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Any other problems? You bet!!! The headlight switch has gone bad - can't turn on headlights when it's cold... Gotta wait and warm up my car before they turn on!!!
Also, one of my Blose speakers blew as well. Unfortunately, it cannot be replaced by anything else because of Bose's ingenious design - the speaker's impedance is 1 ohm - which nobody else (as far as I know) makes.
I hear your pain and it may get a bit more painful, so hold on. Yes, Bose is one of the best marketing stories in audio history. Truly, no other manufacturer has been as successful at placing their products into the public as Bose.
One problem with Bose is the significantly different ways they accomplish sound as compared to most other audio companies out there. The advantage of this approach is that when a Bose speaker goes down, it can not be easily replaced by anything but a Bose speaker. Brilliant strategy, wouldn't you agree?
That all said, I read into your post that you are not overly satisfied with your Bose system. If that is the case, I might suggest a trip down to the local Car Audio specialist retailer. I might suggest avoiding the big box retailers like Best Buy and Circuit City and instead refer you to a smaller, more competent shop that makes its living selling car audio, not big screen TVs and refridgerators.
Replacing your Bose speaker with another Bose speaker may be the cheapest way out of this pickle, but you may find an alternative solution to your problem to be more palatable long term. Finding a "full-range" speaker with a nominal impedance of 1 ohm that isn't Bose would be akin to finding the holy grail. Besides, if you replace a single speaker in a pair or a set of separates (four total speakers making up the full-range output), you will be even less happy with the sound output you will get. Using unmatched speakers is audio fidelity death.
Happy motoring and let us know what you do.
the Harlequin
Regarding replacement speaker - I have a friend w/ bunch of junked Audis... He's bound to have the one I need.
And yes, I am very dissatisfied with the sound quality of the premium Concert system. The lows response is laughable - very overboosted (at lower output levels) and at least half a beat behind the mids/highs.
My wife's Acura 3.5RL also has a Bose system, but it's live apples and oranges - infinitely better!
The bad sound you are getting from your car may have less to do with the actual speakers and more to do with placement and baffling. I am not a big fan of Bose in general, but they usually produce "good" sounding speakers, so let's assume the equipment is ok and look at another culprit in the car environment that can have the biggest effect on sound quality - speaker placement.
In my BMW, I junked the stock radio and replaced everything with a high quality setup using ADS speakers/amps and a Sony ES head unit and changer. It was the most expensive install I have done in a car yet and the results are mixed. Yes, it is loud. Yes, the bass response is powerful. Yes, it sounds better than the stock system did...but...the speaker placement has prevented what should be a great system from sounding great.
The mid-range speakers (lower half of the separates) are located along the foot well, far back into the well and fire directly into the drive shaft "hump" in the cockpit. The sound must bounce off the carpeted floors and radiate into the main listening area, a full two and a half feet away from them. Meanwhile, the tweeters are inside the door panel and fire into the dashboard in the direction of the steering wheel. The tweeters are about 4 inches from the listening area. Add in the fact that the subwoofer is planted in the trunk, four feet away from the listening area and the fact that the rear fill speakers fire into the roof via the a-pillar.
What we are left with is typically difficult speaker placement issues. With all the speakers firing from different positions within the car, the muffling effect of the carpeting on midrange notes and even the length of cables used to connect them...the sound stage is quite broken by delays and delay distortion. None of the speakers actually point at the listener, instead relying on radiation effects to spread the sound waves.
Overall, the system is decent, the sound is reproduced cleanly and at first contact is decent enough, but once it makes it into the main listening area, it is already weakened and distorted. I had a much better sound in my old Saab 900 with equipment that was half as expensive. The Saab sounded better because the speakers placements were better. There are some audio voodoo treatments available to correct for poor sonic clarity due to speaker placement, but these get expensive and usually provide only minimal gains (IMO).
The point? Don't need to love Bose, but it may not be entirely their fault. A little more attention to the sonic environment during a car's design normally yields much better overall sound.
From what I have heard, the Mark Levinson/Lexus project is just one such example. ML worked closely with the engineers of Lexus to reverse engineer more ideal placements and to correct wave arrival and time delay issues in the car environment. They have produced what should be the best quality OEM system available in a car today. Too often, the car manufacturer will just cut the sound issues out of the design process...seen as not essential.
Maybe they are right, until you spend 2 hours a day in rush hour traffic, counting on your CD collection to keep you sane...then the music inside your car counts more than hps and mpg ratings combined.
sorry...that was quite a rant.
The darn things are so noisy at slow speeds/braking and accelerating that it's embarrassing! The service manager says there is nothing wrong with the control arms, they aren't faulty - just noisy.
This sort of trouble at 38,000 miles, on an auto of this caliber, seems unacceptable to me. Anyone else having the trouble or have a solution?
But other than this, our car's been about perfect since new, so we plan to keep it for a while.
To Khana - my A-4 has the same vibration from the front wheels when turning, maybe not as extreme as you describe, but I wonder if it's a side effect of the control arms.
Just wondering if anyones run accross this before , and how difficult tearing apart the door is. I plan on doing the work myself.
Thanks much.
I just acquired an '02 A4 3.0 and also experience some wind noise at higher speeds from the driver's window. the noise isn't terribly obvious and is more of a slight rumble than a loud whistling, so i'm still not sure if it's natural to hear it or if you're not supposed to hear any road noise at all.
i've only had the car for a week though and none of my passengers could hear the noise. so i've decided to give it a little more time before having the service center look at it. i'll let you know if i do.
if anyone has the same problem it would be nice to hear if/how you've fixed it/dealt with it/etc.
thanks
regardless, the noise isn't anything terribly high and it's still a wonderful car to drive. just thought i'd follow up on my previous post.
Audi has an extra cooling fan (atleast on the 2.7T) and chai2's Audi model may also have this extra fan. I checked w/ dealer and they claim this excessive "howling" is normal w/air on because of the reserve fan running continuously.
Also, dealer says: soon I'll need new engine temperature gauge ($160), new rear brakes and probably rotors ($400 total) and leaking oil from valve cover gaskets ($?). I didn't have this kind of expense with my Volvo until 140,000!!
Also, dealer says DON'T USE HI TEST GAS - USE REGULAR BECAUSE HI HAS MORE CARBON BUILDUP. MANUAL SAYS THE OPPOSITE! DEALER SAYS IN OHIO THE ADDITIVES ARE DIFFERENT ??!!
CAN SOMEONE PLEASE ADVISE: ISN'T THIS TOO MUCH REPAIR FOR A 3.5 YEAR OLD VEHICLE AT 67,000 MI.?
SLEEPLESS IN OHIO,
Thanks...
I thought it was because I just came from a 2000 BMW 528i. But, seeing other people's posts, I am clearly not alone.
Has anyone come up with a fix yet? In my 1992 Mercedes S-Class, they sprayed Silicon Lubricant on the door seals to "fatten" them up a little. That helped a bit, but finally they put in thicker door seals. That helped a lot.
I'd appreciate your thoughts and would like to know what your Service writers have told you.
Thanks.
Larry
Thanks!
I always wanted to switch to something more fun and I had my eyes on the Audi A4. I am driving a very competent Honda Accord but it is a boring car. Between my wife and I, we have had VW GTI, Mazda and Legend cars before but was sick and tired of repairs especially the VW. The Honda gave me 5 years trouble-free motoring and tough to give it up. The A4 I am interested in is 5-spd manual and front drive but upgraded with a sport package, a very very lively and lovely car.
The car still has one year free service contract left and its odometer is under 18K mileage. Do I take the chance to enjoy the driving and worry about the repairs later?
All previous services done were carried by Audi dealers as the car is still under warranty, do you think I should still have someone to check it out to ensure a clean bill of health or it is a waste of time?
I know the decision is ultimately mind but I would welcome any feedback, advise etc etc.
P.S. Our '98 A4 2.8Q has been nearly trouble free since buying it new in February 1998. It's got about 53,000 miles on it and still looks and runs like new, so I can tell you it is possible to have reliability as good as an Accord, and in some cases better (as I'm sure there have been many Accords of similar vintage to mine that have had more problems) but if you go by the averages, the typical Accord will be more reliable than the A4. But as I said it will NOT be as enjoyable to drive, which TO ME anyway is more important.
Going back to the 2000 A4, I will probably make a decision tomorrow. Should I take the car to a Audi dealer to check it out before this private purchase deal and also would they fix it for free if they found something wrong or it's just a waste of time?
Separately, I've also had the radio/CD display problem with the frequency display cutting out on the dashboard. I mentioned it to the dealer and they had been instructed by Audi to replace the radio if a customer complains, not the dashboard. They replaced the radio and I've had no problems since.
Thanks for any help with the headlights.
Your price seems real good, especially on the Avant which others have said is in short supply.
Thanks!
Thanks for your help.
The bug makes this big selling point useless since you need to push the button to restore the position anyway. And it is a potancial danger since you are easily ignore the right mirror until you are on the road. Then try to push the button on the door.
I struggled with this problem for my new 2002 A4 3.0 for nearly 1 year, talk to dealer, AudiUSA and AudiUSA field rep many times. About half year ago, the field rep let me stop complaining and tell me it will be fixed in 2003 model. But now, it turned out it still not functional in 2003 model and I was told they just does not want to fix it and put it as work per design.
It is horrible for Audi not to fix such an apparent problem for such a long time, and looks like there is no way certain level of decision-maker can hear customer’s voice.
I was wondering if there are any other potential problems that I should be aware of. I come from a Japanese car background and have not had ANY problems with them, especially my Lexus that I'm driving now. The sterotype is that German cars have a lot more small problems, such as electrical, than the Japanese cars do.
Thanks in advance~!
I had the same question on my A6. Turns out I only got the vibration when I opened the sunroof all the way. There is a line on the sunroof control that you should not go past. It leaves the sunroof about 80% open and there is no vibration. Basically, with the sunroof open all the way, it allow air in the car with no way of exiting the car. Same thing will happen if you open just 1 window. Hope this helps.