Panoramic Roof Seal Replacement?

[neebsta]

The seals for these roofs are terrible, mine is crumbling in places and the car is out of warranty.

the part itself is £64 plus VAT - then my dealer claimed it's a massive 6 hour job and labour alone would be over £660 excluding VAT

Has anyone changed a seal? Is it as big a job as Audi make out?

[robbyg]

sorry i cant answer your question, but am wondering how old is the car? i would expect 10 years out of a sunroof seal!
Do you park in somewhere with aggressive environment eg near the track at the railway station/under trees? sunshine/ice shouldn't do that.

[neebsta]

sorry i cant answer your question, but am wondering how old is the car? i would expect 10 years out of a sunroof seal!
Do you park in somewhere with aggressive environment eg near the track at the railway station/under trees? sunshine/ice shouldn't do that.

It's December 2012. Not sure on previous parking history as I've only had it since October. Still, I had a MK 1 Golf GTi with seals in better condition than this. Also got an 18 year old T4 Multivan with better condition seals. Certainly wouldn't expect this kind of degradation in a 'relatively' newish car.

[A6S]

Audi offers a sunroof service as an option when your car is getting serviced. This is meant to lubricate the rails and lubricate the seals to stop them drying up. Most don’t do it. Not sure how much it costs but if your service history has that then you should be a position to get some goodwill towards it. Otherwise it’s their get out clause of not gonna help you unless you pay full retail. 6 hours probably isn’t far off if the whole sunroof needs to come out as the headliner inside will need to come out first. Unlikely it can be done in situ if it’s the whole seal all the way round. There will be clips in weird places that won’t budge if the sunroof is in place.
It’s the same with air con. If you don’t take the optional air con service(£80+) every 2 years they won’t pay up if it goes faulty even within factory warranty period.