constitutes theft, plain and simple.
I applaud you for confronting the technician directly, however, you should have immediately gone to the service manager and dealt directly with her/him from then on IMO.

If you do not get immediate satisfaction, you must launch a complaint with the Vancouver BBB.

This is pretty disgusting behaviour and below _any_ kind of auto industry standard, never mind a would-be premiere marque like Audi.

Normally I too would use Cowell for service (purchased my Audi from them), but this really changes my mind. I wonder if our other Vancouver area dealers are of similar integrity!

What does the Vancouver A4 Club think of this?! They seem to use Cowell as their unofficial "official" dealer.

Finally, are there any A4.orger, uhh, I mean AudiWorlders, that use Clarkdale or Capilino Audi/VW? What are their experiences with them?

Perhaps the AudiWorld Vancouver and Vancouver A4 Club members can send a clear message to Cowell by taking our 50 or more (by my estimation) A4's and giving the business to their competitors?

-sick in Vancouver (99.51.8TQMS...Santorin, baby!)

(ps already have a service date at Cowell in tomorrow for replacement of a cooked mirror)