RENN 951

I posted last week about the broken flange piece for my exhaust manifold heat shield, which the dealer indicated would require engine removal to fix. They have another S4 in the shop right now going through this process. They had tried doing a weld repair on the other car, but the piece broke again after about 3 months and they decided they had to pull his engine to replace the part.

They decided late last week that they wanted to try a repair on my car instead of replacement. They welded the piece back in place, did some testing, and think they've got a clean weld that should hold up. They said they also did a weld repair on an S4 earlier this year that seems to have held together so far. Time will tell, at least I've got another 2 years on the warranty and I may ask for some sort of extension in writing for this piece, in case it fails after 50K miles.

I'm interested to see if more of these failures start popping up as cars age, indicating there may be some design or manufacturing issues involved. In any event, I'm happy to have my car back -- I thought I was going to have to keep the loaner/rental Mirage for another couple weeks waiting for the engine removal/reinstallation.

jsbear

If the car was out of warranty I could understand why someone may choose to weld to save money. If I were you I would complain until it is REPLACED like new. Isn't that the warranty is about ?


That's my .02

Innovator

You need special wire to weld SS or it will only hold for awhile.

RENN 951

I don't think it's SS, it looked like a copper alloy

RENN 951

The piece was originally fabricated with a weld that failed. It may have been a bad weld, and the repair MAY hold up with no problem. I'd rather give this a try for a while than risk some other problems developing from pulling the engine.

Plus, I'd like to see if this develops into a more common problem. If Audi comes out with an improved part (like the TBB and turbo upgrades) then I'd rather get the improved part installed if and when needed. That way we won't pull the engine, replace the part with another one that will eventually fail, and then have to pull the engine a second time to install the improved part.

I've got two years left on warranty, I think if the weld is going to break again it will probably happen during that time. Dealer said even if it breaks after 2 more years, they would have to fix it since the original repair (not replacement) is documented

Innovator

I'm not sure what it's made of. But they need to use the appropriate welding material