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Dear All
New Year surprise, car in at West London Audi for full service (approx. 45k miles done) and been told have identified oil leak requiring engine to come out for further diagnostics though likely oil seals, £6,500 for approx. 35 hours work plus small cost of replacing seals. This is of course on top of the full service cost including plugs of approx. £1,000. Does this cost tally with what others have paid for similar? I gather that once engine out worth checking on other items eg cam covers, coolant pipes, etc.
Thanking you

To be honest it would save you thousands to get audi to do it , send it to unit 20 I know it may cost a bit to get it transported but they can do oil seal with the engine still in position , saving you thousands and even with an engine drop they will be less than half the cost ! , or a bit closer you have mrc but they charge more than unit 20

£6500!!

Pure piss take!!


Mine was £2k ish max 3 years ago! At Audi.

Unit20 quoted just a touch over £3k for an engine remove/refit inc labour and all the gaskets/consumables etc. However *if* it's just the very common oil pump seal (70p part) then it's under £2k (£1800 I think?) as the engine doesn't need to be removed and gets the oil pump stripped whilst inplace. The service is around £750 inc plugs too IIRC.

Additional work - I would definitely get the coolant lines behind the right front arch liner (at the back against the firewall) checked at the same time as a fairly large number of cars are now starting to find these are corroding leading to a very expensive failure. The engine doesn't need to be dropped for the "usual" amount of corrosion however if th pipes are corroded behind the engine block it's an engine out job.

tl:dr- Audi £6500 - Unit20 around £4k for the same

Hope that helps!

West London Audi tell me that they suspect the leak to be from the shaft that goes into the power steering pump hence the need to remove the engine for access.

Don't you just love it? Six and a half grand on 'we think'....

i would let unit 20 look at it no matter which way you look at it, if they can do it in the car which they seem to be one of the only places in the uk that can do it.

if they can its cheaper still if not its still cheaper for them if they are taking the engine out of it so its a win win .

£750 is cheap with plugs as well my local dealer wanted £500 for that . i laughed very hard at him and told him i would not pay him £400 to put plugs !

If your happy to pay 6.5 large to remove block at Audi you have too much money!

Absolutely a piss take regardless on what defects they "find".

The seals etc are pennies.

The labour is the killer but no way 6.5k.

Anyway...Audi will <beep> it up anyway! Unit 20 or MRC all day long.

Don't let those reprobates start taking your car apart, take it to MRC instead or if you fancy a bit of a drive, Unit 20. But if you happen to have nearly 7 large burning a hole in your pocket and want to spend it spanner wielding monkeys playing with your car, then hand it over to them.

The power steering pump isn't shaft driven, it's driven by Chain D which is at the front left of the engine if you're looking at it from bonnet back to the boot. If the leak is at the back of the engine it's the oil seal, if it's at the front (and it's engine oil not green PSF) it's the join between the oil pump and coolant pump.

Thank you all for your thoughtful input which concludes that if I was starting from scratch I should be taking the car to MRC. I feel compromised as Audi have my car which is booked in for full service (not sure if this has been done as part of the diagnostics work), they have given me a courtesy car and have identified other items including pads and discs change front wheels and a fault with headlights which might require new control unit. They will no doubt charge me for diagnostics time if I remove the car from their garage now. The £6500 is based on 35 hours (their estimate for what it takes to remove and replace engine) @ around £186 per hr. Tactics now

I will put money on that you don't need to change your discs and pads as they use this all the time to increase revenue. I've experienced this personally before but was smart enough to check before agreeing for them to do the work. Phone them this morning and ask how much work they've done for the service already and then tell them to finish what they're doing and you'll then pick the car up. Then take it to MRC.

Just my opinion of course.

You booked it in for a service. That's all.
For any other work you can take it where you like.
I'd be careful of what they say about work after a health check - mine came back with needing x, y & z which I questioned to be told "Oh, they aren't urgent, maybe should be looked at during the next service".
Bottom line - is the car safe to drive?
If the answer is yes then it's your choice.

Engine in and out is 20 hours.