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Can anyone give an idea on cost of replacing downpipes at Audi? Or did you take it to indy? My 40k service appointment is in few weeks. I had this issue for awhile now but due to being so busy with life I was waiting to bring this up during oil change. Car is out of warranty now.
And what exactly do you mean by downpipe. Thx
Downpipe is the section from the area after the manifold (or turbo) "down" to where it joins the exhaust underneath and where some cats (catalytic converters) or a forward resonator are placed. Also called headpipes.
To your main question, if it is on your own nickel, what others have reported in a thread or two is they just went to a muffler shop and had a new flex joint welded in. Downpipes usually have that flex fitting to allow the motor to move back and forth some plus absorb some of the slight increase in the exhaust length when it gets hot--while exhaust remains relatively rigid given its mount points and need to keep from banging into other stuff underneath. See this thread and look at pictures in either original post (#1) or in last reply (#73) and you will see flex joints right up near the front/beginning of the exhaust system. https://www.audiworld.com/forums/a8-...2915181/page2/ A muffler shop can just replace that relatively small component with a generic one of correct pipe diameter. Used on many vehicles as a standard exhaust component, not some special Audi pixie dust part. Audi just sells big sections of an exhaust, and then you also have the extra labor to remove the sections instead of just torch work at a much lower cost muffler shop rate.
Part numbers for the downpipes replaced on my car were 4H0253300H and 4H0253350N. Quick search shows they can be had for $317 and $285. My car is a short wheel base model, there might be different part numbers for an A8L.
Here is an update... I finally got few min of free time to deal with this. Called one great indy shop but they referred me to mufler shop. And then I thought let me just try call Audi. And my talk with adviser went like this.. I experience this problem and I know 4.0 have a TSB. He said I don't see it for your car, me - let me see if I can find TSB# for you. He says oh wait, I see it now . Bring it in.
While dropping the car off and explaining the easiest way to duplicate the issue lady said perhaps you want to ride with a mechanic? I said of course. 1 min into it mechanic says per TSB it just needs loosening everything up, make some adjustment and retightening. Me- hmm..don't think so, let me show you how bad it is. 2 min into a ride he say oh yes, new flex pipes for sure. I'm happy!
Later that day they call me saying they adjusted the mounts and now car is ready for pick up. Guess what? Maybe 30% better but vibration is still there.
Next morning they called to follow up and now I have another appointment. They want to try adjusting again.
More surprising (per invoice) there is TSB. Link here.
10-09-2018, 08:08 PM
. Bring it in.
