Hello All, new here. I just bought a 2008 S6 with 97k miles. From the look of the Carfax the first two owners accounted for 85k miles and took the car to Audi for service. The third owner, who I bought it from, did their own service. Before I bought it I took it to Audi for a PPI. The worst thing they found was a oil on the front and bottom of the engine.
The current owner did not do a carbon cleaning, and the comprehensive maint records on carfax do not describe a carbon cleaning with either of the first two owners.
So, I assume that it is due for a carbon cleaning and that when they are in there they can attempt to identify the oil leak, which, according to online forums I have read, have a high probability of being resolved with new o rings and valley pan gaskets. Via google search and yelp I find an independent mechanic who has a very professional looking shop and online presence. He claims to have worked at Audi Service for 15 years and has been in business for himself as an Audi specialist for about 5 years.
I talk to him on the phone and discuss what I want done and he sounded like he knew what he was talking about. I tell him I want this to be my year round daily driver and am looking for professional advice on what needs to be done to get the car in excellent running condition. He recommends new coil packs and injector service due to age and mileage. I also asked him to do an oil and filter service just to get maint records established. He quotes just under $2k for everything which in my mind seems reasonable.
He calls me after he got a chance to drive the car and then start inspecting the engine to say the breather hose is leaking, that it was difficult to remove the oil fill cap due to the vacuum. He never once says anything about the car not performing well or that anything seemed "off". Then throughout the day he sends me pictures of conditions before and after cleaning. So far so good. Then he sends a picture of the manifold on a work bench and in his hand is what he says is an air flap that fell out when he removed the manifold. He is charging me $2300 for a new one (no labor charge).
Here is my question: I drove the car daily to and from work for a week and never experienced any malfunction, misfire, hesitation, or noise, that I have read are symptoms of a stuck or failed air intake flap.
Additionally, if the flap was broken during the PPI (one week before the carbon cleaning) should it have been discovered then, either via ecu failure codes or operation analysis?
Finally, for a mechanic who claims to have 20 years experience with Audi, should he have suspected a problem during the test drive that was this catastrophic?
Something just seems amiss, or is it really that difficult to diagnose a failed intake until it is removed and inspected?
Thanks for any information or experience you can share.
-Dave
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