This is the continuation of the story I began to tell on the "What have you done with your B9 today" thread. The intention had been to tell the whole story once it was complete, but elements leaked out yesterday so some aspects will be familiar to those who followed that.
Briefly, the auto-dip has never worked consistently since I took delivery on 1 September. I don't use it very often as I try to avoid parallel parking if possible due to incompetence. However, the auto-dip is a really useful facility to have when parking a larger car and when parallel parking is not your forte. By November it seemed to have stopped working altogether and at times the passenger side adjustment wouldn't work either, so the car was booked in for attention during December.
First development in the story: I was rung by the service department to say that, having looked at the car, they believed the problem was that it didn't have the auto-dip feature. It was something to do with the PX codes, or in other words there's no auto-dipping function because the computer says no. When I asked how in that case they thought it had worked previously, that explanation rather fell apart. So I consulted the A4 marketing brochure to show the basis on which I had spec'd folding mirrors; that the passenger side dips when selecting reverse. I can't remember the exact wording, but because it didn't say 'automatically' the service guy tried to argue that the mirror does dip, but you have to do it manually. By now, I was starting to lose patience so we consulted the sales guy who had sold it to me. He pulled up the Audi internal spec which stated quite unequivocally that it was an automatic dipping function. Round one to me.
So the Master Tech came out, sat in the car and with the spare key proceeded to run through the auto-dipping procedure. It worked perfectly! He did it over and over and it worked every time. I asked whether the fact that he was using the spare key had any relevance, to which he shook his head. So I was advised to keep an eye on it and if it played up again, to book it in once again for attention. Before I drove off (this time using the 'main' key) I tried the auto-dip just to check and it didn't work, so I raced back into the service reception and collared the service guy and took him out to the car to show him. He went and found the Master Tech and they were able to see that it had stopped working. The Master Tech agreed that there must be some intermittent fault and that the car would have to be booked in again for further investigation. Round 2 to me.
Fast forward to Tuesday of this week and the car is once again in the workshop. I leave the spare key with them again. Service guy phones me late afternoon to say that the auto-dip is working perfectly and has been doing so all day. They have run a number of tests and no faults show up. He suggests leaving it with them for a further day and they will run further tests.
Yesterday afternoon the service guy rings again to report the same results and that they can find no fault. I ask whether the tests they have been running consist of hooking it up to a laptop and he says yes, as well as road tests. So I ask whether anybody has taken the mirror assembly apart to check for anything obvious, such as a loose wire and he tells me that with warranty work they do not dismantle anything until a faulty function is observed. I tell him that if they can't fix it with their diagnostic testing, then I shall insist that somebody does take it apart.
I post the day's developments on here and by sheer luck Beagle replies that he has had the exact same problem and that in his case it was the spare key that was programmed to perform the auto-dip whilst the 'main' key wasn't and that in his case, re-programming the main key has done the trick. Eureka! I didn't read his post until late last night so I couldn't contact the service dept until this morning, but what a good thing these owner forums are!
So this morning I phone the service guy and tell him Beagle's story and I drive over to the workshop where he and the Master Tech are waiting for me. We run through the auto dip using the spare key, just to show that everything is working fine. We then try the auto-dip with my key to show that it doesn't work. And then we try again with the spare key and it doesn't work! So we try again with my key and it still doesn't work. There follows a conflab between the Master Tech and the service guy of which I could only catch "refer this one" and I am asked to leave the car for another day with a tacit indication that they might start taking the mirror unit apart.
Meanwhile I am driving around in a facelift A3 2.0 tdi s line which I rather like. I'm no fan of diesel, but this one really flies and once on the move the engine noise is unobtrusive. It reminds me of my A3 (a 1.4 tfsi COD, which I really loved) but it doesn't match the A4 for refinement or ride comfort. Still a great little car though.
Briefly, the auto-dip has never worked consistently since I took delivery on 1 September. I don't use it very often as I try to avoid parallel parking if possible due to incompetence. However, the auto-dip is a really useful facility to have when parking a larger car and when parallel parking is not your forte. By November it seemed to have stopped working altogether and at times the passenger side adjustment wouldn't work either, so the car was booked in for attention during December.
First development in the story: I was rung by the service department to say that, having looked at the car, they believed the problem was that it didn't have the auto-dip feature. It was something to do with the PX codes, or in other words there's no auto-dipping function because the computer says no. When I asked how in that case they thought it had worked previously, that explanation rather fell apart. So I consulted the A4 marketing brochure to show the basis on which I had spec'd folding mirrors; that the passenger side dips when selecting reverse. I can't remember the exact wording, but because it didn't say 'automatically' the service guy tried to argue that the mirror does dip, but you have to do it manually. By now, I was starting to lose patience so we consulted the sales guy who had sold it to me. He pulled up the Audi internal spec which stated quite unequivocally that it was an automatic dipping function. Round one to me.
So the Master Tech came out, sat in the car and with the spare key proceeded to run through the auto-dipping procedure. It worked perfectly! He did it over and over and it worked every time. I asked whether the fact that he was using the spare key had any relevance, to which he shook his head. So I was advised to keep an eye on it and if it played up again, to book it in once again for attention. Before I drove off (this time using the 'main' key) I tried the auto-dip just to check and it didn't work, so I raced back into the service reception and collared the service guy and took him out to the car to show him. He went and found the Master Tech and they were able to see that it had stopped working. The Master Tech agreed that there must be some intermittent fault and that the car would have to be booked in again for further investigation. Round 2 to me.
Fast forward to Tuesday of this week and the car is once again in the workshop. I leave the spare key with them again. Service guy phones me late afternoon to say that the auto-dip is working perfectly and has been doing so all day. They have run a number of tests and no faults show up. He suggests leaving it with them for a further day and they will run further tests.
Yesterday afternoon the service guy rings again to report the same results and that they can find no fault. I ask whether the tests they have been running consist of hooking it up to a laptop and he says yes, as well as road tests. So I ask whether anybody has taken the mirror assembly apart to check for anything obvious, such as a loose wire and he tells me that with warranty work they do not dismantle anything until a faulty function is observed. I tell him that if they can't fix it with their diagnostic testing, then I shall insist that somebody does take it apart.
I post the day's developments on here and by sheer luck Beagle replies that he has had the exact same problem and that in his case it was the spare key that was programmed to perform the auto-dip whilst the 'main' key wasn't and that in his case, re-programming the main key has done the trick. Eureka! I didn't read his post until late last night so I couldn't contact the service dept until this morning, but what a good thing these owner forums are!
So this morning I phone the service guy and tell him Beagle's story and I drive over to the workshop where he and the Master Tech are waiting for me. We run through the auto dip using the spare key, just to show that everything is working fine. We then try the auto-dip with my key to show that it doesn't work. And then we try again with the spare key and it doesn't work! So we try again with my key and it still doesn't work. There follows a conflab between the Master Tech and the service guy of which I could only catch "refer this one" and I am asked to leave the car for another day with a tacit indication that they might start taking the mirror unit apart.
Meanwhile I am driving around in a facelift A3 2.0 tdi s line which I rather like. I'm no fan of diesel, but this one really flies and once on the move the engine noise is unobtrusive. It reminds me of my A3 (a 1.4 tfsi COD, which I really loved) but it doesn't match the A4 for refinement or ride comfort. Still a great little car though.