The Never Ending Debacle – Take II

So, one would think it would be easy to get work done a car like an Audi.  This isn’t a 1962 Fiat, or a 2009 TVR, or a custom built 1963 Cobra with a 2004 BMW 5L V8 motor.  Its a frickin 2006 Audi S4 Wagon, there a a bazillion of these Audis in the world, and there are countless shops dedicated to working solely on Audis and VW’s.  So why or why am I having such a hard time getting my car fixed!!??

To make a very long and dreadfully frustrating story short, here is a quick recap.

• Short Shifter attempt #1
• Reverse = Goes in smoothly, works well.
• 1st Gear = Also goes in nicely and works.
• Position = Too far back, 1st gear is where neutral used to be!
• Short Shifter Attempt #2
• Reverse = A “little” bit out of alignment, sometimes hard to get in reverse.
• 1st Gear = Goes in nicely and works.
• Position = Perfect, shifter is positioned right where it needs to be.
• Short Shifter attempt #3
• Reverse = Goes in awesome, works perfect.
• 1st Gear = Horrible, you need to wiggle to the right to get in 1st or 3nd gear every time.
• Position = Perfect.
• Short Shifter attempt #4
• We will see if they can get it right on the 4th try!

As to the braking debacle (which is the REAL debacle, the Short Shifter is insignificant compared to the brake hassle).

1. I bring the car in.
2. They remove the calipers (all 4 corners) and bring them to the powder coating place.
3. The Powder Coating place takes 2.5 days to get them done, charges $50 more than their quote, drops one of the calipers, stays late to recoat it, then recoats it slightly off color, and very badly.  The “drop” resulted in a chunk of coating missing from the rear, the respray results in 3 dime-size bubbles on the front which pop when you rub them with your finger.
4. The powder coating owner is mostly clueless, but nice, and says he will make it right, but this is Thursday, and they arent open on the weekend or Friday, so “maybe” we could have them back by EOB Monday night.  I tell him forget it, I am done, and don’t want to be without my car for another 5 days (resulting in a $35 / day rental POS car).
5. I instruct the guys at the shop to put them on the car the way they are and I’ll just have to spend a bunch of time fixing it myself (which was the entire point of taking the car to a shop to do what I am fully capable of doing, and probably capable of doing better than they can, because I give a rats ass).
6. I go to pick up the car when they say it will be ready at 5pm after they have had my car for 4 days (thankfully I decided against having them do the wheels for me as well, or else I might have been without a car for 3 weeks!).  I stay till 8pm with the guy while he tries to get it all buttoned up.
7. When I dropped the car off the brakes WITH STOCK LINES, STOCK PADS, STOCK FLUID were a 7/10.  Not great, but not horrible.
8. He bleeds the brakes, drives the car and says “Hey, check it out and see what you think”.  Its a 1.5/10.  The ONLY brakes I have ever felt this bad were Rob’s when I bled the master cylinder dry and there was air stuck in the system we could not bleed out.
9. So he bleeds em again, another liter or 2 of fluid, now they are a 3/10, and I head home because clearly he cant get them any better.
10. I drive the car all weekend with brakes that are the spongiest softest worst feeling brakes I have ever felt.  A 1973 mustang II with a massive brake leak and no left rear drum couldn’t feel this spongy.
11. I bring the car in Monday (today) to have them fix it once and for all, its a 2 hour job.  I stay there for 4 hours, they bleed the brakes again multiple times, and now they are a 3/10.  I give up, and leave, they say they will talk to their Brembo rep and possibly the owner to see if anyone has any ideas.  Yeah I do, learn how to work on cars.  I mean you only do Audis and VW’s, what happens if a customer comes to you with a super spongy brake pedal, you charge him 8 hours of labor to not fix it?  If you call Bill Arnold about bimmers and tell him you bled the brakes 5 times and its still spongy, in 4 seconds he’ll tell you what you need to do.  “There is air in the ABS unit, go to a dealership, have them use the special device which electronically opens the ABS reservoir, and then bleed, all will be well.”
12. To add insult to injury, the clear coat on the rear calipers is crackling, everywhere.  I opted for a 2 stage color, silver + clear.  When asked what the difference was he stated “One is 1 stage and one is 2 stage”.  “Yeah I gathered that from the names 1-stage and 2-stage, but what’s the difference, is one more susceptible to heat than the other.”   Well obviously we have our answer to that one, don’t we.  I mean the guy is new to powder coating, so I can’t blame him, he has only been doing it for 40 years and inherited the business from his dad and is the only job he has ever had.  So clearly he shouldn’t have known that 2-Stage powder coating jobs will end up with cracked clear coat when you put them on calipers.
13. One thing I am excited about is my first track day.  Well if I ever get the car to a point where it can actually do a track day that is.  I cant wait for after my first session when I come back into the pits and the powder coating is just sloughing off of the calipers because they got so hot.  THATS GONNA BE AWESOME. YAY.
14. Oh yeah, on a side note, they told me to my face “The rep from Stoptech told us over the phone that stainless lines will result in a spongy brake pedal feel”.  I understand the engineering behind stainless lines, they arent stainless at all.  They are actually teflon tubing, often shrouded with some flexible PVC conduit, and then finally covered in stainless braid simply for protection from rubbing as well as bursting.  Teflon does not give, it works fine, or it bursts, its not like rubber that flexes and stretches and buldges.  The ONLY reason to replace your lines is for stiffer pedal feel, there is no other reason to bother.

So as it stands now my course of action is;

1. Bring the car back to this shop and hope they magically figure out how to fix the super spongy brakes.  Chance of Success = 25%
2. Bring the car to a different place, maybe one that has a master mechanic that can figure this shit out.  Cost = $100+, Chance of Success = 70%
3. Since I dont know if it is air in the line or something wrong with my calipers I need to either buy new calipers on all 4 corners, or maybe a BBK kit for the front and new calipers for the rear and then see if it is still a problem.  If it is, then I know its air in the line/system somehow and I will then be out about 20 hours of labor/time and about $2000 worth of parts, awesome huh?