P2181 code on my 2005 A8.
10-22-2016, 04:03 PM
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P2181 code on my 2005 A8.
Alright so last couple weeks Ive noticed that my temperature gauge was going up like normal after driving for a bit (I live in Michigan and it's been in the low 50's lately) but it never reached the middle line it was always about an inch to the left of it. Big whoop wasn't concerned. Last night on way home from work it was going up as usual a bit slowly and it was getting up to the middle or about an inch to left like normal and then next time I look at it it's all the way back down to "C". And it stayed there all the way home. Got up today and left for work and the needle never lifted off "C" and my engine light came on when I ran the code on my scanner it gave me the code P2181 which said was due to "cooling performance". What's my issue and how do I fix? Btw the heat still works great and their is no performance issue when driving. Thanks in advance!
-Drew
-Drew
10-22-2016, 04:33 PM
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10-22-2016, 04:59 PM
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Bad temp sensor normally as suspected, especially when it suddenly drops off like that.
Car may go/be in jet engine mode too with loud fans on all the time. Why the CEL too. That makes it slower to warm and mileage falls some. W/ new sensor just clear code and should all be good.
As usual with it, get a new retaining clip and be careful about dropping it--very low down/buried at back of motor. Tying a piece of dental floss to it can be your fallback. If you drop it and have no back up, likely leads to pulling belly pan and then incrementally a bigger hassle.
Car may go/be in jet engine mode too with loud fans on all the time. Why the CEL too. That makes it slower to warm and mileage falls some. W/ new sensor just clear code and should all be good.
As usual with it, get a new retaining clip and be careful about dropping it--very low down/buried at back of motor. Tying a piece of dental floss to it can be your fallback. If you drop it and have no back up, likely leads to pulling belly pan and then incrementally a bigger hassle.
10-22-2016, 07:08 PM
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Bad temp sensor normally as suspected, especially when it suddenly drops off like that.
Car may go/be in jet engine mode too with loud fans on all the time. Why the CEL too. That makes it slower to warm and mileage falls some. W/ new sensor just clear code and should all be good.
As usual with it, get a new retaining clip and be careful about dropping it--very low down/buried at back of motor. Tying a piece of dental floss to it can be your fallback. If you drop it and have no back up, likely leads to pulling belly pan and then incrementally a bigger hassle.
Car may go/be in jet engine mode too with loud fans on all the time. Why the CEL too. That makes it slower to warm and mileage falls some. W/ new sensor just clear code and should all be good.
As usual with it, get a new retaining clip and be careful about dropping it--very low down/buried at back of motor. Tying a piece of dental floss to it can be your fallback. If you drop it and have no back up, likely leads to pulling belly pan and then incrementally a bigger hassle.
Their is a lot of hoses in the back and I can't see it at all right now with how it sits.
10-22-2016, 09:06 PM
#6
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Just bought the part tonight and it does come with retainer clip so I'll be sure to be very careful with that. Unfortunately I can't find much online on how to exactly go about replacing it. :/
Their is a lot of hoses in the back and I can't see it at all right now with how it sits.
Their is a lot of hoses in the back and I can't see it at all right now with how it sits.
https://www.audiworld.com/forums/a8-...appen-2887038/
10-24-2016, 10:01 AM
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Alright this is for everyone in the future that has this problem and finds this forum on how to fix it. Every forum I read about it made this job sound so easy and so common sense but never really told you what exactly to do except to "not drop the C clip". Well let me tell you. It was not easy and it was a frustrating pain in the *** for 2+ hours. BUT I did eventually get it and it DID fix my problem so theirs that. Now I'm gonna give you guys some REAL step by step instructions on how to do this job with some pictures.
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10-24-2016, 10:25 AM
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1. Remove the rear plastic Audi logo engine cover. (Now we're cooking)
2. The black tube that looks like a hose to nowhere needs to be removed. Use flat head and disconnect from main intake hose. Cut the 2 zip ties holding it. One at the very end of the hose(it just stops and isn't connected to anything at all) and theirs one towards the top where it's connected to intake hose. You will have to wiggle the hose and spin it a lot to get it to come off. It really wanted to fight me on it. Smh.
3. Is to locate the sensor. It sticks straight up on the drivers side of the back of the engine but close to the middle. It has 2 small wires going into the top which are colored orange and red.
3. Now their are a lot of wires and bull**** all just hanging out right above the sensor itself and you will see in the picture I actually used a small bungee cord and had them all in the hook and attached other good to good strut so they they were pulled out of my way. (Still very little room to manage).
4. Remove black C clamp from sensor. I personally grabbed it with a pliers and shattered it off. You can take the careful approach and slide it off justbin case you drop the new one but I was already pissed off by this time.
5. Then grab the sensor (not the wires) and just push it side to side until it wiggles itself free and pull out. (Mine had never been out before so that fought me a bit too plus theirs is basically no room for your hands down there.)
6. Now your supposed to "remove sensor from clip". ****ing easy to say but not easy to do. Your supposed to push black clip into itself until it realease the sensor but that was NOT happening. Honesty hour again I took the aggressive approach and use a flat head between the sensor and clip and pried it off till that clip broke as well. In my defense I tried to do it the proper way for a good half hour. It is such a snug fit over the sensor that the clip is really pointless so I broke it off and sensor finally came out.
7. Honesty hour once again (you guys will think I'm totally careless at this point but I promise you I'm not. I'm actually have a bit of OCD but everyone has their limits lol) when I pulled sensor out the old o ring remained in the hole. Could I have pulled it out with a pliers and put in the new one that came with my sensor? Yes! Did I? NO! I've done a temp sensor before on a D2 A8 actually in the past (much easier to get to) and I pulled o ring out and tried to put in new one with the sensor and I kid you not it was so ****ing tight that I had one good on the engine and my other food on the cars frame and was putting all my body weight to get it to finally go in. Well with this car and the sensors location it was not an option so I put in new sensor in with the old o ring. (Not like it was leaking so who cares) So at your own risk replace the o ring but I personally did not. Their is no serious pressure on that sensor where I was concerned. And using old o ring the sensor went in with little issue.
8. So after you feel it slide in and the sensor feels snug in place and you can't move it with little force then you get your new C clip and carefully get your hands into that tiny space and line it up with the grooves and slowly start to push it in until it goes all the way around the sensor. Took me 20 min. Little to no room to push it in and was very concerned about dropping it. Some people said they tied strong around but I didn't have any string.
9. Now plug clip connector back on top and it will click if you didn't break the clip or in May case I just pushed it all the way down till it was snug. And again honestly I found it easier to plug it into the connector first before even inserting it back in into the hole but that's just me.
10. Putting everything else back the way it was. Reattach the black hose looking tube and release all the cords back over the sensor. Put cover back on and start it up. Hope you see the needle get some lift off finally like I did.
That's that. Sorry that was really long but Ik someone will appreciate this post one day cause Ik I would have. None of the forums I read helped at all and their were no videos on the procedure. Thanks and your welcome.
-Drew
2. The black tube that looks like a hose to nowhere needs to be removed. Use flat head and disconnect from main intake hose. Cut the 2 zip ties holding it. One at the very end of the hose(it just stops and isn't connected to anything at all) and theirs one towards the top where it's connected to intake hose. You will have to wiggle the hose and spin it a lot to get it to come off. It really wanted to fight me on it. Smh.
3. Is to locate the sensor. It sticks straight up on the drivers side of the back of the engine but close to the middle. It has 2 small wires going into the top which are colored orange and red.
3. Now their are a lot of wires and bull**** all just hanging out right above the sensor itself and you will see in the picture I actually used a small bungee cord and had them all in the hook and attached other good to good strut so they they were pulled out of my way. (Still very little room to manage).
4. Remove black C clamp from sensor. I personally grabbed it with a pliers and shattered it off. You can take the careful approach and slide it off justbin case you drop the new one but I was already pissed off by this time.
5. Then grab the sensor (not the wires) and just push it side to side until it wiggles itself free and pull out. (Mine had never been out before so that fought me a bit too plus theirs is basically no room for your hands down there.)
6. Now your supposed to "remove sensor from clip". ****ing easy to say but not easy to do. Your supposed to push black clip into itself until it realease the sensor but that was NOT happening. Honesty hour again I took the aggressive approach and use a flat head between the sensor and clip and pried it off till that clip broke as well. In my defense I tried to do it the proper way for a good half hour. It is such a snug fit over the sensor that the clip is really pointless so I broke it off and sensor finally came out.
7. Honesty hour once again (you guys will think I'm totally careless at this point but I promise you I'm not. I'm actually have a bit of OCD but everyone has their limits lol) when I pulled sensor out the old o ring remained in the hole. Could I have pulled it out with a pliers and put in the new one that came with my sensor? Yes! Did I? NO! I've done a temp sensor before on a D2 A8 actually in the past (much easier to get to) and I pulled o ring out and tried to put in new one with the sensor and I kid you not it was so ****ing tight that I had one good on the engine and my other food on the cars frame and was putting all my body weight to get it to finally go in. Well with this car and the sensors location it was not an option so I put in new sensor in with the old o ring. (Not like it was leaking so who cares) So at your own risk replace the o ring but I personally did not. Their is no serious pressure on that sensor where I was concerned. And using old o ring the sensor went in with little issue.
8. So after you feel it slide in and the sensor feels snug in place and you can't move it with little force then you get your new C clip and carefully get your hands into that tiny space and line it up with the grooves and slowly start to push it in until it goes all the way around the sensor. Took me 20 min. Little to no room to push it in and was very concerned about dropping it. Some people said they tied strong around but I didn't have any string.
9. Now plug clip connector back on top and it will click if you didn't break the clip or in May case I just pushed it all the way down till it was snug. And again honestly I found it easier to plug it into the connector first before even inserting it back in into the hole but that's just me.
10. Putting everything else back the way it was. Reattach the black hose looking tube and release all the cords back over the sensor. Put cover back on and start it up. Hope you see the needle get some lift off finally like I did.
That's that. Sorry that was really long but Ik someone will appreciate this post one day cause Ik I would have. None of the forums I read helped at all and their were no videos on the procedure. Thanks and your welcome.
-Drew
10-26-2016, 11:32 AM
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Well everything was fine and dandy for a couple days at least 😩😭.
So driving it today and once again my thermostat was going up almost to middle next time I look at it ON C!! What is my issue? Why would a new temperature sensor fix my issue for a couple days and now it has stopped working again?? I'm just waiting for engine light to come back on now... so stressed. That job was a pain in the *** and it was all for nothing. Any suggestions?? Thanks in advance. *sigh*
So driving it today and once again my thermostat was going up almost to middle next time I look at it ON C!! What is my issue? Why would a new temperature sensor fix my issue for a couple days and now it has stopped working again?? I'm just waiting for engine light to come back on now... so stressed. That job was a pain in the *** and it was all for nothing. Any suggestions?? Thanks in advance. *sigh*