A6 2.7T battery and alternator replacement for $2k!?

Help, indeed. I have been in friends' shops and seen horrible Audi nightmares. This is being hung on the horns of a dilemma. Not knowing anything of the competence of the two competing mechanics who are bidding for this job, I cannot speak to that. But $171 for a battery and $674 for an alternator seems kinda high. Just checking on carparts.com I found an alternator for that car for $400- now garages will mark up a part to make some profit- but this $400 price I'm quoting is a retail price already- the garage will get it for much less- that's quite a profit margin- so, already I'm suspicious of garage #1- a complicated operation on an Audi A6 will require a very skilled technician to get it right- but an alternator and battery seems simple enough- even if the bumper needs to be removed- maybe garage #2 can handle this job and save your son a ton of money

And yes, that's a Valeo alternator I found on carparts.com- $400

Thanks so much Jamnblues. We spent all day trying to get MD AAA to tow the car from the first to the second -- what a pain. When AAA got there, the car started right up? Some bad battery/alternator, eh? Son had it towed to the less expensive shop -- I'll keep you posted!

Hmmmm- I thought that first shop had a bad aura- an Interstate battery will be sold by a good shop for way less than those guys wanted to charge- please let me know the outcome- back to my monk's cell now

Willing to bet the first shop was an Audi dealer. I take mine to a European specialty shop when I have a problem that I can't fix. A replacement battery for mine was 150ish at oreillys. anything OEM from the dealership will always be ridiculous.

The first thing is to make sure the right parts are being used. The electrical system in the Audi is multiplexed. Everything works off feed back. The wrong parts and all HELL breaks loose in the car. It is expensive to do it right. And on those Audi's, yes, the bumper has to come off to get to the alternator. Either that or you pull the engine. What you do have to be very careful of is the air bag sensors. Treat them wrong, and you are changing both airbags, too.

On the 2.7T, the turbo piping is in the way too, so the easiest way to access the bottom of the engine, where the alternator is, would be to lower the front subframe. The much lower quote may have been someone unaware that this A6 was the turbo; the NA 2.8 V6 is easier to work on.

Shop #1 is actually pretty much right on the money. Replacing an alternator on these 2.7t's are quit labor intensive for an alternator and bumper is required to pull forward a bit to what is called the service position on these Audi's. $170 for the battery isn't bad, depending on cca's you can spend anywhere between $150 and $250 for a good battery with higher CCA (cold cranking amps). Here is where a lot of Audi owners go wrong, most try to save a few bucks and buy a used or remanufactured alternator which isnt going to last near as long as a new factory valeo (considering that's the one your car has, because there are 2 different manufacturers that make OEM alternators and also need to pay attention to whether your alt is 120amp or 140amp.), and considering labor cost on a job like this you don't want to have to keep replacing it every 6mo to 1yr because by saving that $200 and change is gonna cost you another $500-$700 just to have a shop do it all over again when that reman or used part fails. I have learned that when you are repairing Audi's it is a MUST to buy good quality parts or your just gonna keep doing it over and over. Now shop #2 is either unaware of the location and hours involved in the job or, they are gonna be putting used or reman cheap parts in it. You can find some generic cheap reman alt for less than $200 but I can guarantee you will regret that decision in a year or so. So do your homework and find out what kind of part both shops are using. Goodluck