vertical froth pump

Need Advice. 2013 Q5 3.0T Coolant Leak Worsened After Water Pump Replacement

Need Advice

Audi service manager told me they will replace the components in "the valley"-the pcv valve, hoses, thermostat. He said all those 3 needs to be replaced when pcv valve is replaced. Quoted price is around $3800. They are the same dealer who changed the water pump (without replacing the thermostat) around a week before I went back for the worst coolant leak (1 gallon consumed/gone a few days after they made the water pump replacement). Water pump replacement was $1800. Audi service manager offered 10 percent discount on the total price; 10 percent discount from that $3800. What should I do? Should I also replace the serpentine belt and timing chain since they are going to open up part of the engine anyways? But that would mean additional cost wiping out that 10 percent discount. What should I do? Please help.

Independent Audi Shop

First of all, get your car serviced by an Independent Audi Shop and avoid the Audi dealership at all cost. You can get the whole job done for about a $1000 (slightly more or less) if you search around a bit.

Coolant Loss

I agree with Arjun 90. Owning a Audi without having a good independent shop to work on it is a very expensive venture. The hose under the Supercharger is definitely one that cracks and leaks and the PVC can also cause coolant loss but I've never heard of anyone losing as much coolant as you are from a bad PCV. Both of those items are worth replacing if they have some high milage racked up on them. Same with the Tstat. As far as changing the belts I would base that off of how many miles you have on them. The timing chains are behind the engine and are a engine out job. They will only be removing your Supercharger to replace the PCV / hose.

maybe the dealer did not do a good job fixing it??? not many places to lose coolant like that. be nice if they would diagnose it for free if its worse now after they initially fixed it, but can you trust what they will say? not really gonna save any money having them do the accessory belt at this point. timing chain is at back of motor, don't even ask them to touch that stuff.

This.

Hey welcome to the world of the Four Rings! Not to be a pain but it would be helpful for us members of the forum if you posted a pic of the written estimate so we can see the parts/labor breakdown in detail - just as an example when if injector seals are part of the estimate OE seal kits from the dealer will run about $40 each but if you order them from ECS/FCP they should not be more than $10 each. We all generally know the dealerships are always the most expensive option but there are actually a few honest and competent ones but I digress... If you are not a DIY type then owning any vehicle but especially a high performance model like the supercharged Q5 is going to be expensive - even the best Indy shops will still charge $$$ for labor but maybe not take as many hours to complete because dealerships go by the book where an Indy may know the best shortcuts - just ask me about how much I was quoted for a pair of motor mounts and I'lll tell ya! Anyway - pulling the SC is not the most difficult nor labor intensive job but having to do it two or more times adds up quickly. Try to figure out what has been done so far and let us know. Most of us have already had all of the possible repairs done and many of us have actually done the work ourselves so we really understand what it should cost if a shop were to do the job. Good Luck and keep us posted!

Just had it all done on my 2016 with 44k miles, but not at the dealer. Water pump had the warning leak. So all in, pump, thermostat,PCV, along with all the new gaskets and seals replaced. It was around $18-1900 NY dollars.

I think they did not print it. Service manager just told me about it. But I'll check the paper they gave me recently when I picked up my Q5. It was with the Audi dealer for 1 day short of being a month. No repairs done. I was contacting them several times. But they were not responsive. Then finally, they responded. I went there to get it back. Sunroof shade is sagging (it was not sagging the time I dropped it off their dealership for service) Some plastic fasteners on the engine bay are missing. The fasteners on the plastic cover on top of the front bumper. (all plastic fasterners were installed the time I dropped it off their dealership for service) One of the plastic fasteners were broken (non of the plastic fasteners were broken the time I dropped it off their dealership) Before I left, I showed sunroof shade sagging to the service staff. The service manager took a picture of it. He said he will check what happened. I contacted them. Not responsive again.

Here is the invoice. But they did not bother to put the amount. I will do the oil change myself to check if the engine oil is chocolate milk color. I went to purchase some Liqui Moly Molygen oil change kit to also check if there is any engine oil leak. The initial reason I had the Q5 checked is the engine oil consumption being too high even for the "normal" consumption that Audi claims. Soon after the dealer touched it for the oil consumption test. The coolant leak started after. The Audi dealer who did the oil consumption test was the one I purchased the vehicle from but is farther away from where I live. The closest Audi dealer (2nd dealer) that replaced the water pump is also the one that checked the "2nd leak" and wanted to change those listed on the invoice. The sunroof shade sagged while the Q5 was in their care. And they have yet to respond on that separate issue. Right now, I'm just waiting for the kit to arrive. These are the white splatter. Probably coolant as it also has some on the edge of the reservoir.

For real brother, find a European car repair that has done the 3.0 PCV job. Ask a lot of questions you know the answers to. If they don’t mention how careful they have yo be with the coolant pipes, find someone else. A good shop will give you a heads up of what can happen when things are taken apart. Watch a PCV video on the tube, you will see how many things can go wrong.

Thank you.

Update... I purchased an Ancel VD500 OBD2 scanner for VAG vehicles. Don't know how accurate it is. But the only codes it showed are the following. P200600 P200700 P200400 P200500 P052E00 And I don't know if those codes are already in there before I went to the dealer for service or it appeared after the service. EDIT: I did not drive my Q5 since I got it from the dealer. Good thing is... the wet area is already dry and I took pictures of those along with other areas. If I drive it around time, then I check again which area got wet. There goes my tiny hope that it is not related to those components. I'll repair my other vehicle first, scraping sound on front passenger side, since that is much easier and faster to do before I tinker around on my Q5.

On another note. Is this where I insert the dipstick for the engine oil? Is this the part number 06J115611L or different part number? I checked FCP Euro and it stated the part number "May not fit..." and ECS Tuning states "Does not fit".

Those cheap plastic coolant pipes clearly need to be replaced.