flyin8

Its starting... The maintenance on my a8 that is.

Looks like i have the "infamous" oil cooler - coolant leak, and it would appear at first glance that there is oil leaking from my transmission (very very small trace amounts) - but that would make me suspect that the main seal from the engine needs to be replaced.

and need i say my car just hit 83,000 miles... so here comes the big service!!

luckily i have an extended warrenty, so they will be doing the main seal and the oil cooler leak on the warrenty, but $2300 for my 85k mile service... damn!!!

dimitristx

$2300 just for the service? Where, at the dealer? You can find lower than that, ~$1.5k

skwoods

They have worked on my A8 for many years, not cheap, but good guys and probably cheaper than Barrier. Tell them you heard about them from Doctor Woods.

ttuling

- overheating and eventually a leaking water pump in the shop after they'd drained and "refilled" the cooling system. I think a plugged radiator was also diagnosed, but disproved when the radiator shop took it apart for cleaning. Autologic hadn't followed or thought necessary the bleeding instructions in the supplied shop manual, preferring instead to use lots of revs. With the water pump spinning dry?

- ordering one front driveshaft to cure a vibration, then deciding it was from the other side, then that it was normal.

Yes, they are generally friendly and want to get it right. I realize two anecdotes may not describe fairly their overall quality, and that all shops have their glitches, but I wish the accuracy of their diagnoses had matched the confidence with which they were delivered.

Autohaus Vick was good when I lived in the area, and they look after enough high mileage A8s to have learned some of their quirks. When my 2001 put oil in the coolant at about 110,000 miles, Autohaus Vick on the phone said without head scratching that the 5V oil cooler will do that when its O-rings get old, and that it's the most common cause.

Tom