AudiWorld Forums - Rebuild blog 2017 A3 E-tron Prestige

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Rebuild blog 2017 A3 E-tron Prestige

Bought a wrecked etron and here to share the rebuild effort. So far I removed all the damaged parts and awaiting parts shipment.

Some notes of interest

1. Car does not start or drive. Hi V battery charge indicated at 0 but vcds shows 25%. Ive read there are relays which disconnect the battery after airbag deployment

2. Driver and knee airbags deployed. All 4 corner seat belts pretensioner deployed.

3. No frame damage. Previous driver hit something above the bumper. Speed was probably low. But, since there’s nothing to protect the car above the bumper the accelerometers got the blunt of the impact, deploying airbags, and the crash took out the headlights, condenser, and radiators (there are2). There is no intercioler though there is an intake cooling system. This is mostly a Remove replace project

4. Found some used parts in Germany and Poland that are about half of what’s found online and eBay. That said, few parts avail for such a new car.

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.aud...5800b67fdf.jpg

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.aud...bd54ff3336.jpg
I find it interesting that the e-tron is really just an EV with an ICE motor assist. Or visa versa. There is no accessory drive belt on the ICE driving a water pump or a/c compressor. The a/c compressor has it's own electric motor. There are 3 electric water pumps. 1 each for battery/inverter/charger, 1 for ICE, and 1 for the electric motor. There is also an electric motor assist or vacuum pump attached to the brake master cylinder. The a/c lines split into a separate line to a heat exchanger for coolant but I haven't traced where that goes - probably for battery cooling. All this makes the e-tron a complex beast. It was probably a fun engineering project.

There’s an artificial sound speaker attached to the outboard side of the right front.

Neat... I used to like to do rebuildables back in the day. This does seem more like an EV with ICE assist...

Sent airbag module to a restore outfit but they couldn't communicate with it so I had to buy a new module. $568. Installed and it communicates with VCDS. Not sure if I need to code it as it seems to be working. All seatbelts were replaced and driver airbag replaced. Waiting on new knee airbag. airbag light blinks and VCDS shows not recognizing all the crash sensors. At least it recognizes the new driver airbag and all the seatbelts.

This is really cool, thanks so much for posting. Look forward to following along.

Anyone know where I can get the login code for the battery energy control module? Everything has been put together and renewed. Just need to restore the reversible crash shut-off within that module.

Interested in seeing some progress photos of this rebuild. Sounded like an cool project.

Got mostly everything put together. Waiting on a fender and then do some final alignments to get the hood, bumpercover, headlights, and fenders to come together correctly. My biggest hurdle was enabling the hybrid batteries after they were auto-shut down after the crash (air bag deploy signal shuts down hybrid battery module for safety). I needed a login in code for the module. I found it online, logged in, reset the crash condition, and the car came to life. Some a/c refill is still necessary but on the path to finishing now. I'm not sure about the German license plate I bought on ebay but the frame of the grill is designed for it and for the US market they offer an ugly bolt-on protruding plate holder. I like the "IN" for Ingolstadt and "AU" for Audi. The number is random. I've driven decades without a front plate in Ca and hopefully a German plate isn't going to prompt unwanted attention.

This project has been mostly remove/replace. I prefer some minor frame re-bending and welding as that usually makes for a better initial purchase value. This e-tron was pretty pricey at auction and since few e-trons exist in junkyards I had to mostly buy from ebay and ebay/dealership sellers. The discount that route is still at least 30% cheaper than dealership though. Painting was done at a local, inexpensive paint shop that insurance companies don't recommend. The standard body shop paint per panel is around 800 which is ridiculous. The shop I use is closer to 200.

I bought obd11 and like it. It's similar to VCDS.

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.aud...fe3f35bc62.jpg

Serious progress! How cool. Any more progress pics?