absoluTT A3

Well, I've had enough of the "stealership" experience.
Running my A3 from newly purchased in 2007 up until 2016 has been a dream. Extremely low cost. Very reliable. Then... came the 80,000 mile service. And timing belt replacement. That double-whammy hit me with just over $4,000. OK, I'm not driving a lot for work these days so I bit the bullet and had the work done. Stupid me. I didn't check the resale value of the car. A 2007 A3 with 82,000 miles is barely worth $5,000. I should have just sold it. But, I really like the car and it has been very good to me. I figured OK, I'll stick with it for a couple more years.

Then... the air conditioning malfunctioned. It appeared to have a leak. So I took it to a local shop and they replaced the A/C controller switch (which was leaking) and recharged it, for $150. But, it would blow hot air for a good 5 to 10 minutes before becoming cold. And not as cold as it should be (barely reaching 57F degrees). The local shop said this was heading into Audi specific territory and reasoned that I'd be better off having it checked out by Audi or else just having the compressor replaced. I went to my local Audi dealership service center and had them check it out. After a couple hours of waiting, I'm told I need a new compressor and that'll be $2,100. That's about double what I was quoted by the local shop. And on top of that the Audi service center hit me with a $300 bill... just for telling me this. Talk about a rip-off.

So my word of advice for anyone running an older Audi... if your A/C looks like it's at the point of possibly needing a new compressor, just have it done by a local reputable shop that specialized in doing air conditioning systems. Because the cost of diagnosis is utterly ridiculous.

absoluTT A3

This forum seems dead. I guess nobody really cares. But for what it's worth, I'll follow-up in case it helps someone.

I had my car's A/C compressor and condenser replaced by a local shop and they did a great job. Original estimate was $900, but an unexpected part was required. A fan motor module was faulty and so despite the cabin forward fans working, there was no cold air getting to them. The module replacement fixed that. Got a pretty decent low reading of 47 F. It could be better (40 F would be ideal), but it's infinitely better than the 57 F I was getting before.

uniqueMR

Thanks for into/sharing

noobatized

I just fixed my 07 A3 yesterday. On the ac compression there is a valve called AC Compressor Control Solenoid. I replaced this and my ac is blowing at 41 degrees Fahrenheit now. The valve cost me $40 and recharge was $115.