Brock Tune

after reading this I wanted to make sure I got this done on mine for its 20,000 service (as that's what the manual recommends as well). I was just called and told the master technician on site said it's not necessary and they didn't do it. Should I press the issue or just go with what my service center says?

rdgrimes

Its absolutely necessary to know how much coolant is escaping that motor. Same for the front motor but they have to open the drain plug and see how much coolant comes out. I would insist that they document both motors' status. Not that it will prevent a motor failure, but its information you want to have and you might want to dump the car if it looks like one or both is having an issue.

That said, the tech might have looked at it and saw it was dry - so really no reason to replace the bottle. But you want to know if that's the case.

coldrain85

They will keep saying that it's not necessary and try to Jedi mind trick you until the car is out of warranty. They tried to do that with my 2006 S4 that was blowing oil through one of the pistons. At first they said it was "normal" for the car to be consuming a large amount of oil. I was adding a quart every 1k miles and I knew that what they were saying was bs, so the next step was to DEMAND that they do an oil consumption test. They dragged their feet and kept saying that it wasn't necessary. At that point the car had 92k miles and they were hoping that the power train warranty would run out. I had to contact Audi USA and inform them that the dealership was stonewalling me, and that it had been going on for 6 months. Soon afterwards, the dealership called me, asked me to drop off the car so the engine could be rebuilt, and they gave me an A8 to drive in the mean time. When I came back to get the car they showed me the badly scored piston that was causing the oil leak.

I learned a lesson from that experience, and from now on I immediately take the car to the dealership whenever there is any hint of a problem, and I don't stop bugging them until the car gets fixed. My etron has been having intermittent issues with adaptive light malfunction warnings, and yesterday I got a laser light malfunction warning for the first time. I have already taken the car in once and their solution was to update the software. It didn't solve the problem so I am about to take the car in again. Sure, maybe the issue is because I drive off in the car right after I start it and the software is still loading, but it shouldn't be happening regardless. I am not going to let it go only to have the next potential buyer complain about it and either not want to buy the car, or offer thousands less. It's a minor issue and there isn't actually anything wrong with the adaptive lights, but a prospective buyer will still make a mountain out of the mole hill.

I would make the service tech take a photo of the empty coolant reservoir and show it to me. I assume it's empty because they are saying that it's a non-issue, but I would demand proof. Don't take their word for it.

Brock Tune

Thanks all I'm not presently having any issues (aside from the telltale twilight/license plate light error messages), so didn't push back too hard on it, tech wouldn't discuss so didn't get much details other than they inspected it and determined it wasn't necessary, it is noted on the receipt that the work was requested and not performed for all that might be worth. I have an extended warranty so hopefully should be in ok shape if anything ever does go wrong.

thebishman

IF the issue with your lights is simply because the car hasn’t had enough time to boot up all of the systems before you engage ‘D’, and your “intermittent” issue would be potentially almost 100% resolved if you did give the car an additional 10 seconds to enable all systems especially during the first start of the day, WTH won’t you give the software that time? Do you enjoy getting pissed off at the car and constantly complaining to the service department? You do realise that a bad firmware download you’ve forced service to perform because of your constant whining could result in an even worse situation? Vehicles today are so computer intensive that to ignore that is at your peril; as you seem to have found out.

wvu_sam

The only time I get weird errors is if I don't give the software time to load. Not doing so and complaining about errors makes no sense.

coldrain85

Gee, thanks for the kind words. For what it's worth, when the most recent errors popped up the car was idle and had not been moved yet. They appeared about 30 seconds after I pressed start, and again, before I put the car in gear. And I didn't force the service department to update the software. When I dropped it off I had no idea that's what they were going to do. At the time, I didn't even know there was a software update available.

Tronification

Yes, it does!

It’s in the software development Bible, chapter one, verse two: Thy software shall do what you want of it, not the other way around.

Brock Tune

I'm on the other side, the idea that you hit the start button but then still have to wait for some order of operations before actually using the car sounds silly, and I'm surprised so many of you are responding like its ordinary acceptable behavior for the car, how long do you guys have to sit there waiting before you can put it into drive?

coldrain85

What these guys are saying is a bunch of crap. It's in reference to the issues I have been having with my left headlight, and what they are saying is wrong (and a bunch of crap). As it turns out, the errors I was getting were due to a mechanical issue, NOT because I was starting the car and driving off right away. Not that you should have to sit there for ?????? waiting for the software to "warm up" before you start driving.

edit~ If the car's software throws errors at you when you start to drive right away, that points to an issue with the car's software, not the driver.