Not sure if any of these pictures help but someone in the know may be able to describe your relay location.

Useful pictures, many thanks for those, hopefully someone can point at the exact one.

I'm just wondering if it could just be that the relay itself is faulty?
And is this what would be known as the starter relay (as opposed to the starter solenoid that activates the starter motor)?

These illustrations may help out as well. One is from the current diagram PDF with a reference to J207, and the second is from ETKA showing in which board it's located in the footwell. I've included the part number in the illustration to confirm the correct relay, which a quick search seems to show it as a tall black relay with 297 stamped on top.

Many thanks Sean, that's really helpful. +++
(I've finally managed to fire up my Bentley manual which confirms the location for US FL cars as being very similar)

I know it's not that likely, but I'll get another one anyway for the sake of a few quid, and it will help with testing/elimination.
Our sponsors have some in stock so I'll order one from them as you know it will have been checked out and will arrive quickly.

Sean are you sure about the ETKA illustration?
That gives a part number of 443 927 351 B which it describes as "Control Unit for Gearshift Lock". Isn't that the thing that stops you moving the gearstick unless you put your foot on the brake?
And what A8Parts are selling is "Audi A8 D2 Shift Lock Control Relay 443927351B" which isn't exactly clear either. Or did this all change between PF and FL and it's the same relay doing a different job?

Didn't MJ say earlier something about it not being where it was documented? Yes:

+1 for the earth strap. I changed a starter motor on my drive before I found that corrosion on the cable to chassis was the problem!

You could be right! Maybe I was picking up on an earlier comment I'd seen here or on another forum.

I spent 10 hours helping a mechanic friend do a full brakes and suspension change on a car yesterday, as well as helping him prepare a lorry chassis for sandblasting, and crippled myself in the process. Aggravated my neck injury AND a SI joint injury and can barely get out of the seat. You'd think I'd wise up!

Or maybe you are, remember I don't have ETKA.

I looked at the wiring diagrams I have in the Bentley manual and for FL cars the solenoid on the gear stick is controlled directly from the TCM, there is no relay.
The relay listed by A8Parts is identified as coming from a PF model, where a number of things were quite different.

Anyone know for sure if it is a 443 927 351 B that I have controlled by the F125 to inhibit my starter? I'd have a look if the weather was better.....

Andrew

If you want Etka and Elsa in a shared virtual machine, post me a spare hard drive and I'll copy it across. It runs just fine in Oracle Virtual Box (free download)

I could probably upload it and share as a torrent, but the file size will be HUGE! Somewhere over 200GB from memory.....

A

Thanks Adrian, I've already got Bentley (my own legal copy) and ELSA running in Oracle VBox already, maybe I'll post you a portable hard drive to lob ETKA on? ;)