My Horrible 2018 Audi SQ5
and Terrible Corporate Response from Audi

Nov. 29, 2021:  I take my car to Xellence Motor Services at 141 Mountain Ave in Hackettstown, NJ where I've had my Audis serviced for years.  Luis has been a German automotive technician for over 25 years, working for Audi directly and as a business owner overseeing two locations.  Over the next few days Luis and Jose analyze the situation and initial diagnosis calls for replacement of the camshaft sensor and adjustor in bank 1.

Adjustor part is not available and could take over 4 weeks to come in being purchased directly from Audi.  In order to cut that time down, I pay my bill at Xellence and take my car to Audi of Newton with hopes to get the part sooner and have a rental car given to me during the repair.

I get a call two days later by service rep, Marc Scalera.  The extent of the call was, "you need a new long block.  It'll be about $24,000.  You can come pay the bill for the diagnostics and let us know what you want to do."  Literally, that's how it went.  Flabbergasted, I asked what a 'long block' was and to explain what the hell is going on.  He said the technician said it would just be easier to replace the engine than to do the repair with the possibility of not fixing the root cause.

I drove directly to Audi of Newton and spoke with service manager, Ted Higgins, and asked him what my full options were.  He said they can replace just the two parts like my original diagnosis called for but no guarantees at all.  I asked him to email me a quote for both options:  just sensor & adjuster, and replace entire engine.  I asked for a loaner car, which they (Audi) have always provided for me going back to 1998 when I leased my first A4, and Ted said they have none because corporate told them to sell that inventory.

So now it's $24,650 to fix my car which could take 3 months and I'd have to pay for a rental.



December 14, 2021:  Even a plea with Corporate for some good-will help did no good.  I told them I don't expect them to pay 100% because I know I'm out of warranty being over 50,000 miles and did not purchase extended coverage.  Angela P.  was pleasant but after my initial email, would only discuss the matter by phone and told me Corporate would cover nothing.  She would not give me a reason.  I asked if I could speak to the person(s) that make this decision and she said no.


I take my car back to Xellence and tell them to fix my car.
































Upon dissembling the engine, Jose & Luis determine the issue is a failed rocker arm.  This tiny failed piece that should be circular, is what Audi of Newton quoted me $24,650 to fix:























That failure ended up causing destruction to the cam shaft:




























This certainly was no easy job to repair:






































April 2, 2022:  When your bill comes in at $6,407.76 instead of $24,650.00, one can only determine that Audi as a company, and especially Audi of Newton's technician (Otto, I believe) as well as their Service Advisor, Marc Scalera, and service Manager, Ted Higgins......ALL do not give a damn about their customers.

Add in $5,687.53 in rental car costs (have receipts to prove it) for a total of $12,095.29.














                         Now here's the kicker:  this is a known issue by Audi




A simple Google search will tell you this; along with group discussions & message boards:

https://www.audizine.com/forum/showthread.php/937990-B9-S4-rocker-arm-issue
https://forums.ross-tech.com/index.php?threads/32466/
https://www.audiworld.com/forums/s4-b9-platform-discussion-214/b9-s4-ea839-series-engine-rocker-arm-failure-3046031/


                                   ~Major failures 2017-2019 across the board~