MULTITRONIC PROBLEM

[mj62mj62]

Originally Posted by Nelson_R32

I really wouldn't get involved with Gearbox Specialist and Multronic Gearboxes. Especially as Audi Customer Care offer very good goodwill payments on them.

What kind of goodwill payments have you seen?

Mine is failing in under 40k miles, they want £4500 to do the job and Audi is providing just under £1000 in goodwill.

That's seems like a very small amount of good-will to me!!!

A multitronic specialist in Milton Keynes is certain that I only need a new switch and not a whole new gearbox, but if I pay to do that and need a new gearbox later, I'm not farther ahead.

I called Audi UK and they insist that it is the maximum they can give me towards the cost.


Isn't that shocking??? A £4500 bill in less than 40k miles... What happened to the Audi badge of quality?

[cruiser647]

I get the impression the CVT Multronic was a stop gap gearbox between the end the Tip for FWD and the beginnings of DSG.
I don't think enough work went into it.

[cofotony]

Well, i'm another one to add to the list. I had the £90+ vat oil change when they asked me to (on my 2nd service at 45k miles). The car is now just under 50k miles and the clutch is slipping really bad - has got loads worse since I brought it in last week for them to confirm what I already know.... I guess they gave it some rigorous testing.

So was quoted ~£2.5k, with 40% goodwill bringing it down to~£1.4k. I had a similar problem at 16k miles - car just lost all drive twice, no juddering though. I brought it in, they mentioned something about valves and I didn't get an invoice off them - which is strange as they give you them for every little job. Having dug back in their records it looks like they fixed the same thing - but the record they kept is on "a different system" and there's not much detail. I'm just outside the 2yr warranty on that fix anyway.

I've flagged it with customer services, who have appointed a case manager, but when I spoke to him he said the branch are going to call me. It's a manufacturing fault. I didn't buy my car from the branch that have serviced it, and the branch that have serviced it are different to the branch that fixed my first problem - so why should their budget get stung by me??? I want Audi UK to take responsibility for what is a known problem. I shouldnt have been sold the car, an 04 that I bought from a dealer with less than 4k miles in 05 when the problem was well known - they should have upgraded to the 7 plate clutch before selling.

At present my options are £1.4k to Audi, £750+ vat to indie-tech (who will do the same job with Audi OE parts) or just hand the car back as i'm nearing the end of my 3yr deal - which is annoying cos i've got a 2.5tdi Cab worth a few grand more than the buy back deal (if it was working!!).

All those 3 options will really stick in my throat as i've had nothing but good things to say about Audi the past 5years i've owned one (an A3 first then the A4 Cab). Not given up with Audi yet though, I have faith..... As a goodwill gesture i'm willing to pay a few hundred towards fixing their problem - but I don't think they'll see it like that. They call it "wear and tear". Brakes are that, as are tyres. Them selling a car with sub-standard parts isn't. If i'd wanted that I would've bought a Ford.

[mj62mj62]

A final update from my original saga:

During the weeks of haggling with my local main Audi garage and Audi UK (who offered £900 towards a £4500 bill - on a car with only 40k miles - terrible customer service!!!!), I had the gearbox oil independently checked and there was no problem with it found.

Therefore there seemed no justification for changing the whole gearbox. I think they wanted me to change it because these gearboxes are known for a succession of failures after the first problem occurs. Of course when another problem happens, the garage is blamed...

So I took my car to Bath Audi instead who were really friendly and helpful. They checked the gearbox oil, confirmed it was fine, called Audi UK and I came away for a subsidised bill of £600 instead of the original £4500.

With the ECU changed (aka. MCU, gearbox computer) everything is working fine now.

I hope nothing else will go wrong but for now it feels like a good result.
I can't help but feel my local main Audi garage was dishonest and that's disheartening.

During the whole thing I received a lot of help from Inde-tech in Milton Keynes (they did the original diagnosis), Basingstoke Audi and of course Bath Audi who did the final work.

If you have a multitronic gearbox, my only advice is to change the gearbox oil every 20k instead of every 40k and make sure you have the 7 plate clutch installed.

[audi2004avant]

I recently purchased a used 2004 1.9 TDI A4 Avant Auto Tiptronic 43k from a private dealer. And after 2000 miles - to my shock and horror. I encountered the dreaded flashing PRND problem. I quickly ran to a local Audi dealership to ask their opinon and they wanted £140.00 to diagnose the problem. £140.00!! to basically tell me something that I already knew.....Audi have a major problem with their older model Tiptronic ECU's. (their crap) They went on to mention that if it was the ECU it would be £1400.00 and they couldn't book my car for 2 weeks (like they were doing me a favour?!)

Anyways I am certainly glad I found this thread. After reading a previous post by "cactusgreen" mentioning Inde-Tech inde-tech - Home Page in MK. I decided to call them. They said they would diagnose it for £45.00!!! within 30 minutes they confirmed that the problem was the ECU (ie. Implausible Signal). The cost would be approx £900.00(inc VAT) and they could book the car within a week (parts pending).
Top Firm. Fast, Friendly and Professional. I would recommend them again. btw...I did receive compensation from the original dealer