wilfred2k5

I'm hoping this title will get some responses. If your car turns on the emergency flashers while you're driving, accompanied by seats moving, interior lights turning on full-bright and other strangeness, please respond.

DeerHunter

Sounds like something to do with Pre Sense which, among other things, pretensions the seatbelt, closes sunroof and windows and turns on the hazard lights. Perhaps someone came close to rear-ending you?

RL371

Are you heavy on the brakes, causing people behind you to get too close too quickly?

wilfred2k5

No. This is definitely a malfunction of some sort. It has happened about a dozen times so far, sometimes while driving. Sometimes while stopped. When it happens, I can't turn off the emergency flashers, the car won't lock, the interior lights are on full bright and can't be dimmed or altered, and the seats move (most recently the driver's seat tried to fully recline while I was driving).

I'm pretty certain nobody was that close to me, or even behind me in most of those dozen cases. Several of them happened while there was absolutely nothing around.

Today, I couldn't lock the car for 20 minutes while all this happened. I'm extremely certain this is not expected "pre-sense" behavior. Moving the driver side seat into full recline while you're driving will CAUSE an accident, if anything.

The dealer suspects a bad driver's side seat control module, which makes sense, but is very disappointing since I began having issues before I even got to a 4 digit odometer.

DeerHunter

New cars are so filled with electronics that I find it a minor miracle that any new car can drive off the lot without a random system failure. You just got "lucky" and would guess that, once the faulty component is replaced, you'll love your car again.

As for the timing of the failure, that actually makes sense. For electronics, most failures occur soon after the in-service date. If they make it 1,000 miles, they're probably good for at least the life of the warranty (and probably a lot longer).

wilfred2k5

The only problem is that I've been "lucky" with three Audi's in a row.

If I can get this fixed and only worry about "scheduled" maintenance for a year or two, Audi will retain my loyalty. If a month without visiting the dealer continues to be a rare event, I'll have to hold my nose and look toward the Asian manufacturers.

peternmi@embarqmail.com

Did you get this fixed? If so how, my 2005 A4 cabriolet just started doing the same thing.

Jack88

Check the battery and do a VCDS scan. Audi's do weird things with dying batteries. Alternatively, any spills in the cabin or leaky sunroof?

dblang

This happened to me once. I thought the key in my pocket was having buttons pushed and held but maybe I was incorrect.