My girlfriend has a 1998 Audi A4 Audi Avant Quatro. She says the drivers door will occasionally pop open slightly when she is on the interstate, but otherwise doesn't seem to have problems with just in-town driving. I pushed and pulled on the door, and couldn't get the door to pop open. Has anyone heard of a problem like this? I've sprayed the latch thoroughly with dry teflon lube. The door seems to be adjusted perfectly as far as I can tell.

 

Perhaps it's a sticky mechanism and she doesn't close it properly.

 

I don't think that she's not closing it hard enough. I'm guessing that at highway speed, the aerodynamic lift force on the outside of the door must be creating enough force to pull the door open to the first-catch position? This must be a good deal of aerodynamic force, since I can't seem to get the door to pop open by pushing/pulling on it while parked.

Here's something else, I'm not sure if it's related... I think one of the microswitches in the door handle isn't working. If I use the remote to unlock the doors, and open the drivers door but don't do anything for 1-2 minutes, the car will re-lock itself and arm the alarm. I have the central locking system set to unlock all doors with the remote, and then lock all doors when driving. Oh, here's one more thing that may or may not be adding to it (or just a red herring to through some confusion on the issue). When I tried to program a new remote to the car with Vag-Com, the central locking ECM gave a "Error: Channel XX Not Available" for all channels. I don't think that either of these items could be causing the door to pop open, since it seems like more of a mechanical latch issue, but I thought I'd mention it in case someone smarter than me knows what could be going on with the system.

I priced out a new latch - $290 at my local Audi stealer in Peoria,IL. There isn't a decent Audi junkyard in the area, but I can pick up a used one on eBay for $50 to $70 bucks, but for something like this, I'd rather have a new part so that I know it's good and I don't replace her latch with another worn-out latch. I always figure my time is worth something, and I'd rather not spend 3-4 hours working on her door just to put in another worn out latch. Anyone have suggestions for where to get a better price on a new latch? A few of the on-line parts sites didn't have the latch (or I couldn't find it).

 

The problem is strictly mechanical, as far as the door opening one notch at highway speeds. I have never heard of that before, but the electric unlock mechanism shouldn't actually push the latch open. You should take the door panel off, and disconnect the electric cable, drive without the panel and see if te problem still occurs.