PetC

Where IS "there"? I can't quite imagine that you are blanketing the entire Audi world tech team with poor performance. I don't see any references as to where 'hef311' or you, 'BlueSander', are in the world. Help us understand where the worst techs are, please, so we can stay away.

hef311

The final fix on mine was to replace the Knee air bag after 2 days of testing and working with the Audi dealer tech phone support. Their first 'fix' was to recalibrate the parking brake.

My service dealer (Audi of Alexandria - DC area) ended up putting 95 test miles on the car. I think they took it home, to lunch, etc...AoA gave me $50 to the Audi collection store. They never mentioned the seat belt harness. This was actually the fix on my old car for the SRS light, which Acura replaced free of charge (at 90k miles).

Next time I will probably go to Audi of Tysons (mixed-reviews) or the brand new Audi of Silver Spring (new location - I bought at their old mileone location).

Knock on wood - I've had no issues since then. The car has only gotten better (including the MPG's - now up to 32-34 highway - 8500 miles).

Hans up in Canada

Hello .. I have a park brake malfunction light as well as a red airbag light that came on at the same time. When you had your issue did the find the solution in diagnostics or did the just look for wiring and harness problems. When you say the Latch was changed do you meant the female part of the seatbelt coupling ? the part next to the central console with the red release button? Thanks for your input

Hans

jschrauwen

I was hoping Hans would have received a reply to his follow up query.

I just encountered the same two warning symbols.
Can someone shed some light on this?

Hans up in Canada

Hi Hans here to shed some light.

Why do we get these two seemingly unrelated messages at the same time? seems un-logical but there is a good reason.
ANSWER: Any time any part of the " seat belt - Airbag system " has a fault, the parking brake light will come on. There are two functions of the Park brake if you have a STANDARD TRANSMISSION. one is the normal park brake function as we know it, and the second is to let you set the park brake when you are on a hill to help you launch without you having to keep your foot on the brake pedal. As you release the clutch and press on the gas the park brake releases automatically.
For this "Park brake auto release" to take place you need two things, you have to be sitting in the drivers seat and your seat belt has to be buckled up. With out these 2 prerequisites , the auto release function of the parking brake will not function.
So that being said, you will notice that your regular function of the parking brake will function normally in this situation. The German engineers actually thought of this when designing the system, and concluded that " to make sure the brake doesn't auto release on its own when there is a malfunction", they elected to cause the system to auto deactivate the "auto-release" part of the Parking brake system when ever there is an issue with the "seatbelt airbag system". Clear as mud ....read twice if needed, lol

So in my case I got the " Airbag Red warning" Plus the "Parkbrake malfunction", (normal park brake still functioning). I scan the car and I had a "passenger Knee airbag Low Resistance" message. After discussing the low resistance message with Ross-Tech, I went under the dash and found the quick-disconnect for the Passenger knee air bag was not secure. I clicked it together and both Messages disappeared and the problem was solved.

Please be careful when dealing with airbags, follow the precautions as found in the service manual meticulously !!!!

I do all my own maintenance on my A-5, but also use Ross-tecH as a back-up when needed. They are a great resource.

Hope this helps,
Cheers
Hans