If I'm right...........

[mangosteen]

Harpers: The car, and its saga, by the numbers

Age of car, in years: 5
Length of my ownership of said car, in months: 19
Time at which problem cropped up, in days, from first day of ownership: 126
Repair trips: 22
Days in the shop: 38
Number of times claimed problem with the car was actually fixed: 0
Value of total parts replaced by mechanics in attempt to resolve problem, in thousands of US Dollars: 3

Now, given all of the above, allow me to explain exactly how oh-so-very pissed off I'm going to be if I find out that the thing that "fixed" the car was a $3 bottle of fuel injector cleaner.

Allow me to tell you how much more pissed off I'm going to be if I'm correct, because not a single mechanic even thought to look at the fuel injectors, even when one of the symptoms was "rough idle".

I'm so glad that practically everything was covered under the "certified used" warranty, otherwise I don't think I would be held accountable for my consequent actions, for reasons of car-induced insanity.

Comments

[koshmom.livejournal.com]

Are you either very hard on cars, or are you having an incredible experience of bad CAR-ma?

[syringavulgaris.livejournal.com]

Who can find a virtuous mechanic? For his price is far above rubies.

Tell me, though, that you haven't been going to Pep Boys, for their price is far below lumps of dogshit scraped off your shoe.

[mangosteen]

Actually, I've been going to the Audi dealer, because it's still under the "certified used" warranty.

[gingicat]

This isn't ABJ that's been doing this, I hope? Cause if ABJ's been jerking you around, I need to find a new mechanic too.

Good luck with it.

[perspicuity.livejournal.com]

i'd assume he's going to authorized factory dealerships
which do the work for "Free" cuz well, it's authorized
warranty crap...

---

y'all (i do) should be using, about once a month, esp with "city"
driving, city gas, and the winter gas formula, something like
techron concentrate ($6-10). really. geeks on audiworld.com
agree.

if you mange a long couple hours or more of glorious roadtrip,
make DAMN sure to put some techron gas/concentrate into the
tank prior, makes those injectors shiny clean.

i'm not surprised they didn't tear into the parts and bits
to inspect the injectors. takes a long time, isn't trivial,
and costs $$$.

next time i'm near your car, remind me to look at a few things
for you, that if you keep the car, you want want looking at,
like various seals. i've replaced a few of mine by now.

[mangosteen]

Yah. I seem to recall you mentioning Techron to me at an earlier date.

Where do you find it? Chevron stations are a bit thin on the ground around here.

[perspicuity.livejournal.com]

most places with auto/car fluids sells it, in the "oil" section...

most notably target, i *think* walmart has it, and probably pep boyz
and all that. buy several.

sometimes, they come with a $3 rebate coupon per thingy.

i believe i buy the large product, to treat 20 gallons, also only
buy the *concentrate*, there is another related product, though i don't
recall seeing it at target/walmart.

it's also, imho, esp useful to keep your oil changed every 2500-3000 miles.

[geoffroi.livejournal.com]

Audi/VW Dealers sell it as well.

Ask for:

Autobahn Gasoline Additive:
Audi part number ZVW 239 003

Woh.

[kalessin.livejournal.com]

Woh.

I thought you'd tried injector cleaner at the start of the problem, so I didn't think to suggest it recently.

If it does fix the problem.. you're in luck! And the car now has lots of shiny new parts in it, too!!

Re: Woh.

[mangosteen]

Indeed. I'm still undecided on how long I actually want to keep it once it goes out of warranty, but (assuming it stays fixed), I'm willing to give it until the warranty runs out.