audi762

Hello all, I recently paid a total of $1100 for a problem that just would not go away and still hasn't. About a month ago my car started to sputter as I attempted to accelerate and totally lost power. I took it up to the dealer and I was told that I was imagining things and after they ran there diagnostic the found nothing was wrong with the car. So I limped home thinking I was losing my mind. A week later I began to have the same symptoms and I immediately returned to the dealer. They checked the car and told me that it was the mass air flow sensor and charged me $500 to replace it. I only got a mile away from the dealership when the car began doing the same thing all over again; I returned and was told that I needed new spark plugs which I was charged another $200 for. I left the dealership and the car still did not feel right but I could not waste another day in the dealership so I decided to give it a few days and see how it ran. Well, here we go again the same problem. The dealership then told me that the throttle body had gone bad and they needed to replace it. Another $400 down the drain. Now this entire time I am telling the dealership that there has to be some underlying problem that they are not catching that is causing the parts to break but they told me that the car was getting up in miles and I should expect these types of things to pop up. Well the final time I took her home it started sputtering again. I took it up to the dealership and was told that the entire time my air filter had been disintegrating and spewing into the engine. My next step is to go up to the dealership and attempt to get my money back for the repairs that would have never happened if they would have caught this simple fix the first time. I am a mechanical novice so can anyone here tell me if a disintegrating air filter could have caused the mass air flow sensor, the throttle body and the spark plugs to malfunction in the car? Thanks for any help.

April

Also, I think that most places warranty their work for a certain period, so going back several times for the same thing is kind of fishy.

Do you have records for when the air filter was last replaced? How many miles? I can see how it is possible to overlook this, since it is rare to have a filter fall apart - especially if the car has been well maintained. That doesn't excuse not looking at the basics though.

Call up AoA and start a case file against the dealership. This can be used later if you wish to take them to court.

audi762

But I bought the car at 50K and I have had it for 2 and a half years. Every since I have bought the car it has been meticulously maintained. Thanks for your help.

frankie@work

On older cars (like pre-1980 old), mechanics would likely check air, fuel and oil filters very early on in trying to diagnose a drivability problem. Not that I'm taking the side of the dealership here, but a disintegrating air filter is nearly unheard of and as such I'm not surprised that they did not check this first.

As an old boss of mine used to say, doctors only have to be familiar with 2 models, but mechanics.....

Good luck.

Potomac-Greg

I've heard worse. Truth is, you did get new stuff. Not sure you needed it, but you got it.

myfirstimport

paragraph much?

alfabutt

You may have gotten new stuff; maybe it was time for routine replacement so what the heck, but if not, you incurred unnecessary expenses. In the interest "diagnostic economy" an acute symptom is most likely the result of one failure. They just screwed up the diagnosis the first three attempts.

frankie@work

As long as you trust your mechanic/shop, you sometimes have to roll with it. With that being said, I'm rolling with it on a 12 year old Maxima with 140k miles. If I had to deal with 4 figure repair bills on a late model Audi I would not be so understanding - hence my credo of never owning a late model non-Japanese import out of warranty.

john in cincy

misdiagnosing) is what you pay for out of warranty! The simple fact is that the air filter likely had nothing to do with the other "problems" and that it was the problem all along (although even that sounds fishy to me).

As for the MAF, the throttle body, and the spark plugs, you got new ones whether you wanted them or not.

Now it has been my experience with independent shops that they will generally cut you a break on labor for misdiagnoses, but I don't think you would win anything in a legal battle.

Good luck with whatever you are considering.

By the way, this is why you have them call you up every step of the way (especially when it is on your dime). Yes, it is a major PITA, but you ask them to call you with what they think is the problem. Then you ask them WHY they think that is the problem and WHY they think their proposed solution would fix it. This is when you start to think as well and you try to come up with reasons WHY what they think is the problem couldn't be the problem or WHY something else (preferably that is cheaper or easier) might be a better solution.

John in Cincy

audi762

....as you look at **** sites. As usual there had to be at least one dumbass comment that had nothing to do with the subject at hand. And to everyone who actually offered your honest assistance. Thank you for your post, I really appreciate your comments.