I have an A5 with an S-Tronic gearbox fault.

The oil cooler has failed allowing engine coolant to flow through the gearbox, which has killed it.

Diagnosed at my local Audi center last week, the car is a 12-Plate & Dealer service from New

The cost of a replacement box is £12k with the car's value at about £14k

The 3-year warranty expired in June 2015,

however Audi still treat the car as "young", as it's less than 5 years old.

Audi are saying they won't contribute towards the cost of this repair, I've raised it with Audi UK (callback tommorow.)

I fully expect them to stick to their guns, I will then escalate to Audi HQ in Ingolstadt, Germany.

Failing any joy with them, how do I stand, from a consumer-law point of view?

I've been told that "reasonable use" with regards to a vehicle, correctly serviced at the Dealer, would be 5 years.

The car is currently 4.5 years old.

It also has only 28k miles on the clock, very low milage.

My plan, if I cannot get it repaired by them, is to pursue a claim in the county court, but would like to know my chances of success.

I've seen, in motoring forums, somebody turn an absolute "no" from the manufacturer, into a "yes", by pursuing them in the small claims court.

Which I'm guessing, the manufacturer wouldn't want to go anywhere near, due to bad publicity?

I feel like Audi should step-up & sort this issue, however it's going to be a battle.

Bringing a small claims action is the most powerful way to proceed. However, who sold you the car? Did you buy it new? Don't forget the you wouldn't reasonably expect a court to award you the value of a new gearbox. If you bought the car second-hand then there will be a deduction for that and also you've had a furious enjoyment from it and this will be deducted as well.

Tell us more about the car and your purchase

I bought the car 2nd-hand privately, nearly 2 years ago

- it's always been looked-after,

never thrashed,

always dealer service.

The guy who owned it,

prior to me,

kept it in fantastic condition,

I really don't believe he'd ever treated the car badly.

(& I had 3 viewings before I bought it,

repeatedly questioned him on various details,

& everything checked out.)

Audi UK are calling me back tommorow to discuss the issue,

but I've had dealings with them before,

(with warranty issues with other cars)

as well as a lot of anecdotal tales from other owners,

I'm pretty certain they'll just want to wash their hands of it completely.

The car has never caused me any problems,

as you'd expect,

but with it's current value at around 14k,

the gearbox problem writes it off.

It's going into my local audi Center next week to have the cooler replaced,

the cooling system flushed,

& the gearbox flushed with s-tronic oil several times,

to see if (outside chance) this might cure it.

If a small claims case becomes necessary,

I would state I've paid for these repairs,

out of my own pocket,

(the bill will be steep for this lot alone,

maybe £600-£700, maybe more)

therefore I'm asking Audi to step-up & replace the box.

Although they quoted me £11,600,

this is not the cost to them.

& the local centre does have a habit of "thinking of a number",

then massively reducing it,

when the complaint comes in.

Would I need a solicitor for the small-claims side,

I'm guessing not as it's a simple complaint,

I needd to find the relevant sections of consumer-law to see if / how I'm covered for this.

I've read that 5 years is considered a reasonable period for a car not to have a "critical component" failure.

I've had a look around the forums & found some cases where people have used the small claims court to settle disputes relating to motor vehicles - if anybody can point me in the direction of either experts in this area, or other sources of information, I'd be extremely appreciative of this