Audi problem; court action, repair or scrap?

Granny_Rain

Please advise. I've tried to make it as brief as possible. Please read.
Bought 2003 Audi A3 FSi Sport September 2011. December 2011 head gasket went, engine overheated and boiled dry. Local garage repaired for £1600 (cylinder head was sent away for pressure testing and skimming). Took car back many many times due to engine sounding like a tractor (one of the rings had split in the variable valve), never starts first time, oil leaks and water leaks. Sump was damaged as it was left resting on an axle stand which went through it so they had it patched inside and out.
November 2012 head gasket gone again. Garage claimed new gasket and bolts under warranty from VW and old garage said as a goodwill gesture they would only charge me £300 to fit (labour wasn't covered under VW warranty as not a VW approved repairer).
January garage finally finished the car. Told me it was 100% mechanically sound but wouldn't start due to computer code fault. Would start when they attached their computer. It needed to go to another garage with a more sophisticated computer to diagnose fault. I drove car to new garage. It limped the 8 miles driving very badly.
New garage diagnosed cam shaft sensor in audible. New garage told old garage it was a timing issue. Took car back to old garage.
Got voicemail message saying old garage will pay new garage to time it up as they don't have the correct tools to do it.
New garage stripped engine. Timing plate was missing, bolts were missing or loose. Sump has mastic around it. They timed it up and rebuilt. Starts first time but appears that head gasket has gone again after two days. Old garage will not do anymore work on it unless I pay. Asked new garage to strip and diagnose problem (£200 plus vat to strip plus the same cost to rebuild) - the block is warped and needs new engine. Cylinder head is badly scratched from old garage sanding before fitting new gasket so would need skimming if using again).
Old garage have a bill of £509 from new garage for the problems with timing and missing parts. Which they have said they will pay. They are not charging me labour but will not help with anything else. They said when the company who pressure tested the head cut off the timing plate although I was never told this and so I never knew.
What do I do? new garage is quoting £1,000 plus vat to fit a reconditioned engine (plus cost of engine) or scrap it? It's at the garage in pieces at the moment. Paid £4,600 for the car in September 2011 on my visa whilst waiting for personal loan to clear. Three year loan not half way through yet (£220 month - borrowed £6,500 to include insurance and to clear £1,000 debt). Garage where we bought the car ceased trading after 9 years two months after we bought the car.
Any advise would be gratefully received. Thank you for any help you can offer. Having sleepless nights not knowing what to do

Mankysteve

Go see a solicitor I think is the only sensible advice.

Muscle750

First garage said they couldn't time it up so therefore how did they do it Intially they've shot themselves in the foot on that one if that's documented I would seek legal advice and threaten them with trading standards and some free local press advertising
As for the car I can't see the block warping head yes block no I'd be sourcing a guaranteed SH engine complete out of a write off

cb1979

When the sump it is damaged it needs replacing or repairing with aluminun welding, if they have patched it up with what looks like mastic and done this to the inside of the sump the oil wil make it go soft and it will get sucked into the oil strainer before the pump and this will block the oil feeding into the pump and cause serious damage to the engine.

Audi VW do use a white sealant to seal the sump to cylinder block surface and this is the only place to use sealant,this is a special high temperature sealent which is made for the job

I think its time to take legal advice,and it is always best to use a VW specialist or the agents, some cars are now to complicated for the average grease monkey to fix, as they proved when the bodged the sump up , if they damaged it they should have owned up to it and replaced it at their cost

Granny_Rain

Muscle750 wrote: »

First garage said they couldn't time it up so therefore how did they do it Intially they've shot themselves in the foot on that one if that's documented I would seek legal advice and threaten them with trading standards and some free local press advertising
As for the car I can't see the block warping head yes block no I'd be sourcing a guaranteed SH engine complete out of a write off

Hi Muscle750. Thank you for your reply. The garage got a young mechanic from Audi to do the timing one night as a govy job. When I kept taking it back due to it never starting first time I was told "well it came in as a none runner what do you expect"

The block is definitely warped. It's cast aluminium. It's a minimal gap but enough to not make a seal with the cylinder head and gasket.

I'm absolutely fed up of it. It's been going on for just over a year now.

Granny_Rain

cb1979 wrote: »

When the sump it is damaged it needs replacing or repairing with aluminun welding, if they have patched it up with what looks like mastic and done this to the inside of the sump the oil wil make it go soft and it will get sucked into the oil strainer before the pump and this will block the oil feeding into the pump and cause serious damage to the engine.

Audi VW do use a white sealant to seal the sump to cylinder block surface and this is the only place to use sealant,this is a special high temperature sealent which is made for the job

I think its time to take legal advice,and it is always best to use a VW specialist or the agents, some cars are now to complicated for the average grease monkey to fix, as they proved when the bodged the sump up , if they damaged it they should have owned up to it and replaced it at their cost

Hi cb179 thanks for your reply. They told me that it was welded inside and out. It was the new garage who told me there was mastic on the sump. I've never looked under the car. I have asked them to check if it has been welded. At the moment the car is stood outside their garage with part an engine and the rest of the engine is in their workshop

Muscle750

I can't see how they cracked the sump by putting it on a axle stand unless they had the whole weight of the car on it I know they crack easy I've replaced quite a few it must of got very hot to warp the block I'd source another engine

Johnmcl7

Am I understanding you correctly that you paid for the car by credit card? How did you pay for the work with the first garage? I'm wondering if there's any options to use the legal protection you get with using a credit card.

You mention warranty, did you take one out yourself after the initial problems or did you get a warranty for the work done? Reading your post it sounds like the first garage have successively failed to repair the car and make the problem worse as it seems the car has never worked correctly since then so I'd have thought the legal redress would be with them.

John

TrickyWicky

Granny_Rain wrote: »

Hi Muscle750. Thank you for your reply. The garage got a young mechanic from Audi to do the timing one night as a govy job. When I kept taking it back due to it never starting first time I was told "well it came in as a none runner what do you expect"

It may have gone in as a non-runner but you took it there for them to let it back out as a runner. Not to pay them to give you back a non runner.

If you've paid for all this on your card, take it up with the card company. You're being done over by a garage that hasn't got a clue and has hired a cheap audi 'fitter' to do timing they didn't really understand. I've been in this boat myself and frankly, it's just not a good idea to use a garage that is clueless.

As for what to do with the car.. you to decide on one question:
Do you want to keep the car?

No: Scrap it, sell it on ebay, break it up yourself etc.

Yes: Pay for another engine. Rebuild the engine yourself (taking the time to investigate how to fix it properly and do a proper job yourself), replace the engine yourself (you'll need to get tools for this but you'll save on labour). Alternatively launch legal action in the form of a money claim online (google it) or go for the ccard company.

It really depends on what you want from the car. Do you want to keep it or write the cost off and be paying it off for years with nothing to show for it?

Granny_Rain

Johnmcl7 wrote: »

Am I understanding you correctly that you paid for the car by credit card? How did you pay for the work with the first garage? I'm wondering if there's any options to use the legal protection you get with using a credit card.

You mention warranty, did you take one out yourself after the initial problems or did you get a warranty for the work done? Reading your post it sounds like the first garage have successively failed to repair the car and make the problem worse as it seems the car has never worked correctly since then so I'd have thought the legal redress would be with them.

John

Hi Johnmc17, thank you for your response. I paid for the car on my credit card but it's over a year ago. Would I have any rights after this period of time?
I paid £1100 cash for the work :eek: plus £500 which was paid from a 6 month warranty we bought for £99 when we bought the car.

Granny_Rain

TrickyWicky wrote: »

It may have gone in as a non-runner but you took it there for them to let it back out as a runner. Not to pay them to give you back a non runner.

If you've paid for all this on your card, take it up with the card company. You're being done over by a garage that hasn't got a clue and has hired a cheap audi 'fitter' to do timing they didn't really understand. I've been in this boat myself and frankly, it's just not a good idea to use a garage that is clueless.

As for what to do with the car.. you to decide on one question:
Do you want to keep the car?

No: Scrap it, sell it on ebay, break it up yourself etc.

Yes: Pay for another engine. Rebuild the engine yourself (taking the time to investigate how to fix it properly and do a proper job yourself), replace the engine yourself (you'll need to get tools for this but you'll save on labour). Alternatively launch legal action in the form of a money claim online (google it) or go for the ccard company.

It really depends on what you want from the car. Do you want to keep it or write the cost off and be paying it off for years with nothing to show for it?

Hi Trickywicky thank you for your message. Unfortunately I paid £1100 cash to keep the cost down or so I thought plus we claimed £500 from a £99 6 month warranty we took out when we bought the car. I think they have tried to help me by not making the repair too expensive but have done the exact opposite.

I don't think it's an option to do the work ourselves. We're really busy and it would end up rotting away. We are in the process of renovating our house (for the last ten years!), hubby and I both work and have a family and animals (including chickens and two sheep!) so we don't have any spare time as it is.

I'm not bothered about keeping the car. I just want the cheapest option. If the labour wasn't so high it wouldn't be so bad. The new garage is working out a price but the labour alone is £1000 plus vat, plus parts.

But even so still have to pay £220 a month until August 2014 to pay off the loan

Could I try and claim from my credit card? I bought it in September 2011? Isn't this too long ago?

Thanks