Clunking in/out of 1st after Mackies Flush

[Norretal]

Originally Posted by Turbo Tony

Thanks very much Del.

Why is everything four figures with this car?!?! I'd be willing to pay it if it lasted as long as it costs, but in my experience at least, that's not been the case.

So sorry to hear of your troubles Tony, I hope it's soon sorted to your satisfaction. I've had my own problems with mine and there's never a cheap solution, but once they're sorted and have a clean bill of health they're a fantastic car to own.

[Turbo Tony]

That's very true, and, after a long hard think, that's why I've decided to continue with the repair and see if Chester Transmissions can resurrect the gearbox.

I'll make some calls tomorrow and hopefully get the car transported and booked in. After that, it's in the hands of fate.

I'll post back with news as I receive it. Thanks again for the benefit of all your experience.

[tc4332]

Tony,
I think that you will find the collective forum fingers crossed for you.
Good luck

I like your comment about lasting as long as the price!!!
I did not fancy paying £50 plus for a pair of wipers so tried fleebay and ordered a pair at £1.99 with free postage. They arrived next day but did not fit correctly. One of the adapters included with each blade took two minutes each with a hacksaw and we had a perfect fit. They are low line flat blades, 24" driver and 23" pax and are working spot on.

Of course I would not recommend the el cheepo fleebay route for anything serious but for this case I thought two quid down the drain was a good try.

[Turbo Tony]

Ha! Thanks Ray. I know I keep saying it, but I really do appreciate the help this forum has given me. Without it, the car would be in the process of being written-off at an Audi dealership about now.

Our Volvo was our first foray into premium cars. At first, I was horrified about the parts prices for that car until I realised that it was well worth the price because the parts lasted significantly longer than the equivalent part on a run-of-the-mill car. I learned to accept the costs as the price of the incredible longevity of the car. She's now 21 years old and still going strong.

Back to the Audi, there are glimmers of light peeking around the dark cloud of transmission repair. The transport costs between Glasgow and Chester were around £220 and the soonest they could do it was next week. I called AA and, after a little persuading, they agreed to transport the car within 48hrs as part of my membership. Thank you AA!

So, the car is on it's way to Chester and I've phoned them to book the car in. I spoke to someone different than I'd spoken to before and was surprised to find out he knew all about what happened to my car. He also seemed to know the S8 really well and waxed lyrical about the design of the gearbox and what was likely to be required. He also told me the engine wouldn't need to be removed to replace the gearbox, because there are no turbos to hinder access to the top gearbox mounting bolts.

Keep your fingers crossed, folks... We're going in.

[Architex_mA8tey]

Good luck Tony - as someone who has changed his broken box for a new one, I know your pain! Hopefully the AA took less than then 5 hours I waited for them to come and collect a D3 on a flat bed when it wouldn't start and needed recovering (needless to say I am now not with the AA any more).

[1781cc]

I've had nothing but good experiences with the AA to be honest, they even recovered my track car two weeks ago when the alternator went and left me stranded near Rockingham, always quick to respond IMO.

Tony, glad your feeling more confident in the repairs, fingers crossed this is the last of it

[Architex_mA8tey]

Originally Posted by 1781cc

I've had nothing but good experiences with the AA to be honest, they even recovered my track car two weeks ago when the alternator went and left me stranded near Rockingham, always quick to respond IMO.

/ Rant Mode On
Sorry but after being a loyal customer for 10 years and being a "Valued Gold Member" my experience is the opposite. Didn't use them more than once for a flat battery in 10 years and paid for the full package, only to find that 2 breakdowns on 2 different cars that I then had in a single month were messed up by poor service, on one they decided they would rather make me wait 5 hours for a flat bed lorry (after phone calls at hours 1 and 3 of waiting) and it was simply to try and save money by not using an external recovery company rather than putting their customer first. The other was a great job, fixed a car and got it going but the patrol man didn't re-secure the undertray correctly which meant that it dropped down on my journey home and caused me to have to call into a garage and pay money to get it fixed properly. For both of the above issues I got an apology for the first, and £25 compensation (which wasn't even a months membership) and for the second they "didnt find my case proved" despite an invoice from the garage i called into and the fact that my car was seen to by their patrol only 1.5 hours earlier.

Lets face it if they cant get the breakdown and recovery bit right, or at least deal with their mistakes in an appropriate manner, then I don't feel that they will ever get my business again! /Rant Mode off

[tintin]

Originally Posted by Turbo Tony

I just called Chester Transmissions too. They don't have a gearbox in stock but they are able to recondition my existing one.

They quoted me £600 to have a reconditioned mechatronic unit, plus around £180 fitting and £150 for fluids, all plus VAT.

If the gearbox needs replacing, the reconditioning would be £1895 + 450 fitting and £150 fluids. Again, all plus VAT.

They're all still steep bills but they're more in the realm of feasibility. The mechatronic unit reconditioning obviously sounds most preferable.

Chester have the advantage of being quite close to Mackies, so the transport costs should be lower too.

...Plenty to weigh up over the weekend.

Hi Tony,

I've just read the updates on this thread (been at a music festival for 4 days...no internet, bliss...). Looks like you're going for Chester Transmission for this, rather than Mackies - having started with the latter, I think?, so thought I should share my experience, for information.

I did the opposite to you, after the initial gearbox service from Chesters made the problem worse - not their fault, it just highlighted the problem.

I then compared the costs, warranty, and reputation of both places for a full rebuild, and decided to go with Mackies in the end - and have been 100% happy with the job they did, and the subsequent services. I hope you get the same result at Chesters.

[Turbo Tony]

Thanks very much - that's a really valuable insight.

Sadly, Mackie are saying that they want to replace the gearbox or the mechatronics, rather than repair, so I don't have a lot of choice.

It's a decision between either replace the gearbox for a used one at Bristol, a new one at Mackie or repair the existing one at Chester.

The car should arrive at Chester tomorrow and I'll hopefully know more by the end of the week.

[Lee S]

Good luck Tony. I will be thinking of you. It's in good, safe hands at Chester. They know their stuff and they do those boxes day in and day out. Interesting that the V10 box can be removed with engine in situ. I have seen a thread on the Phaeton too where they can do the same, but mine was no go. The engine had to come out if the box needed to come out. Grrr... Thankfully it didn't need to... this time !!

On a lighter note, I have just done about 750 miles over the last 4 days in a road trip to visit friends and lots of driving around whilst there and the Chester Transmission repair on my box is just fine and it is still ultra smooth and slick after the oil change. I'm sure yours will be sorted now it's going to the right place.