Car won't start - A6, 2001, 2.7T, tiptronic

[cruzanS]

This morning my car would not start either (lights/accessories would come on) - but would not turn over, not even a click (kind of like a dead battery). Any how checked the terminals turned out the positive one was loose. Tightened it up, still nothing. Called Audi roadside, they arrived and hooked up jumper cables - still nothing. We tried both keys (thinking something happened with the coding), tried moving the gear selector, neutral back to park etc. still nothing. So they towed (flat bed) the car to the local dealer. The dealer called and said that the car did not start and they too tried moving the gear selector several times and it did fire up. They claim it seems ok now. I'm not satisfied with this. It seems like there is an intermittent switch/device that may be tied in to the gear selector that is acting up. They are going to continue to investigate and are to call me back later. I'm curious to see if anyone has heard/seen anything like this before??

Regards & Thanks in Advance.

Scott

 

[audi5e]

The gear selector has a position sensor to check if the car is in neutral, either P or N. if that sensor is faulty/dirty then the car will not start.

 

[DaveACQ20v]

It is a safety feature, so the car cannot be started in gear, quite common not just on Audis, sounds like that`s the problem, why didn`t they just change it if they thought it was faulty ?

 

[cruzanS]

I learned the same thing about the safety switch. I pushed them very hard on this issue. They had the car in their shop for a day, could not get it to malfunction. The protocol (or so they say) is the extended Audi warranty cannot replace parts because of a perceived issue. They agree that if it acts up again they will replace it at that time. Just hope I'm not stranded somewhere where the Roadside will take forever to arrive. So much for their Extended/Outstanding warranty.

 

[moschino]

Call Audi Customer Service and complain. The fact that the roadside assistance had to tow you to a dealer implies that the fault was not easy to fix.

Explain to them that you have small children and wouldn't like to be stranded for hours waiting for the tow truck, see what they say.

Jim.