Towing a Quattro A4

[Turtlehead]

My Quattro A4 got towed today... looks like not paying your parking tickets screws you in the long run...

The first problem I realized when picking up my car was that a) I received 6 new dents/scratches on my rear bumper thanks to the towing company, who promptly informed me that they didn't do it....... oooookkkk... guess we'll have to check the police report tomorrow. URGH!!!

Now here's where the other problem is. My car is a quattro. I always park it with the E-brake on. I'm not sure at this point if they towed me with a flat bed or with a regular truck. Would they have screwed my car up at all if they had towed it with a regular truck? According to the towing guy, they lifted the back end up...

I'm probably going to end up having to do a TON of paperwork and crap to get my car back to the "pre-tow" condition and figure I might as well come out with all my guns firing here. Does anyone know if Audi has any printed/posted online information on the correct way to tow their cars and why?

thanks a ton guys.

Tim

 

[SimonP]

It's a while since I had a quattro but the basic form as I remember it is that you can't tow a quattro by lifting one set of wheels as it's a permanent four wheel drive system, ie it will screw over the diff. Not sure whether it would actually be possible to move the car though, it might be possible but cause the diff to overheat.

It was clearly printed as a warning in the manual of my old A4 anyway.

Best suggestion I can come up with is to contact your local dealer and ask them what would occur and perhaps get them to inspect it. If they find that the diff has been damaged you could try the small claims court to recover the cost of repairs. Round my way they remove badly parked cars by lifting them on a flat bed so it's worth double checking exactly how it was removed.

 

[simon_golf_tt]

Certainly the AA/RAC/etc won't tow a quattro - they will use a flat bed. I think you can tow a quattro but it's limited to under a speed (30mph maybe) and for a limited duration. You should be able to find this info from Audi.

 

[a4sline]

The Roadside bible states, a quattro can be flat towed for a maxumum of 30 miles at a speed not exceeding 30mph.
Hope this Helps