snagitseven

Has anyone here received this letter? If true, it's disconcerting on the one hand and reassuring on the other. A bad news, good news kind of thing.

https://www.audiworld.com/forums/sho...8#post24477148

irenesbob

Good info. One of the posts in the Q5 thread reports their dealer said the warranty extension will apply to "both engines". Do you think that means the 3.0 and 3.2 or the 3.0 and 2.0?
Since I am leasing it really doesn't matter, just curious.

snagitseven

Ok, got my letter today.

It is NOT a warranty extension for the 2009-12 3.2L or 2009-13 3.0T engine but extends on those motors to 10 years/120K miles to cover a MIL warning that is specifically caused by the need to clean the engine cylinder head secondary air ports only due to possible carbon buildup "under certain driving conditions". Nothing else is addressed or covered beyond the normal warranty period including other engine defects that could cause a MIL.
No other engines or model years are mentioned.

While it's nice that Audi is extending the coverage for this, it's somewhat unnerving to think that it was necessary in the first place and if over the long haul, carbon build up in other parts of the engine, not covered beyond the normal warranty or this extension, could occur. This might explain the continuous presence of soot on my A6 exhaust tips that is not found on my 12 year old allroad 2.7t. I'm not particular encouraged by this letter.

(It does provide for reimbursement if anyone had paid to have these specific ports cleaned).

feralc

Got mine too. I wonder how Audi will handle this warranty extensions with tuned cars, because they say "it doesn't cover any damage or malfunctions CAUSED (who is the judge of this?) by installation of non EPA or non CARB certified parts that alter the performance of the engine, engine controls, or exhaust system, such as the installation of engine management components (chipped or tuned ECMs) not approved by Audi"
If a tuned car ever gets a MIL (check engine light) due to carbon build up, they will blame the tune or an exhaust ( this one is ridiculous) when they already know they have a known issue?

subterFUSE

Does it appear that 2014 3.0T engines are affected? Or perhaps it is simply to early to tell yet?

Or perhaps I should use this excuse to explain to my wife why I need to buy an S6 instead of an A6 3.0T Prestige?

snagitseven

MY2014 is not mentioned in the letter. While it's possible Audi has figured out a way to mitigate this via a modification (enlarging the ports?), I can't imagine the engine is different enough from recent 3.0T designs to prevent the same carbon build up "under certain driving conditions" (whatever THAT means - they don't say in the letter). Time will tell. For all of us.

qqq1970

Ditto. Soot on exhaust tips.

Satch0922

I am on my second A8, just traded my S5 for the A6 and all of them leave soot on the tailpipes.

However none of them had to go into the shop for a carbon build up problem (drove my 04 A8L past 100,000 before trading it on my 09).

Again, as said before, Audi will cover if needed. No reason to worry. Drive the **** out of your car and enjoy it!

snagitseven

Well, they will cover the ports but nothing else that may carbon up after the reg wty.
So, I'll exercise my right to remain concerned, if that's ok.

salvadorik

Lets hope you are right. But I think that Audi would not specifically extend warranty on this particular issue if there were no problems. What is more concerning is this problem must have happened often enough for Audi to warrant this extension. So this "soot" on tailpipes argument is rather valid I believe.

I talked to my dealer re this issue, he said 3.0s did have this problem with S4s. Also carbon build up is likely to happen inside superchargers at high mileage.