As the title suggests, I've added a new car to my stable - a 2018 Audi Allroad. My 2009 Clubman was getting quite a few miles on it and was in need of some fairly serious money spent on it if I were to keep it "forever", I decided that a newer car might be a better investment.
We have a 2014 Allroad that we've owned for 4 years now and have had zero issues, problems or things needing to be fixed - can't ask for much more than that. We bought it in July of 2020, just as the pandemic was getting going and before everything in the automobile marketplace went crazy. It had 70K on it and 4 years later has just turned over 80K.....no she doesn't drive much and most of the rest of the miles we put on our cars are in my MINI/Minis. The 2014 era Audi cars don't have a stellar reputation in terms of reliability, but we owned a 2004 Allroad, which most pundits claim as the worst car ever made, and ours was mostly trouble free- I did have to replace one of the air suspension bags - 6 times! - but that's because I believed the "buy American" hype and replaced the OEM one with one made in Florida. To their credit they honored their lifetime warranty and sent me new ones each time one failed, but it got old replacing them. Anyway, we've had good luck with our Audis.
So......with all that said, Rose found this one at a local Ford dealership, we drove out to see it, liked it and the next day I traded the MINI and a big check for it and drove it home.
It's a one owner, 2018 with 14,500 miles on it. Yep, I verified the mileage with Audi before I bought it, and it checked out - all the services were done by Audi, and it's had three so far - 10, 20 and 30K majors with oil changes at 5k intervals in between. They traded it on a big Ford diesel dually pickup.....must have horses or an RV to haul. The Audi was an extra car that sat at their vacation home, hence the low miles and absolutely clean condition.
I'm planning to use this thread to document all the incredible amount of tech on this car, most of which I haven't figure out how to use!
Teaser Photo.....
Have you figured out the tow lights yet?
There are some interesting differences between this car and our 2014, both have the 2.0L 4 cyl turbo motor, but the 2018 has 252hp and 275 torques, vs the 2014 at 220/250.
The 2014 has an 8 speed automatic gearbox, the 2018 has a 7 speed dual clutch gearbox - and there def is a difference in how it works and feels - I'm not sure yet which I like better. The 8 speed is super smooth and efficient - we've seen as high as 30 mpg on long trips with it. The 2018 is rated for 3 more MPG, some of which is due to the gearbox and some due to high tech - such as stop/start - which I don't like. The problem is you have to shut it off manually with the switch every time you cycle the key (start the car). I'm looking into whether I can turn this off permanently with the VAGCOM or not.
The 7 speed dual clutch - for those who don't know or haven't driven one - is actually a manual gearbox with a hydraulically operated clutch, so no clutch pedal, but very definitely a manual gearbox, and depending on how you drive it, can snap off really quick gearchanges or be so smooth you can't even feel it. It also has a set of flappy paddles and a manual mode, along with an "S" mode. When you pull away from a stop it feels very much like someone letting out the clutch, tho it's super smooth and never bogs down. The engine makes boost just off idle but pulls strongly all the way to the 6700 limit, so it's very easy to drive, but sometimes the rising boost catches me unaware and it accelerates harder than I want it too - the 2014 can do this too. Depending on how you drive it, you can feel the shifts as you go up thru the gears, or if you're real easy on the go pedal, you almost can't tell that it shifted. One other thing I'm still getting used to is that when driving around town it upshifts till it's only turning 1200 PRM or so. At idle at a light or in park you can't hear or feel the engine running and it's quite a bit smoother and quieter than the 2014 which is a little growly.
The 2014 has a normal shifter, but the 2018 has the goofy electronic shifter style knob, similar to a BMW. It's ok once you figure it out, but switching back and forth you do have to stop and think first....it'll be ok once I've had it a while. This car also has Audi's MMI (Multi Media Interface) which is fairly easy to use also once you learn what all the buttons do - and it has one more party trick - the top flat surface of the knob is also a sort of writing tablet, that lets you enter numbers and letters by drawing on top of it.
Quote from: 94touring on June 18, 2024, 10:39:37 AMHave you figured out the tow lights yet?
Not yet, been too damn hot outside to work on them, but I have the PWM box, so I'm halfway there!
So I need to wire in some trailer lights for the upcoming trip to MMEMW this July, the wiring in the Audi is very complicated, not just because it's multiplex coding but it also ties into all the other systems, like the backup camera, park distance sensors, the sensor under the car that opens the deck lid and on and on.....
So, while I have a multiplexing box, tying it into the car's wiring harness is proving to be very complicated. But as always, getting onto the right forum provides the answers in the form of a very cool device to integrate the trailer lights without even tapping into the vehicle wiring. The module has 4 sensors that you put the intact wire into and it reads the voltage by induction. The control module learns which voltage does what and feeds the correct signal to the trailer lights. It's a little spendy - around $200 - but not clipping any of the car's wires means I don't have to program anything. Slick.
I have one on order now, should be here in plenty of time to get it installed in the car before the trip.
https://www.tekonsha.com/product/119251_zero-contact-universal-modulite (https://www.tekonsha.com/product/119251_zero-contact-universal-modulite)
We drove the silver Audi to dinner tonight, and Rose was reading the manual and trying several of the various goodies to see how to work things, here's tonight's discoveries.
First, she was disappointed to find that it does not have a heated steering wheel - not that we drive that much when its super cold out, but she was looking forward to trying it. We have heated seats front and rear, heated windshield and headlight squirters, and heated mirrors but no heated steering wheel.
Next, we found that the car can recognize traffic signs, like speed limits and such. Why I need this ability I don't know yet but there it is. It did something interesting tho, as I was going down a long hill my speed crept up and at some point a little green lite came on - a foot pushing on the brake pedal. We guess it was because I was more than 20 mph over the speed limit. Didn't make any beeps or buzzes but I did notice it.
Things it does NOT have - and I'm grateful about - the lane warning thing, where it nudges the steering wheel if you drift to close to the line. Doesn't have the speed sensitive cruise control where it watches how close you get to the car in front and changes your cruise setting to match. I hate that!
Does have little beeps if you're too close to a wall or another parked car - adjustable no less - in front and of course the beepers for when you're backing up, along with a really clear back up camera.
In the pic below you can see a row of buttons (with plenty of them blanks too)....the left button (Drive Select) changes the suspension settings. Choices are Offroad, Auto, Comfort, Dynamic, and Individual. I haven't tried offroad yet, but like Goldilocks, I found Comfort a little too soft, Auto seems just right for most driving, Dynamic not only stiffens things up but also changes the responsiveness of the steering, shifting, brakes and accelerator. Individual allows you to change all of these parameters to your own settings.
The next button (with the red light on) turns off the start/stop feature.
Next one turns off the skid control
Next one puts up a menu to change the park distances and how loud it beeps.
Next one is hill descent control - not sure yet how that works as I haven't been offroading with it yet.
The last one turns off the display above the dash - where all the menus read out and the nav is.
In that pic you can also see the start button, a place to plug a USB in to charge a phone or play music, and a 12V socket. The white lines in the cupholders light up so you can find them at night and don't spill your drink trying to put it back in the holder at night! The little open book emblem between the cupholders? Those are all over the car - I guess to tell you to go read the manual to learn how to use your cupholders or other bits? Wait till I show you where the manual lives!
I got one bit of good news today, the dealer got the title, so tomorrow I can go pay the state their ransoms and get it registered and plated.
BTW, I've only scratched the surface of all the stuff it has!
"Things it does NOT have - and I'm grateful about - the lane warning thing, where it nudges the steering wheel if you drift to close to the line. Doesn't have the speed sensitive cruise control where it watches how close you get to the car in front and changes your cruise setting to match. I hate that!"
I've had some rental cars with these features and hated it!
So I got the Tekonsha device and I have it partially wired in - it requires a constant 12V supply so that it doesn't lose its memory. I've got that done and have the box mounted in the car, but I don't know which wires are for what function in the tail lights - rt turn, lt turn, brakes and running lights. I don't want to probe wires with my 12V deadlight as if they are multiplexed wires it could kill a computer.....I have a friend up at school where I used to teach and he said he can get the info for me tomorrow.
So I'm kinda stopped on this project, the only other thing I can do is start figuring out where to send the 4 wire plug out and mount it.
I found one other button, the one that turns off the rear view camera and distance warning beepers. I don't know yet if they'll activate with the car behind on the hitch or not, so that's an experiment I have yet to do too.
Whada pain in the ass......
I'm trying to find 3 or 4 tiny little wires in these huge bundles, and it's an awkward reach to even get to them so I can spread them out and look for the right colors......I even had my wife looking at them with her much better eyes. I pulled the tail light assembly off the car so I could see what wires actually go to it, and that matches the wiring schematic I got, but these wires are so small it's difficult to see if I'm looking at a black wire with a green trace or a green wire with a black trace.
I've peeled the tape off the big bundle so we could spread them out more.....it's not helping a lot yet.
So far I've found the one wire I need on the right side, haven't figured out how to get the connector over there yet......
They're in these bundles somewhere.....I think!
I also haven't figured out how to get the 4 wire plug out of the trunk and down to the hitch ....
Quote from: MiniDave on June 18, 2024, 06:23:38 PMNext, we found that the car can recognize traffic signs, like speed limits and such. Why I need this ability I don't know yet but there it is. It did something interesting tho, as I was going down a long hill my speed crept up and at some point a little green lite came on - a foot pushing on the brake pedal. We guess it was because I was more than 20 mph over the speed limit. Didn't make any beeps or buzzes but I did notice it.
This a European safety requirement that cars need to recognize speed limits and visually warn you that you are going to fast over the speed limit. Sounds like they just have kept it on their US cars. There is a proposal in Europe in the future that if you continue to drive over the speed limit the control unit will reduce the engine power available to bring your speed down.
My wife's new car (2024 Honda) has the speed limit recognition feature, but it very inaccurate. On the way to drop off my daughter at daycare, it consistently says that a 35 mph sign is 85 mph. Also it recognizes school zone speed limits, but that is only useful when it is active!
Quote from: MiniDave on June 18, 2024, 06:23:38 PMThings it does NOT have - and I'm grateful about - the lane warning thing, where it nudges the steering wheel if you drift to close to the line. Doesn't have the speed sensitive cruise control where it watches how close you get to the car in front and changes your cruise setting to match. I hate that!
Interesting you do not like the adaptive cruise control, I love it and have it in 2 of our cars. It makes driving on busy highways so easy!
I am with you on the lane warning thing, the 2017 Honda we have it is very intrusive in the amount it shakes the steering wheel. In the 2024 Honda, it is much more of a nudge and also appears to be much less sensitive, if you get close to the line it says off, it is only when you are tracking to go over it that it kicks in.
Just got home from about a 1700 mile tow with the Audi - I used it to pull the Racing Green to Spearfish and back and it did terrific......very smooth and quiet and the fuel mileage was pretty good till we hit some incredible headwinds on both legs home - really cut the milage down from the high 20's to mid 22's. Still, I was happy for the comfort, quiet and cool cabin.
That's why my hot rod Mini will have cruise control, A/C and lots of sound insulation. I harbor no illusions about it being Audi smooth and quiet, but I'm hopeful I can make it somewhat better than the Racing Green.
The Audi now has 16,650 miles on it!
We did a 3 hour tour.....erm.... drive to Lake Ozark to see the bride's brother on his birthday. The boys went along and mostly just slept all the way down and back. We had a nice visit - his wife is heading down the dementia path and we didn't know how this visit would go but they had her on some new meds and she was in good spirits and able to be part of the goings on. We have no illusions about her long term future, but this visit was nice, and in case we don't see her in this shape again it will be a good way to remember her.
About an hour from home we started seeing lightning in the sky ahead of us, on checking the radar on our phone we thought we might just miss it as it was moving north and east and we were going straight west, but just as we got to the outskirts of KC we drove right into it - rain so hard traffic was down to 30 mph with the flashers on - we cleared that but in the terrible downpour I missed our exit to the south bypass around town so we took the next exit and figured we'd just drive straight across on city streets. However, we were headed right into part of town that was notorious for flooding - I figured since it was just a quick storm we'd be OK but sure enough we hit a flooded road and didn't realize how deep it was till we were in it! The car almost came to a stop and I was concerned we might flood out and be stuck there, but it plowed on thru and never missed a beat - we hit one more puddle like that but it was much shorter in length and the rest of the way we were clear.
It added about 15 extra minutes to the trip and we unloaded the boys in the downpour, of course 30 minutes after we got home it was over. My rain gauge is the birdbath, it was dry when we left and full to the brim after the storm, so we got a LOT of rain!
So I used the 2018 Silver Audi to tow the Racing Green Mini to South Dakota - it worked perfectly the whole trip - narry a stumble.
When I got home, the very damn next day I get all sorts of warning lights. I ran it down to one of my buddies who has a much more sophisticated code reader than my cheap little HF version and it pulled up pages of codes for all sorts of crap.
TPMS was the first thing I saw so I checked all the tire pressures, they were all spot on. Over the next few days we noticed all sorts of failures in addition to the TPMS - the start/stop wasn't working (no big loss there!) a light blinked whenever we were stopped at a light with my foot on the brake, the rear park distance sensors were offline, the outside temperature reading was gone, the check engine light was lit and a few more that I can't remember.
The car started and ran properly, but every time you started it you got 6 different warning chimes going off and all sorts of warning messages.
Today I was able to get it up on JP's drive-on 4 post lift - it won't fit on mine, it's too wide for the lift arms to reach the lift points - the first thing I noticed was that several of the fasteners were missing off the under panels - typical dealer shenanigans - only put in enough to make them stay on and throw the rest in the bottom drawer of your tool box! I ordered a selection of these various fasteners - $38 worth! :banghead:
The second thing I noticed was that the liftgate "kick" sensor wire in the rear was cut in two - I had someone helping me to install the trailer hitch and how he did this I'll never know. Today I went to Audi to see if I could buy the sensor as it just plugs into the module - nope - have to buy the entire rear car harness to the tune of $500! Ima see if I can splice it, but I'm not hopeful - I think there's an impedance involved due to the type of wire - it's similar to co-ax.
So, I managed to get the front most (of three) panels off the bottom of the car so I could see the wiring - I figured a squirrel got up in there and chewed some wires......bingo! Found the outside temp sensor and the wire was broken to it. I managed to get the wire released from its clip so I could get enough slack to get it down where I could strip it back and splice it, and got the other chunk off the sensor. I appreciate how far car manufacturers have come with water proofing wiring, but why does every clip have a different way of being held on the damn part? Some you push down on a tab, some you lift up, some you pull a tab out - it goes on and on and it's really frustrating when you can't even see what it is you're trying to unhook! Anyway......I got the wires spliced and taped up and went to start the car - OMG! Everything is now working correctly!
So what the heck does the temperature sensor have to do with TPMS and park sensors, let alone start stop and a whole host of other issues? Mind you, it's the outside temp sensor, nothing to do with the motor temp sensors.
So, it's all buttoned up and since this is the car that Rose wants for her daily, having all those warnings go off every time she started it was disconcerting to say the least - so happy wife, happy life! :cheer: :dance: :celebrate: :great: :13:
She's still worried that there are things wrong with her car - I made the mistake of telling her about the rear sensor wire - but maybe after a few weeks of it working correctly she'll stop worrying...... maybe - not likely.....
Oh, and I took the hitch back off (how I found the cut rear sensor wire), I may put it on the white 2017 - which has been designated my daily now - but I don't know if I'm going to need it to tow the green Mini or not. Maybe if I go to the CMU event in April, or if I wind up doing a Texas run with you all.......I'm not sure yet.
The dealer had quoted me over $500 for the rear harness to the car, he had said that was the only way to get the part I needed, but in fairness I think he misunderstood what part I was talking about cause today I went online and saw the part available from numerous sources - I also learned the correct name - liftgate kick sensor.
Today I went down and sure enough the fourth parts guy who tried found it, so I have a new one on order and it should be in tomorrow. Once that's fixed that should be it for the car - she's been driving it and reports that not only is everything working correctly, there seems to be even more "stuff" in the instruments and on the dash that she might not have noticed before. At any rate, as I said before - happy wife, happy life. She really likes the car and in fact is surprised how much more she likes it over the 2014.
Speaking of the 2014, it's still unsold on the Mercedes dealer's lot, tho we noticed they've backed the price off $500 from the stupid high price they put on it initially, I think they're still several thousand high on their asking price, even considering the car was absolutely immaculate and needed nothing and the miles were reasonable for the year 80K on a 10 year old car would be considered low mile - and being a Texas car it didn't suffer the corrosion that it would have gotten if it lived it's life in KC.
Giving up on flat towing all together or just not going to keep trying to get this electric nightmare figured out?
Neither.....no place I need to tow the car to right now, till maybe next spring. And then it will be with the 2017 white car, so when I install the hitch I'll have another go at the wiring. One of the guys on the Audi forum posted some pretty good pics and diagrams that I think will let me get it sorted.
You're taking the VW bus to Hallet next weekend?
Yeah I'll have the bus and vespa over there. Suppose to be low 80s in the day and mid upper 50s at night according to the 10 day forcast.
I can't believe it's only been 8 months since we bought this car - so far it's been dead reliable, no more warnings or check engine lights - and it now has all of 17,100 miles on it!
Rose has been studying the owner's manual and in particular has discovered all sorts of things about the music system.....it sounds quite a bit better than what we had in the 2014 black one, and she's found that it has its own hard drive which will hold 80 gig of whatever you want to listen too, so she's up loaded all sorts of her favorites. It also has a place where you can plug in a thumb drive, a place to insert a card, and of course still has Sirius. I haven't done the same with the white car as I rarely listen to the radio, even on long trips. She also found that you can play CD movies on the center display, but the car has to be in park - it might be fun to see if this can be disabled so she could watch a movie on a long drive.....
We're both still learning how to use the MMI and all it's hidden tricks, sometimes that's fun but then I forget how I got to that particular setting and have to go searching again. I tried the "Offroad" setting on the suspension while driving up a friends long, gravel, rutted driveway but didn't really feel any difference.
So far we're really happy with both cars, it's always a gamble buying a used car, especially a tech-ed up German car....but I think these will do well for us.
I wish it had a damn oil dipstick as I just don't trust the on-board reading, but while you can buy a universal one, it's also a PITA to fit it to the car.
While we're waiting for the new sunroof drain tubes to come in, I've been getting some little things sorted on the Allroad - in particular I noticed one of the tires - while it had plenty of tread - had a date code of 0318 which meant it was not only weather checked, it was about at the end of it's life on time too. Then I found 2 of the tires on the 2017 Allroad have 2017 datecodes!
So, simple solution, buy new tires for both cars, or.......hang on, two of the tires on the 2018 have 2021 codes, and 2 of the tires on the 2017 have 2022 codes, and they all have almost exactly the same amount of tread depth.
So, the 2022 tires went onto the 2018 car to replace the old ones, and now I have all tires with 21 or 22 date codes. I'll buy one new set of tires for the other car.
The cool thing was both cars have exactly the same brand and model tire, and the exact same wheels. All I had to do was unbolt and bolt them on, easy peasy. Except.....
First of all, these tire/wheel combos are freakin heavy! They're 18" wheels with 245/45 rubber. So I got my floor jack out and raised one car, then got my other floor jack out and did the same for the other car. Then I noticed the lug bolts have covers on them, so I got out my angled pick and finagled all of them off, then got the wheels off and swapped. The whole job took like 3 hours.....
Next I need to repair the electrical connection in the rear compartment.....but it's pretty cold out today, maybe warmer tomorrow.
And the tire pressure monitors just sync automatically when you shuffle the [tire/wheel] deck between cars?
These cars use the same setup as your MINI, using the ABS sensors to read the pressure difference. So, I reset the pressure in all the tires and then reset the computer.
Wow I didn't know that tire pressure method was still being used in the late twenty-teens.
It sure is nice to not have to worry about TPMS units going out $$$$$$.
Yes, I was surprised too - the upside is not worrying about batteries going dead or buying new ones when they fail, the downside is it doesn't give me the location for the low tire, just puts up the general warning that there's one or more low - like when we start getting these cold nights......I always get the warning then have to drag out the air hose and top them off again, then reset the warning light.
But that's OK, I really should be checking them more often anyway.....as it is I doubt I check them more than a couple times a year, spring and fall.
The sunroof saga continues. The tubes came in and I brought the car in early Wed morning, they said it might take 2 days. Thursday afternoon came and nothing. Fri about noon I called and left a message for a call back.
Crickets......
The last time this happened - with our 92 CS100 at another Audi dealer - the car wound up getting totaled (due to water ingress - the reason it was there!), so with some trepidation I went to the dealership today. The car was outside (I had requested they leave it indoors as it was raining!) and the interior was disassembled but the headliner was still in place. He brought the car indoors and it will stay there thru the weekend as they're closed now. It's supposed to be dry all next week so that shouldn't be an issue.
I got my flashlight out and did some exploring....I pulled the headliner down at the back edge far enough that I could follow the tube up to the sunroof cassette and see where it attaches. I looked at the new tubes, they're made out of pretty stout stuff so I'm at a loss to see how they would fail. One of the service guys said the soft pliable connector that attaches the tube to the cassette is what fails - we'll see when I get to see the old one that comes out of the car.
I also see how they route it down thru the c pillar and where it goes down and out of the body. It's a fairly short run, but I still cannot see any way to get to the upper end from inside the car to run a piece of string trimmer line thru it or blow air thru it to clear it in the future.
I can tell you that it's a miserable job to replace these, and I can't see any way to do it without removing the entire headliner, which is a major, nasty job in itself. Making these so buried and maintenance proof is a bad decision on Audi's part, and when the job is done I intend to write a sternly worded letter to Audi asking for recompense.
I'll post some pics with captions next.....
These pics show what I found when I went there this morning......
In this pic I pulled the headliner down far enough to see up inside, the bright blue tube is the drain tube. View is looking forward from the back edge of the headliner
This is where the blue tube goes down thru the C pillar....you can just see the blue tube in the first pic, then another view looking down along the edge of the C pillar where it goes down thru the body shell
This was somewhat interesting, this flat orange cable is the high voltage (48 volt) cable that goes to the starter for the stop/start feature.
I hesitate to call it a feature because I don't like it and try to remember to shut it off whenever I start the car. It doesn't use it much if the weather is really hot and the A/C is trying to catch up but on a cool day like today it pretty much works at every stop light.....it can be a PITA.
Look at all the electrical bits under the back seat! I have no idea what any of these are for......
Oh, and the reason for the delay? They claim they broke a seat back release cable and had to order it, and it won't be in till next Wed.
Why does that impact the sunroof drain repair? No idea......
Got our 2018 back from the Audi dealer today, and I'm still not convinced that the problem is sorted......I got the old hoses and saw no damage, cracks, hardened rubber bits (in fact the old tubes were far more flexible than the new ones) and so on. It was explained to me that the outlet end is where the problem happens. There is a sort of rubber valve that's supposed to let the water out that gets clogged up, then the water backs up the tube and goes where ever it wants too. In our case with such a slope to our drive it heads to the back corner of the car.
The new and improved hoses have a different valve at the end that supposedly will not get clogged up.
Seems to me the easy button would be to just go to the outlet end and use a pick or something to open it up and let the water out rather than take the whole interior of the car apart to change these tubes. They did give me the old hoses, and I will be writing a strongly worded letter to Audi about their poor design and the cost of the repairs ($1800 - they cut me a break. $1327.50 in labor, 141 in tax, the rest in parts etc.)
I still need to repair the corroded wires in the back and see if I can get the rest of the various things back there to work again and stop putting up 15 warning lights and chimes every time she starts the car.
I know she's glad to get it back and all, but she has her eye on another 2018 for sale at the local Genesis dealer.....it's red! Has 39K vs the 19K on this one.....I don't see the point but I know she'll never "trust" this car from now on.
Here's a pic of the old and new hoses showing the problem end....
So my silver 2018 Audi Allroad is still throwing codes by the handsfull, I took it to a buddy who has one of those real code readers instead of my HF scanner and it indicated a possible problem with the ride height sensor in the left front, so I went online and found a factory replacement for about 10% of what the dealer wanted for one and yesterday in the 25* temps I managed to change it out. No improvement....
So Ima take it down to his place again and read and clear the codes one more time and see if anything different pops up from the last time. If nothing obvious pops up I'll take it to Audi and see what they say.
I'm wondering if the body control module is bad, since it was under water in that rear corner.....the dealer's price on that is also 3 times what I can buy it for - from other Audi dealers!
More as it happens, but I know Rose would like her car back working properly......so would I.
I did fix the broken and corroded wires, and that restored the "kick to open" feature on the back hatch.
Probably what water damage. What a pain. I hate all the new car sensors. Bunch of crap.
The ride height sensor made sense only because two of the issues are with the headlight self-adjustment and the suspension.....the shocks are adjustable and the default seems to be "rock hard"....we also see warning lights for the "Pre-sense" and the side park sensor among other things - tho those have nothing to do with ride or headlight adjustments!
I had not encountered what the pre-sense does till one day slowly backing out of a parking space between a monster truck and a monster SUV, all of a sudden the brake slammed on and a car went screaming by behind me at about 45 mph! Saved a wreck for sure.....
Altogether there are currently 5 warning lights on, and a further one that blinks when stopped at a light with the brakes on....that one is a park sensor warning too. On start up we get warning chimes for each of these problems, one after the other - it's annoying to say the least, then as you drive the warning lights cycle thru on the dash, one after another, endlessly.
So, if resetting the codes doesn't do it (and I doubt it will) and if we get the same results on the reader, then it will go to Audi. After paying $2k to fix the drain tubes, I expect this could cost as much!
I also removed the left rear inner wheel well liner so I could locate the ends of the drain tubes, now I know exactly where they come out so I can inspect them from time to time. I also found where a chipmunk has been nesting on top of the liner while he munches on pin oak nuts from the front yard. I cleaned that out and the three large mud daubber nests I found as well. I think those were in the car when it came up from Louisiana based on the color of the mud and the fact we've never seen wasps buzzing around the car.
So once we got the leaks sorted I was still having some left over issues. After a consultation with both the You Tube Mechanics Academy and the service guys at Audi, we concluded that the potentially immersed body control module is the problem - Rose thinks that's only part of the problem, and she is the consummate internet researcher so she may be right, but I digress.
I looked long and hard all over the net and found a module with the exact same part number as mine, and from a 2018 Allroad for about $100, I ordered it and it came in today. I know that these modules have to be coded to the car, but I installed it anyway. It didn't work, so I get to change it back so I can drive the car over to the dealer and let them do it.
One of my buddies who has a very fancy scan tool says they've had very little luck coding used modules to a different car (he mostly works on MINIs), but the Audi dealer said they do it all the time, although once in a great while it fails to work. His opinion is that when that happens it's because of a bad used module and not the fault of the process or the tools.
I may be able to get it in Monday even tho they are currently scheduling work into the second week of Feb right now, we'll see on Monday when my friend/service writer/next door neighbor is back to work.
One other note, I do not understand why mfrs use 5 completely different methods of latching the wiring connectors to the module for the 5 sets of wires I need to move..... each different and each requiring a completely different method to release them! PITA!
Thank you for your attention to this matter. :grin:
Took the Audi to the dealer this morning to get the new body control module installed and coded to the car, I sure hope that fixes what's bothering it, but we'll see.
However, today I learned - you cannot order an Audi with a solid metal roof (no sunroof) BUT you can order it with a solid glass panel roof (like a Tesla for example) with a retractable shade for those hot summer days. For someone who just wants the additional light and open feeling without the noise (and potential leaks) of an opening sunroof - this could be the answer.
So the Audi is still at the dealership, which I don't find encouraging......the only word I've gotten so far was that it was in the shop on Wed - it takes 5 min to change the module, but I understand coding it to the car can take hours?
At any rate, if I don't get a call on Monday I'll pop over and talk to them in person.
New wrinkle in this Audi story......the tech installed the module and went to code it in, after a few moments he got a message that said basically "contact Audi before going further", which was a moot point since the machine would not GO forward with the coding till after he contacted Audi, got "permission" and received a code that would let the machine resume the install coding process.
He says he usually gets the reply message from Audi same day, sometimes it takes overnight. Apparently Audi makes sure the module I bought is correct for my car or it will not let it be installed. If it's not compatible I'll be buying a new one from Audi. Big Bux. Tech says he's only had one module that he wasn't able to code in so far in all the years he's been doing it, and it wasn't one of these but rather the one that recognizes the key.
Man, cars are complicated these days.
Quote from: MiniDave on January 05, 2026, 01:29:00 PMMan, cars are complicated these days.
They sure are. In fact everything seems to be.
So, we may have found the problem......damn squirrels - or mice or chipmonks.....I'm going to the local Honda dealer and buy a roll of their "rodent proof" tape. I know it's kinda spendy, but it's still cheaper than having Audi work on the car!!!
Once this is all sorted and everything is working correctly again, the next thing I need to do is replace a motor mount. These are not only liquid filled but electronically controlled as well......I know Honda uses this design too 'cause my son had to replace a few over the 300K miles he drove his Odyssey. Mine is just beginning to seep, so it can go a while yet.
Oh, and the new BCM I bought didn't fix anything after it was finally coded in.
Yeah that's a problem
I ordered two rolls of Honda's rodent proof tape, once the car comes back I'll spend some time re-wrapping as much of the wiring as I can reach.
I've also seen little cans of "repellent" of some kind that you can stick under the hood etc, unsure if I'm going to need those too. That Honda tape is pretty expensive - I paid $83 for two rolls, but an hour of diagnostic time at Audi is $250, so if it works it's worth it.
First time I've had to deal with this on any of our cars in the 32 years I've lived here. But not the first time I've had to fix "broken" wires on this car - when I got back from our trip to Rushmore in '24, shortly after I had a bunch of warning lights come on, that turned out to be the wires for the outside air temp sensor in the grill. I wondered then what might have caused them to break but did not think it was rodentia....
Apparently you have to wear gloves when wrapping this stuff on your wires as it's infused with some kind of pepper oil and you don't want to get it on your hands - or anywhere else!
Oh, and I had the pin oak tree that's over the driveway trimmed up too - $1500 worth! Getting tree work done has really gotten spendy....but there's no way I can climb a 100 ft tall tree and trim branches - that's a younger man's game now.
(https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/YLUAAeSwLKtpXWwi/s-l1600.webp)
Not sure what they use to make their wiring, but mice, red squirrels and chipmunks love German wiring.
Dont ask me how I know...
That tape is crazy expensive!
Maybe the car was traded in due to wire eating rodents and you're having to deal with what issues are still there? I've never personally had a car eaten up by rodents. I've had my fair share of harness issues. That rear driving light on the bus I finally gave up trying to find it and just ran a new wire.
Problem with rodents is that they leave behind pheromones that attract new rodents. I bought a Mercedes GLS450 that had signs of a rodent starting to live in the engine bay: footprints in the dust on the engine cover, some damage to the insulating foam on the firewall. No visible damage to the wires and so far no issues over the past 3 years.
Whenever the car is planned to be parked for more than a week, I have to first spray the engine bay and around the tires with repellant to prevent new rodents from trying to enter.
No question I've had rodents up in the engine bay, the car lives under a pin oak tree, and every year it gets bombarded with pin nuts, and when they drop from the top of the tree it's like a bomb going off when they hit the car!
My 2009 MINI looked like it had very fine hail damage as the dings were tiny, but you could see them in the right light, all over the car.
In the fall I have to clear out leaves and other tree debris up in the plenum and around the wipers, under the back edge of the hood almost daily. and I've found evidence that there's something been up on the plastic cover over the engine munching on the nuts as I find the shells all over it.
Quote from: 94touring on January 13, 2026, 11:06:25 AMMaybe the car was traded in due to wire eating rodents and you're having to deal with what issues are still there? I've never personally had a car eaten up by rodents. I've had my fair share of harness issues. That rear driving light on the bus I finally gave up trying to find it and just ran a new wire.
Well, everything worked perfectly for a year, then when it failed it failed big time all at once.....the chewed wires make sense for that.
Quote from: scalpel_ninja on January 13, 2026, 11:59:49 AMWhenever the car is planned to be parked for more than a week, I have to first spray the engine bay and around the tires with repellant to prevent new rodents from trying to enter.
What do you use? How quickly does it wear off? Does it smell when you start driving again?
I read that peppermint oil is supposed to be effective at putting them off?
Quote from: cdnmini on January 13, 2026, 10:25:48 AMNot sure what they use to make their wiring, but mice, red squirrels and chipmunks love German wiring.
Dont ask me how I know...
That tape is crazy expensive!
I recall the wire insulation is Soya based. Probably even tastier when warmed!
German wiring...made from various nuts and wrapped in squirrel bedding lol.
I know Mercedes had real problems right around 2K, tho in their case the coating became brittle and just literally fell off the wires, leading to massive shorts and melted harnesses.
It's not just the Germans, there's a reason this tape is called "Honda Rodent Proof Tape"
Quote from: MiniDave on January 13, 2026, 01:15:21 PMQuote from: scalpel_ninja on January 13, 2026, 11:59:49 AMWhenever the car is planned to be parked for more than a week, I have to first spray the engine bay and around the tires with repellant to prevent new rodents from trying to enter.
What do you use? How quickly does it wear off? Does it smell when you start driving again?
I read that peppermint oil is supposed to be effective at putting them off?
I use this stuff (https://www.homedepot.com/p/TOMCAT-14-oz-Rodent-Repellent-for-Indoor-and-Outdoor-Mouse-and-Rat-Prevention-Continuous-Spray-036830605/302683092?source=shoppingads&locale=en-US&fp=ggl). It's peppermint oil and isn't overpowering after a day goes by. It says it lasts 6 weeks, but I've never had to park it for longer than 4. So it at least works for that amount of time.
Picked up the Audi from the dealer yesterday, the wiring repairs they did seem pretty good, and the car drives like it used to, tho there are still two warning lights on. I'll take it over to my buddy John's where I can get it up on the rack and see if I can find some more broken/chewed wires - I'm pretty sure these will be in the back but I couldn't see the point in paying them their $250/hr labor rate to do what I'm more than capable of doing.
They suggested pulling the rear bumper cover off to look for the bad wires, but I think once up on the ramp I can probably find and fix whatever's bad. I'm going to have to wait a few days tho, it'll be single digit temps the next few days and John's shop doesn't have heat. I also am waiting for the RPT (rodent proof tape) to come in so I can wrap all the exposed and accessible harness parts.
I may go ahead and pull the inner wheel well liners off both rear wheels as I found a nest and a lot of nut remains on top of the left one, I don't know if there's a way to keep them out of there or not but I'm going to look into it. I have to leave at least a small area open as the sunroof drain is behind the liner - what a stupid design!
We had some of that peppermint spray - Rose was using it to try and keep the squirrels out of some potted plants she had - it didn't seem to do much as they would eat the flowers off the hibiscus, then chew the smaller ones all the way to the stem of the plant.
It's interesting to drive both of these cars back to back - there are small differences that can be felt - the 2018 engine seems slightly smoother and just a smidge more responsive, the brakes def feel better on initial bite on it too, tho that could be down to brake pads. Both cars are identical spec, the 2017 just has a few more miles - 35K vs 19K - but both are one owner pampered cars. The 2017 has had all the services done at the Audi dealer, the 2018 hasn't had any before I got it - all it had were two oil changes done at a local shop in Louisiana where it came from..
Quote from: MiniDave on January 16, 2026, 09:32:20 AMWe had some of that peppermint spray - Rose was using it to try and keep the squirrels out of some potted plants she had - it didn't seem to do much as they would eat the flowers off the hibiscus, then chew the smaller ones all the way to the stem of the plant.
My wife uses Vaseline with some kind of hot pepper mixed in to keep the squirrels from eating the flower buds on the rhododendron. She smears it on the buds and it is fairly rainproof, so one application seems to work... if she gets to them before the squirrels.
You need a cat!
Ha! We have two Mini Poodoos, but they mostly stay in the house. However, if they are outside, no squirrel will venture into the yard, not even up in the trees!
Lately the backyard squirrel population has been decimated by some owls and hawks that have moved into the 'hood, not enough to keep the farking bastiches from eating the wiring on the Audi tho, it seems!
We also have seen a sharp decrease in the number of bunnies too, and an increase in fox sightings. Funny how that works.....
We had a mountain lion taken out by a car a few weeks back up in this area. If they are moving in at any sort of numbers it will probably thin all sorts of smaller and larger animal populations. We have a ton of bobcats up here now and they really put a hurting on turkey populations for a while.