If you read yesterday about my car's excessive problems, then you know I took the car in yesterday morning at 8am for my 40k service, to have headlight switch replaced (lights not coming on sometimes), third fix for remote key range being less than five feet, and my armrest falling randomly. They ordered a new armrest (4th one), replaced the light switch (perfect), and fixed my keyless range (now upwards of 20feet...PERFECT, finally on their third try). However, when I picked car up at 6pm, no locks worked at all except the driver's door. Not with the interior switch or the remote. I turn around and return the car at 6:30pm, and pick it back up at 9pm... only to realize that the locks worked perfectly, except that the pump which actuates the locks will not shut off. It runs constantly. New part ordered for that now. It is getting funny now, actually. Already made call in to my regional service manager. Should be an interesting meeting. <br>I obviously am the exception, with these abundant problems. Don't panic about your A4, I hold the record and you're not likely to break it... no pun intended.<br>Conker 98 1.8TS-tip

I'd say you have a lemon, squeeze it on some fish before you go for the real thing. Those locks really need to be fixed, maybe on the third try you will get everything fixed. Though your falling off arm rest has convinced me not to get one. I don't want to deal with that going. Hopefully you will get a new car. Or maybe your car will finally behave itself. Hopefully one or the other will happen.

12<br>

nt i said

I've had mine in repeatedly for suspension, oil burning, the list goes on, and remote not working. The remote was supossedly "fixed" last week. Today it has failed again. <p>A4 owners should be very concerned about the reliability of these vehicles. The fact that these problems have been around for so many years and are still showing up on new models tells you where the priorities of the engineers are when it comes to reliability.<p>I'm beginnig to be very afraid that the widespread problems with these cars will start to become more public and resale values will plummet.<p>I glad to see so many recent "reliability" posts. Its about time these issues were raised and something done about it.

Not to start a flame war or anything, but from what I have seen read and heard, the A4 is one of the most reliable cars on the road. My sister who has had two different Hondas is having more problems with the two then my A4. My 1992 Saturn SL2 had more problems then my 1997 A4 1.8TQM. I bought my A4 pre-owned with 14400 on the Odo, and from the service records the only problem it was in for was at 200 miles, and that was a washer nozzle that gave the car next to it a bath when used.<br>Since I have had the car, only thing that has caused me to complain was a cracked fuse box, a broken parking brake handle (my father broke when I was away on vacation) and a buzzing noise that turned out it was comming from my briefcase with my sparepair of eyeglasses.<br>Normally on a forum like this you will see problems come out. To give you an idea, I'm a ham radio operator, and everyonce in a while I will look at the Yaesu forum, and I will read about problems with filters, auto tunners, and power output. And a few other problems and yet, my radio has never exhibited those problems.<br>Also, a car is an extremely complex machine, and there are bound to be problems. Whenever you have parts that move, there will be problems. <br>Is the A4 a problematic car, no more than your average Honda. Also before we go about and start talking about the remote range, let me give you an idea, remotes are very interesting items, and it depends more on transmitter then reciever. Sometimes just the angle can be wrong. There have been times I have been 3 feet away from the car and I could not hit it, other times more then 200 feet and I can hit it no problem. It depends on existing conditions.

I looked into the lemon law, and my miles actually make it more expensive for Audi to repurchase it than for me to sell it. Audi agreed to $1500 off next Audi purchase, but I will meet with Regional guy to inquire about additional options. Good luck,<br>Conker

Let me add a few new ones you haven't heard before. Each dealer experience requires a 175 mile round trip and usually two trips, one to diagnose the problem and the other to perform the repair.<p>1) broken actuating cable made it impossible to open driver's door from the inside. Had to lower window and open from outside until part arrived.<p>2) faulty fuel injector leaked on cold start only when ambient temperature was below 32 degrees F. Raw gas smell in passenger compartment. Leak stopped as soon as engine warmed up. I live at 3700 ft elevation. Dealer is at 700 ft. He couldn't duplicate the problem since it was never cold enough at his shop for it to leak. Fifth trip, overnight motel bill, and a sub-freezing morning finally demonstrated problem and resulted in fix. In retrospect, I would have been better off if the sucker had caught fire and burned. BTW, I would have bought another A4.<p>3) Instrument lights in climate control windows flicker to full brightness every 3-4 minutes. Climate control head has been replaced twice. Still flickers. Given up on that one.<p>4) Did you know that the numbers on the seat heater control wheels are printed on sticky backed paper and stuck to the plastic drum? I found that out when the glue failed, the paper caught up in the back of the knob, rendering it unturnable. New seat heater control on order.<p>5) Defective spark plug wire. Skipping, bucking, lurching. Dealer did not have spark plug wire in stock! Another double round trip.<p>6) Both heated mirrors failed. Both replaced and not heating again. Windshield washer nozzle heaters are also inop. Will replace them as well this fall.<p>7) Annoying whine in transmission at 48 and 68 mph. Sound deadening shields installed per TSB. Still whines. (No derogatory comments about whining please!) I'm just stating my experiences.<p>8) On 6th instrument cluster. Dinger broke on 5 and mechanic screwed up mileage on one.<p>9) Left control arm bushing groaning and creaking. Replaced. Starting to hear familiar groaning sounds again. (Once again, no derogatory comments please.) It's probably the other one starting to go.<p>There's even more, but I've taken up enough space here. I do love my Audi and will probably buy another one before the warranty is up on this one. It just couldn't happen twice in a row, could it?<p>Does that make me the record holder.<p>FYI, I'm in my 60s and have owned many different cars, German, Swedish (dog), Japanese, and American. I've NEVER, except for the Volvo, encountered a string of aggravating problems like this before.<p>early '98 QTip, stock

This past weekend the rear passenger side door suddenly stopped working. The door could be opened from the outside, but not from inside of the car. This sounds similar to your broken actuating cable (no the child safety locks are NOT on). How much did this cost to get repaired. Were you able to do it yourself?<p>Thanks.

Kind of scary when it happens to you in the middle of a left hand turn!!<p>Paul<br>'98.5 A4 1.8TQ in Pearl