CharlieG

I had gotten my original notification letter about the recall back in November but had not yet been notified to bring my car in. Up until last night, I had not had any issues either but in jockeying my daughter around after dinner (in the rain) the car starts vibrating under throttle and the CEL starts flashing (eventually goes solid). Car is drivable but any sort of load or throttle input produces a pronounced thumping/hesitation. Called my local Audi dealer this morning and they said to bring it right down. Same deal on starting the car this morning but I manged to get it to the dealer without too much drama (steady throttle/speed was fine). Got a call at my office not even an hour later ... all coil packs replaced, car is ready for pick up ... no charge. Paperwork indicates that eight part # 077-905-115-T ignition coils were installed. Kudos to Audi of Smithtown for getting this resolved so quickly.

Audi Advocate

How many other "went wrong's" might be covered - I saw another Forum mentioning seat coil heaters gone but replaced - I am out of warranty and AoA said no to mine - but another (in the U.S) did manage to get it covered (after warranty).

What constitutes a recall- coil packs -yes / seat wiring - no / centre console hinge - no / glove box hinge - no.

Anyone know?

CharlieG

I don't know for sure how they decide what to do pro bono but I would bet that anything related to actually being able to drive the car has precedence over convenience features. And yes, I agree that it's not reasonable for even this stuff to fail so early on a car like an S4 (but if you are going to prioritize things, you have to start with something. I've had both my glove box door (replaced under warranty) and console top hinges break (fixed that myself with some JB Weld) and that shouldn't happen to a car with less than 33,000 miles on it, especially one that cost as much as this one. I'll bet the majority of the smaller things that do get fixed outside of the standard warranty are at the discretion of the dealer and we all know that not all dealers treat their customers as well as they should.

LoeA4

excellent for you, unfortunately I haven't been as lucky as you. My dealer won't test the coils even though there is a slight missing and light lumpyness when reved because it doesn't produce a CEL.

CharlieG

I suspect I had minor misfire issues that may have been happening for quite some time but as you point out, were not severe enough to trip the CEL. However, if you do have older coil packs that are subject to the recall, they should get taken care of when you are called in. You might even be able to purchase your own and put in a claim to be reimbursed. There should be a claim form attached to your original recall letter or you can probably get one from the Audi web site. To be honest, if there was no recall, I probably would have just purchased a complete set of the current coil packs from ECS-Tuning (they have them for about $20/each) and done it myself as part of my routine maintenance instead of waiting for one (or more) to fail since it seems that would have been inevitable.

nickcarguy

Here's a warning for anyone thinking of replacing yourself without a dealer involved. I replaced all 8 packs on my '04 w/ 65K miles (she was running great, but told it was just a matter of time) Purchased from a dealer for apprx $20 bucks each. They also gave me the reimbursement form.
I submitted to Audi of America (AOA). Waited 45 days. No check. Called AOA, spoke with some robotic idiot who found my paperwork. He Told me I needed to have the dealer that sold me the packs issue a work order that stated a fault code was present, my CEL light was on, etc. He said this is a not a recall, it is a service advisory. They would only reimburse if the packs had actually failed. He went on to say that I should have continued driving until they eventually failed. Then AOA would pay a dealer for the labor, new coil packs, and any transportaion/tow charges. I asked him if he was listening to what he said. That becasue I did mine proactively, myself, and saved them a boatload of money they were not going to pay me??
That's correct sir..
Anyway, I had an indie I'm close with issue a work order that had stated scanned for codes, found multiple misfires, etc. And sent that off to AOA. 45 days later I got my check.
So the lesson to be learned is, don't replace the packs yourself unless you can produce something that states misfires were ocurring. And don't assume you are dealing with rational people at AOA. Cause you are not.

Kgnast-Nemo4.2

That's exactly what my car has been doing for the past day or two, thumping, lethargic hesitation, sputtering exhaust note, intermittently at first and then more consistent. Yesterday they run my VIN at the dealership and they tell me I'm good to go, part of the TSB notice. Today I bring in the car and they tell me that the coils I happen to have are not part of the recall - mind you they are OEM stock Audi coils, not replacements or anything like that.

Dealership tells me I'm out of luck. Car was dropped off in the am, three hours later they tell me that the Coils are not the ones which are covered. Nothing else was looking into except finding that out. No error codes found? Why?, they haven't even Vag-com'ed the car yet. Fabulous.

CharlieG

My CEL was on and there was no doubt that there was a problem. Any gas pedal input resulted in major hesitation and shuddering in any gear. I never asked which cylinders were affected as they replaced all eight coil packs anyway. When I picked up the car, they had cleared the CEL and the thing ran like new again. No issues so far ...

What year is your car?

ESFO

Sweet! Glad to hear they took care of you. It's such a pain when they make it a hassle.

CharlieG

The service department at this dealership has always been top notch. Sales team is a little more effort to deal with (never seems to want to cut you the best deal out there) but I have gotten one car directly from them in the past (wife's 06 A4 Avant) and a previous one (99 A4 Avant) from their sister dealership. Back when I got my S4, they refused to budge (much) on the cars they had so I found one at another reasonably local dealership and that was that. I never used that other dealership for service though as they were 25 miles out of my way. The lease on my wife's 08 RDX is up toward the end of this year and she really would like a Q5 or A4/A6 wagon so we'll give their sales team another try then.