Need Advice: Service Shop
 

Last Year 2014:

Went to car shop after researching their rep on revscene. I have a 2004 Audi A8L (ie money pit)

Did timing belt, water pump, tension rollers and some misc pipes and gaskets. Spent moolah but I did my research and it was about right.

This year 2015:
had a coolant leak in DT vancouver, so towed it into their shop. They fixed it under warranty. Felt relieved so ok'd work on brakes, oil change and some misc items.

Get advised a week later that the air ride/struts is blown. $1500. There was nothing wrong with this part when I brought the car in.

How should I as a consumer proceed? Is it just bad luck? I believe that the owner is honest. I am just frustrated that this problem occurred while in their shop. Is their any shared responsibility here?

Please advise. Thanks!

Is the strut actually blown or is it the valve block that has a leak? While there's a lot of documented issues with the air ride, it's usually the compressor or valve block that's the culprit, not the struts.

As for the legitimacy of the issue, it's possible. It could be coincidence that it crapped out while it was at the shop, or it could have been broken before hand without an error code being thrown and you knowing about it.

Nothing to proceed here. Your car is stuffed with technology from 11 years ago, bits and pieces do fail over time.

I find with modern cars with a lot of plastic parts like hoses and actuators. It is important to reduce heat and cold variations when parked. eg If you park the car out in the sun today, the heat cycle will be 20C. Hoses and parts etc don't expand and contract at the same rate, plastic get aged and things break.

Problems can arise at any time. Just so happens the time is at their shop. Perhaps you didn't notice that they were blown before sending it in and it just gets worse over a matter of days.

If you do feel skeptical though as some shops do up sell customers. Consider this, how much mileage are on these shocks? How long do they usually last?

If things don't match up then have another shop inspect it, get a quote.

As swfk said, how many km's are on the suspension? Is it original factory still? If so I'm assuming you probably have 150k+ km's on the car. Which I'd say is pretty good then for the suspension lasting that long.

Everytime my B5 A4 Audi went into the shop for an oil change, it came out with a $500-$1000 bill..

It's the main reason I took the $2000 loss on it when selling and why I will never buy a Euro car again.

I'm very willing to bet that they have been wearing for a while and are just now being diagnosed by a competent shop. As they wear gradually its not as noticeable to the driver. As said before how many kms on the struts? Its a 4000lb volkswagen. Its going to eat suspension parts.

Agreed with ^

Just ask the shop if you can go in and take a look at it and get them to explain what the symptoms are. Most likely its already on its way out and the shop caught it and informed you.

https://scontent-sea1-1.xx.fbcdn.net...50&oe=5624DAF7

Thanks for the advice guys, gave me some peace of mind. Now... who can I blow for $1500?

i pay, but 1500 will take you a while.