Gotta share a story from over the past month regarding the failing struts on my ride. The Gen 1 R8 came factory equipped with magnetic ride struts that adapted to your style of driving. Special hydraulic fluid with floating magnetic metal particles, and thus the problem. The friction from the metal particles almost inevitably leads to premature leakage and resulting failure. GM design. Figures.
I’ve got an extended warranty marketed by CarChex with the claims administered through Royal. Exclusionary contract that specifically excludes shocks but not struts. So I’m good upon failure, right?
Wrong. They were leaking pretty bad by May 2019. Audi Clearwater advised replacement. Royal accepted that all four dampers were indeed struts but denied the claim based on alleged lack of evidence of failure. Translation: kick the can.
I took the car to Audi Tampa in November hoping for a different perspective and result. Same recommendation: replace all four. At this point, they were making all sorts of racket. The estimate, BTW, was 13k involving labor. You can see why Royal had been throwing every roadblock in the way possible to avoid having to pay.
Royal comes back this time saying claim denied because all four dampers are shocks, not struts, and cites an Audi service bulletin that makes vague reference to the rears as shocks. They’re actually struts, all four. I covered this item ad nauseum with Carchex before I bought the contract.
I went to CarChex, armed with internal Audi parts diagrams, and read them the riot act. They agreed. They appealed to Royal to reconsider. Royal wouldn’t budge. In light of the scathing online review of Carchex that was sitting in the queue, ready to go, CarChex offered me a large chunk of change to settle. I agreed and proceeded to put a Bilstein factory coil over kit on the car, a far better damper than the mag ride disaster that had been on it, and at a far lesser cost. Lowered the ride by 0.75”. Car looks and rides terrific.
I’m out of pocket net $1,700 to date. The balance is going to come by way of small claims court. Keep you posted.