”Hi, please respond ASAP! I need to know if the "Lemon Law" in California applies for me. Can someone please read my story? It's a little long but I desperately need help. I'm stranded in imperial valley, Ca trying to find consistent work to fix my car and I have a blown head gasket. I bought a used 2004 Audi A4 in may of 2016 from a dealership. I've been having issues with the coolant system since I bought the car. I wasn't aware of my six month warrantly as far as minor repairs and inspection that was covered. It's partially my fault for not looking at all my paper work(I'm an idiot but also a very young and naive idiot when It came to buying my first car from a dealership. I kind 0f jumped into getting the car because I was excited about the vehicle and I've always loved Audis). The dealership was very broad in explaining my rights as far as what I could do if the car breaks down. They told me that I can't return it until after six months and if the car breaks down under warranty, they'll fix it. I asked what recent repairs were made on the vehicle. They told me new battery and fluids were replaced. The car was running fine the first three weeks. Then i started losing power in the vehicle and the check engine light came on. I opened the hood to check all the fluids. That's when I noticed that the battery was not replaced because the sticker was peeling (first sign I noticed that they didn't fix anything on the vechicle. They might've just replaced it with an old working battery. I would've taken the car back to them to change the fluids, but during this time I thought the warranty was only for Motor malfunction of the vechicle, say a blown head gasket and or broken piston rings which is what I have now along with a worn out turbo and a SAI pump with open seals leaking air) . when I checked the coolant it was running on yellowish coolant which is the standard for American made vehicles. (I knew my car took a special coolant because I read the owners manual on what fluids it took when I first got it. I shouldve looked under the hood when I first got it, but my faith in people is too high. I expect people to be up front and honest like I am with people. I feel like their mechanic went cheap on everything or they didn't replace nothing and lied to me). so I took it to autozone and bought the right coolant. I also decided to change the oil too as well because I was afraid of them also putting in the wrong oil or not replacing the oil at all. My car started to run fine for about two months. Within this period the check engine light came on again but vechicle was running fine. Or so it seemed. I did some research online to see what the issue could've have been. The only thing I could find online that made the check engine light go off was the jet engine noise my car made on cold starts for 20 secs in the morning. But the dealership told me that the vechicle makes that noise to warm up. (I didn't know much about European vehicles other than they take different fluids than American cars. Plus I never exactly heard what a European car sounds like in the morning on cold starts. I thought it sounded cool because it sounded like a jet engine. My knowledge of vechicles during this time was mostly minor to some advanced maintenance as well as replacing alternators. I was taught by my old mechanic friends I lost in touch with when I lived on the other side of San Diego and driving a 98 Monte Carlo) I came to the conclusion that the secondary air injection pump had holes in the plastic hoses on a online forum. I disconnected them and put electric tape around all the open holes that were seeping air out. The vehicle was still making the noise but not as loud. The check engine light was still on. I decided to save some money to go have a mechanic look at the vechicle as soon as I could. During this time I noticed the car was slowly leaking coolant on the floor. I traced the coolant leak to a hose that wasn't properly put on right. I tightened the hose and added a little coolant and check engine light went off. I figured I saved myself $150 to a trip to the mechanic for an OBD scan and inspection. Car was running fine, then a few days later, the check engine light came on again. I didnt have any money. The money I saved I spent like an idiot because I thought I resolved the issue (I should've just went to the mechanic like I planned to do regardless if my coolant system was losing pressure) I had to save some money again. During this time, my money was real tight for awhile because I was losing hours at my job. Then one day, my coolant leaked all over the ground on the highway. I quickly put the car in neutral and pulled to the side before the temp gauge went to red. I traced the leak to a hose that bursted. I went to autozone and replaced the hose and added coolant. The Check engine light was still on and I didn't have any money to go see a mechanic. I thought it was a thermostat not opening properly, but the temp gauge was working fine. Plus, I checked the hoses while it was running idle to see if all the hoses were hot and they were. Two weeks later, I read in a forum that said taking off battery terminals can reset the computer so I did. Check engine light went off for a day and came back on. At this point I was trying my hardest save money to go see a mechanic to inspect the vehicle even though it seemed to run fine. Then a couple weeks later, the coolant bursted out the lower hose. I couldn't get to the hose fasteners because it was under the combustion chamber. Luckily with the little money I saved, along with money my dad loaned me, I was able to take it to a mechanic to have them replace the hose. They also ran an inspection. They ran the OBC scanner and told me my turbo was going out of commission and Secondary Air pump also needed to be replaced. A few other problems too that I can't remember also. During this time, my vehicles warranty was already expired and I didn't have any money to get an extension. This is when I really started doing research on my car to see what needed to be done and also price ranges. I felt like I got screwed hard in buying this car, and i wanted to figure out exactly what the problems were so I could tell the mechanic so they couldn't force me into replacing things that were unnecessary (I know this sounds a little irrational, but I've ran into mechanics before that wanted a bunch of other stuff fixed so they could bleed more money out of me. For ex: I had a water pump replaced on my old car. When they replaced it, they said they offered free vehicle inspections. They're claimed I needed to replace the battery and break pads asap. I checked the battery myself and asked him if its just the terminals that need to be cleaned. They told me that the date suggests I need a replacement when I can. "But I thought you just told me it needs replacement asap?" I told them I couldn't afford a new battery. I cleaned the terminals and added a little distilled water inside the battery. It ran for WHOLE year before I needed to replace it. As for the breaks pads, I checked those and they still had another 6 six months of life before I replaced those. I hate mechanics. Isn't there any honest mechanics out there that will legitimately do a real inspection instead of trying take your money?) Anyways long story short, coolant bursted again through the ECS. I replaced it. This was the fourth time I had to add Coolant to the radiator and that coolant ain't cheap. It became winter, I never had to use my heater. It Was blowing cold air out and i don't know how long it was OOC. so I had another problem on my shoulders. I cleaned out the heater core with a garden hose attached with a tube to flush all the stuff in the heater core. That seemed to help a little bit it. However, it would only heated for 10 seconds and then lukewarm air would come out. Within a months time, I blew a head gasket. Never had that much white smoke come out before. A couple days before this happened, there was a little white cloud coming out the tailpipe. But I figured it was winter time and condensation burning off the exhaust. I kept an eye on the back of my car during this time and had no signs of white smoke. It was Only that morning. This all of the sudden happened out of the blue like someone blindsiding you. So that's it. I'm stuck out in imperial valley. Was gonna move here because the standard of living is cheaper than San Diego and I found some job opportunities. But my cars is OOC and I'm immobile. I literlly just found out about this Lemon Law. I wish someone would've told me sooner about this and I'm scared that I'll be stuck out here homeless with a car that won't hold oil along with paying monthly payments on a car I can't even use. What do I do? Is the Car dealership responsible for this. I should've at least tried to address this to them. But at first, everything seemed to be very minor issues and I thought the warranty only covered if the car had a major engine malfunction. In some way, I know this is partially my fault for not reading any of my paper work but I was so stoked on getting this Audi and I thought nothing was wrong with it (or at least nothing major). It ran like a champ. It was only after a couple weeks it started losing power it seemed. It seemed to regain power after I made the basic repairs on it. I completely oversaw the warranty and feel like I spent money the dealership should've spent on it. I have none of my receipts from auto zone. I'm trying to fish around my car for the $250 lower coolant replacement hose I had replaced at the repair shop. What are my options at this time. This has to be partially they're fault. I keep up with all the maintenance my friends taught me and made sure I changed the oil every 4000 miles (I could've went to 6000 but I like to replace my oil sooner than what's required). ”Please respond ASAP!
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01-01-2017, 02:54 PM
