Wiscoaudi

We picked up a brand new 2018 RS3 end of October with 32 miles on it, now car has a little over 6400 miles on it. Engine is stock, no mods whatsoever. Yesterday, out of the blue, in Auto suspension/sport mode, accelerating about 3000 rpm, thankfully at 25-30mph, heard a definite thunk from the engine, lost power and managed to pull over to the side of the road. REALLY glad I was not on the interstate. Saw a trail of oil about 25' behind where I came to an abrupt stop. Haven't had my first 10k maintance on it. Had it towed via AudiCare to the dealer where we bought it, and found out this morning that there's a "silver dollar sized" hole in the bottom of the engine and the connecting rod to one of the pistons is gone. Service department is waiting to confirm from Audi via code that we didn't mod it, but it looks like I get to wait for a new engine. REALLY not happy, was religious about the break in period, don't rev it above 5500rpm when it's cold, never tracked it, I don't think I even got around to launch control? Supposedly this is the first time they've heard of a stock car throwing a piston. UGH

tigerhonaker

Wiscoaudi,

1st off Sorry about the engine for sure.

2nd thing is what I have posted many times to members about (Modding/Changing) their RS3's and Warranty coverage.
(Don't go there guys) ^^^

Well in your situation you will be receiving a Brand-New RS3 engine from Audi as it should be and 100% Warranty coverage.

Terry

Wiscoaudi

Thanks for the condolences. Got warranty approval a couple hours ago for a new engine, dealer grabbed one of 2 engines available stateside, so at least I likely only have to wait 1 1/2 weeks rather than 3-4+ weeks for an engine to be manufactured. Unfortunately now my husband’s paranoid that the same will happen to his TTRS....

And yeah, after this I’m glad I didn’t go anywhere near a tune or mod. Our dealer saw a nardo RS3 back in April who had had a tune who had the same thing happen as mine, ended up paying $23k for a new engine, and had to wait a month to get that engine manufactured. Audi wants our engine back for analysis, and we’ve asked them to let us know if they figure out a cause. Apparently they don’t bother if it’s been tuned.

tigerhonaker

Just a comment and this is not meant as a Wise-Crack I promise you.

Under No-Circumstances ............. Never-Ever ......... Modify it, EVER !!!

Terry

nate

That's terrible! My 2016 S3 had a new engine at 38K miles, lifter snapped off, pretty much blew up the whole engine. I'm (morbidly) curious what the cause ends up being.

Audi was great about the replacement for what it's worth.

Spinnetti

lol.. I'd argue that after modifying the bejesus out of 1/2 dozen each of Audi and VW, I'd Never, ever, ever get one that I DIDN'T Modify. I'd never want a car I can't or wouldn't modify. If paranoid, wait till out of warranty, then modify.

iStig

Seriously man... Do what you want with your car, you own it. People are entitled to their own opinion or ways if they differ from yours. Calm down dude.

To OP, saw your thread on azine too, sorry about your car. Mine has transmission issues but Audi refuses to fix it even though its under warranty. Im glad they are being cooperative, hopefully that new engine can get back in your car soon.

markN1689

I think Terry has some pretty sage advice. "Don't blow your warranty"

It's not as easy to fool the service department these days... And this advice comes from an quasi-expert at fooling the service department.. I blew 2 synchros, 2 clutches, 2 SETS of turbos, and countless of other repair work done on my tricked out s4 back in '99 to '02. The amount of all work (over 3-4 years) totaled to almost 2 times the cars sticker value. Everything covered by Audi. Good luck getting away with that now-a-days.

If you plan on modifying the car you better know your stuff. You need to be a ninja hacker with access to tools not available to ordinary people.
Otherwise you will accept your fate. See below.

Dchang81

That's pretty incredible that they covered it under warranty.

Wiscoaudi

I’ve seen a few posts of folks who voided their warranty because they didn’t have the option of removing mods prior to tow to the dealership. I just wanted to let folks know that Audi is checking software as SOP prior to warranty work, waited a good 3-4 hours before I got the all-clear. If anything, be sure to save a copy of the factory specs before tinkering with it.

I’m not in the camp of never, ever mod. If that’s your happy place, more power to you. But personally, while we paid cash for the car and have enough to cover the cost of a new replacement car, I just don’t see the point. But I’m not tracking the car, I’m using it as a daily driver where the power is awesome for avoiding idiots texting on their phones while merging into traffic. If I wanted a track car, I’d trade her in for a TTRS or R8. Obviously, YMMV.

I build my own PCs for gaming (nothing crazy), and I think of it along the lines of factory overclocked video cards. Sure, you can get water-cooled systems and overclock the card further (many motherboards ship with OC-friendly software), but you’ll only get a few more mostly undetectable frames per second out of it, and risk frying the card in the process. To me it’s not worth it.