North American V10 owners pray you have no engine issues. I have had!!!

[wedisbrow]

I got my fabulous V10 in mid-July. Absolutely fell in love with it. The most gorgeous car anywhere, incredible performance, yet a daily driver.
I had been excited enough about it to travel to Neckarsulm just to visit the factory. A car I had put money down on in Feb. 2007!!! Before Audi Canada even knew it existed.
I was smitten and the actual experience of being in and driving such a beautiful dream machine had me giddy.
Then the horror show began.
On Friday Sept. 11, my car began to run very roughly. Engine light on. I had it towed to my dealer and it arrived about 6 p.m. The dealer's top tech guy stayed and waited for it. The diagnosis was a "cylinder problem". What the hell? This car has been babied. Never driven hard in any way. Okay, so a new car can have some problems, but to determine exactly what the issue was, North American dealers(Canadian at least) have to send the diagnostics to Audi in Germany when dealing with the V10. Of course, Audi Germany was closed for the weekend, so my car sat. On Monday, Sept. 14, the dealer was told the problem was an "injector connection". It was replaced and my car ran beautifully the rest of that afternoon and evening. I drove it three separate times of 30 minutes plus each. Having to wait the whole weekend of sunshine without my baby was frustrating, but I was back in love the minute I drove it.
On Tuesday, Sept. 15, when I started the car, on came the engine light again. Oh oh, this time I was upset. I was on my way to show the car off to friends and would now have to say it was broken down again. Did I have a lemon?
The real issue here, is the fact that the dealers can do nothing without Audi's permission on this engine. With Audi of Germany being nine hours ahead of my dealer on the West Coast, this means that the two are never open at the same time.
So, it gets to the dealer for the second time on the 15th, but Audi Germany does not hear about it, or get the diagnostics until the next day. They then analyze the problem(two more cylinders having "problems" according to my dealer), and send the analysis (fuel injectors again) back to my dealer. My dealer then asks for permission to replace all ten injectors as a preventative measure. It takes another day for Audi to receive this request and another for them to respond positively. At least I am pleased by their response.
On Thursday, Sept. 15., my dealer receives the permission to change all ten.
The dealer calls me to say all the injectors are available in town, but the one other part I need is only in Germany. They will request a "critical part" delivery. They realize things are happening far too slowly. This request went in on the Thursday.
Audi does not respond to this on Friday, and by then, it is the weekend in Germany. Closed. My car sits again.
I contacted the President and CEO of Audi Canada to ask for help with this ridiculous process and he agrees to do what he can on Monday. He actually responded on Saturday, the same day I wrote. I have to say that both my dealer and Audi Canada have been fantastic. It is just this idiotic requirement that Germany, which is never open when dealers here are, must okay everything that is done with the V10.
On Monday, no response from Germany once again.
On Tuesday, Sept. 22, we get an email saying the parts were sent out on Monday, the 21st and will arrive on the 25th.
My car will have been sitting for 14 of the last 15 days while this goes on. Mostly because of the inefficiency of the process.
The part I am missing is a gasket!!!!
Why the hell was it not sent by FEDEX or some such? Why was my dealer not notified immediately as to whether the faster delivery system would be used? They were asked on Thursday, and we do not get an answer until Tuesday???? Not too "critical" in their eyes, I guess. This is a problem of faulty parts, not abuse. Not my fault. Theirs.
Past experience tells me that expected arrival dates are often not achieved, and if the part does not arrive on Friday, my car will sit for another weekend. By then, if fixed on Monday, it will have been 16 of the last 17 days in the shop for something that should have been diagnosed and solved within a couple of days at most.
Extremely frustrating and it has really blunted my feelings about the vehicle.
My dealer has gone above and beyond throughout all of this, so all the blame lies with the process.
Anyway, be forewarned and be prepared for a much longer wait than reasonable should anything go wrong with your engine.

[Davey_Dee]

I think the problem is, it's not a baby engine so shouldn't be babied!

[ianerrid]

By the sound of the fault type you would probably have just got the fault quicker and after having more fun ;-)

I <agree> the process is ludicrously broken though!! In Europe we would never have been aware of the issue I guess.

[London Lad]

I sympathize with you re your car being faulty and off the road but you can't really blame Audi for the fact that you live in a different time zone.

At the moment I have a product that I purchased from overseas (USA) which is faulty and I have exactly the same situation in reverse. By the time I read the US companies emails and reply they are asleep, when they respond I am asleep so each exchange takes 24 hours.

It could be much worse, I have been waiting for a warranty spare for our Land Rover Discovery (less than a year old) for two months and they are made here in the UK !!!

[KfabR8]

What brand of fuel are you running?

Injectors going bad - one then two. What aspect has gone bad on them?

This says a fuel issue (to me), not necessarily a part issue.

Stop babying it. Drive the piss out of it. Revs are your friend.

Get the dealer to drain the tank and fill it with Shell or 76 or Exxon (Esso). AVOID BP.

[wedisbrow]

Thanks guys, but there are a lot of theories as to how to drive it during break in. Mine has been babied, but not totally. It has been driven "spiritedly" at times. I have avoided the red line, but high revs, hot on the gas pedal, have happened more as the kms have increased. Impossible not to as this car tempts you to get on it every second you are driving it, and I am an aggressive driver. I have tried to vary the rev range, throttle openings, etc., have not made any all-out acceleration runs, etc., and doubt very much my driving style has been the problem.
I am using the fuel recommended by Audi and they have not indicated that fuel is an issue. I asked. That was my first thought, too. I cannot understand how I could have it be three separate injectors unless that is the problem, but is it somehow possible that I got a "bad batch" of injectors? Their response seems to indicate that they think so, but have not actually said that.
Anyway, my real issue is with spending this kind of money for a car and the company having a flawed process for dealing with any engine issues. For the want of a gasket, my car will sit for almost two weeks. Ludicrous to my mind.

[gazza1]

Sympathize as my car is now going on five weeks with a total engine replacement.

The same process occurs here in procuring warranty parts in Oz.

A request is put in and a day turn around for approval.

The quickest a part has come from Germany is 4 days..the longest 10 days(new engine)

The problem at least now seems isolated to the injectors and having them all replaced should totally eliminate any further problems.

Maybe your car has just picked up some polluted fuel along the way or was a poor set.

Keep your faith as the dealer has your back...

[YUL_R8_V10]

1. Babying the car: My car arrived with almost 200km on the odometer. I called Audi Canada and they confirmed that this is what it came into the country with. No problems. What's with all the km's? Well, the car is driven in Germany before shipping.....hmmmm....you think the test driver babied the car around the track? I think not! Why should I???? I bought this car to drive it....although I have not babied it, I have stayed away from extreme driving for the moment.

2: Dealing with Audi Germany: I blew the engine in my M5 last December. I lost my car for about 45 days. It took a while for BMW Germany to stop having the dealer change parts and finally decide to change out the engine. Well, then they needed to find a new engine somewhere in the world. We're only 5 or 6 hours behind here and it was still quite a challenge for my dealer to get answers and parts. BUT I don't think the problem is really in the process...I have the impression it is more of an attitude thing on the other end. I deal with Germans quite often for business (technical) and the attitude is there is never a problem with their designs or products. It takes quite a bit of work to have them admit to anything. It seems to just be ingrained.

BTW, I am not out to insult anyone, that is not my goal. It is just a very different mentality that what we have.

[willyjp]

I sympathize with your frustration and anquish in the extreme, especially your frustration with not being able to play with your new toy....understanding that especially well because I've got a new one in the garage for only 2 weeks!

But I think you should step back a bit and consider a different perspective.
Most of us have owned a number of expensive, top line cars and experienced the best in customer service and minimum inconvenience from technical detail.

But this car is a different creature. An Audi for sure and therefore most of us rightly expected a better, more "civilized" ownership experience than with an Aston Martin, Lambo, Ferrari, etc.. But the R8 shares a lot of low volume and unique design features and a volume of production almost as low. So we're just simply going to have issues like this, it goes with "exotic" territory, IMHO.

I think you should be very glad, and very reassured that the "home office" is taking a personal interest in your car and the day-to-day details of your service experience. I'm sure this will eventually be resolved and if they learn something from your car, the information will already be in the hands where it can be diseminated to benefit us all.

Just amuse your friends who's rides were delayed with stories of how messages have had to fly back and forth to Europe while highly paid mechanics stood and waited to fix your rare and special car! If you can't deal with that, you can always go buy a Lexus....or have one as a back-up

PS: re the gas advice: my 2010 owner's manual specifically refers the R8 owner to the "top tier" website and advises only use of those gasolines, primarily for injector cleansing detergent properties....since yours is a 2010, you've likely got the same rec. in Canada (some of the brands listed on the web-site are specifically Canadian)
http://www.toptiergas.com/

[willyjp]

I'll add another comment, since I'm almost "famous" on this forum for this kind of stuff....it's probably expected

As I've related before, the whole history of the founding of the Lamborghini marque revolves around this very kind of service issue.

Ferrucio Lamborghini was a succesful builder of tractors in Italy and the proud owner of a new Ferrari GT...a 250 v12 I believe (250cc x 12 cyl.= 3 liters, a "big" engine for those days). But he had recurring clutch problems that were not being successfully solved by his local Ferrari shop. He and some of his own good mechanics looked into the clutch, and found that at least SOME of the components had been sourced by Ferrari from some common suppliers that Lambo had used for it's tractors.

So Mr. Lamborghini, being frustrated about his clutch, got on the phone and called up Ferrari. Being who he was, he succeeded in the very rare achievement of being put through to il Commendatore himself, Enzo Ferrari.
Lamborghini voiced his complaints about his clutch, though as the story goes, he heaped praise on his fine car and offered collegial advice to Enzo about how the clutch should be redesigned, or at least the parts source considered.

Reportedly, Ferrari in his legendary fashion told Lamborghini that he didn't need ANY advice from a mere "tractor builder" about how to build his mighty cars and hung up on him!!

Lamborgini's response was, "To Hell with Ferrari. I can build a better car than he can and I'm going to show him!!" The rest, as they say, is history

So, just be glad that Neckarsulm responds, even if it takes 24 hrs!!