MainelyA8

Good morning,

New member here, and I figured I'd make an introductory post and say hello to everyone.

I just bought an 05 A8L two days ago, and I love it! I sold my 2013 Taurus to get this car. Quite the difference!

It has around 129k, but all of the major maintenance items have already been done. There's a long list of service records, but I'm still going to try and get the maintenance records from the dealership sometime this week.

Immediate plans for this week include:

-Changing the cabin air filter (Mann-Filter)
-Changing the engine air filter (Mann-Filter)
-Oil change
-Spark plugs (Bosch?)
-Updating the MMI/Nav to the newest versions, if they aren't already
-Replacing the accessory belt (Gates)
-Coolant exchange (I'm getting the red low coolant message upon cold startups)
-Replacing the fog light bulbs with LED ones


Any other advice on things to check? I will be doing the above maintenance myself. It doesn't need those, but I like to start with changing a few things like that. I was very glad to see that the spark plugs are easily accessible on the 4.2l.

The only thing that I think might be an issue are the factory HIDs seem kind of dull, but I'll start a new thread on that.

Mister Bally

Assuming you read the sticky at the top of the D3 thread, verify that the timing belt was replaced . If not, consider replacing it as a top priority. When doing this, the headlight HID lamps are easy to get to.

Don't worry about the nav or Lmk, your phone offers real-time traffic that is much more useful.

Follow the sticky and get a genuine VAG-COM diagnostic interface. Also a good service manual as well.

MP4.2+6.0

Welcome. Yes, get to bottom of when/if timing belt was done. If done by book, you are 20K miles away (by book) from doing it again. If anything, a good answer might be it was done, but a bit "late."

Filters: from having gone the non-dealer route but sticking to OES like Mann in the past, often now they are actually a bit cheaper if you go via online dealer rather than from other top tier supplier sources. Odd result, but Audi moved some of the maintenance parts down in price some years ago, and also reduced dealer sell through margins on them.

Spark plugs will be somewhat cheaper if you work back to the original OES and part number. It's either Bosch or NGK; might have been Bosch on a 4.2 D3. Was NGK on my 2000 A6 4.2, and is on my 2006 W12.

LED fogs. Sounds like show and no go to me to be honest. Tweaking things spectrum wise from factory--especially toward anything bluish--is way suboptimal for actual fog. Plus, for reflectors are set up for filament position of the OE bulbs, not the random and often multiple positions of the likely multiple LED's in a bulb assembly or the alternate HID rear stuff. Use them as designed--true fog/bad weather. Clean up HID output if that is weak.

HID headlight bulbs. Yes, by 2000 hours they can be down 50% on output. Do the math and you conclude on a 10 year old car and any rational assumption for night use they have effectively clocked out effectiveness wise if never changed. A variety of posts around on the Nightbreaker type improvements, still with quality OES type suppliers and D2S compliant bulbs, if you can avoid the counterfeits that can be hard to sort. Search archives before more of likely same post reprises. Archives usually more comprehensive than who ever responds this round, with ever increasing owner turnover.

Coolant: yes, get that fixed. At least top up for now. Then check for leaks--it doesn't just "evaporate." Then if all good, yes consider doing a full flush. More so for about a pre 2007ish that may have the non-silicate G12+ stuff they quietly completyel phased out for G12++ (silicates) or now its silicate G13 successor. If full belt job was ever done though--including water pump and thermostat--it likely got changed, at least a good amount of it. Beyond this post, but I have laid out the rationale in prior posts if you search. Gets at internal passage wear--more a W12 watch area--and probably heater core longevity for any of the first several years of builds.

I don't know if you are pre-Bluetooth (if so, ET feel good red button OnStar roof paper weight) or with Bluetooth. Split is in 2005. If post, the MMI update is somewhat more useful--besides killing lawyer screen , maybe straightening out some surround sound anomalies and an altitude display, later revs clean up bluetooth somewhat supposedly, though never fully documented. Use legit disks--inexpensive from dealer--and be sure you know the necessary sequence of updating depending on what version you are on now. Search is your friend--covered dozens of times now, if not a hundred.

Go through all the maintenance lubrication points too--doors, sunroof, and especially every possible movement point for the trunk, its hinges and related not so reliable motorized assist. Many issues seem compounded by poor lubrication and binding hinges.

MainelyA8

Thanks for the responses! I did read the sticky prior to posting, and am currently bidding on a used Ross Tech cable on eBay. The place I bought the car from also said that they would let me use theirs whenever I desired, but I consider it a good investment. I'm hoping to find a way around ordering the CDs, since I do not have access to Windows XP. A subscription may be in my future instead.


There is a sticker on the top of the engine air box stating when the timing belt was done, and I have about another 15k miles before it needs to be done again. I will probably end up replacing it a little bit sooner, just to be cautious.


I have in my Amazon cart right now, the cabin and engine air filters, and a set of spark plugs. I'm thinking I'll pull a plug first though to see what the OEM ones in there now are.


For the fog lights, I was planning on getting a set of yellow bulbs. I've found that they are pretty useful in inclement weather, especially compared to the blue/purpleish bulbs that are on a lot of cars.


I'll search for the posts on the HID bulbs. From what I've read so far, them sound annoying to replaced unless you have very small hands. Would the dealership be a good place to source these from? I'm sure they would be slightly more expensive than online, but I would at least be able to avoid counterfeits.


The coolant color looks decent, so I'm hoping that it has already been changed, and I can top it off without having anything leak.


Thanks for all of the info!

911 Crazy

Welcome. Wow, another Mainer! Where in S. Maine are you?

MP4.2+6.0

On cable, be sure you are bidding on the later Ross-Tech CAN+USB. The earlier HEX only works on D2 era Audi's, but except for the label they look very similar.

Coolant (and belt): try to find timing belt paperwork to know what was going on service wise, and especially on water pump, thermostat, etc. If it was the quickie belt only type job, more reason to get in there and do the full replace--cooling stuff, helper pulleys, tensioner, etc.

If you can't crack the XP conundrum, you can use allldatadiy (.com) as an online subscription approach. What I use w/ my Mac since I don't want bother with the Windows environment stuff for Mac. I use a 10 plus year old otherwise worthless small laptop still on XP to run just Bentley and VCDS.

If you aren't doing timing belt, I go in to the headlight bulbs via the plastic fender liners on each side. There is a seam right about where the suspension strut is where it shifts to the felt liner, so you are only pulling about 90 to 100 degrees of the liner instead of all of it. I try to do it when I already have to pull wheels for some other reason--brakes, snow tires, whatever. Takes me about 30 minutes a side for R&R of liner and a little surrounding cosmetic clean up now, using new sacrificial plastic push in (factory) rivet fasteners that the dealer sells inexpensively. An hour plus maybe for a first timer as you get to know it. If you intend to work on Audi D3's up front, you will get to know this procedure sometime anyway. Then you are cleanly at the HID rear cover, more so for a little working room since the safety catch on the ignitor can be a little trick on how it interlocks with the wiring end connector as you twist the ignitor on the back of the bulb. (The bulb is inserted or removed as a final step, with a spring wire retainer like many Euro HID's and halogens. You will pay about 3x for bulbs if you go dealer rather than a little bit of a dice roll on the source of the Osram Nightbreaker Unlimited or other respected choices: Gas discharge headlight lamps for cars | OSRAM Don't assume Amazon ones are legit BTW either, even more so if it is a third party seller using the Amazon platform.

sbcrazy

+1 on buying a separate laptop just for the audi. I got a hp laptop with windows 7 for $40 on Craigslist, it is great because i can use vcds and store all my data and repairs without losing them on my other laptop that is used for everything. Elsawin in another good service manual for the car, you can log repairs and keep a service record all in the program.

The timing belt is definitely a DIY job for most mechanicaly inclined people. There are only a couple steps that are critical so make sure to take your time and not rush.

+1 on changing the fluid over to g13 but i would wait to do that with the timing belt job, just top off now until then. If you are losing coolant than that is another story though.

Congratulations on your purchase, you will find this forum to be the most active and friendly towards new members. With over 500 Pages of threads it can get crazy doing searches sometimes but still try to find the answe before posting a new thread or all you will get is people telling you to search.

P.s.forum moderators, it would be nice to have the 500+pages of threads sorted into sub catagories.

sbcrazy

A little custom work on the new expansion tank.

Hannibalacp82

I love threads like this and I am subbing to follow you on your journey. Never know what I might learn to help me with my S8.

Hannibalacp82

How does one do this? I assume Nav is just buying the newest CD/DVD and throwing it in the drive. The MMI has me a bit confused though.