Dashcam footage of Audi S4 B8 3.0T and Customer Car Abuse by VAG Technic in Dudley

[TMAN_]

I originally made a thread on another forum about my seized 3.0T engine
Below is a link to the dashcam footage of VAG Technic abusing my car, who had worked on it shortly before the engine seized and aren't interested in even inspecting their work.

Apologies if I've posted in the wrong section!

So, I originally found VAG Technic on YouTube and thought I'd give them a chance as they looked to be somewhat skilful and trying to make a name for themselves. I sent them my Audi S4 3.0T on 24th Aug 2021 for a timing job. Their quoted 2-4 weeks turned in to 8 and when I finally got the car back the engine was noisy and burning 2x more oil than previous to their work. I reported the issues multiple times to VAG Technic and they told me "it's normal" - sadly my engine ended up seizing 1505 miles after their work.

Over 2 months have passed since my engine failure, and I have not yet had the engine touched in hopes that VAG Technic would be able to accommodate me in their small shop, to at least properly inspect their work and parts but I've not had any luck. They've given me every excuse in the book from "We're too busy" to "We didn't touch the bottom end" to "Your car is modified" and my favourite "Waiting for official response from Audi about DECLINED warranty for your car"???

Per citizens advice I ended up sending them an official complaint detailing all my issues from delays, the unwanted flush which may be related to engine issues, their disinterest in inspecting work under warranty, and also my displeasure at the fact that my dashcam was disconnected outside of their shop opening hours, but not before recording them as they take my car off the trailer, rev it from cold and then going for a cheeky quick joy ride at over 70mph in a 30 zone.

They never even bothered to reply to my letter, so as a last ditch attempt to try and get some sort of action or compromise from them I uploaded and shared with them the footage of my dashcam and told them it's going public if they really want to rip me off, to let everyone know how they treat customer cars. After all, since when was a "test drive" even necessary before a timing job? It was clearly a joy ride without respect of customer property, they had no right to do that and even had the cheek to say to my face "just make sure you warm it up then the engine will last" when I collected my car.

There's their typical blasé response to seeing the footage, no doubt they've gotten away with this crap for too long this many times: https://i.imgur.com/baZQZKi.jpg
Funnily enough, the next thing I know I get a fraudulent copyright takedown notice by none other than VAG Technic, in attempt to try and suppress this footage showing them abusing a paying customer's car. Naturally I've submitted a counter-claim for fair use exception...

This was a prestigious well-known magazine featured car in excellent condition, around 85k miles. I treated my car with respect and spent a lot of time and money making sure it was always running well to maintain it's value and my pleasure for years to come. It really just rubs me the wrong way how these cowboys have taken the mickey at every step from start to finish, along with my £5000, and I'm now down another £7500 for a replacement engine, plus a likely loss in resell value of my car due to the fact that a big chunk of the engine service history is now irrelevant...

So here it is, I've uploaded to a bunch of sites to be shared on various forums, I'll admit it's nothing out-of-this-world crazy, but for what it's worth I just want to get the word out there about just another dodgy garage. The clip you see at the beginning is from their own video they made of my car which you can find on their YouTube channel by searching their company name.

Video mirrors are all linked here at https://linktr.ee/vagtechnicabuse

[Crasher]

Don't be too hasty to blame them as no matter what you throw at the engine it should take it. I can't see the cars reg on the video but the CAKA and CCBA engines BUILT (not fitted, delivered or sold) up until 10-06-2009 are known for doing this after an oil change and there is a parts bulletin number 1-87 about this issue where the crank has been redesigned. This unfortunately happened to us a few years ago, a technician changed the oil, went for a drive (blanket 20 mph zone) and it seized, spinning a rod bearing, number 2 I think, which destroyed the rod and crank. We fitted a new engine and then a few weeks later, due to the stupid key, the car vanished and was never recovered.

[TMAN_]

Don't be too hasty to blame them as no matter what you throw at the engine it should take it. I can't see the cars reg on the video but the CAKA and CCBA engines BUILT (not fitted, delivered or sold) up until 10-06-2009 are known for doing this after an oil change and there is a parts bulletin number 1-87 about this issue where the crank has been redesigned. This unfortunately happened to us a few years ago, a technician changed the oil, went for a drive (blanket 20 mph zone) and it seized, spinning a rod bearing, number 2 I think, which destroyed the rod and crank. We fitted a new engine and then a few weeks later, due to the stupid key, the car vanished and was never recovered.

I totally agree, and didn't want to come across as blaming their work for the failure - rather just want to point out their attitude, and actions, and my experience with the place...

For what it's worth mine's a late 2010 CAKA so unlikely but not impossible to be affected by the aforementioned. I did put 1500 miles on it after their work (albeit with a noisy engine that was consuming oil rapidly) the failure could be co-incidence, but as unlikely as that is, is about as hard as it would be to prove their recorded actions contributed directly to the cause of engine failure. Currently having the engine inspected so we'll hopefully know what happened soon.

[Crasher]

The only way I can bring your cars crank into the story is to know the cars VIN, most engines were built months before they were fitted, as I said, this happened to us and we forensically stripped the engine down just as would an inspector trying to find fault and I turned to the mechanic this had happened to and said, “I don’t know why this happened but it is not your fault”.