Audi A4 Maintenance and Repair

mcmuney · October 2005

I had a 2003 3.0 CVT and they did have the coil recalled on them. Mine was replaced during regular maintenance. I had some minor stuff happend to it, but nothing major. The reason I say that I HAD is because I traded it in for the 2005.5 3.2 Quattro and I'm very happy with it so far.

karkrazy · October 2005

I have a 2003 A4 1.8T. Since new I have not been able to refuel the car with the OPW model 12VW nozzle. No matter how slow I try to fill the car or what angle I hold the nozzle it just shuts off and fuel spills out.

Most new stations in my area use this nozzle and as older stations replace nozzles they install the OPW 12VW. The places I can get gas are slowly disappearing. I know some other A4's have had this problem. Anyone know of a fix? My dealer is unable and unwilling to help.

abizzle · October 2005

I just bought a 2006 Audi A4 2.0 T and I have noticed that the ride has caused me to experience neck pain and stiffness. I think it is the turbo effect.

Please respond if you have experienced the same problem and what I can do about it. Or what you think my problem is.

abizzle · October 2005

I just bought a 2006 Audi 2.0T premium pckg, sunroof, cold weather. First things first I think the car looks great and drives well. However I have experienced some neck pain from the turbo ride.

Is this something I will get used to or is something wrong with my Audi

Anybody have any thoughts?
I used to drive a 1999 323CI BMW.

bdr127 · October 2005

What does the turbocharger have to do with the ride?

cicero · October 2005

Provided you are not joking, I am somewhat perplexed by your inquiry. I think you may get some cynical responses to your questions. I doubt that the turbo charging has anything to do with what you are describing. It sounds more like a seat adjustment or a different driving position than you experienced in your older BMW. Suspension differences might also explain the pain but the turbo is not a likely explanation.

abizzle · October 2005

Yeah I am sorry I never drove a car that was a turbo. I guess what I am talking about is the effect that I feel when I accelerate from a stoped or slowed down position. Like I said my last car was a 323 and you had to really give it gas to get it to move. And the A4 is a very soft pedal and when I start to go, I get this neck jerking like motion.

Either way my friends think its rediculous but the bottom line is I have been driving the car for one week and seriously concerned about the ride comfort. I am imagining it is that I am not used to the ride of the car since it is such a contrast I feel from my previous ride of 6 years.

Thanks for comments and corrections I hope everyone understands what I am trying to convey, sorry for sounding so stupid.
Please let me know if you have any thoughts

byronwalter · October 2005

Experiment with the angle on your headrest. If that doesn't seem to help, adjust the position of the steering wheel, both forward and aft as well as vertical. Also see if your tire pressure is set correctly. But gotta say that is one of the more bizarre complaints that I've read. :P

Byron

cicero · October 2005

No need to apologize or repeatedly apologize. At least you asked the question. I am curious as to how many years you have been driving? Ask your dealer whether there is an Audi driving course available or a student driving course. You may be "jumping on it" by jamming down on the accelerator. Jerking indicates that you are accelerating too fast and then stopping too fast. Ride comfort goes to the seating position and the feel of the road. It does not sound like you have those problems and I suspect that the newer Audi has a better ride than the much older BMW. Good luck

josh7 · October 2005

I had someone jump my 98 A4 the other day and they hooked up the jumpers backwards. I think it blew my radio or maybe just a fuse, because not even the SAFE option comes up when I try to turn on the radio. I checked the fuse box. Anyone know what else I can check before I resort to taking it to the shop? Thanks.">

bdr127 · October 2005

Yeah, I'd also say to not hit the gas as hard and to not hit the brakes as hard. When you test drove the car, did you have such problems?

bdr127 · October 2005

It shows "SAFE" because it is an anti-theft device built into the radio. When the power (the battery) is disconnected, you need to input a password in order to use it again. An obvious deterrent to a common theif..... Anyways, a password came with the car -- a sequence of buttons to press on the radio. It should be with your owner's manual and all that kind of stuff. If you can't seem to find it, then you'll have to take it to an Audi dealer so they can give you the code.

abizzle · October 2005

You know my test drive was short and I did not experience this so called neck jerking reaction. I appreciate everyones response. I think like anything it will take some getting used to. Like I said my last car had what seemed to me a "heavy pedal". We'll see how it goes.

mike_a4 · October 2005

Hi, I am new to the forum. Got my 2003 A4 1.8T quattro w/sport susp on April 30, 2003 and the sales guy told me to take the car across a broad range of RPMs and not to keep it steady. First thing I did pulling out of the dealer is take it up to 5500 RPM with only 8 miles on it.

I want to say that I purchased my car from a dealer that is 2 miles away from Audi of America. From the moment I stepped in the showroom to every visit to the repair shop, the service is phenomenal. Even though one of the service guys is a bit of an [non-permissible content removed] the rest of them make up for his rudeness. Also, everytime I request a car when mine is in repair/service, they always give me another A4 with about 5,000 miles on it.

Here are my problems I've had with my 2003 A4 1.8T:

1. At 9,000 miles, the glovebox door started to rattle. No problem, dealer fixed it. Now it requires applied downforce in order to be opened.

2. In the blistering cold here in Michigan, at about 25,000 miles the fuel pump went out. No problem. Germany sent over a new one and 4 days later I had my car back.

3. Here is the kicker....at 39,000 miles, driving on a beautiful sunny Saturday, the car starts to make funny howling noises....I'd shift gears and the noise would go away. This happened a few times and when I slowed down to about 25MPH, it went bezerks, did this weird high speed winding noise as if something was grinding and it stalled. It would not crank or nothing. Had it towed to my dealer within an hour. Luckily I caught the manager there and even though they were "CLOSED" he managed to go inside and give me a brand new loaner A4.

I called about a week later to inquire as to what happened. The manager told me that the water pump turbine has been getting worse and worse. Because of that, the water pump seal had slowly leaked coolant into the timing-belt cover which caused the timing belt to gradually loose its grip/function and simply snapped. Because it snapped, one of the piston heads collided with 2 valves. Both the piston shaft and valve shaft were bent. The good thing: no cylinder wall damage. yay!!! They fixed it without asking me any questions. I did ask them how much it would have cost if I were to pay for it. Their answer: $5,000.

When I got my car back, the MPG were a bit worse then normal, but after a while it got back to normal and now it drives like a champ.

4. Now I have 48,000 miles and the front suspension makes funny squeaking noises whenever I go down/up a driveway or over a speed bump (of course, I drive over them slowly).

One thing I have come to realize is that you need to have lots of $$$$$ if you want to drive a performance vehicle. Audi cars are made to perform. And just like anything high performance, it works wonderful, however it has a short life span. In the case of Audi, they are using LeMans technology in their cars. LeMans cars are built to perform for only 24 hrs, not 5 yrs. Once the Audi engineers figure a way to incorporate reliability with performance, they will manage to win over BMW & Lexus buyers.

Ohh and another thing I've learned is to "NEVER BUY A CAR THE FIRST YEAR IT COMES OUT". As an engineer, I've worked on a few vehicle launches here in Detroit and let me tell you, they are not pretty. Managers cut timing drastically, thus not giving us engineers the proper time to do our job properly.

One thing I know for sure is that Audi will have problems with their FSI technology in 2006...its too new. Come 2007, the 2.0T engine be flawless....just in time for the A3 quattro.

Thanks for reading my novel and feel free to post any comments.

bmalbert · October 2005

I am trying to find a 2001 A4 1.8 quattro to replace my truck. Right now I have a 2001 Dodge Dakota Quad Cab V8 so my [non-permissible content removed] hurts everytime i go to the gas station. is theere anything in partucular i need to watch out for or a milage i need to stay under or just any suggestions in general for me as i make paruse the possibilities. :confuse:

cultured_hick · October 2005

Just fyi, if you are truly concerned with mileage, there are possibly better options. I have a 2003 A4 1.8Q and in the city only get 14-16 mpg. This has been a common complaint. Conversely, I get about 29-31 on the highway. Both of these are not what the reported mileages are on the brochures/sticker when new, although the highway mileage is better than claimed. I believe the 2001's had the same engine as the 2002-2005's. There is a review in the new Consumer Reports that discusses these disparities and the fact that the current mileage values are based on some old formula by the EPA in the 1970s. If you are doing mostly highway driving, then this is a good option. I got my car chipped with a stage I APR and will never look back. If you haven't checked into this, it can be done for around $500, and any of the good companies are great options (GIAC, APR, Revo, Neuspeed). Prior to that I had considered selling it due to the painful turbo lag and the fact that a Honda civic outran me. The mileage did not change, although the performance was dramatically better when running 93 octane. As in above posts, make sure you get a car within the warranty or certified if possible, because there are too many nightmare stories. Nevertheless, there are alot of us that have had minimal problems as well. Just not worth the gamble....you think your [non-permissible content removed] hurts now....wait until you get a 4 digit bill for an Audi (or any German car) out of warranty.

dc cat · October 2005

i hear it could be simply dirty electrical and needs to be wiped.

mgamble · October 2005

How do you get the rear light cluster off to change a defective bulb??
I,ve released one screw on the inside of the boot and have a little bit of movement but still can't get the light cluster free!! I can't see any other obvious screws. can you help??

tcasboy · October 2005

I have a 2001 A4 FWD with the 5 speed manual and I just went back and checked my mileage for the past year of so (I keep a fuel log). I was surprised to see that I get 30-32 on the highway and haven't gotten less than 24 or so in around town suburban driving, and most tanks it is 26-27. I was pretty surprised by those numbers, even though the sticker numbers are 23 city and 32 highway.

If you don't need quattro and like to shift yourself the mileage is pretty good I think.

cneff · October 2005

Well, all I can say is the one I have now is my first and will be my last. It is a 2003 A4 3.0 Quattro. Nothing but electrical and computer problems. Audi of America is fully aware of the issues and has now sent me to my 4th dealer which just had it 2 weeks straight with 2 of Audi's experts, one from the US and one from Germany. As usual they just replaced everything related to the computer and some wiring but it just keeps freaking out. Sad thing is I am actually speaking with Corporate (not Audi customer care) and they keep telling me I am having a unique experience, and lots of apologies but no resolution.
I hope none of you reading this will have one of these "unique experiences". I have had German cars for years and they get testy, but if the company and dealer stand behind the product then life is good. With Audi I have a total of 150 days at the dealers, one was 45 in a row. For those about to ask, yes, I pursued them with Lemon law (due to intermittent failures they avoided taking the car back) and got a large settlement. What is odd about Audi is the fact that all they had to do was fix the car, they once offered me 1 month lease payment in return for not having the car for weeks. That check never came, even after repeated calls to them, they just said they were looking into it....for 4 months? So that 1 month they offered me ballooned into much more in court and with all the warranty work, loaner cars and their own experts they have spent triple the cars value - yet they can't fix it and wont give up. Is this putting the customer first?
As much as I wanted to like and believe in Audi I am giving up. They are not ready and they do not have the customer service attitude. I am frustrated with all the smoke blowing and I just found out my issues were known about 2 years ago...the dealers, plus Audi, chose to ignore or were incapable of understanding their own service bulletins. My advice is stay away, if you get a bad one you are in for a battle. One of their employees told me they only sell cars, seems to be true.
Sorry to ramble, but, it has been quite a wild ride. It is all documented.
It is a shame because one can see the attention to detail in the car, but any product without support is worthless.

slugdriver · October 2005

Cneff,

Not trying to be facetious here, but if you took them to court and won, then why would you be still driving the car? It seems counterintuitive. Let me try to explain. Your A4 has been nothing but a pain in the [non-permissible content removed], you take it to the dealers et al X times to be unsuccessfully repaired, until the point you take them to court and win. Don't know what the settlement was and I don't want to meddle into your business, but why didn't you have Audi buy the car back from you? a. You un-[non-permissible content removed] the car. b. You take the money and buy something else.

I really like the new A4 and would really like to give Audi an opportunity. However, it's the incessant articles about bad experiences similar to yours that keeps me questioning whether or not I should give Audi a try.

robertmc · October 2005

I have a similar issue with my A4. Safe doesn't come up either. Did you solve the problem?

ecogdill · October 2005

I have an 03 A4 and recently when I switch on the right turn signal, it blinks twice right, twice left and then returns to correctly indicate a right turn. At the conclusion of the turn it will blink twice left again. The nearest Audi service is 90 miles from me and the one time I was there, they could not get it to do it for them. Without being able to duplicate the problem, they wouldn't look into it. Any ideas what would cause this. It happens about 25% of the time.

kcnoz · October 2005

OK are you talking about the hesitation and lurch forward that I experience in my new 2005+ A4 2.0? Especially from stop and in normal D. Dealer told me that was the transmission and it is normal, as is the noticeable downshift when slowing.

Any other A4 2005 to 2006 owners experiencing the same?

schweikb · October 2005

I think I know what you're talking about, somewhat. I am 6'3" and some of what I noticed may be my height and different leg-to-pedal angle. However I do feel the 06 A4 2.0Q is not a neck-jerker. My solution: I keep a pair of thin-sole shoes (Docksiders for boats) in the car and for longer trips put them on. I get a much more sensitive "feel" for the accelertor and for the brake pedal as well. When I drive with thick-soled work shoes I really feel the difference. In car racing, the drivers have special light-weight, very sensitive shoes to improve control. Might be worth a try.

af02144 · October 2005

Very interesting. I too had a fuel pump die on my '03 1.8T at 50K miles. This weekend it was on a flat bed to the dealer at 53K miles. They say it's the oil sludge problem and will take over a week to fix.

I have a new 2.0T waiting to be picked up at a different dealer - but, I can't do that until mine is repaired. Such a headache.

archer2 · October 2005

I have a 99 A4 1.8 Quattro, about 70,000 miles - generally very happy. We had torrential rain here in the Northeast last week and when I got in the car after a few days of being parked, it smelled musty. Opened the trunk and found a couple of inches of water in the well where the spare tire is. Never happened before and I thought maybe the trunk had been open etc. But rain again this morning and the well is wet again as well. As far as I can tell, nothing else (other than the trunk) is wet. Car has not been in any accidents etc.

Has anyone had this problem or have any ideas where the water is coming from? Note it happens when the car is parked, so I don't think it's coming up from the street.

Thanks

Mr_Shiftright · October 2005

Probably the gasket around the tail light. You can test this. Put some newspaper down under the tail light area (inside the trunk I mean), then run a hose over the tail light......wet paper inside? Then you have it.

cneff · October 2005

Slugdriver,

I was not clear in the beginning, the car is a lease and it is difficult to get out of.

I did push for Audi to take the car back, however, they flat out refused going by what their dealers said (even though it had been at one dealer for 45 days in a row). Instead of going on for months fighting Audi in court I agreed to accept a $$$ settlement with the understanding that Audi would fix the car. I really wanted it to end and thought Audi would do the right thing, I liked the car and thought Audi realized their error and wanted to make right, I was foolish. After court and another 80 days at the dealers I am turned off from the brand for good. The whole experience has been a huge let down, in fact, I am still waiting for them to follow up after my last 2 week episode of the car being with their own experts, I always get promises they will call, no calls come, and this is from the USA Headquarters. This is not unusual with them.
Audi really fights taking cars back, I heard from many sources they are one of the most difficult car companies to deal with, not to mention personal experience. They are experts at giving you hope then no follow up. I can't recommend one.

archer2 · October 2005

Thanks, I'll try this. I just went out at lunch and bailed out the wheelwell. Very odd, nothing else, not even the floor this time, is wet.

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