Audi service - do they remove the wheels?

[ewand]

My wife's S5 cab went in for a routine service in Oct, which included visual checks and they noted on the MOT that the front brake pads were getting low.

Do they take the wheels off to check or would they measure through the spokes?

Reason for asking is that at some point in the last 7 months, the locking wheel nut on the OS front has somehow been switched with another one, so I can't take the wheel off to swap for winter wheels. My thinking is that maybe they took the wheels off and then just got mixed up and stuck the wrong bolt back on...

[ewand]

just double-checked the wheels and not only is the locking nut different on the OS F wheel, it's got a different brand of tyre too! Looks to me like they took the wheel off and got it mixed up with another owner's...

[SuprSi]

Bloody hell, the locking wheel nut is one thing but ending up with a different brand tyre and a different customer's wheel would pi$$ me right off.

Make a complaint. Pronto!

[ewand]

OK, an update - after several (unreturned) calls to the dealer, I managed to get put through to the service advisor from the last service, about 7 weeks ago. Their service records said the car had 4x Continental tyres on it (no, it should have had 4x Toyo Proxes). I said I wanted to get the locking nut off so I could at least remove the wheel etc, so we agreed that I'd bring it in and they'd put a plain nut on instead.

I called a couple of hours later saying I was in the area, and could I drop in - sure, no problem, bring it in and we'll whip it off for you. Great.

AN HOUR AND A QUARTER after crossing the threshold, having surrendered my keys and seen the car be driven into the back after only 15 minutes of hanging about being repeatedly asked by the same person if I was being attended to (yes, you were going to find <service advisor>, who never seems to be at his desk ...)

Service advisor eventually clocks me walking towards him an hour after the car's been in the garage, and he said they're just bringing it round now and he gave me the keys. To someone else's RS4. Turns out I am in fact a chump, and the locking key is chewed up a bit (manages to undo all the other bolts, but never mind), and they managed to remove and reinstall the old bolt just fine. On getting home, I tried the key from my RS4, which is (coincidentally?) the same pattern and off came the bolt just fine. So all the drama of the nut is my fault.

However. I still have receipts saying I put Toyo Proxes on every wheel of that car yet now it's wearing a Conti SportContact on one front wheel... I called the last people to touch the car before Audi (a bodyshop doing some minor ding repairs) and they said they've had 3 S5s in the last 5 years, the previous one 2 years ago... so they couldn't have accidentally got the wheels mixed up. Called the tyre supplier just to check, is there any possible way they could have put a Conti on and invoiced me for a Toyo? - nope, not at all. Stock control and all that. Oh, and I remember having to order the Toyo in specially for that corner when it punctured, a little over 6 months ago...

Service advisor at Audi seems to think a shrug and a look like "how strange, it's just one of life's unexplained little mysteries" will assuage me.

To be continued...

[Ian_C]

Oh, and I remember having to order the Toyo in specially for that corner when it punctured, a little over 6 months ago......

That corner punctured, so was replaced singularly *after* all four were replaced as a set previously? There's you answer - the tyre fitters didn't manage to get the right tyre delivered in, so when you went in they fitted what they had so they could take your money and hoped you didn't notice

[ewand]

Yeah, I did wonder about that - but I wouldn't have let them put any old tyre on, and they did say they'd only have supplied what was on the invoice...

[Ian_C]

They probably wrecked the locking nut with an air gun at the same time.

[ewand]

an update... whilst looking through camera phone pictures, I discovered a photo taken in July - ie months after the offside front was replaced - showing that it was definitely a Toyo Proxes tyre then. So I think it was definitely a mix up at the Audi garage...

[Ian_C]

Very strange indeed! Might never find out what actually happened....