Hello all,

Just wanted to introduce myself as I plan on spending a lot of time around here pillaging this site and you fine people dry of knowledge. My new to me A8L arrived recently, one day before the hurricane hit down here in VA. It's a 2005 Nothern blue pearl/amaretto A8L with 111k. Yeah, she has some miles...but it was a one owner and has a nice stack of verifiable service history. I havent driven it much yet, been too busy working. BUt the little I have driven it I had enjoyed every second of it.

I have a few annoying little issues to take care of, here is a list:

Rear bumper needs to be painted IMO
The little tray under the NAV wont stay closed
Speaking of NAV, the disc is in it but it's not working
Washer fluid reservoir is apparently cracked,keeps leaking out
The ashtray wont stay pressed all the way in, but the door closes

There may be a couple other things...oh yeah I bought new wheels before I had even gotten the car. I can't seem to get the TPMS to initialize. It's a used car, things are to be expected. I THINK I'm coming into this with my eyes wide open...I've had two 7 series (e38) BMW's and a CL500. Nothing will surprise me after owning them.

Anyway, I won't bore you with the rest of my fleet. Not married and no kids, so I have alot of toys - I love cars. Here are some pics, I still moderate the e38 forum so I know newbies with no pics get no love. I'll be seeing you around!

 

I can't seem to find the "edit" feature...so I guess I have to post again. I meant to add that I THINK I got a pretty good deal on the car...got it shipped from NY to VA so I'm in it for ~14k. Hopefully I won't find out I got screwed, but I don't think I did. Heck of a hit from the 77k sticker I have in the car, but I got my CL500 for a tad more last year and it was originally a 105k car. I surely cant afford them new so I'll let someone else take the depreciation hit!

 

They fluid from the resevoir is coming from the washer pump. I just replaced mine for the same problem. You can get one for about $40 and its fairly easy to get at. Take the screws off the carpet wheel liner on the front passenger side at the back side of the wheel liner. You can take the three out towards the bottom edge near the rocker panel and there are a couple along the top. Then you can peel the carpet back to get at it. It's the longer black cylinder with a plug going to it on the top. The pump just slips into place. It leaks from the shaft seal. Shouldn't take. but 15-20 min to fix. I own an 05 A8L and have had nearly every problem known to mankind so far so I can try and assist you.

As far as the TPMS the batteries are probably all dead...like mine were when I got it. Just replace the four and forget the spare everything will work fine the spare just will show dashes. You are looking at about $350 from Tire Rack for the TPMS set.

 

Welcome! Edit will come when you post more (think 10).

TPMS in your new wheels? Are sensors new? Do you see Tire Pressure in MMI? It could be turned off in order to suppress error message for old wheels death batteries.

A8 has its own surprises. You will be surprised.

The little tray under the NAVI Is useless in my opinion. So you can glue it (I would), or buy new one. It is not too expensive. This guys are not bad.

Navigation doesn't work. Does it say Check your navigation disc? If so it is most likely dirty laser lens. Can open navigation DVD and clean it. Not too difficult. Could be bad disc. You probably need newer one (2011), so start there.

Washer fluid reservoir is not necessarily cracked. Mine was loosing fluid at one of headlight washers hoses. It was cracked. Fill it with water and try to locate the leak. Most of it is under right wheel liner.

The ashtray. Same as little tray. Not too expensive.

By the way, mine is same color combination. Just different wood trim and leather steering wheel.

 

Thanks for the info guys! I guess I ASSumed that since the wheels came off of an 2010 A8 that the TPMS were good still. They worked fine in the 18" wheels that the car came with, but dont work with the 20's. When I try to initialize, it just says "tire pressures stored" and later on down the road some about a "tyre pressure malfunction." I dont know how hard they are to change, but I'll take them off the old wheels since I know those work if need be.

The nav does say to check the DVD. The DVD is from 2004, but does not look scratched or anything. I think I saw a thread about taking the navigation computer apart...but I dont know if I have the ***** for that!

Nice to know I can get to the bottom of the washer fluid leak. I'll tackle that when I finally get some time off. Basically what I need to do is sit down with the owners manual and learn stuff. The parking sensors dont seem to sense, but I never really cared for that feature anyway. It beeps when I put the car in reverse, but when I get close to something I dont hear anything. I'm looking forward to getting it all figured out though.

 

If you take the TPMS sensors off the old wheels look at the date code on them. If they are more than 5yrs old I personally would not go through the trouble of swapping them they probably will be dead in a short time. The sensors are very specific to each model as the frequency is different. The MMI will just recognize the sensors if they are correct no need to initialize anything.

You will see owning this car is unlike anything you have experienced

 

You are making me nervous!! So here is my first dumb question...I haven't even attempted to look at it, but do the tires have to come off to put new sensors in? And is your handle because of what the car may end up being lol?

 

2010 sensors should be OK. Tire guys have instrument that can test each battery without removing anything. Could be that previous owner took sensors out (sold separately)? Last thing I can think of is that sensors are 315MHz instead of 433MHz. That can be fixed with VCDS.

In order to remove/change sensors tire has to be deflated and pooled to the inside. No need for full dismount but it won't make any difference in labor price.

Navigation DVD player is useless as it is. You can take it to some shop to clean the lens if you do not feel doing it yourself. 2004 DVD can be useless in many places since it contains outdated maps.

 

Those look like D4 wheels that OP used to replace his stock wheels (D4 I thought was US 2011+/Euro 2010+). Maybe they are US replicas of 2010 Euro D4 wheels.

Isn't the TPMS system in the D4 mostly different and less complex than the D3's system? I thought I read that on here...