Willgatlin25

Apologies for that but please allow me to introduce myself:

My name is Will and I'm from Enumclaw, Washington State, United States of America. I recently bought my Used 2008 Audi Q7 4.2 FSI Premium in April 2019 with 150,000 miles. I did make the mistake of buying it from a run down dealership and I still don't have my license plates yet, but that's besides the point. Something I am in the process of working on with the DMV because this junk hole dealership in Tacoma, WA has neglected to file the legal title transfer paperwork and it's delayed getting the new plates, registration, and title which is about to screw me over when my temp plate / road use permit expires. I've got about a week left till the temp plate expires and then I can't legally drive it. It's a mess I'm dealing with and I'll hopefully have this issue resolved soon. Just a heads up this place is called Global Auto, and operates under the legal business name of Tacoma Used Cars, located on South Tacoma Way in Washington State.... I would not suggest EVER PURCHASING A VEHICLE HERE! Not to mention a week after buying the vehicle I had to dump $2000 dollars into repairs because this junk hole dealership cleared the ECU prior to me test driving it so it appeared that nothing was wrong..... I got burned badly by not using my own brain and walking away from this place when I first got that instinctive bad feeling, but oh well that's on me, live and learn! Moving right along....

Bit of career background on me:

I've been working in the telecommunications industry for about the last 12 years now. I've worked mostly with fiber optics and network configuration in the small business and commercial industry. Also spent a number of years working side by side with a few of my telco companies in the fleet maintenance department and that's where I learned most of my novice automotive repair knowledge. I had a very rewarding career up until about 9 months ago when I was suddenly laid off because the company I was employed with suddenly had a major financial pitfall and had to declare bankruptcy with no warning. Unfortunately, that left all of the employees trying to scramble to find work and it had a devastating impact on my career. To supplement in the meantime I decided to become a rideshare driver, by way of Uber and Lyft. I did that for a few months and for the most part I really enjoyed it. Spent a lot of time on the road in the late hours, sometimes early morning airport drives, and met some really great people every day. Unfortunately that whole ride share experience came to an abrupt end in the early morning hours of December 4th, 2018. I had been driving home from Seattle that night/early morning down a well known 2 lane highway that was my typical route taking me straight back home to my home here in Enumclaw. The speed limit on that road is 50mph and usually during those dark hours I tend to run a bit under the speed limit just because its a poorly lit highway and that specific night was very cold, not icy roadways, but just nasty cold outside. As I was rounding a long corner I had a small Kia car come traveling in the oncoming lane that was clearly exceeding the speed limit drastically. That car lost control in a split second, drifted into my lane, and slammed into my truck head on. At the time I was driving my dream truck which was a 2013 F150 Ecoboost Crew Cab. After investigation it was determined that the driver of this car was driving nearly 100MPH and was heavily intoxicated. The female driver of this vehicle was not only drunk way beyond the legal limit ( after forensic lab work was performed to prove this) but she also had 3 unrestrained passengers in her vehicle. Both the driver and the front seat male passenger were ejected at impact with the front seat passenger sustaining life threatening injuries. The two rear passengers will killed instantly, one being a 21 year old male and the other being a 13 year old child. The impact was so severe that the Kia vehicle was literally sheered in half from the impact and my truck struck her car so hard that it launched my truck into the air, rolled multiple times, crashed through a buss stop, and snapped a telephone pole in half like a toothpick. It's taken months to recover from this financially also a major contributing factor is that the driver of this Kia was also uninsured with a suspended drivers license. The irony to this is that I was just barely making ends meet by ride share driving and about 80% of my ride requests were from intoxicated individuals who were smart enough to call for a ride rather than getting behind the wheel. So I dedicated most of my time to trying to keep drunk drivers off the road and it ended up being a drunk driver that wiped me out and resulted in the death of two innocent people. Moral to this little story is that I always ask people and make public statements to PLEASE DONT DRIVE UNDER THE INFLUENCE! There will always be a way to get a ride to a safe place, even calling the police and telling them you feel unsafe to drive and you cant contact anyone to help you. There is always a way! Please please please don't drive under the influence!

Moving on here- I ended up purchasing a used 2008 Audi Q7 4.2 FSI Premium and its absolutely amazing. I really wanted a tank of an SUV having been in such a serious accident and this SUV weighs almost exactly the same on the scales as my crew cab F150 did. Considering these Q7's are solid steel and have one hell of a serious frame I feel very safe and confident driving this vehicle down the road. It still isn't as big as a full size truck like my F150, but I feel comfortable enough that if someone slams into me with some serious force that I will fare just as well as I did in my truck. Seems like so many vehicles today are taking cost cutting measures to the extreme, such as changing out steel body panels with aluminum instead of good solid steel, and incorporating more and more plastic and fiberglass. This Q7 really feels like a strong tank and I feel completely safe driving it. You'll never catch me in a Prius or a Smart Car unless I have suicidal plans!

If any of you are Q7 owners and want to check out my threads please look at the ones I've started under my username of WillGatlin25. I have fixed several of the major issues I had going on but I still have a few little annoying ones that I need to work through. Everyone on here so far that's lent me a hand with my Q7 has been exceptional and I have noticed with this forum that there are very few arrogant jerks that like to chime in and start unnecessary drama or snap back with childish responses just trying to play the tough guy behind a keyboard. There are far too many people that love to play the know it all and just outright insult people if they ask even the simplest of questions. I have to ask- Isn't that what forums like this exist for? For anyone and everyone of every background to ask even the most simple of questions even if they aren't a certified mechanic so they can ask for advice or help? Makes me wonder why there are just some people that feel the need to drop insults or smart A&& comments just because the person posting the question isn't at the same mechanical knowledge experience level. There's really no time or need for any of that crap so I really appreciate how grown *** adults actually act like grown *** adults in here! Compared to if you jump over to some kind of big truck forum and you'll find that 3/4ths of the entire membership is full of nothing by small ***** problem guys trying to compensate for their serious lack of "downstairs equipment" and their arrogance runs wild behind a keyboard! I bet if you met most of the "behind the keyboard tough guys" they would be about 5 feet tall with 3 inch equipment to match! Poor poor fellas lol

Anyway, thanks again to the admins of the group for approving my membership so quickly and allowing me to jump right in and create threads right away asking for help with my Q7. As well, if anyone is wondering I am actually using the search option on this group before just posting new threads without doing research first. Some of my questions have been some oddball ones and I haven't been able to find the answers I needed so I had no choice but to start some new threads to clarify what my questions are.

On a side note- If anyone on here lives anywhere near the Enumclaw, WA area please let me know. I would welcome some 1 on 1 conversation with anyone local that owns a Q7 and operates their vehicle in this Pacific Northwest Climate. Best case scenario would be if I found someone near my vicinity that's done any mechanical repairs on their Q7 and might be able to lend on a hand on some of the weird quirks I have yet to resolve. I would welcome providing my personal contact information to anyone that lives near my area in Washington State to anyone that has real hands on repair experience with the Q7 4.2 FSI. Just send me a private message so I can keep my personal contact info restricted from widespread viewing.

Again, thanks for the add to the forum and welcoming me to the group!

Respectfully,

Will G
Enumclaw, Washington State, United States of America

KevinGary

Welcome to the forum. There is a great group of people here.