Service Center says my Audi A6 needs a new engine
 

Hi

looking for some input here as i am totally at a loss here..
I own an 2001 Audi A6 2.7T and it has 159K mile son it. Bought it when it had 90K in 2007. Timing Belt changed at 150K in Texas and Serpentine Belt a month ago in Indy. yesterday i took the car out for lunch from work. after lunch tuned the ignition, the car started but after a minute the engine stopped and won't start again. Noticed the Battery light was on, so tried jump start but did not work. so got it towed to a service center and today got a call saying that they charged the battery but when tried to start the engine, they could hear a lot of metallic sound and that the engine is done for good and the car needs a new engine.

i am totally at a loss because, i am not sure how could the engine die just so suddenly, i mean it was just riding smooth, no loud noises or anything. the yellow check engine light was on earlier but i got it checked and it turned out to be bad o2 sensors. except for the battery light no other light was on. unable to fathom what would have caused the engine failure.

The mechanic says any attempt to diagnose why the engine failed would be a waste of money and that he can try and rebuild the engine for 6+ grand.

Sorry for such a long post but want to understand if anybody faced similar issue. i am heading to his shop on monday and would like to know what are the possible choices here because he was talking about disposing the car.

any info/suggestion would be greatly appreciated. Thank You, yesh

That's a pretty big conclusion to jump to. Of course, it's not his money he is talking about.

My advice, get a second opinion from another independent.

At a minimum, drain the oil and check for metal particles, and, if there are none, remove the valve covers and look for a damaged camshaft tensioner and verify proper timing of the camshafts.

If you have VCDS, pull the codes and report what you found.

Let me get this straight...... He says the motor is bad but he doesn't know why it's bad and he doesn't feel like finding out is worth the money? When it could just be a bad VCT tensioner or any number of other things? I would be out. Find a knowledgeable mechanic. It would only take a few minutes to find out what went wrong. An hour at the most. Metalic sounds could be a lot of different things.

I once towed a car from Vegas to Colorado (when I was a kid) because I thought the engine had locked up. I was stuck literally on the Hoover Dam and had no tools. It was my mother in laws car so I just rented a Uhaul and trailer and towed the car back. Once I was near a set of tools, I cut the serp belt and the motor turned over. The alternator had grenaded and locked. The motor was fine. I never travel without tools now (this was 18 years ago) and I never jump to conclusions.

New shop and new mechanic the faster the better and don't give this dope a cent. "Engine won't start? Well then we gotta replace it" DOH!

Check the oil as mentioned and check the compression. A compression check will reveal valve train and piston problems and you can listen for that metallic sound.

I have a lot of suspicions too, and a 2nd opinion is absolutely needed, but "a lot of metallic sound" (huh?) does not sound good.

The OP al;so needs to be much more specific about what "wont start" means. If it means the starter tries to turn the motor but it id frozen - that's bad.

I would consider putting a breaker bar and socket on the cam pulley and seeing if the motor turns by hand, and if so, if anything is detected.

Is the timing belt in good condition?

Is there oil in the motor? Color?

OP - try to be much more precise, or, if you can;t, you need a knowledgeable, trusted mechanic to diagnose this for you.

Grant

I'm wondering if this might be a time to actually head to the dealer. They'll probably be honest with you (might charge an hour or two or labor) and probably won't just say "engine bad, you get new one" or something. In my experience the dealer had always been more expensive but if I ask they've always took time to really explain what's wrong and even pulled me out to the bay before to talk directly to the tech or look at the car...

Still laughing about this.

As mentioned above by another knowledgeable poster, metallic sounds from the engine could be a roasted cam tensioner. Engines can take a little metal. That's what the oil filter is for. I know the newer 911's have some IFS issues that you early detect by cutting open the oil filter and looking for metal. Get another mechanic.

If you are mechanically inclined all the suggestions mentioned in the posts prior, would be great to check. Rolling the engine over gently checking for interference, stop if it locks up and check the diagnostic codes again you had mentioned the check engine light was on it was the o2s. Make sure all timing is good, drop the oil and check for metallic fines etc.

Battery light will be on until the engines running and picking up voltage from the altenator, to charge the battery back up to +12v . Unless the altenator is not charging which the car will run until the battery dies, or drops below the voltage required to run ignition fueling engine management systems. once, the battery is dead thats it, it will need a charge and start the for-mentioned cycle over again.


Also, altenators are loaded with things the could make a metallic noise (bearings) that could be mistaken for a noise coming from the engine

There are alot of scenarios that could be possible, to simply just say it needs an engine is crazy, if the ground work wasn't established. As, it could something as simple as a connection to a vital component or it could be a motor.


Have you considered taking it to a Audi dealership?

Sorry about the extra long post, just trying save you a unnecessary $6k spent on, what may be nonsense.


Good luck!

You have a lot of good advice above - I'd like to re-iterate, what does it do when you try to start? Is it chugging? A metallic noise could be anything. You could have a fried battery, alternator, or starter from what you've described. A fried ECU could also be an issue. When these cars just suddenly stop, it is natural to think something went wrong in the timing and you had a collision and the engine is toast. But to go there without any diagnosis and to suggest that diagnosing will be a waste and you should just give the person refusing to diagnose things $6K is a little suspicious :)

If this were me, I'd come back, explain to us what happens when you turn the key- what do you hear? Does it click, does it sound like the engine wants to turn over?

Next, I would remove the serpentine belt, which is relatively easy but probably a little tight without putting the car into service position and I would check the pulleys, especially the one on the alternator.

Next, I would do as suggested and put a socket on the crankshaft (not the CAM shaft) and slowly turn it by hand and see what happens. If there are no collisions I would then do a compression test.

Oh and if you are turning the key and getting "nothing" then I would have the battery checked. If you are turning the key and getting a metallic sound - similar to when you try to turn a car on when it is already running, maybe you have a bad starter? I would assume a mechanic would know these sounds, but it doesn't sound like I can assume much with a mechanic who refuses to diagnose a problem...