sweeta4

So, a couple of weeks ago on a Friday afternoon my wife comes home from work and tells me she thinks there's something wrong with her car. Its idling very loudly and is hestitating when shifted from drive to reverse and vice-versa. As soon as she tells me of her problems when shifting, automatically my mind goes to the CVT. Knowing the cost of this repair I was desperatly hoping it was something else.

We call our local dealer and the soonest they can get to it is Monday morning. Monday morning rolls around and we set out to nurse the car over to the dealership. This time I am driving. The rough idle has gone away, but the shifting problem is definitely still there. When put into reverse to back out of the garage the car will sit for about 5 seconds before rolling backwards, as if the brakes were being applied. The same happens when shifting the car back into drive. Once left in drive though the car behaved normally.

The dealer has the car for the day and gives us a call Monday evening and confirms my fears. Its the CVT and it will need replacing. I confirmed with him that it wasn't something that could be fixed by just replacing the TCM, a much cheaper repair. He said, listening to the CVT it sounds as if something has broken off or is about to break and the unit has to go. I was quoted a price of around $6,300 for a refurbished CVT and the cost of labor. I was acutally a little surprised by this quote. It seemed pretty cheap considering a new CVT costs $9,000. Still, its 6K out of pocket, nothing to celebrate about.

I know a lot of you reading this right now are saying, "but what about the warranty?" Well, thats just the twist of the knife to this story. The warranty on this car expired on April 8th. The failure occurred on April 20th. How's that for timing!

Considering the car was just out of warranty and the fact that these transmissions have a higher failure rate than the other transmissions Audi offers, I thought I'd give AOA a call. The lady I spoke to was very sympathetic to my plight, took my info, and said she would contact the dealer and see if anything could be done.

Thursday afternoon we got a call from the service consultant we had been working with at the dealership and . . . Audi agreed to pick-up half of the tab! Yeah for Audi! My wife was disappointed that they didn't cover the whole repair, but I was surprised that they were going to pay anything.

So now, another week and $3,200 later her car is back in service.

What have I taken away from this experience? From now on I think I will be more hesitant to purchase a car with an expensive transmission without first taking into consideration its reliability or seriously considering an extended warranty. For those of you out there with a DSG, or considering a car with one, that unit costs $12,000. (However, I've heard that this transmission has been a lot less prone to problems that require complete tranny replacement.) More importantly though, I have gained a new appreciation for Audi and how they treat their customers. I'm a big fan of their cars and now I'm a big fan of the company as well.

All Wheel Driver

So true...extended warranties are a good idea.

paulroad

AoA should have paid 100%. Depending on who you talk to or write to this good will gesture is negotiable.

Write directly to Johan DeNyschen, the VP CEO of AoA. Be complementary to the brand, but dissapointed as well. There is no way you should pay for 100% of this.

RascalD

Sorry to hear this; although, Audi did step up to the plate, and at least hit a single.
Precisely why I dumped my BMW 325 with the DSG. I just didn't trust it in the long run and felt it may just be a ticking time bomb. My A4 is a manual and any future failures would most likely be the drivers fault :0| And I can live with that.

T0M3K

$12,000 for DSG? May as well buy another used Audi

MRSK

when the TCM failed, I was 2 months out of warranty, AoA covered the parts and I paid for the labor.

Interesting, unrelated to Audi, I have been told by a lot of business owners, their warranty policies are often dependent on how <b><u>loud</u></B> the customers are. =)

xaviexavie

Decided not to go the extended route, &amp; now I'm wondering if I did the right move.
My tranny was actually replaced completely 6 mo. after purchase. No addtl'. problems yet (cross fingers). Thanks for sharing what happened to you &amp; how you approached it.

a4b7

I have the same hesitation on the 2006 a4 2.0t CVT when I put it in reverse. I thought it was normal because I got used to it. But after reading your thread, it got me questioning. Also, sometimes when I'm reversing and give it some gas, it makes noises similar to a clanking noise. However, I haven't seen or noticed any other problems with performance once Im in D/S, maybe because I rarely pushed the car.

paulroad

Take your Service guy for a ride...let him/her hear it.

Bloater

I just bought a CPO 2004 3.0L A4 Cab, and I love it. But, it was a little high mileage at ~50k. Am I better off waiting until my CPO coverage is just about to end before picking up an extension to it?

I believe Audi wanted like $2700 for two more years. That doesn't seem worth it. Am I better off looking to some other warranty company?

Tons of great info here guys! I'm be reading here for sure!