Piezo Injector Failure, and subsequent detection and repair.

[i0b0xx]

Thanks Patrick, i knew the answer would be like that, just hoping not to pay as much!!! It's a bit of a joke to be honest that this part is sooooo expensive, Audi quoted me £643 for the complete set of parts....i have a mate that is going to fit it for me so maybe i'll take a look at the ones on ebay, i'm just concerned that more will go shortly after!!

[a8 tech]

dpf off solution for Patrick
http://cgi.ebay.it/Ecusafe-Tutto-abi...item2a081985e7

[gaz1965]

My car in at Audi Kings Lynn WHAT A SUPRISE £970 lighter
Failed piezo injector
what an absolute rip off
Obviously a design fault, Audi should recognise this problem and stop taking the p**s

[birdseedsr]

Hate to say it, but i sold mine to my father. A couple of months later i get the phone call, "Are you that son of mine who sold me the duff car?"

Sure enough, another injector had gone- thats two in six months!

[gandacle]

You can add me to the list of disgruntled owners facing injector failure...

My Nov 2006 170 has three failed apparently. Dealer reckons somewhere in the region of £2,400 for a full set as he wouldn't recommend 'only' replacing the currently defective ones. I'm not sure whether I take this to be tacit evidence that they know they have a fault or whether he's just trying to make a few extra quid for his garage. I note from other people's experience that when one goes another fails soon after; but is my experience unusual in having three fail simultaneously?

Even more annoying is the fact that you can't buy the part from German & Swedish...

So a 70k mile car, less than four years old and always serviced to schedule with the dealer requires such a large amount spending on it (having already replaced the EGR valve this year) - I hate it as much as I grew to hate my old Alfa; and to think I spent the extra on an Audi since they are supposed to be better built.

In the dealer's defence he is looking into a goodwill payment but even if they offer a good chunk it won't take away the perception that Audi quality is only clever marketing.

[birdseedsr]

Gandacle,

I don't see how all three could just amazingly fail at the same time

Id be very suspicious- Im told the failure mechanism is the injector fails and goes open circuit. That's detected by the cars ECU which wont allow the engine to run.
My local garage, (Non Audi) said that they didnt have a proper VAGCOM to detect which injector had failed. What they had been advised to do was to disconnect each injector harness in turn, and when you disconnect the faulty one, the engine will then run- rough of course on only three cylinders, but youve then identified which injector out of the four had failed.

My first one failed four months out of warranty- Audi paid 40% towards the bill.

When the second one failed, i stated exactly what has been suggested above, there's something very wrong- one out of four is unlucky, two in 4 months.......

You certainly couldnt rely on the car to take it to the south of france!

Audi UK said they dont replace things that havent failed but as a goodwill they would either pay for a) 100% repair bill for the second injector, or b) 50% of all three.

You can guess which one we went for.

For reference a volkswagon garage, (Audi approved) wanted £800 to replace one injector, or £1200 for two. Their labour rates are slightly less than an audi delearships, who charged me nearly a grand for one, but that did include the £60 for a harness.

Hope that helps

[gaz1965]

Not enjoying driving this car any more, i just dont trust it i'm just waiting for the next injector to go.
Should not have to be like this, we should be out there showing of our pride and joy, should we not ?

[patrickhorton]

What is really frustrating about the injector saga is that the faulty ones could easily be reconditioned (presumably at a fraction of the cost of a new unit).

I understand that Siemens modified the design of this injector at some point and so new ones shouldn't fail. If they would release the new part to injector refurbishers (which they won't), I am sure you could get them fixed for a couple of hundred quid.

Instead of this it is necessary to buy the complete injector with all its high precision internals just to rectify an electrical element fault. Although Audi do an exchange unit, I presume that this service simply retains the main housing and fits all new internals as they have to produce an "as new part".

So go on Audi/Siemens - you have nothing to loose! Release the components and put us all out of our misery. Piezo PD units are no longer put on new cars so the companies wouldn't be releasing any big commercial secret anymore.

Sorry to hear of all your worries folks.
Patrick

[a8 tech]

thankfully audi has now moved to denso as the supplier of injectors with great success in the new platform common rail, b7 was a blip in the history for audi however 1.9 still remains in my eyes as one of the most reliable pd engines over the problematic 2.0 pd lump.
I have covered 100.000 miles in my b6 without any issue but again the b6 is a better model in my opinion

The B7 should have supported the common rail engine which meets eu emission regulations with less complications being more efficient in combustion and dpf service life the last generation 8 valve pd engine fitted in the b7 still remains reliable but the influence of egr and more stringent emission regulations meant this was its last release and therefore replaced by the common rail engine now seen in the B8 and new tt a3 etc.

Piezo elements are still used and I have yet to see any failures, as for repairing pd injectors then yes there should be an aftermarket solution but that's down to the manufacturer.

Maybe vag tried to hang onto the pd engine to long when others used the common rail with great affect

[gandacle]

There has been a happy end to my saga!

When told of the problem I explained to the service chap that something like this really shouldn't happen on a relatively new car which has always been main dealer maintained irrespective of the warranty position. The service chap agreed saying that he had never heard of three go at once and that it was even stranger that the DIS or engine management light wasn't signalling the problem.

A few hours later he called back to say that they would be making a 100% goodwill contribution (including replacement of the circuit). Couldn't believe my luck but obviously delighted - he said they would have taken a different view had the car been serviced outside of the dealerships so that service I had a few months ago is some of the best money I've ever spent!

As an aside I read some other threads about Audi problems and many posters wisely replied that all brands have their failures but in my opinion it's how these problems are dealt with that tells you the most about the company and their products...

I hope other people get as lucky as I did.