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Re: My Audi A8L saga

Posted: Thu Feb 01, 2018 11:23 am
by Kalashnikov
Audi.

Re: My Audi A8L saga

Posted: Mon Feb 05, 2018 12:41 pm
by Groovzilla
As a prior Porsche 964 owner, the dreaded dash lights are also referred to as "Christmas Tree Lights"

Re: My Audi A8L saga

Posted: Wed Feb 07, 2018 7:26 pm
by FRUNKenstein
Update: Yesterday, my air suspension warning light came on.

Re: My Audi A8L saga

Posted: Wed Feb 07, 2018 11:22 pm
by Dr_Strangelove
Oh boy. Is it sagging or stiff or anything? On the D3, that is.

Re: My Audi A8L saga

Posted: Thu Feb 08, 2018 7:44 am
by FRUNKenstein
^ Ha ha, you'd have to ask the wife!
As for the D3, I parked it Tuesday night and haven't looked at it again. I'm back to driving our blue 955S - hard to believe that's my ol' reliable standby vehicle now. I'll have a look at it over the weekend and post what I find. I already replaced the rear air struts when I first got it (but with some low-mileage used ones - hopefully that wasn't a mistake, but they were half the price of remans).

Forgot to mention in my previous list that the passenger side seat warmer doesn't work, which pisses my wife off whenever she rides shotgun.

Re: My Audi A8L saga

Posted: Wed Feb 14, 2018 7:24 pm
by FRUNKenstein
The culprit:
20180212_184238-1280x720.jpg
20180212_184238-1280x720.jpg (185.69 KiB) Viewed 3471 times

Update Re: My Audi A8L saga

Posted: Thu Jun 14, 2018 8:04 am
by FRUNKenstein
Figured it was time for an update. Some bad news, but far and away more good news to the story.

When we last left our nemesis, it was experiencing a suspension problem. After diagnosis, it was a front air strut. Rebuilt strut was $269. I had my mechanic replace it due to time restraints. Fixed the problem.


A funny thing has happened as the spring has turned into summer - a bunch of the warning lights have now gone away. I realize that I'm likely jinxing myself, but my son's theory is that as the weather has turned warm and dry, the car has fully dried out. At the moment, I still have the following issues:

-Airbag warning light: I have diagnosed this as a bad connection located under the rear seat. Apparently it is a very common issue for Audis that is moisture induced. The good news is that it is supposedly a 10 minute, no cost fix (other than some Deoxit spray).

-Oil level warning light: It is intermittent. This car still has a dipstick, so I'm relying on that. Appears to be an oil level sensor/sending unit gone bad. It is a relatively easy & inexpensive fix - $50 part from warehouse33auto.com and 5 minutes of labor at the next oil change.

-TPMS system malfunction: sometimes the TPMS reads all 5 tire pressures fine, sometimes it doesn't. I'll live with this one.

-Adaptive headlight failure warning: This one I'll live with as well as the fix appears to be $2,000+. Headlights work fine, they just don't see around corners.

There are a couple of other minor issues: front passenger seat heater and massage function don't work. I suspect it is a bad seat control module, which I actually have on hand but never installed last winter when I fixed the seat position malfunctioning. I may tackle this over the summer. Also, the trunk struts are weak. Other than that, it's running well (knock on wood), so we'll see how long that holds up. It may be time to sell it and move on. But, at this point, I'm inclined to keep it - maybe Stockholm Syndrome taking hold of me.

Re: My Audi A8L saga

Posted: Wed Mar 27, 2019 12:55 pm
by FRUNKenstein
Time to put an ending to the tale. Last September, I finally got tired of dealing with the A8L and its woes. I think the last straw was that it began smoking from the engine bay around the exhaust headers on both sides of the engine. I couldn't identify the source of the leak nor did degreasing the engine seem to help (turned out to be a coolant leak that would require an engine-out service to fix). So, I bought myself a Ford Explorer and decided to sell the A8L at the dealer's auction. Unfortunately, that was about the time the weather turned to sh*t here in the midwest. Fast forward to last Sunday night. I spent several hours detailing the car and fixing some minor issues. Then Monday morning I dropped the car off at the auction. This morning, it ran through the auction and sold for $3,300, before the auction fees.
For those of you keeping score at home, here's the final tally for the 18 month and 8,000 mile ownership experience:

Depreciation $5,805 (bought for $8,805 and net sale price after auction fees was $3,005)
Repairs and parts $5,135 (was actually more because I know I don't have receipts for a couple of items)
Total: $10,940

So, for that cost, I could have driven a lot, lot more vehicle with a lot less headaches. That being said, it's still only about half the cost of an IMS bearing failure.

Lesson learned: I have had pretty good luck buying high mileage European cars and using them as daily drivers. For some reason, though, I have never had good experience with an Audi. Maybe it's just coincidence, but for the foreseeable future, I'm not buying another Audi unless it's under factory warranty. On the other hand, (knock on wood) the high-mileage Ford Explorer I have been using as a daily all winter has been rock solid. We've had at least 4 Explorers over the years, all high mileage, and all have been rock solid.

Re: My Audi A8L saga

Posted: Wed Mar 27, 2019 4:33 pm
by 32wildbilly
FRUNKenstein wrote: Wed Mar 27, 2019 12:55 pm Time to put an ending to the tale. Last September, I finally got tired of dealing with the A8L and its woes. I think the last straw was that it began smoking from the engine bay around the exhaust headers on both sides of the engine. I couldn't identify the source of the leak nor did degreasing the engine seem to help (turned out to be a coolant leak that would require an engine-out service to fix). So, I bought myself a Ford Explorer and decided to sell the A8L at the dealer's auction. Unfortunately, that was about the time the weather turned to sh*t here in the midwest. Fast forward to last Sunday night. I spent several hours detailing the car and fixing some minor issues. Then Monday morning I dropped the car off at the auction. This morning, it ran through the auction and sold for $3,300, before the auction fees.
For those of you keeping score at home, here's the final tally for the 18 month and 8,000 mile ownership experience:

Depreciation $5,805 (bought for $8,805 and net sale price after auction fees was $3,005)
Repairs and parts $5,135 (was actually more because I know I don't have receipts for a couple of items)
Total: $10,940

So, for that cost, I could have driven a lot, lot more vehicle with a lot less headaches. That being said, it's still only about half the cost of an IMS bearing failure.

Lesson learned: I have had pretty good luck buying high mileage European cars and using them as daily drivers. For some reason, though, I have never had good experience with an Audi. Maybe it's just coincidence, but for the foreseeable future, I'm not buying another Audi unless it's under factory warranty. On the other hand, (knock on wood) the high-mileage Ford Explorer I have been using as a daily all winter has been rock solid. We've had at least 4 Explorers over the years, all high mileage, and all have been rock solid.
Ford 'XPLORER built in 'MERICA! Hell Yeah! :lol:

Re: My Audi A8L saga

Posted: Thu Mar 28, 2019 10:03 am
by 5chn3ll
How long did you own it?

Strike that. Better question: during the duration of your ownership, for how many months was it operable?