We had a curious incident with our Audi A4 this week - my wife went to put it in the garage after coming home from school and the engine fired and immediately cut out. It did this several times.
Then I realised that the immobiliser was playing up and tried another key. And the car started and ran.
Presumably the chip in the key has failed and I'll have to buy another key (the local locksmith has a machine that reads these chips and can do a key far more cheaply than the thieves of Audi).
But I wondered: has anybody else had a key fail like this? (My wife swears she has not dropped the key, left it sitting on a computer in electrical fields, etc). Could it be a sign of some fault developing in the immobiliser itself?
I know immobilisers or some part of the locking system in these cars did fail and I believe mine has been fixed - there are different keys for the boot and the ignition. It is a '96 1.9 TDI with abouty 140,000 on the clock.
Any tips/warnings muchly appreciated ...
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Most likely different keys for boot, doors compared to ignition was due to a kid with a screwdriver and a baseball cap
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The A4 (like some other VW-group cars) has a problem with the transponder pick-up coil (around the ign. barrel) failing - it could be that.
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Ha! For fear of being 'punished' by saying VAG cars are cr@p....but my A4 TDi (1997) does exactly the same, abeit intermittantly.
Fires and stops all within about a second. This will perhaps 'happen' for up to 20 tries....then all of a sudden she'll start.
I havn't tried different keys but it smacks of a transponder fault doesn't it?
Oh well, I'll just live with it until it totally packs up!
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Well, I took the two keys down to the locksmith today and it turns out that they have different codes - three of the digits in the long sequence are corrupted on the key that won't work. Then I went to the local Audi garage, who tell me that I have to take all keys and the car in, and they have to reprogram the system using a special code that will be emailed from Audi.
These damn cars aren't very well thought-out -- they put an aircon evaporator in them that came from the Audi 80 and wasn't able to cope with the higher pressure of the newer gas system; they put in poor quality catalysts that gave out; the front suspension is dodgy; they use plastic components that are inadequate - for example the hinge on the throttle pedal is plastic and the thing falls apart. Most annoyingly, if you want to change the cambelt you have to remove the whole front of the car including the radiator and headlights -- this apparently done so that the car could be a few inches shorter.
Next time I'll buy a Toyota -- dull, pedestrian, but the things work and are easy to work on. Vorsprung durch obfuscation, I say!
Anyway, if it happens to anyone else, -- try the other key -- and I'm glad to find that this hasn't happened just to me David ...
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>> Next time I'll buy a Toyota -- dull, pedestrian, but the things work and are easy to work on.
There speaks someone who has never had to change the sparkplugs on a Supra or the cambelt on an MR2 or the distributor cap on a Previa....;-)
Simplicate and add lightness!
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"Most annoyingly, if you want to change the cambelt you have to remove the whole front of the car including the radiator and headlights -- this apparently done so that the car could be a few inches shorter"
Yep - that really got my goat when it came to cambelt change time - what a stupid idea!
A picture of my A4 during the 'extensive surgery' required to change the cambelt can be seen here members.aol.com/d4vidlacey/audi_bits.jpg
From there you can see how the front panel hinges out of the way but it was quite a bit of work to get it that far, believe me.
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Thankyou David!
I was wondering why engine hoists were becoming less common....its because you have to move the car away from the engine by dismantling rather than moving the engine away from the car!
Ian
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