Typical of todays 'fitters'

All the more reason to have the blasted thing deleted.
We are Euro 5 emission-regime R&D guinea pigs on the road and at our expense.

It is quite unbelievable that you are being asked for £145/hr for a technician who doesnt appear able find his ar$e with both hands! I mean, £1160 day is getting towards the cost of a lawyer or accountant from PWC (not that they would be any good for this - or much else - but you know what I mean!):rolleyes:

Don't knock a decent dayrate :p

The Tech is getting about 20% of that if he's lucky, the rst goes to the posh showroom and all the managers etc.

Well I have a second quote from another local dealer, 4.8 hours at £105+VAT and they seemed to talk some sense recommending changing BOTH sensors as the main cost is labour - £700. Better but still seems a lot!

I have called a couple of local indi's but they don't seem keen to take it on, I am awaiting calls back but I guess I won't hold my breath, will chase tomorrow and if I get nowhere will book it in with the dealer for an easy life.

I want to keep the DPFs, having owned many diesels I actually like the lack of black crud at the smelly end of the car, much more civilised especially when you boot it! I know it costs me a bit of extra fuel but I personally think it is worth it to keep the original spec. To remove the DPFs I guess I'd need a remap which is likely to have insurance implications would (in my mind at least) give me some concerns about reliability..... perhaps it's just me!?!?

So I now have prices from three dealers, in turn they quoted for 7.5-8, 4.8 and 2.5 hours to do the same job of replacing both sensors!?!? All main dealers, all quoting for exactly the same work and a price range of £410 to over £1400. I have no idea how they plucked those figures from out of the air!?!? :rolleyes:

I spoke with a local VAG indy who are going to replace both for ~£200, booked in for a week on Monday as that was as soon as they have a free ramp :)

Amazingly the dealers could all fit it in "tomorrow", I wonder how busy they aren't or if they ever wonder why!?!? :ROFL:

lol thats outrageous - almost worth a letter the Audi H/Office at Milton Keynes to highlight the crazy variations and the un-comptetitiveness of their workshops on this occasion, you never know what they might say or offer if you are "disappointed enough"! +++

At 125k your DPF's don't have much life left in them. So whilst you might pay £800 to replace these sensors, unfortunately you might do this and then your DPF's are too far along to work properly.

Most DPF's give up around your mileage. Granted your V setup means less flows throught them but still.... I would gut and remove.

I've just had the DPF removed. She's sweet as a nut and at a fraction of the cost. Wouldn't hesitate to do it again on another A8 as I now know I've never got to worry about it again. +++

I actually did the filter removal myself and just had the ECU reflashed. Easy peezy

Bex

Just a quick outcome and hopefully my last post on this subject, after a lot of research into the potential issues and longevity with the DPFs on my car I decided to keep them! There doesn't seem to be any specific cases of failure on this engine so long as the car is services properly, but if there is then I will probably get them cleaned or replaced rather than removed because of the potential insurance issues of exhaust "modification" and required re-map.

I had both sensors replaced by a local independent VAG specialist and all seems to be back to normal. Total cost £290 in the end as I needed to get some exhaust clamps replaced too.

If anyone is needing work in the Manchester area I can highly recommend VAGtechnik, they did a good job for a much more reasonable cost than any other dealer/garage I tried and didn't just make it up as they go along like the main dealers seemed to be doing! :ROFL: