So I'm posting here for advice.
Took my car in for 15k service on 10/8 (audicare prepaid)
Drove my car a little bit on the 8th, a little bit more on the 10th and 11th, about 50 miles total.
On the 12th my car started up in the morning running rough. It had rained in the night was really cold, and I was sitting at around 15% tank, so I thought possibly condensation in the tank, or maybe my plugs were fouled. I drove to the gas station and filled up. EPC and Check engine light were on. I checked the codes and it was 0301 and 0302 (cylinder 1 and 2 misfire) I pop the hood and notice a vacuum line is popped off. I reconnect it, clear the codes and I think it's running a little smoother but not great. I drive about 1/2 a mile down the road. I hear a loud pop, shut my car off immediately because it was smoking (the entire engine bay flooded with oil).
Ok. So now here's where I'm at. I take the car to the local tuning shop, HS Tuning, I don't know what's wrong and I call insurance because I know I have "mechanical breakdown coverage", It's an expensive part of my premium around half the cost of comprehensive, (so maybe 15 dollars a month) they tell me that for my major mechanical insurance to cover the car, it has to be after the dealership coverage and I should tow the car to the dealership. The tuning shop (HS Tuning) tells me that it's the cracked oil pan and shows me, and that it's likely major damage. I'm thinking, holy crap, they must have ****ed something up during their service, but no problem, they'll fix it.
Dealership has had the car for 5 days now. I was upfront and honest about them as far as my mods and i feel like this was a mistake on my part (It was returned to stock, as is the usual advice on forums such as these, I'm not doing extreme mods to my car, I'm not taking my car to the drag strip, I don't have an aftermarket turbo or intercooler, I'm not claiming that the stock block is rock solid to 500 horsepower over many dyno pulls, it's just my slightly peppier daily driver and now it's a nightmare scenario). Today the service manager told me that Audi is not going to honor their warranty on my car. They have not even done any diagnostics on the car other than to pull the tray off the car to see the cracked oil pan. They don't know what caused it, and they are not going to even attempt to look at the cause of the cracked oil pan because they needed authorization from Audi before beginning any diagnostic. So say the oil pump failed... they're blaming that on APR's tune essentially.. except they don't know, because they won't even look at what caused the failure.
Great, so everyone likes to say "pay to play" but then again, who expects total engine failure while having not extreme mods (intake exhaust stage 1 tune)... Will my "pay to play" mistake end up costing me 8,000? Is that really what it comes down to?
I asked the service manager, Scott, at Sunnyside Audi (Middleburg Heights, OH), if Audi will not cover their warranty, then will the dealership honor their warranty on their labor because I do not think it was a coincidence that my engine failed 3 days after it was serviced. He came right out and said that if you want us to pay for that you will have to sue us to get us any money out of us. He offered to attempt to file a claim on my insurance, but told me that my insurance company will almost assuredly not cover me if Audi will not cover me.
Is that really what it is going to come down to? I'm going to have to hire a lawyer and sue my dealership because of an APR stage 1 tune that wasn't even on the car? Just to recover SOME of the cost of what they "probably" screwed up.
So what's the lesson here, do your own oil changes? Don't pay for Audi Care? Lie your ass off to the dealership? Don't get your car tuned Unless you can afford an 8k engine replacement? Find a cheaper lawyer? (Example, one I've used in the past charges a flat fee of 1,000 dollars for basic paperwork and court appearances plus 200 an hour beyond that)... That being said, would not a sympathetic judge think it reasonable that Sunnyside Audi was at least potentially at fault when the engine failed less than 100 miles after they got done working on it? I'm not a legal expert, I'm not a mechanical expert, but I know there will be at least a few people who read this thread that are.
Everyone thinks they won't be a statistic, until they are. I fell into that category.