cuatrokoop

Has anyone successfully removed/unplugged the door handles on 4L's with the advanced key and left them that way? The 4.2L has all four door handles coming back with codes, I'd rather not spend $1k to replace them ($186 x 4 plus paint, and then my time to install them). We don't use the touch sensors or the lock buttons on the door handles, I really only care about the battery going dead. I've put a NOCO charge port but the lead was short enough I can't get it out of the engine bay, so we have to open and close the hood. If it's really cold out, the hood doesn't stay latched (!!) shut all the way, just the safety latch engages. Which is fun.

chingwodapigu

All 4 of handles are broken on my '07. I've had a total of 7 handles since new (2 replaced under warranty), and all the lock buttons have eventually died, so I just gave up trying to replace them. One of the handles was replaced last year as a last ditch effort to at least have one working lock button on each side of the vehicle, but alas both of the working lock buttons have now died as well. Touch unlock still works flawlessly. Definitely disappointed about these poorly designed handles, especially since the keyless door handles on my mother-in-laws Camry that we bought for her at the same time we bought the Q7 have never had any issues...and even the replacement parts for the Q7, more than a decade later still have the same defect.

I've never had the system unplugged or shut off, and I've never had any battery issues over 11+ years of ownership, except when the battery became old after 7+ years. I've heard of folks on the forum having battery drain issues from broken door handles, but I myself haven't had any despite my multitude of broken handles and parking the Q7 outside. I wonder if it's a different issue other than the broken lock button?

What broken handle symptoms are you having?

cuatrokoop

When I pull codes, I get all four door handles shown. I don't remember the exact code, but the result is if the car sits for at least 2 days, it has gone into battery protect mode (interior lights don't turn on, rear hatch won't go up or down on it's own, etc etc). The battery is only 1-2 years old, and is a genuine Audi battery that was replaced by the dealership. The only other codes that populate have no effect on the battery system.

For the time being, I've shown my wife how to plug/unplug the NOCO, I just wish the QD had longer leads so I could do a better remote mount job and she wouldn't have to open/close the hood.

chingwodapigu

Yeah, quite annoying I imagine. So how were your door handles broken? Was it the lock button not working, or is it the unlock touch sensor? I would imagine if the unlock touch sensor that was broken, then it could be causing the system to think that the door needs to unlock, thus keeping the car from going into standby mode and powering down.

cuatrokoop

It is the touch sensors throwing the code, 1-3 codes per handle for a total of eight separate codes.