Hey All,

I bought my 2008 S5 in November of 2011, and I've been having to deal with a lot of issues with the car ever since.

The car had 49K miles when I bought it (about a 1,000 miles left on the factory warranty), and I bought the premium extended warranty from the dealership. Not even 200 miles in, the check engine light came on, so I took it to the dealership. They said that there was carbon buildup and performed some maintenance to try to clean out the carbon. I got the car back but had to take it back to the dealer 2 more times for the exact same thing. They finally changed the catalytic converter (which would've been a $2k job, but luckily the factory warranty covered it). Every time I took the car in, the dealership held it for at least a week. The last time it was 3 weeks, but they did give me a loaner.

Now the car has 52K miles on it, and the AC stopped working. It hasn't even been 6 months since I've owned the car and it's the second trip to the dealership for repair. The dealership said that the car needs an AC compressor and clutch, and one of the shocks in the front will probably need to be replaced. At this point the factory warranty has expired, and the extended warranty only pays up to $85/hr for labor (dealership charges about $130/hr), so I have to pay the difference. I would have to pay about $1,300 out of pocket. The dealership said that the total job would be around $4,000, but the warranty is paying for most of it.

When I bought the car, I checked the carfax (everything came back clean), and asked for records of work done on the car, and it seemed like a lot of maintenance work was done on it, which made me feel better about the purchase, because I was thinking the car was well taken care of.

My question is, should I keep the car or sell it? This is the first time I bought an Audi, and really liked the S5, before all these issues came up. Have you guys encountered unexpected issues as such? I would think that a car with only 50K miles shouldn't have so many things go wrong with it, but if that's the norm, maybe I should consider something else.

Let me know what you all think.

J

 

SELL! and take this as a lesson that a clean carfax means NOTHING, especially on a lease car, those cars get so abused and then turned back in its not even funny!


to illustrate the point, the most expensive thing on my car was the clutch, and that is always a risk with a manual car anyway!

id sell the car and find a better kept one, and also preferable one that isnt the first year production of a new model!

 

Thanks!

So a better kept Audi shouldn't have this many problems, right? This is my first Audi purchase, and want to make sure that not ALL Audi's need this much maintenance and repair.

J

 

Why ask here and not on the S5 forum?

 

Ive found that with proper normal maintenance my Audi requires no more work the other similar cars such as my buddy's lexus. The problem is you CANT compare an audi (50K dollar car) to a honda (2-K dollar car) in terms of maintenance. I will say, with the audi, be prepared to spend money to get it fixed at a dealer, but i would say that to anybody buying a luxury or sports car. another thing that would be helpful is pick up a bentley service manual and read up on repairs to the car. if you think you could handle some of them, grab a set of tools and spin some wrenches yourself. its really not terribly hard and most stuff that the dealers rape people for is easily done yourself.

dealership wanted 180 to do a "computer diagnosis on the car" hooked my car up to my friends scanner and fixed the readiness code.

another time the dealership wanted 380 dollars to replace a MAF sensor. part cost 120 from a local euro-parts store and took me 10 min and a pair of pliers to get installed.

the best was the timing belt. dealer wanted 1800 *down from the 2200 originally quoted) did it myself for only 360 dollars and a day and a half of my time


its all what you make of it, a Ferrari is going to cost more to maintain PERIOD, regardless of how well it was built. same thing goes for htese cars vs a toyota or honda.

 

I agree, but his latter question was about audis in general

 

Thanks dude.

I'm new to the forum, and accidentally posted in A6 section instead of S5.

 

Thanks!

I figured that I would be spending more in maintenance/repair with an S5, but didn't think I would have to shell out so much 6 months after buying the car, especially since none of it is regular maintenance. I do have a premium warranty package that goes up to 120K miles, so I just have to either do the work myself, or take it somewhere that doesn't have a ridiculously high labor rate.

 

Direct injection engines suffer from carbon build up, which includes Audi FSI engines. Search for "RS4 carbon buildup mega thread" on google.

Sell this car, ESP since the A/C already went. And shocks?

Perhaps, to be sure, get a diagnosis and a quote at another place. This one could be milking you.

And short of manually cleaning the valves by taking the engine apart, nothing will clean this buildup.

After you clean it, be prepared to do another manual cleaning job within 10-20k miles.

 

Whenever i read a post like yours, i dont know what to say.

Audis are not cheap to keep, but mine, and i've owned 5 since 1986, for a total of >> 500k miles, have never been ANYTHING like this.

I'll also note that my most reliable cars - clearly - have been the two i bought new. So there is some connection i can draw between how i keep cars and how they treat me back. And not.

That said, lots of maintenance means one thing: lots of stuff broke. That's never a a good sign Why did it break? You'll never know.

You also need to get thyself away from the dealer. First, your insurance plan doesn't cover it. Second, i have found dealers to be consistently good at creating work for themselves. I'm sure there are worse indies, but i know there are better ones. Want some names?

This car sounds like trouble. I cant explain how that can be, but it does. Why did a cat go at 60k? Does it burn oil? Did you put leaded in it? Why is a shock dead? Did someone smash it into a pothole and bend stuff? What else is damaged? Or is it dealer bull? You dont know.

My 2002 S6 has 80k on it. When it went to the dealer under warranty money flew around like pollen this week. Once that ran out, it slowed to a trickle, with me being the budget guy, and the main mechanic, and trusted indies doing the rest. Not only that but the dealer had the gall to tell me they couldn't afford to do all the Audi-required lubrication and adjustments called for int he "free" maintenance. So they didn't. F me. And for this i pay a premium? (Bernardsville, NJ if you care).

So, sorry to ramble, but no one can give you a fact-based analytical answer. Your situation is not "normal". Alas, its also not totally abnormal, but it always seems to go with people new ot the car and going to the dealer.

So you did the first thing right. You found a forum. Now do the next thing right, find an honest expert and buy him/her beer.

If you want a car that's cheap to keep, lose the Audi. But i maintain they are no unreliable - on the contrary they run a long time. They just cost a lot when they break, and the dealers learned their customer care methods from Deliverance.

G