S4 problems continue

[MarkOC]

After taking my S4 back to the dealers last week for them to investigate the problems I have been having, I have had some major problems today. I even had the ghost taken off so they didn't focus on that.

They couldn't get the massage seats to start randomly going off, despite the seats doing it on the way over to the dealership. And they told me that the complete randomness of when the handbrake automatically activates when the car is switched off is how it should work.

Well today when I got into my car to go home from work I had a lot of error messages come up on the dash, I switched the car off then back on and took the below video:



Called Audi assist and after waiting over an hour an AA guy turned up, plugged in his computer and the error code that came up on his system was not recognised. He said the car was still drivable and to drive it home, but it felt very strange on the way home.Going to take the car back to Audi tomorrow to see if they can trace the problem.

Anybody have any ideas?

 

[Daggerit]

Wow, I don’t have any idea what it could be but just looks like the electrical system completely sh!t itself basically...


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[cuke2u]

Haven't you already got a thread started on this, or was it someone else?
I rather suspect they'll need to replace the ecu if you want my take on it...

 

[Concerned Cat]

Efficiency mode & Heart radio???

 

[MarkOC]

Haven't you already got a thread started on this, or was it someone else?
I rather suspect they'll need to replace the ecu if you want my take on it...

Apologies, different problems and couldn't find the old thread on my phone.

Efficiency mode & Heart radio???

I hang my head in shame, it's for the traffic updates, I promise.

 

[cuke2u]

Apologies, different problems and couldn't find the old thread on my phone.


I hang my head in shame, it's for the traffic updates, I promise.

No worries, and it isn't your choice of radio stations and drive settings causing the issues...

 

[Nham68]

maybe obvious question .. have you disconnected the battery (left it for some minuets) to do a complete cold boot of all the systems when everything has fully discharged ? Sometimes a reset can clear gremlins. I can get the microcontrollers I use to sometimes get into a quasi unknown state due to a corner case .. reset and it can clear .. (after debug to find the root cause).

 

[Riko0073]

Efficiency mode & Heart radio???

 

[MarkOC]

So I started the car this morning and it was displaying no errors on the dash, took the car back to Audi anyway so they could have a look at it. After waiting over an hour I was told that they saw that there were a load of error codes on the system, but couldn't find the source of the problem. So they cleared the error codes and told me to carry on driving the car. I asked them to change the ECU but they said that they couldn't as there were no error codes on, even though they just cleared them. I was told that they are just sporadic problems and that the car "was just having a moment".

This is the second time this has happened in 6 months, all of the safety features fail at the same time, but they think I should feel safe driving the car.

 

[kmanmx]

Seems like you have some kind of wiring fault, short circuit, or water damage that is causing all your car electronics to go on the fritz. Would be very difficult to track down, but that should be Audi's issue not yours. Clearly the car should not be doing this. If it did it just the once, fine.. cars are big complicated computers and like any other computer sometimes you just need to restart the thing, crisis over. But multiple times ? no way.. maybe try contacting Audi customer services or one of the Audi executives, their email addresses are posted around online a fair bit.

 

[NickGun]

So I started the car this morning and it was displaying no errors on the dash, took the car back to Audi anyway so they could have a look at it. After waiting over an hour I was told that they saw that there were a load of error codes on the system, but couldn't find the source of the problem. So they cleared the error codes and told me to carry on driving the car. I asked them to change the ECU but they said that they couldn't as there were no error codes on, even though they just cleared them. I was told that they are just sporadic problems and that the car "was just having a moment".

This is the second time this has happened in 6 months, all of the safety features fail at the same time, but they think I should feel safe driving the car.

Doesn't inspire much confidence at all I imagine, should it throw up all the those for a 3rd time I'd be tempted to drop it with them and leave it there on safety grounds and insist on a courtesy car while they get to the bottom of whatever is causing the electrical gremlins once and for all.

As has been said I'd suspect a new ECU as a cure all would be the best option, but they'll be unwilling to do that unless absolutely necessary.

 

[Daggerit]

Doesn't inspire much confidence at all I imagine, should it throw up all the those for a 3rd time I'd be tempted to drop it with them and leave it there on safety grounds and insist on a courtesy car while they get to the bottom of whatever is causing the electrical gremlins once and for all.

As has been said I'd suspect a new ECU as a cure all would be the best option, but they'll be unwilling to do that unless absolutely necessary.

Agreed. Phone the breakdown and then insist that you'll hold them liable should there be any issues as a result, they'll soon take it in and get you a car to use. I didn't need to go quite that far, but when mine threw up the drive system fault they went straight to getting me a car while they looked at it as I have a long commute and neither the AA or Audi wanted to be held responsible if there was a serious issue en route.

 

[MarkOC]

Well the dealership were very dismissive, and they have been useless from the start, wish I never went to them in the first place. I have phoned Audi finance and told them I want to reject the car on safety grounds as I can't have the car "having a moment" and turning all the safety features off when it feels like it. That will get them moving to either fix the car or they will be providing me with a replacement.

Going to Belgium next weekend with the wife, was supposed to be a nice road trip in my car, but think we will have to change the crossing booking to my wife's car, which won't be nearly as comfortable, and definitely not as much fun.

 

[Daggerit]

Going to Belgium next weekend with the wife, was supposed to be a nice road trip in my car, but think we will have to change the crossing booking to my wife's car, which won't be nearly as comfortable, and definitely not as much fun.

Just make sure if there's a charge for changing the car that you send it to Audi and see what they say.

 

[Dippy]

@MarkOC - I suggest that the comment about the ECU is misleading, because I imagine the only fault in your vid which was related to the ECU was the start/stop system (although it is even possible that another CU deals with that function). I don't want to play down the issue (if I was in your position I'd be pretty ****** too), but it seems like a comms bus glitch to me - the car will be safe to drive. Since it has happened before and a while ago, I'd advise you to pursue it with the dealer, but you need to be on the same page: Likely the fault will be in the bus control module or somewhere in the bus. If its possible to do a CAN bus diagnostics on a B8 with VCDS, then for sure a dealer will be able to do something similar on a B9.

 

[cuke2u]

Yes any additional costs that can be attributed to the loss of your S4 should be compensated for but it is positive news from Audi finance. Stick to your loss of confidence with that car...

 

[ub7rm]

It will be a relatively minor issue - electronic or otherwise, my guess would be an abs or level sensor or the like. All the adaptive and safety systems will be relying on that input and if its missing or spurious they will all switch off to prevent any 'unexpected' behaviors. Always frustrating when you can't get anyone to take it seriously though!

 

[Wakes]

I had a similar problem on mine. Very intermittent, but yellow warnings on the adaptive headlights and steering only. Steering felt very funny after it happened (fairly sure I had the seats go off randomly as well, but it was hard to be sure) Went in a couple of times with audi not making much progress as it was so intermittent. Luckily it happened on the audi forecourt so the tech actually got to see the fault. Although I suspect your video is pretty good evidence.
Anyway, the 'master tech' worked directly on it with audi Germany and they ended replacing some wiring / steering loom sensors?

Take it to Walton audi if you can....they seen this and probably know what parts need changing.

 

[Wakes]

Also agree it's not the ECU.

Mine is perfectly fine now, so persist in getting the master tech to look at the steering sensors, wiring loom? Sorry that's as far as my tech break down goes but it can be fixed!

 

[Boosted_Six]

Im sorry you are having problems with a new car. I doubt users on an internet car forum will be able to successfully diagnose your problems however. In my experience you will just find a bunch of people that cant even agree on Tyre pressures and oil change schedules, let alone fix complicated electrical issues...

 

[pagenotfound]

Im sorry you are having problems with a new car. I doubt users on an internet car forum will be able to successfully diagnose your problems however. In my experience you will just find a bunch of people that cant even agree on Tyre pressures and oil change schedules, let alone fix complicated electrical issues...

What nonsense. I think there is universal agreement on internet car forums that the correct tyre pressure is anything other than that printed on the sticker inside the door. Likewise, oil changes are agreed to be a scam although this splits 50:50, either they are more regular than needed with modern oils therefore creating extra revenue for stealerships or they are too infrequent for modern engines therefore creating more problems which creates extra revenue for stealerships (who should all trade at a heavy loss if they are to win back consumer confidence).

Oh, and as to the issue with the OPs car - it has to be the flux capacitor. When they go dodgy they cause all sorts of random issues.

 

[cuke2u]

Oil changes are like printers and oem printer cartridges. Printers cheap to buy but consumables expensive...

 

[MarkOC]

A quick update for you guys.

After Audi have had my car for 10 days, been in communication with Germany, sending them data from countless different control units, it looks like they have potentially found the source of the problem:

On one of the fuse boards 2 of the wires going into the plug have been crossed, which has been sending mixed signals around the car, it has also been causing battery drain as the car has never properly gone to sleep. They believe this will resolve all my issues and will have the parts changed out by the end of the week.

 

[cuke2u]

Wow, how did that happen and a dammed difficult one to identify should it be correct. Fingers crossed it is resolved...

 

[Dippy]

Its pretty amazing that it wasn't noticed during post-production. Audi QA slipping.

 

[cuke2u]

You'd have thought it would never have got through the diagnostics....