I have a B5 S4 with around 103K miles on her. I have owned the car for over 4 years now it has basic modifications. I purchased an extended warranty on the car this past July and then directly after the 30 day/1000 mile break in period for the warranty my 1st and 2nd gear start giving me issues. All the other gears are fine so I thought there must be some sort of synco issue or something. I also thought, "boy and I glad I bought that warranty". When I called them on it they sent me to the local Audi dealership who were great. They looked over the car and determined that the transmission would need to be replaced which is cheaper than repairing due to the complexity of this unit. The warranty company demanded to know what the cause of the problem was which required a tear down that I had to authorize. This costs $3300 if the warranty company decides not to cover my claim.
The dealership does the tear down and requests that the warranty company authorize the claim. They send someone out to view the damage and immediately see the BBS wheels, the StopTech breaks, the APR exhaust, the DVs, the turbo timer, and the boost gauge and say "the car is modified, denied". They also say that there is no way this problem just surfaced, it most have been pre-existent. If there was a problem I didn't know about it and now I have to pay Audi for absolutely nothing. The money I pay to them won't get me any closer to having a drivable car again.
Now I am left to pay Audi this money (they worked out a deal for me and lowered the $3300 price down to $2250 seeing that I didn't want them to put the broken tranny back in the car) and I still have to find a used transmission to put in my car. I will have to do the work myself because Audi wants $10K for the complete job. This is just not my week so I had to post this.
If anyone has any advice on where I can pick up a transmission at a decent price please let me know. I am in the Northern VA area but will travel or deal with shipping if need be.

 

what warranty company did you use? I would like to know so i can avoid them at all costs

either way, they would have to prove that your mods caused the transmission failure, unless your warranty contract specifically states that any mods, no matter what type, would void the warranty.

 

I went with Fidelity, they are hugh. Yes I found out they do have a clause that states no mods but when they sold me the warranty they did not cover this, did not come out to inspect the car and just required that I did not have any claims during the first 1000 miles or 30 days.

 

In my experience most "extended warranties" are not worth the paper they are printed on.

If you are looking for a used trans, I would try All Foreign in Fredericksburg. Speak to Bud Ritts. 540-752-5535
As for internal transmission work, there is ONLY one place I would use. County Transmission in Vienna. (703) 281-1840. These guys stand behind their work and build a great trans. They do our transmissions for both of our enduro cars, as well as all of our customer trans work.

Very few dealers do internal transmission work because of how complex the gearboxes have become. County may be able to repair your trans for less than replacing it with a used unit.

This would be a difficult DIY with out a lift. Another thing to consider (I know that this would add a lot of $$$$ to the repair) is replacing the turbos while the trans is out. Doing this now will save you the 20+ hours of labor to replace them later. At 100K I can almost guarantee that they are leaking.

 

Thanks for the recommendations, I will look them up. From what I was told, there are many parts that need replacing therefore looking for a whole new unit would be my best option.
I do have access to a lift and am pretty good when it comes to working on cars. While I would love to replace the turbos at the same time this job does not require removing the engine therefore I will wait.

 

IIRC you can do the turbos with the trans removed. As I said, very few dealers do internal trans work, thus the recommendation for a new unit.

 

I do plan on getting a new trans, I do not car to fix this one.
If this was planned I am sure I would be doing the turbos too but that just isn't going to happen right now. My wife is due next month so money is a bit tight right now.

 

I understand. I would still give County Trans a call. You may be better to have this trans redone, vs an unknown used unit.

When we built our e36 enduro car, we got a new trans from BMW. It lasted a whopping 8 hours. The units that County have done for us have well over 75 hours of qualifying/race time on them.

 

Good to know, I will check with them for sure.
For the S4 there is a company in TX that actually rebuild these units and warranty them. I am leaning towards them if I buy a new unit even if it is more than a 2nd hand unit.

 

It’s all over, I got the call today to tell me to come and pick up my car. Audi of Chantilly made me a pretty good offer and due to my schedule I opted to have them put my new transmission in my S4 rather than try to find time to do it myself. They have been really fair and helpful so now I will just keep my fingers crossed that everything went back together right. I have faith in them, it’s just my luck some times.

The car should feel like new I hope. It will to me anyway, they have had it since September 18th! I am getting it back with a completely rebuilt transmission from Scotty at Advanced Automotive in TX and an RS4 clutch. By the way, if you own an Audi and need anything transmission related I highly recommend Scotty. He was really helpful and great to work with.

 

I would also get a refund on the money you paid for the warranty. Good luck!

Tom

 

I did, it should arrive early this week I was told.