Service indicated in 1000 miles.... advice please

[psg001]

Hi guys,

had the car 6 months and has been terrific. Bought it from Audi so came with 12 month warranty. The DIS tells me i need to get it serviced in 1000 miles. Have done about 9k since I bought the car. Think I am at about 44,000 miles

Anyway I'm going to take it to the stealers for service and just wanted some advice on a few things...

1) how much should I be paying (roughly)
2) apart from oil and filter change, anything else to get them to do
3) is there much variability in dealer service prices (I only ask because my local audi dealer (preston) used to charge me £400 everytime I took my old A3 2.0TDI in and that was under warranty the whole time I owned it)


cheers...

[aidanjaye]

Price varies greatly from dealer to dealer. Was quoted 400 as well but ended up paying 230 as my local VW dealer were going to do it (and stamp the book) for 215. Shop around and don't pay what they ask.

Get Audi dealer to check all warranty work is done and of course the usual DRC leaking????

[Outtlaw]

Had a normal service at the dealers, oil etc and cost about £300.
All i asked was what was the worst service cost i could expect and was told the only real expense was when the spark plugs need changing. Put my mind at ease.
Dont know if this is correct but i was very pleased. Peter

[karl]

Have you considered one of the specialists instead i.e. APS or MRC? In my experience you get a much better 'service'. î

[psg001]

thats true Karl, but am worried when I sell the car in 2yrs that if it has non-Audi stamps in the log book (even if they are from the specialist) that it might make the sale harder, hence why I thought it might look better to have it audi all the way, am planning to extend the warranty by 1yr next summer with audi also

[P_G]

The AVS 1 (which does not include plugs) includes oil+filter change, air filter and pollen filter. Prices vary, I regularly get charged around £300 mark for both the S4 and RS4. Saying that they use 10 litres of oil (I know it says nine but an additional 1/2 litre can be held in the RS4 having just done my change myself and on the service schedule that accounts for approx £120-150 in itself whereas you can get 10 litres from Opie for as little as £75 so you will have saved yourself £50-75 there straight away. I'm using a BMC filter which will not need replacing so there is another £40.

There is nothing to say you cannot supply all parts and oil yourself so long they are all Audi / VAG OEM parts which will probably save you up to £120 of that Audi £300, the actual service is logged as 1-1.5 time units by Audi (i.e. hours) so you will never get away from c.£100 + VAT minimum for that.

AVS 2 includes plug change, brake level check, possibly brake fluid change if necessary. Given you are at 44k miles I suspect yours will be a straight AVS1 type service.

[kay]

excuse my lack of knowledge P G, the BMC filter doesnt need changing?? is that the case with most after market panel filters?? why?? .. is it a case they just need dusting off once in a while...??

[stumpyrs4]

Not using Audi for servicing wont de-value or make the car harder to sell.

So long as OEM Parts are used anyone can service the car and not invalidate any warranty you may have.

[aidanjaye]

excuse my lack of knowledge P G, the BMC filter doesnt need changing?? is that the case with most after market panel filters?? why?? .. is it a case they just need dusting off once in a while...??

Don't know for sure but BMC I think is like a K&n, and can be cleaned. The OEM filter is paper and chuckable.

[HYFR]

non audi servicing WILL invalidate an extended warranty. you are confusing the statutory manufacturers warranty (i.e from new) with the optional extension, whereby you are bound by their t&c's

[sonny]

I "deciphered" it to be, all your Audi recommended services need to be done by Audi, any other services you wish to conduct such as oil service between is "OK" I still have mine done by Audi. but my Spark plugs was done at APS on 24k miles. I have had 2 lots of warranty work done and it has not effected it, (or did not look at Log book), cash in hand work or other garage work has no invoice number and wont show on AUK Data base (obviously).

BMC filter if looked after, is a life time item, and Audi will not touch this and should save on the cost of a paper filter and labour cost, just make sure you tell them or put the sticker on the air box that comes with the filter.

As for the oil, when I did my last oil change, the audi tech let the oil drain while he was fitting my braided hoses, when he came to re-fill, it was over 10lt with new filter. the car was in the air for around an hour giving the engine enough time to drip dry.

[P_G]

excuse my lack of knowledge P G, the BMC filter doesnt need changing?? is that the case with most after market panel filters?? why?? .. is it a case they just need dusting off once in a while...??

Don't know for sure but BMC I think is like a K&n, and can be cleaned. The OEM filter is paper and chuckable.

Yes the BMC is like K&N and ITG, it can be cleaned. I'm trying to find out how much the BMC cleaning kit is at present anyway. IIRC the Audi paper filter is as much as the BMC panel filter anyway.

[sonny]

Damn that much! its not really a big filter (£43).

[chaucer]

just to let you guys know if a care is serviced outside of the network and you get DRC trouble this may invalid the audi goodwill ,just thought i bet let you know

[oscawhite]

Hello everyone - first post:

I bought an RS4 just before Christmas, (Nov 5th!). I bought it from the Audi main dealer in Aberdeen - 29,000 miles – a beautiful car.

After taking delivery I realised that the car drove less than perfectly, but having nothing to compare it against, this took a couple of weeks to eventually sink in; the brakes left something to be desired, and the performance was a little disappointing for a car with reputedly 400+ bhp. The engine fluffed and the transmission shunted, (especially if you attempted to drive the car slowly).

Although I work in Aberdeen I live in Teesside. I intended to take the car home for Christmas, and decided while I was home over Christmas I would have it serviced – with emphasis on the brakes and the engine. I phoned the main dealer, (if you live in Stockton on Tees then you will know who they are). I spoke to a young man in the service department, and explained basically what I’ve just stated here. He wanted to know the registration and the mileage, which I told him, and he told me all I he would recommend was an oil and oil filter change. Although I reiterated points from my story, (perhaps I needed new spark plugs, I said) - I quickly concluded I was speaking to someone who was incapable of looking beyond the service manual concerning Audi projected intervals of replacement parts, and had no idea of living with a car such as this when as the keeper you know it just isn’t running right.

You know the type of car dealer I’m taking about here; new building all glass and shiny steel, filter coffee. As a customer, Sir, perhaps we can interest you in a bnew Audi – oh service - you should feel privileged that we are prepared speak to you at all. I realised I was wasting my time and searched around for an independent, who lives or dies by his own work and reputation – grass roots.

I located such a guy in (via this site) – spoke with him directly and he proposed a service based on his experience with a number of RS4s. He serviced the car within a day, very reasonably priced – and the car is totally transformed. It was like the old car was suffering from a bad cold – and now it’s all fit and healthy again. No fluffing, little or no transmission shunt – flys!


The mean dealer quoted me £270 to replace the oil and oil filter. Searching the web I obtained recently 5 litres of the appropriate VAG spec oil, (as a top up) - delivered to my door for £30. Even if I was to buy the filter from Audi (retailing at £25), the total cost of labour is very nearly £200 - for no more than an hours work! Of course this included ticking all those boxes in the service book that some of you on here consider to be at least as important as having the work done). The Indi – well he was cheaper- and he ticked all the boxes - but more importantly the car is right. The name of the Indi is Elite Vehicle Services, Glasgow Street, Thornaby – check out the yellow pages for contact details.


Happy New Year.