bk3104

Rietzl Porsche/Audi in Norwell, MA

Brought my car in for it's second fuel sender recall. I was going to have them mount/balance my 4 new Yokohama AVS db's, but their tire mounting machine couldn't handle the stiffer sidewalls. So I had that done at Direct Tire today in Natick, MA, but that's another story.

Dealer performed the fuel sender recall with no problems. They also FINALLY diagnosed a "tinking" noise that I had thought was coming from the drivers side air vent. Turns out it was some sort of brace in the lower dash. Mechanic(Alex) pulled things apart until he isolated the noise, then insulated the piece and put it all back together. My A6 4.2 is FINALLY quiet! He also spent some time trying to isolate a few noises my headliner has been making. He may have solved that one too.

They really have been working on their customer service skills and it is starting to show. There were apologies for two parts that they didn't have(drivers side mirror which was to replace my current vibrating one, and rubber gasket that seals the firewall) but they told me exactly what they had done and what they were going to do.

Very professional about things. Had them install my mudflaps too which wound up being my only charge.

All in all, I was very satisfied with the service visit.

Thought I'd pass on a good story...

INTENDED Acceleration

Tell me more about the "tinking" noise...I may have something similar.

April

Trying to make the dealer reimbursment more fair for everyone. I think we are starting to see this come into play. ie: mechanic gets paid for the actual time it takes to track down a squeak, not just a flat rate one time pay-out.

bk3104

#1) It drove me crazy
#2) It didn't happen all the time and I couldn't pinpoint the times(weather/temperature/road conditions/etc.) that would cause it to happen. It seemsd to have a mind of it's own
#3) 2 previous times the dealer had tried to find it but "couldn't replicate".
#4) It sounded just like that, a "tinking" noise. It could almost even be described as sounding like a Geiger counter. Not real loud, but just annoying.

With the way sound ricochet's around in the cabin, I originally thought it was coming from near the top of the window on the drivers side. After a while I thought I had it narrowed down to the drivers side airvent and when I'd push on the vent surround(not the slats) it would make the noise. Ah, ha! I thought and drove it to the dealer. I get the service tech, his manager and the managers manager out there and I start pushing and....no noise. doh!

Anyways, they actually got it to happen this time and fixed it, so far as it's only been one day.

This hopefully describes it well enough. Does it sound like your noise?

bk3104

April, this way they can take their time and actually troubleshoot and diagnose issue's instead of trying the easiest and quickest fix? Or in some cases, giving a one shot attempt at recreating whatever it was and if they couldn't recreate it(which usually happened in my case), to put that on the invoice.

If this is what AoA is doing with service, I'd say it's a step in the right direction. I actually walked out of there feeling good about things. I didn't even care that they hadn't fixed everything. It actually seemed like they wanted to take the time to figure it out this time. It gave a sense of caring.

Lets just hope it keeps up! Any idea if it wil?

INTENDED Acceleration

I hear it coming from the area to the left of the steering wheel. Like you said, sounds like it could be coming from the vent. However, no matter where I prod and touch, I can't have any impact on the noise. It is not loud; just a constant minor annoyance.

Unlike your noise, mine is pretty constant. I don't think I will have trouble replicating it for the dealer.

Thanks for the add'l info.

bk3104

Well, "good" that it is constant. My tech took the lower dash apart and found some sort of brace under there that was rubbing against something. He insulated it from whatever it was rubbing against and I haven't heard it since. Of course, this was only yesterday afternoon that he did it, but so far so good. Try pushing against the vent frame to the left of the steering wheel and see if it makes the noise.

miamigrrl [midori]

... I thought it had something to do with electrical components in the dash. Didn't know it was actually a defect.

I may have that checked out as well.

April

to sort out fiddly things should be less of an issue.

bk3104

Doesn't happen after you've been driving it for a while. Just when you first turn it on?