As I live in the metro NYC and I don't feel like paying $400/month for parking, my car lives at a relavtives house outside the city. My new job has kept me tied up for about a month, so the car hasn't been started in that period of time. Last night I finally got out to get it for a weekend trip, I went to start it in 42 degree weather, and it would not start. I know that we are not supposed to press the accelerator when starting, but after about 2-3 minutes of not being able to start it, I pressed the gas, and on the fourth try, it fired, but very roughly. I let it warm up for about 8 minutes, then drove, very carefully for about 15-20, then back to normal once I saw the temp rise to normal level. This unnerving experience leaves me with 3 questions:

1) What is the maximum interval in between starts to ensure engine life?
2) Is there a better or different starting procedure when the car has been dormant?
3) Is temperature guage or oil temp the best gauge of a warmed up engine? (if oil, what temp?)
Thanks
Jim B. 1999.5 2.8QMS. (and yes, I know it sucks to have a car this great sit for so long).

The A4 has a lot of ghost/parasitic loading on the battery. There are some neat gizmos available if you want to keep the alarm system, but I would just disconnect the battery (maybe get a quick disconnect plug and leave the hood at the first catch.

The oil is the most critical value and it ALWAYS lags behind my coolant temp (unless I have just driven it). The two are pretty similar in rate climb, so it's really moot. I stay out of the turbo until the h2o is top dead center, and the oil is above the 2nd unnumbered hash mark. Use synthetic, it is a lot easier on the starter motor.

Also, disconnecting the battery will, at the least, disable your radio and force you to dig up and reenter the mysterious radio code. Not sure whether or not some ECU functions might suffer, at least temporarily, after a prolonged battery disconnect.

RPF
99.5 2.8 Avant QMS

The radio code portion has to be enabled by the dealer, some have it turned on and some don't. The code takes a couple of seconds to enter in anyways, not a big deal while he sitting there. The ecu is not damaged in any way by this, however it does record the disconnect (so?). My one touch works just fine after I disconnect the battery or the ecu.

The entire car runs on the electrics from the crank angle sensor, the cold start injector, to the individual coils. If he has a big voltage drop from letting it sit then the electrics are the likeliest culprits. If it had bad gasoline it would have continued to run poorly or not at all. The only other realistic possibility is that the gas drained back to the tank and it took a long time to pressurise up (which I 'm not even sure is possible with our setup). The full throttle start that he used is typically a problem of flooding and hot starts, not cold starts.

a month shouldn't present the problems you mention. Contrary to some posts below (which may be correct) I wouldn't disconnect the battery unless its dying and you indicate it was far from dead because it cranked for several minutes. Now days with all of the wacko gadgets on these cars unless you have personal experience you just don't know what feature may be "lost" by loss of power, don't take the risk unnecessarily. There are some bulletins for "cranks but won't start" at http://tech.vw.com/audi/newtech.htm. This car is under warrantee, definately take it back to the dealer and have them check it for stored codes. One additional thought, make sure your gas tank is full before parking it this long, 2 reasons: 1) it will keep condensation from forming in the tank (which could have been your problem you may have just cranked it long enough to pump it through the system) and 2) the longer a car sits the farther the fuel will eventually leak away from the injectors and with an empty tank it just has to work that much longer to get back to the injectors (learned that one from the car guys on public radio last weekend) :-) My bet would be on water in the fuel based on your description of the symptom. Regarding being warmed up, the operators manual makes sense. When the water temp guage is normal at least the part of the engine around the temp sensor is warm, but thats not the whole engine. Although ror practical purposes that temp is probably good enough. Once the oil temp is up to 200 or so your completely warm through and through. The car should run normally though even neither of these guages are up to temp.
Good luck
P