Audi A8 2011 4.2 litre Diesel - Transmission Coolant Valve failure

[MilanB]

I have a 2011 Audi A8 4.2 Litre Diesel with 66,125 kilometres on the speedo as at October of 2017.
This was an import from the UK import with 8,136 kilometres when I purchased it from Corporate Cars Auckland New Zealand in May 2013. The car has been great until October 2017 when the engine started running rough, I thought I had a timing chain or valve lifter noise.

Continental Cars carried out an inspection and advised that the coolant valve on the Gearbox had leaked internally and the wiring looms have had coolant injected into the wiring loom under pressure. The failure of the Coolant Valve resulted in two wiring looms being damaged and possibly the computers attached to those wiring looms.

I requested a repair quotation from Continental Cars. The repair quote came in at NZ$56,074.60 (2 wiring harness = $44,128 + 2 Valves = $737 + labour = $11.208 ).

This repair estimate is about the market value of my car.

So my luxury top of the line 6-year-old Audi A8 is now worth nothing. (ZERO Value as the repair cost is possibly more than the market value of the car.)

I have been in touch with AUDI Germany and they are still deliberating after three months.

I undertook a considerable amount of research online to try and establish if this was a one-off event or something much bigger.

1) I found reference to the issue I had on the ROSS-TECH Wiki site. Reference No. P2755, Please Google this reference No to find the detail.

2) This information led me to National Highway Transport Safety Authority...NHTSA ID: 16V619000, .............................a Product Recall on all Audi A8's manufactured between 2010 and mid-2012 in the USA and Canadian Markets.

There were 9.067 cars recalled in USA and Canada in August 2016 of which 7192 cars were remedied. (google it)

Audi Germany has said via their various agents they will not consider any vehicles older than 5 years old and European Motor Distributors (NZ) has advised that the recall was only for select VIN numbers in the USA and Canadian markets.

My view is that the issues/ problems identified in the USA and Canada are exactly the same issues/symptoms that I have with my vehicle, so I fail to see how they can conclusively establish that it is a select range of VIN numbers.

The NHTSA Recall Notice states that the defect rate was likely to be 100%.

My view is that I should not be responsible for the repair of a product that is damaged due to a faulty component utilised at the time of manufacture.

The recall issued in the USA and Canada should have been issued WORLDWIDE for all AUDI A8 cars manufactured between May 2010 and May 2012.

Having read in detail all the various recall notices, I believe that this is a much bigger problem that extends to more cars in the Audi range than just the AUDI A8's.

So consider carefully whether you want to invest in a luxury high-end AUDI where the manufacturer won't support their product or in fact any AUDI manufactured between may 2010 and May 2012.

I have posted a link to the Recall Notice. NHTSA Audi A8 RECALL.pdf - Google Drive


Has anyone else had similar problems?

[damtom85]

Well known issues my friend . Present mostly on v8 engines , v6 has different cooling system. Unfortunately luxury cars like that they need attention from their user after years so if you don't want spend a lot on service and repair costs , you need to be on ball and fallow every possible forum and making note of every issue and check if it is related to your car. When i found out about this issue and i went and check myself , this involves spending some time underneath your car . Fortunately my A8 is v6 so different system but I still checked everything.

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