pathologymeister

Hi everyone! I'm a brand new member and this is my first post. I was going through the tool kit that comes with the car, and I found a small metal loop that I was able to identify as a wheel cap tool (part #8L0012243A; see attached image). It turns out that this tool is for helping to pop off the small central hubs on the wheels of some Audis. However, this is not the situation for my Q7. The tool that I need, and the one that should have been supplied in the tool kit and the one described on p.360 of the owner's manual, is a plastic clip that is used to remove the wheel bolt caps (part #8D0012244A). This is something that you likely will not notice for years, if ever, until you need to have one of your wheels removed in an emergency situation. It is likely that Audi is shipping all of their Q7s with this incorrect part, so it would be a good idea if you checked your tool kit too. I notified my dealer of the situation, so hopefully they will forward this information to the powers that be at Audi so that they can address this issue for both current and future owners.

uberwgn

The U-shaped removal tool is typically sitting in the Styrofoam "caddy" that holds all the bits 'n' pieces for the car jacking experience. It's typically black and hard to see against the dark Styrofoam...

The silver tool you picture is for removing the decorative center cover found on some wheels.

pathologymeister

Thanks for the suggestion, uberwgn. I checked and double-checked the styrofoam caddy, and no such wheel bolt cap removal tool is present.

uberwgn

OK, someone must have lifted it. I see the part on eBay for under $10 if you want to avoid returning to the dealer...

Cadx6

My 2017 came with both styles. Since I change to winter wheels & tires & back to summers twice a year I picked up a spare from Amazon that I keep in the glove compartment to make it easier for the tire shop to get to (that way they're not rummaging around in the back).

pathologymeister

In follow-up to my original post, I was at the Audi dealership today and had the rep look at the tool kit of a 2018 Q7 on the showroom floor. Not surprisingly, the black plastic clip that looks like a tweezers was also missing from that tool kit, and was nowhere to be found . So this looks like a systemic issue, but no one seems to care enough to do anything about it. The rep did tell me that there used to be a special little compartment in the hidden cargo area where this tool was kept, but that this compartment is not present in the new models. With no compartment, I guess it is easier for Audi to forget to include the tool. The dealer gave me one of these tools. I put some green tape on it to make it stand out from the black background of the storage area and clipped it to an area of matching thickness (I didn't want to store it in the tool kit because it is made of plastic and looks like it could easily break).

Gsrjc

My '18 came with the correct clip remover. It was clipped to one of the flat ties holding the tools down to the foam.

crumbird

Used mine this weekend to change from the 21" summers to the 20" winters. The little plastic doohickey worked a treat. Man, those 21s are heavy!

netrom17

I second that! The 19" that went on wasn't lightweight either, would never had managed without the alignment nut.

Thought the bolt cap removal tool was missing here, too, since it wasn't in the tools set---fortunately had a spare one in a wheel lock set from my 4L---but after reading through this thread I double checked the trunk and sure enough, this little plastic thing was sitting all alone in the large styrofoam depression next to the compressor.