Eddie Alama

I have a audi q7 3.0 tdi Quattro. At moment I 'm having problem with engine timing chain. is there any one who can advise or help.

raj99

Your question is akin to phoning your Dr and saying "I have a problem with my head, what should I do?". You NEED to provide a LOT more details...

What is the issues you are having, don't worry about being verbose, since you won't be charged more on your posts

Why do you think it's the timing chain? What type of events occurred to lead you to believe there's an issue? Has a shop or someone with Audi/VAG skills looked at the vehicle? What previous attempts to fix the issue are you aware of?...etc...

brookiez28

Just curious what happened with your timing chain, Eddie. I just posted this today. Ticks me off....

Forgive me if this is a redundant post. I have a 2015 S5 with only 43k miles. Yesterday the car idled rough and I heard a rattling noise for several seconds under the hood, driver side. Noise stopped after a minute or less Got it to the shop and they say it's the driver bank timingchain tensioner. Recommended I change both sides. I think this is going to cost about $2,500 at my indy shop. About 18 months ago I participated in the class action against VW/Audi because the deceivers at VW/Audi knew of a timingchain tensioner problem on the 2.0 engines and kept denyig the issue. I had a 2011 A5 at that time. I was able to get my tensioner changed and was 100% reimbursed. I have now learned that other S5 owners have experiened this similar issue with the 3.0 engines. That is, the tensioners prematurely fail (I may be incorrect as to whether or not there are tensioners on each head of the engine, but will refer to as such for now). I also see that Audi issued a technical bulletin recommending the tensioners be changed to a superior unit on 3.0 engines. This is EXACTLY what they did with the 2,0 tensioners- issued a service bulletin but then got sued because it's essentially an admission of their design problem.
Is anyone on this forum experiencing tensioner failure on their 3.0 engine? Anyone heard of a class action being brought against VW/Audi over this? I love my S5 cabrio, but it's lke a bad girlfriend - nice looking but expensive and unreliable.
Thanks in advance for your feedback!

Q7 4M 2016

Yes I am having this problem Audi have diagnosed it as tensioner and have admitted they have changed it on multiple cars that go through the shop. They quoted $10k for the job and was then nice enough to drop it to $7.5k 😂.
slight rattle started happening at 55,000k’s. I’m furious and feel this is completely unacceptable!
Car is 6.5 years old and it hasn’t seen an Audi dealer for the last 20,000k’s (has been up to date services with another reputable VAG workshop) this is the reason they say they don’t really want to fix it at no charge. Any thoughts?

'10Q7TDI_Prestige'

Hi!
You might take note you are posting to a fairly old, inactive thread as though it were active. Recommend you go through the new member orientation, which will help you to find what you need in here.

That said, if your car is outside of any warranty coverage, which it certainly appears to be, then any Audi dealer is going to try to bend you over on a repair...that's just how they roll. You can try appealing directly to Audi U.K. /Austrilia, or whichever governing body applies to your location (not the dealership) to see if they will perhaps make you a goodwill repair offer on the basis your TDI only has, what, maybe 70,000 kilometers on it (44k miles approx), which is stupid low mileage for a TDI to be having chain tensioner issues. Audi U.K., or big Audi, is likely to extend you a significantly discounted repair offer given the low mileage on it, but just realize it's a really big job to drop the engine to get to said timing chains, and so most likely there will be costs involved, even if they do extend you a goodwill offer to assist. There is really no excuse for the chains to be having issues at this early juncture so long as you have maintained the car properly, and they will look at that in making their determination.

If it were mine, then I'd first get a second opinion from an independent shop that works on TDIs as to better categorize the issue's severity. For example, it's not uncommon to get a little chain rattle at cold-start of the TDI, but it shouldn't keep on rattling during normal running/driving. If the rattling sound is very loud and all the time, that basically means the tensioner has failed.

If you are a person who knows very little about engines, get a second opinion before you begin the process of escalation with Audi, as that can often drag out for awhile, so its much better to have someone you already trust provide you their opinion on what's going on with it, and whether it is normal or abnormal thing your TDI is doing, and get it documented. Do be sure the oil that is and has been going into your car is correctly rated to meet the VW 507 (TDI engine) oil spec, as well.

FWIW, both our TDI 3.0 engines were generally running noisily when purchased around 90k miles, and I was running the recommended Castrol synthetic in one and the VW/Audi branded oil in the other. Used the Liqui Moly oil flush and switched to Liqui Moly oil rated for the TDI, and both cars run super quiet now. Your noise issue may not be that simple, but that's why you should get an informed, 3rd party opinion from the shop you've been using or other TDI service professional besides Audi dealers, as they just see $$$ signs when you drive in their shop...they don't care about you or your car.

brookiez28

hello. Sorry, I was out of town for a couple of days. Do you have an A5 or an s5? There was a class action for several models that had the 2.0 TSI engine, which my A5 had. It was a 2011 model. I joined the class action and was reimbursed for an independent shop changing out the timing chain tensioner in that car. I now own an S5. There is a current class action against Audi VW for the 3.0 TSI engines but it has not gone to court in the past nearly 2 years so it is still in process. Unfortunately, anyone who had a 2.0 TSI engine that fell under the class action suit had to file their claim well over a year ago. However, if you research that you may be able to bring in some online articles about how Audi had to pay out reimbursement to thousands of 2.0 TSI vehicle owners. Perhaps your repair shop will step up to this issue. It is a well-known issue however the Audi repair shops typically deny having such knowledge if you question them directly about it. There are two or three different service bulletins that Audi issued about this very problem which can also be found through a Google search. Please let me know if you may need any more assistance to dig out that information and I could probably send it to you within the next few days. Good luck with this! By the way, $7,500 is an insane amount of money to charge for this repair. An independent shop should be able to do it on a 2.0 TSI engine for about $1,500 to $2,000 Max. On a 3.0 engine Just One bank will set you back about $2,000 using an independent repair company. I would definitely not recommend going to a dealer to gouge you for this repair!