Today, when I left work, the car wouldnât start. Lots of frantic clicks from the relays, and all ancillary electrics in shut down. Flat battery, methinks immediately. I flagged down a colleague and tried jumping it off his battery. All that did was overheat my (very very old) jump leads, and leave me with a burn on my hand. I called my breakdown company, and bless âem, they had a guy there in 35 minutes (in a proper loader too, as my car is a Quattro, and canât be towed). Unfortunately, the truck wouldnât go under the height restrictor to get into the office car park.
He tried jumping it off his portable booster, still not enough to start. So we had to manoeuvre the Audi out of its bay (nine point turn with no brakes or steering) & free wheel it down the ramp to the truck. He asked me if I had any previous problems. I told him the engine light was on after the inlet manifold flap motor link had come off (albeit Iâd reattached it). âNo worriesâ, he said, âI can reset that for youâ.
Anyway, he connected his mega duty leads to the truck battery, and the car fired up right away. I switched all the lights, seat heaters, motors, aircon on while he checked the battery and alternator. All was fine, so I then switched everything off for the drive home. He went to reset the engine light, only we noticed it was out. It seems the shut down had somehow reset it anyway.
So now I have a dilemma. Was this a one-off glitch, or is it a sign that I need to buy a new battery?
Methinks Iâll know by the end of the week.
Meanwhile, my engine light is out, the manifold link is still attached, and the fault code reader I bought off Amazon should arrive tomorrow. So if the manifold link commits suicide again, I can keep pushing it back on and resetting the light while I decide on a strategy for sorting out the manifolds for good.
He tried jumping it off his portable booster, still not enough to start. So we had to manoeuvre the Audi out of its bay (nine point turn with no brakes or steering) & free wheel it down the ramp to the truck. He asked me if I had any previous problems. I told him the engine light was on after the inlet manifold flap motor link had come off (albeit Iâd reattached it). âNo worriesâ, he said, âI can reset that for youâ.
Anyway, he connected his mega duty leads to the truck battery, and the car fired up right away. I switched all the lights, seat heaters, motors, aircon on while he checked the battery and alternator. All was fine, so I then switched everything off for the drive home. He went to reset the engine light, only we noticed it was out. It seems the shut down had somehow reset it anyway.
So now I have a dilemma. Was this a one-off glitch, or is it a sign that I need to buy a new battery?
Methinks Iâll know by the end of the week.
Meanwhile, my engine light is out, the manifold link is still attached, and the fault code reader I bought off Amazon should arrive tomorrow. So if the manifold link commits suicide again, I can keep pushing it back on and resetting the light while I decide on a strategy for sorting out the manifolds for good.
