My pre-worshipped Audi A6: First service experience under my regime

He is more of a friend now, considering my car must have gone multiple times to the service, either related to software update, or rattling issue or fuel cap problem or adding the dongle to the car.

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First Service under my regime (Fourth for the car)

I had picked up the car with 5600 kms on the ODO, and with 15,000 KMS or 1 year it was time for me to send the car for servicing.

For a change, instead of calling the SA to book the service, I used the Audi Connect App. In general, the App is really very basic with not much functionality other than showing some basic data about the car. BMW as well as Mercedes have much better app-based functionalities. For example, in both of them, you can lock as well as unlock the car sitting at home, or pre-start the car to cool it down, etc. In Audi, you pay INR 21,000, only to get geo-fencing for the car and some basic stats.

Anyways coming back, so I booked the service for the car via the app, I got a confirmation call within 1 hour to re-confirm on the date and time, which was duly followed up with an email.

Service was booked for 29th June 2024, 10:00 hrs.

As confirmed, I reached the service station on 29th June around 10:00 for the service, at Audi West’s Service Station in Kalina, Santacruz in Mumbai. I must say, reaching that place in traffic, and rains is a nightmare. But nevertheless, I managed to reach on time. Vineet was the Service Advisor, who was assigned to me, considering he has been worked on the car in the past as well when the car had gone to the service station for rattling problems or the fuel lid problem. Dipesh Gangar is the service manager at Audi West, and I must say, his commitment for customer satisfaction is phenomenal. He is more of a friend now, considering my car must have gone multiple times to the service, either related to software update, or rattling issue or fuel cap problem or adding the dongle to the car.

Coming back, Vineet created the job card for general 4th service for the car which included following things.

• Oil Filter Replacement
• Engine Oil Replacement
• AC Filter Replacement
• Air Filter Replacement
• Brake Oil Replacement
• Alignment & Balancing
• Coolant Top-Up (If needed)
• General Inspection

While checking the car, is where we found out that the rear arm-rest cup holder assembly was broken, probably my kiddo who keeps fiddling with the cup holder when he sits behind must have broken it. The part costed 15,000 + gst, and anyways, the part was not available at that time, so we skipped that.

The job card was duly opened, and accordingly the car was taken in for service. Good thing about this service station is the different sections of the service are in different areas. For example, the body shop section is on the different sided as compared to the service bays. The detailing bay is separated, so is the washing area. This I think leads to better car management at service station.

Sandesh was allotted my car, and he began working on the car. After putting the car on the ramp, the first thing that he did was a thorough check of the car on its under belly, to check for any scrapes, then he proceeded to minutely check each of the suspension struts, as well as other exposed components for any wear and tear or any damage. Considering, I was standing next to him while he was checking the car, he was quick to say, “Sir, I must say, the car is very clean, with no damage to the underbody.” I replied that coz as a petrol-head at heart, I ensure to take care of my car as if it’s my little baby.

After he was thoroughly satisfied with his set of inspection, he then went about doing his job of servicing the car. The work on the car started at around 11, and it was done by 3 in the afternoon. I skipped getting the car washed from outside, however just got the vacuuming done, as I did not want to get stuck in traffic.

The overall bill for service came to around INR 32450/- which included everything mentioned above, minus the alignment balancing, coz the team realized that alignment/balancing was not needed.

Some pictures that I managed to click at the service station

The car at the service station

The length just accentuates from this angle

The broken rear arm rest cupholder assembly

The engine bay, looks so clean and tidy

Steering Wheel, Gear Knob and Seat Cover

The car on ramp for inspection

The engine cover opened up

All the consumables

Brake Oil Draining Process

Filters

Filters

The Service Reception

An A4 on one side

An A5 on another

Previous Gen A6

And the rat bit happens

29th July, a regular Monday, had red alert being issued by the weather department in Mumbai. But just as any alert from govt. authorities, this one also turned out to be exactly opposite and it was a bright and sunny day for most part of the day on 29th.

A regular Monday morning, I reach office, park the car and after a busy day at work, evening I started for home. While on the way to home, reaching nearer to home, suddenly, check engine sign glowed on the cockpit. Initial suspect was some sensor issue. I called up Vineet immediately, he asked me to start a car after an hour or so to check if same error is popping up again. After 90 mins I restarted the car, and yes, the car did pop up the check engine light again.

Check Engine Sign with start-stop failure

We booked the service appointment for 1st August, and I requested their driver to come to pick up the car. The driver promptly came on 1st morning. They got the car inward. The team scanned the entire car, initially they could not find the reasons for the engine sign. Towards the evening, while inspecting the car closely, is where finally the team found 2-3 wires being chewed by rat. On 2nd morning, they replaced all the chewed wires, rescanned the entire car to clear the fault codes and the car was back to being original. Total bill here was INR 3850/- Luckily, didn’t have to sell my kidneys.

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