Audi Q7 complete engine failure

Neurochronic

HI,

Im here for some advice, I brought an audi Q7 2020 direct from Audi in Jan 2025. My warranty ran out in Jan 2026, a couple of week ago my car suffered internal engine failure, I had no warning light on the dash just a clunking sound and drove maybe 500 metres and it completely failed putting a hole in the bottom of the engine.

Since I have had the car recovered to an Audi dealership, the car has always been serviced and maintained by Audi. It had 52k mile on it. I want to know is there anyway I can get audi to take responsibility for this and its extremely unusual for a car that age and mileage to suffer a failure of this kind.

The repair cost of a new engine is currently £23040.

If anyone can give me advice on this It would be extremely helpful as I dont have this kind of money to be able to repair my car.

Extra info I'm in contact with Audi customer services, the dealership tried to go through Audi factory warranty but it was rejected.

LightFlare

Hate to say it, but a 6 year old car that youve owned for 18 months - then you are really going to struggle

Unless, you can get some kind of report that suggests otherwise, then this unfortunately may be a case of “stuff does break”

Have you made any enquiries about the cost of a recon engine ? As I assume, 23k is for a brand new unit

Woodstok2000

Agree with the above. Have a look around for any common issues or recalls (see below for an example) which may help you push Audi to foot at least part of the bill but in reality it's going to be an uphill battle.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Audi/comments/1ncrp5y/2020_q7_30t_scored_cylinder_walls_at_40k_miles/

more Info on the piston skirt issue here:

https://www.audiworld.com/forums/q7-mkii-discussion-211/piston-skirt-warranty-extension-letter-audi-3086696/

Neurochronic

Thanks for the above Woodstock, I have not had any recall letter for the above but this might be an avenue pursuing. The servicing department were also let say shocked that this has occurred and found it profoundly strange that the engine failed as it did. I'll see if I can see if they will look into this and maybe comeback to me on that

daveyjp

Probably no chance. I've had a few Audis and they are the one vehicle where I was always topping up the oil. Running low was always a fear if I didn't check for a few weeks,

Is this a vehicle where the oil level can be checked using an old fashioned dipstick, or is it a silly electronic system?

paul_c123

A few questions:

1. You mention there was no warning light. Was there any WARNING though, for example unusual sound, low on oil, oil consumption got worse (you do check the oil level regularly….)? Engines don't just fail catastrophically like that.
2. You say its been serviced regularly, but was this on time, and did they do all the required tasks of a service or miss any items?

tedted

I think the clunking sound was a good warning

diveunderthebonnet

I thought the price of £23k was for a new car not just the engine😪

Mildly_Miffed

It depends on why the engine failed.

The links to common failures above… You have to be very careful on t'web, because a lot of English-language information is from the US, where they have nominally similar vehicles but with very different engines.
Both those links given above refer to 3.0 v6 petrol engines. Is that what yours has? There are just over 100 2020 Q7s on Autotrader - 80% of them are diesel…

Even if that is the issue, bore score is only going to increase oil consumption. And that will only lead to your clunk and crankcase ventilation if you let the engine run out of oil to the point the pump is sucking air. Which will definitely NOT be covered by anybody else…
And, of course, you DO regularly check the oil level, don't you?
And that means you would notice increased oil consumption before the level dropped to a critical level, wouldn't you?

If the failure was a sudden loss of oil from hitting something in the road, then that might be covered as an at-fault claim on your car insurance. But I suspect they'd just write the car off… £23k bill from a ~£30-35k car, plus the potential cost of the hire car, does not leave very much room - if any at all, because that's definitely the kind of car that'd have a non-trivial salvage value. It's simply cheaper for the insurer to pay you the value and let Copart sell the car than to repair it.

And that leaves some kind of sudden internal failure despite the sump being full… Which is probably the least likely option. Not impossible. But… Even then, could it be due to previous neglect and low oil level? Could it be due to an over-rev? Could it be… <insert fairly long list>

And who could you possibly claim off?

It's a 6yo car. No hope of much goodwill from the manufacturer's warranty which expired three years ago. You cannot hope to show this was a manufacturing or materials defect from production without expensive testing of the components that caused the failure.

You've owned it 18mo. No hope of any recourse from the Audi-franchised dealer you bought it from, because there is no way you can show this is a pre-existing fault present at the time of purchase. You did not buy it "direct" from "Audi" (Volkswagen Group UK Ltd, the official importer), because they don't sell second-hand cars. They don't even sell new ones to the public, you buy those from a dealer, too. Look on their website for approved used cars, and it just points you to the dealers selling them.

You had an aftermarket warranty (one year, presumably) with that used-car purchase, but that ran out 7 months ago. No hope of anything from that.

You say it's been serviced by the dealer - when was the last service? How frequent have those services been? Are they fully documented? If that was <say> a few days and a handful of miles before, then you MIGHT potentially have a claim from them if, say, it suddenly ran out of oil because the inadequately tightened sump drain plug fell out. But you'd have mentioned that.

But, as has been said, that £23k is the gold-plated main dealer price for a spankin' new lump. With a used engine, you'll be back on the road for probably between a third and half of that price.

jimjames

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82108446#Comment_82108446

Probably a better option