Sorry it's been a bit since my last post but I've been busy, wicked busy setting up shop for CINELLI Motorsports LLC.
You might think I'm "full of it" and that it can't possibly be this corrupt on the other side of the fence. If that's the case then try this one on for size.
The past month I've been working on this 2011 Audi A4 Quattro 2.0t Custom Project. I did a custom tune on the engine, lowered the suspension about an inch and a half, and quite a few visual modifications like the front bumper, the grill and front plate holder, the brake calipers, the headlights (custom built by CINELLI Motorsports LLC).
After it was all said and done the customer came and took the car. Called ten minutes later and just started screaming about how much better the car had felt and how happy and excited he was to drive it. The next day he noticed the air conditioner wasn't blowing cold anymore. Mind you, I didn't touch anything on the car even remotely close to the A/C on vehicle. With it on my mind I kept thinking,"maybe I slipped and hit a plug or pinched a wire somewhere.". I took the car back and did the whole job over, without taking anything off the car, and visually inspected everything. But still, NO A/C. I checked all the wiring to be one hundred percent positive nothing was broken / pinched. It all checked out. But still NO A/C. I found a broken connector under the center console where the radio guy had been but it still wasn't completely broken. I fixed it, and still NO A/C. Finally I told the customer to bring it to the dealership (since it's still under warranty) and have them take a look at what's going on.
The first dealership he brought it to in Santa Monica, California stated that they refused to work on the car because the headlights had been modified. WOW.
The next dealership said no cause it was lowered. WOW.
But then, FINALLY, a dealer decided the modifications had nothing to do with the A/C so they'd take a look.
The 2011 Audi A4 sat there for a week. They ended up FINALLY coming to the conclusion that the A/C Compressor was broken. So, they ordered and replaced it and BOOM, A/C. Thank god.
This is where it gets good.
When he went to pick up his car and divorce his rental the Service Writer at this Audi dealership sat him down and told him. "Whoever it is that you're having work on you're car doesn't know what he's doing and you should come to us for all your needs with your B8 (chassis code for the current generation A4 body)." My client looked back in shock asking "why what's up?".
"The TECHNICIAN that replaced the A/C compressor said that the headlights were coded wrong and he blew the compressor because he didn't know what he was doing. But they covered it for him anyways to do him a favor." (They wont replace someone's blown out suspension which is a HUGE safety issue but they'll replace an A/C compressor that's roughly fifteen hundred dollars for free, just to do this kid a "favor"?!!).
When the client left the dealer he called me and told me the story. I kind of chuckled and got off the phone and immediate called the dealer that had worked on the car.I got the Advisor on the phone and just asked about the job and wanted to know what happened to the old A/C Compressor.
SA - Service Advisor (Thinks I'm my clients brother)
FC - Me (Proving a point)
SA: When the MECHANIC that worked on the car coded in the headlights he did it all wrong and blew the compressor.
FC: How would he have done that?
SA: It's a complicated story and you wouldn't really understand unless you've been through our training. Is there something in-particular that you were wondering?
<DING DING DING: FIGHT>
FC: Well sir, I'm the MECHANIC that worked on the B8, and that' actually impoossible?
SA: Well SIR, our TECHNICIANS are factory trained and certified to work on these cars. Theres no reason for him to lie and there's no way he could be wrong.
FC: Ok. Then being factory trained he should understand that the module that controls the headlights is the Central Electronics / Body Control Module - 09. And if he looked at the A/C he would have found that it has an Automatic Climate Control which is computer controlled. Therefore having it's own module as well. Now if the A/C Module (HVAC module) isn't ONE HUNDRED PERCENT happy with the values it is getting from the Engine Module and Body Control Module then there's NO FUCKING WAY it'll turn on the A/C unit.
SA: How do we know you didn't just try to jump the A/C unit when you coded it wrong in order to check it and shorted it out.
FC: There's no clutch on the Compressor, it's running all the time just a matter of how much which is judged by one bi-directional wire called a LIN bus going from the HVAC module to the A/C Compressor.
SA: This conversation is over sir.
FC: That's fine, but next time your so called "factory trained" TECHNICIAN tries to point a finger at someone so he looks better in the bosses eyes and I lose a customer why don't you tell him to read a fucking book first so he doesn't look like an asshole when his shit is put on blast. Fuck you, and Goodbye sir.
SA: .... <pause>....
SA: ..<CLICK>..
FC: ...<HEAVY BREATHING>.... <CLICK>.
The guy actually listened to my whole rant at the end. It was a really enjoyable moment for me and I couldn't wait to post the story.
It's not that I think I know everything cause beleive you me, I don't. I just can't stand the pointing of fingers where no one can take fault.
And to top it all off. On the way home, my client was on the highway driving about eighty miles per hour and the protective panel under the vehicle had fallen off and was dragging under the car forcing the driver to pull over, call a tow truck, and ship it back to the factory trained TECHNICIAN to try to install it properly the second time around.
Stay true.
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If you've got a question on an estimate you got from a shop or dealership iit double checked feel free to scan it and I'll grade it for you.
-or-
If you want to know what to do in case you have a reoccurring problem the shop keeps saying it's something unrelated every time you go back and keep getting charged, Type out the situation, and get any documentation they've given you together and send it over. I'll go over all of it and tell you what's going on and what you can do about it.
-or-
If you just need to know what to look out for. Just ask.
Cute, I love advisors. best memories are of the ones I got to fire back in the good old days. :)
ReplyDeleteJust a moment of curiosity though. We had a customer from our suspension department ask us to do an HID conversion for him on his front lights using the stock parts. he then realized his 30 dollar chinese clone VCDS was only good to about 02, and didnt support CAN bus, so he wanted us to do the install. Not stuff I like at all, audi is a learning experience for me still but I recode and such as I can. He doesnt like the price (I think they told him 2 hours coding labor plus book body time on the light swap and 2 more hours wiring, fair stuff?)
He declines. Buys the lamps on ebay, installs them himself...then asks to RENT vcds so he can code em. Always loving a good train wreck, and since hes spent bucks here before...we agree.
2 or 3 codes written to his light module later(He had used a post on audizine and gotten some others to generate him hopefully correct xenon enable codes for his vehicle using VCDS datalogs I grabbed for him previously?)
So finally the later code pops his lights on and working...he leaves. comes back 30 minutes later. A/C off?
I didnt want any part...not if he was still refusing to pay...so we let him use the PC...a couple of hours and a few posts...and I dont even know WHAT he coded...didnt watch it...but he finally got both Xenon and AC working. But just thought it interesting that your light install and his both were followed by no AC? hell, for all we know a dealer that says a clutchless compressor was jumpered may be lying entirely about the cause? it may have leaked freon and broke the shaft from low oil pressure? who knows? All I know was in Ryans case, more coding work and his AC turned back on...but alas...didnt find out what was wrong, or if he had to recode any other modules because of the xenon upgrade.
Its the little things.
Kel
To explain the phenomenon, the coding that was supplied by the Audi forum junkies was probably correct according to the Long Coding Helper that Ross-Tech (VAGcom) supplies with their software.
ReplyDeleteThe issue is in the BC1 Module, or Body Control Module, that sits above the drivers feet close to the Parking-Brake pedal that has a number of different colored connectors going to it. It seems that pre-08 vehicles have a trouble time finding the driver required to run the new light package.. At the dealership this could be solved with a quick firmware update. But that wouldn't make them money, and that wouldn't allow them to make the competition look like an asshole that broke everything because he pretended to know what he was doing....
My guess is the technician "checked for any possible updates" before condemning the compressor. Then reported that "no updates were found" then got the warranty line added to remove and replace the compressor. And then returned whatever compressor he probably previously done as a customer pay job and turned that in as his warranty return. Because after the conversation I inspected the vehicle. and not a single A/C compressor bolt had a mark or a finger print on it. Also, I drained the system .83lb before letting the customer take it to the deqalership, and untwisted the valve caps 2 full turns loose, and painted the valve cores with a pink paint marker.... and the system came back .83lbs light, with the valve caps on the high and low side approx 2 full turns from tight, and pink valve cores.. So, you tell me if the system was ever really opened
With the low low low low mileage that was on the car.. There would have been some dirt or streak of grease somewhere.
I'm fucking done getting stepped on and pointed at like a piece of shit by the dealerships because they cannot build a client tell by advertisement anymore since they've plagued the industry and peoples confidence in it. The greed. And I'm fucking done listening to someone pick up a phone and has such a poor grasp on the English language that I cannot even understand Hello. And I'm asked to repeat myself with a "wha... huh... ummmm wha..." before even beginning to discuss the topic at hand. How HOW, HOW THE FUCK does someone get the funding to open up a business WHILE the guys that care, love, and put 15+ hours a day in learning and studying and noting and trying to develop new systems and easier logical ways to get the vehicle safer, faster, stronger.... or maybe just me.... are fed to the pigs.
Anyways, that's what my research has found about the audi / air conditioning issue after this whole bullshit went down. And thank you for the input in my blog and cause.
Stay true.
Fred