Audi: CROSSROADS: 2000 / a4 / 1.8 / Q / 60,000 mi / engine light on

On Fri, 20 Feb 2004 19:57:44 GMT, "Thomas G. Marshall"
<hotmail.com> wrote:
 

Switch to decaf.

 

Clerks lately seem to have an interindustry competition on who'd
successfully
feed more BS to a customer.

"Thomas G. Marshall" wrote
 

Definitely need to read the codes off the ECU to find out what's causing
it, ASAP.

 
like 

The general concensus among those 'who know' is to do it at 60K miles,
seeing how early these things like to go.

 
in the 

Depending where you are, this sounds about right, given dealer part
prices and labor rates. My dealer wanted $200+ once for just the
sparkplug replacement.

 

If cost is an issue, you can do almost all of it yourself. Buying parts
on-line may save you some additional $$. The only thing you'd need is
find a fellow Audi enthusiast around you that has a VAG-COM tool to read
the DTCs to find out the source of your check-engine light, as opposed
to having dealer read it and possibly feed you more crap making up
stories that the DTCs 'told' them to replace your entire engine or
tranny. ;-)

 
hah. 

Their labor rates are high. They figure if you can afford an Audi, you
probably have some more spare cash laying around for servicing it. They
don't call them stealerships for nothing.

 

Ask around for a reputable independent repair shop near you where
they'll do this for less, although if a shop is good and knows what
their doing, their rates aren't going to be all that low either. As for
the tool to read engine codes, many independent shops have them. I
think you can also have a place like AutoZone read your codes for like
$20, IIRC.

Final note: All cars need to be maintained. If you're not willing to
pay for it, get a new Audi, which will cover your maintenance for the
first 4years/50K miles.

Cheers,

Pete

"John Opezdol" <au> wrote in message
news:supernews.com... 

I really hate to be so clinically paranoid about this, but it really seems
that way sometimes....