Well, I guess I'm looking for some advice at this point. Just picked up my car last Thursday from the dealer after having it sit there for 3 days because of the stupid light (that was the second time it comes on). This morning, the light came on again. It seems like the dealer has it more these days than I do...Any input on what can I do about this?? I'm starting to lose my patience with this

 

Unfortunately, this has been a problem on more than just Audi, with the new OBDII control systems in cars. It sounds like your dealer doesn't give you much information about the car. I would suggest at least getting more information from the dealer as to what codes they are finding when they scan the car. (Sometimes they can be driver induced) Sometimes there are "nuisance codes" that can be caused by a loose gas cap or bad fuel, sometimes the dealer will reset the codes and see if they come back, which is a waste of time for you! Other times there may be an intermittent electrical problem that may only happen once a week or so. (This happend with my 96 A4, it kept getting bad 02 sensor codes, but would check fine at the dealer. They finally replaced all the o2 sensors under warrenty and it's been fine ever since). If the car is still in or close to warrenty, you could ask them to replace all the reasonable suspects. (Of course it could also be a loose connection somewhere, and they could replace thousands of dollars worth or parts and not fix the car. Maybe they have already been through that). I guess that it gets back to what I said at the top. It sounds like the service writer doesn't give you much information. And, if they can't fix it, go somewhere else. Sometimes a fresh pair of eyes works wonders.

Dale

 

My coworker has a '98Q 2.8 with 17k. His check engine light would come on repeatedly. There were several instances when the car would display the chec engine light and stall unexplainably. The car had been to back to the dealer multiple times. The dealer wound up replacing sensors and finally the ECU. This still did not fix the problem. The dealer wound up telling him that he wasn't fastening the gas cap tight enough and it was causing the car to think it was out of gas. Well obviously this didn't fix the problem because the car died on the HWY 2 more times. He had a Lemon law conversation with the dealer. They even went so far as to negotiate a price on a '991/2.

Audi took interest in this case and flew an engineer to Saint Louis only to find out that there was a cracked spark plug cap causing an electrical ground to the engine block. They replaced the plug wires and the car has been running flawless for two months now.

Hope this helps.

DSills
'99 2.8Qtip