B6_Dolphin

In the video on the 29k-mile RS4, it didn't help the leaking cooler was allowing the coolant and oil to mix. Owner just keeps adding coolant and is deaf to the noises from the engine? Brilliant!

JohnEnglish

There was someone on the other forums who just turned up the radio when they started getting the "failing lifter noise" and now they need a new engine.

Nikon1

No intelligence test required when buying any car … let alone a $60-to90K car! 🤯

— John

JD15

If there have been only a total of 10 failures as some people on forums suggest, why wouldn't Audi simply cover the cost of repair as a goodwill gesture? $300k in repairs is a drop in the bucket for Audi. No one should expect vehicles with 80k miles or less to suffer catastrophic damage that effectively totals the vehicle.

Dan99

Rocker arms fail for a variety of reasons, including but not limited to faulty parts. One quick way to destroy healthy rocker arms is over-reving the engine/bouncing off the rev-limiter. Another way, as shown in one of the videos above, is to keep dumping more antifreeze into the radiator when there are no external leaks, and not realizing its mixing with your oil.

It would help to know what the actual numbers are, but I can see why Audi may not want to fix every rocker arm issue gratis.

superswiss

The rocker arms in these early engines definitely have an issue and that shouldn't be mixed in with other reasons that could destroy rocker arms. Occasionally bouncing off the rev limiter if you miss a shift in manual mode shouldn't scare anyone. We've done that for years in manual transmission cars w/o issues and I've been known to occasionally miss a shift in manual mode. The rev limiter is there to prevent the engine from exceeding its safety margins. Obviously with a manual transmission one can do a money shift on the downshift and quickly destroy an engine, but the automatics don't let that happen. Now if you are one of those dorks that just rev their engine in a parking lot for 10 minutes and bouncing off the rev limiter that's a different story. Engines shouldn't be revved w/o load on them. So, problem is while Audi clearly knows there's a problem and they mitigated it by redesigning the part, they have no control over how owners treat their engines.

njspeedfreak

Or sometimes it just happens because the parts were out of spec. Mine gave out at 80k miles, on a well maintained, untuned car that was driven completely normally.

Everyone is looking for some way to excuse Audi, but the facts are simple. They put a bad part in an otherwise good engine and it lead to premature and catastrophic failures in some of those engines. And they are not acknowledging it, or doing anything to rectify it in cases where its too late to prevent damage, or in cases where there is still time.

njspeedfreak

My guess - something to do with the thinner oil they speced these engines for. Someone in the engineering dept overlooked what that might do to a part that was originally deigned for and tested against a thicker oil. Thinner oil = more heat. More heat = more expansion. More expansion = roller bearings that are no longer contained in their cage.

superswiss

And they will likely not fess up to it. At best you can hope for a goodwill repair with a 50/50 cost split. That's just how these things go. For example AMG had known issues with the head bolts in the M156 engine and all they did was replace them with better bolts, but they didn't recall existing cars. It's not guaranteed that engines will fail as environmental factors and specifics on how the cars are driven may or may not result in a failure. Not all M156 engines with the inadequate head bolts ended up failing. So it's the same here. The part is known to not hold up in all cases, but it also does not result in a failure in a 100% of cases,. If Audi were to recall all affected engines that'll be very expensive for them.

Another example is the known timing chain issues in the B7 S4 as well as the cylinder scorching issues in the same engine, or all the oil burning issues that almost all Audi engines suffer from. I was lucky that my B7 S4 lasted until I sold it at around 80k miles, but it did consume oil like no other car I owned before or since. At some point I just stopped believing in Audi building quality engines, given that my RS5 also burned oil, albeit not nearly as much as my S4 did. It also didn't help that the gear position sensor failed in the transmission, which was another known issue resulting in a $6000 repair and Audi agreed to a goodwill repair with a 50/50 split. It was still expensive to replace a $100 part that required taking apart the entire transmission.

Ascari_Blue_A5

Is it safe to assume that my A4 and A5 are unlikely to experience this particular issue, since the A5 is 2019 and A4 -although 2018- is FWD with a different engine?
Thanks!