Audi Hoffman Estates - Service Center

Audi Hoffman Estates responded

Ms. Myzia, I am sorry that you have been upset that your vehicle with almost 100,000 miles on it has required repairs to keep it up and running. Going back and looking through the history on your vehicle over the years there has not been a single complaint of a coolant smell, leak or otherwise listed on any of the twenty-four repair orders generated on the vehicle before it was towed in back in August 2020. The same holds true on the two visits you had earlier this year when you came in to have the Adblue system topped off and for an oil change (where the rest of the required vehicle maintenance was declined). Unfortunately, sometimes mechanical parts fail on vehicles. In this case, your coolant pump failed along with a couple of pulleys for the serpentine belt back in August 2020, then 14,000 miles later in July of this year a different part of the cooling system on top of the engine failed and started spilling out coolant fairly quickly and in part caused the belt to fall off again when it was saturated with coolant. I fail to see how either of these components failing when they did is any fault of the dealership. When it came back in the day after you picked it up, we found a coolant hose that was worn and brittle had blown out the side and started spraying coolant all over the front of the vehicle, again causing the belt to fall off. This was a hose that we had to manipulate to complete the previous repairs, which is why we replaced it free of charge, along with the power steering pulley that was not in the best of shape just to be on the safe side and installed a factory serpentine belt to replace the aftermarket one that you had installed elsewhere, all at no expense to you. We then test drove the vehicle 203 miles just to make sure everything would be working properly moving forward. We then cleaned and completely refueled your vehicle before you picked it up. As for the smell still being there, once the residual coolant burns off of the engine it will dissipate. As for when you came into my office unannounced, I was in the middle of an online meeting that I was trying to pay attention to which is why my focus could not be squarely on you. I apologize if you felt that your queries were not receiving my full attention. Sincerely, Andy Emberton Service Director

Mary Myzia responded

Andy, the audacity to of you to even send this response to me in such away. I stood in your doorway multiple times asking you why I was continuously smelling coolant. You multiple times told me the mechanic would look at it. You also told me no problems were ever found yet the smell of coolant continued for several years. In my visit in July you said to me I had premature wearing of parts. And researched this and I have found this has to do with coolant leaking all over those parts. The aftermarket belt that was put on the vehicle was put there the night before it was brought to you to make it drivable. That belt had less than 5 miles on it. I also brought the vehicle in twice because of great big white clouds of smoke that came out of the back of it which in additional research I have learned is the engine burning coolant. Michael Torelli and Rick can tell you I have repeatedly brought this concern in and some of the times I came in were for the sole purpose of the burning coolant. In the past year, I told you I had to put in 4 gallons of coolant. And that was after you made the repair last August. If you or your staff have chosen to not write this in the history of the vehicle or have deleted it from the history, it doesn’t make the problem go away. And clearly 203 mile test drive should have been more than sufficient to burn off residual coolant. How dare you!