This job was done in July, 2024. It started leaking oil onto the garage floor around September or October, 2024.

Scheduled in to the dealer to have the job done again.... I decided to go ahead and make a clock because at this point I'm not sure when we'll get it back.

https://www.tickcounter.com/countup/...d-off-the-audi

Car has 51k miles. 2015 Q7 TDI.

 

That's a bummer. I wonder if they'll just try to buy it back at this point....

 

I'd highly doubt it. I believe they are understaffed and eating the cost on this one, thus dragging their feet on finalizing the repair.

 

Well, if they are just letting it sit, they might end up being on the hook for a replacement battery, too! These don't like to sit for long periods, and if they do sit with the battery discharged for an equally long period, the likelihood of it (the battery) functioning well into the future is practically nil. An active battery maintainer would be a very good idea....

 

Well, it is an engine out job, so I'm pretty sure the battery is disconnected. Unless Audi has magically created a new style of battery, I can't see how it sitting, disconnected, in a heated garage for a month will do much to it. Correct me if I'm wrong.

I routinely leave my Saab sitting for 5 months, unheated, connected to the car, and my boat disconnected in a 35* garage.

I feel like a battery is the least of our current concerns.

 

Possibly the least of your concerns... until you get the car back! It depends on how they have it sitting. If it is connected, it is draining or drained by now. If disconnected, then a non-issue.

I'm not sure what year of Saab you have, but older cars don't have the same level of drain as newer ones. I can leave my old rigs (60s/70s) set up year-round, use them maybe twice throughout the year, and never have an issue with a drained battery. My newer stuff (this century) is anywhere between two weeks and a month before the drain is apparent.

 

If they pulled the engine without disconnecting the battery we have far larger issues at hand. I'm pretty sure step one of any major service is "Disconnect the battery cables".

Time will tell.... Certainly we have a lot of time.

 

Hey, an engine-out complete reseal is a win no matter how you want to look at it, just so long as you aren't paying for it, and you've got their loaner Audi to putz around in. I blush a little when I think about what I did with the loaner they gave me when my '10 needed an EGR Cooler that was on B/O in Germany (3 months wait time). I enjoyed doing everything I wanted in their loaner 4M Q7.

Getting that expensive reseal job done on a '15 TDI with only 51k miles on the clock (I'm sensing a stop-sell TDI scenario here), is like almost a best-case scenario for you in the long-term. Of course, if you look back in time, there are multiple examples posted on here of where the Audi dealership has outright screwed up and/or simply failed to complete a TDI warranty repair correctly, especially as relates to oil & coolant leak repairs. This one is a little bit tricky though, since some of the cover-plates have gaskets, but a majority of the upper covers are using an elastomer sealant applied directly to the cover by hand, so it takes great attention to detail to get it done correctly.

Frustrating surely, but you definitely want the big stupid-expensive failures to happen now, while still in warranty!!! On our '15 TDI, it was well driven car and didn't really have a lot go wrong during the warranty window; just some exhaust sensors and coolant leak into the engine valley, but Audi dealer screwed up that coolant repair and didn't fix the actual leak source, etc., so ended up months later doing same job over again at diff Audi dealer, and that's also a very labor intensive repair. In fact, I did take it back to the original dealer, but they claimed they had fixed the coolant leak completely, and that it was "merely burping coolant, because of the repair to the cooling system, which is completely normal". Such B.S. boggles the mind, truly it does...the coolant loss/leak rate remained exactly the same as before the Audi dealership touched it.

 

Agreed. I guess in July I learned that it is a 2.5 week job to get it wrong. So far I have yet to know what amount of time it takes to get it right. 5 weeks and counting.

 

Shocker. I wouldn't expect any sense of urgency from them on a 're-do' engine-out reseal job though. The squeaky wheel usually does get the grease though, just often not directly at the Audi dealership official contact channels, so if you've spoken with the Service Mgr, and they ain't giving you any credible, specific reason why it is taking them so long this time, then I'd be calling Audi USA and opening up a complaint/warranty case with them.

Ultimately, so long as they provided you a comparable loaner vehicle, they probably have a solid position, however, there is a clause within the dieselgate settlement that states if your TDI sits in the repair shop more than so & so days while in warranty, then you can request a buy-back of the vehicle, which has worked out quite well for some of the forum members on here who read all those details extremely closely. Pretty sure that's still a thing so long as yours is still covered via the settlement warranty. Wanna say one of those TDI owners was @KevinGary who made a killing on that buy-back clause, as they basically gave him full original retail value on his well used TDI, IIRC.