I've had my car about a week, but I can't figure out how to get the audio system to stay off. Regardless of how I leave the car, the audio system either comes on upon restarting the car, or at some point when I am underway. At first, I thought it was because there was a delay in my phone pairing with the car (via Bluetooth), then autoplaying. But this weirdness happens with other audio sources. Today I switched to Sat radio, then shut off the audio system. After doing an errand, I returned to the car, started it up and GREAT no audio. About 5 minutes later, Sat radio comes on. I read the documentation and I can't come up with anything. It doesn't matter whether I turn to volume all the way down, or press the volume button down, my audio randomly comes back on (and no, I'm not bumping any of the buttons by accident--I've watched out for that as well).

There is a ghost in the machine.

 

If you just push the On/off switch for a second all you are doing is muting it. With the radio on, push the button and hold it down until the system goes off, then turn the car off. I'm willing on betting that is the problem.

The five minute thing sounds odd, that part gives me some pause.

 

This (to me at least) is the most annoying design flaw in the A7 MMI.

If you have the volume at 3 or under and shut the car off, it comes back on restart at volume 3, regardless what level it was when shutting down.

If you have the volume anywhere between 4 and 14 and shut the car off, it comes back on restart at the same volume level it was on when shutting down.

If you have the volume at 15 or above and shut the car off, it comes back on restart at volume 15, regardless what level it was when shutting down.

You can't turn the radio off. If you turn it off by pressing and holding the volume button, it shuts the whole MMI system down and your phone and navigation system will not work either.

I have contacted Audi Customer Care about this in 2012 and got the following response:

"We have discussed your comments with our Product Planning Department and have looked into your inquiry as to why the radio is programmed to come back at level 3 even if your radio was muted at 0 when you shut it off.

We have confirmed that there is no master volume that can change this feature. Since the radio is not manufactured by Audi, we must regretfully advise you that were unable to determine the reasoning behind this feature."

There has been no change in this behavior of the volume control since then, and nobody can tell me the reasoning behind this (in my opinion) flawed logic.

 

Thanks for the input guys. The radio is the quirkiest part of the car by far--better than my old Q7 but still not implemented as well as the other parts of the car.

 

There are two solutions to this issue.

Insert a SD card with one empty file and before you exit the car, male sure that source is selected. When you next start the car, there will be no audio as the screen pops up.

The other method is more complicated and requires a VCDS cable and Vag-Com software. There is a mod that allows you to change the default volume levels as mentioned above. Do an AW search for the specifics.

 

True, the SD card method will get around the issue but has two flaws.

1. You lose one of the SD slots
2. You have to remember to switch to that input every time you stop the car.

I would love to make the Vag-Com mod but can not find any reference to this when I search. Could you please help out finding it if you can ?

Thanks

 

I guess this is a quirk of some cars but not all. I have no problem with mine, and turning off the sound system has no effect on the other MMI functions such as the phone or Nav.

I don't at all accept Audi's response that the don't make the radio so they don't know the answer. That is a total BS answer on Audi's part.

 

I found this thread on my first "radio volume vag-com" search.

https://www.audiworld.com/forums/a6-...olume-2882879/

and another:

https://www.audiworld.com/forums/a4-...-auto-2876352/

There are others.

The hidden menu has to be enabled. I've read that the hidden menu may not be available on the latest models.

 

Here's some of the info I used when I did it. The only caveat is it requires getting into the hidden menu, and I think I remember reading that's now not possible on the latest models?

https://www.audiworld.com/forums/a6-...o-off-2882757/

https://www.audiworld.com/forums/a6-...uting-2869912/

 

I could be wrong, but I still think the biggest confusion is understanding the difference between muting it and turning it off. Once I figured that out all is well in mine. This being my second German car (out of 60 I have owned) I've learned that all is not always as it seems though. Copious amounts of Koolade are required to live with German vehicles (my BMW motorcycle included).