I am 75 years young and learnt to drive at 12 (yes twelve years old) on a three ton Bedford bread van. I had to drive it 'cos the real driver had me fasten him in the back with a shop assistant who we were allegedly giving a lift home to. They were a bit redfaced as I remember it when I let them out near her home :Confused:
Anyway, back to topic, with all my motoring experience when driving the 8 I think it is wonderful and fault free. Then I make the mistake of plugging the VCDS in. The Ross-Tech super gizmo breaks my faith in all things mechanical, it tells me I am driving a box of rocks that is about to burst into a self destruct cycle of flames and mayhem. :(
OK, says I, stop worrying about it all, if it breaks fix it, otherwise just enjoy the pleasure that an A8 gives me. Turn up the Bose and drown out SWMBO and the grandkids. I love it.

Used it another 6 times today and all working as it should

My boot has not closed properly since I got the car, had a look last weekend and you can feel where the spring is meant to be and there is nothing there. So mine does not close properly because the spring has also snapped.

Have a look if you can find the spring behind the trim somewhere. I found mine laying behind the trim, made a new loop at the end and fitted it back +++

Well it seems all was not well with my boot soft close again as it decided to not pull down when closed. After a bit of a poke around there seems to be 3 components to this system.
1. The latch on the lid
2. The pin mechanism on the floor
3. The drive motor somewhere in the battery compartment

My symptoms were the boot went down the latch flipped over the pin but the lid would not pull tightly closed.

Trying to find the fault is a major pain in the butt, what with 3 components to deal with and nothing responding. The latch would open when pressing the remote fob button, the interior boot latch button and the boot lid button. When I had the lid open I tried flicking over the latch to see if it would engage the pull down pin mechanism but nothing happened so this led me to believe the latch was faulty. It must have a microswitch inside to send a signal to the motor but without removing it for inspection I was at a loss. So plan B was to hit the latch with a screwdriver handle a few times and low and behold it worked. It's now dowsed in some WD40 and been operated a dozen or so times and all seems to be working again


Does anyone have the instructions for removing the latch?

These are actually the same part, £ to a penny this is the issue. Plastic gears in the motor will be stripped, new on was not that pricey from memory. Fitted under the battery, cable routed under the plastic trim to the latch, easy to change +++

Found a new one on ebay http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Audi-A8-D3...-/111782026395

Try page 30 of this document -
http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...8&d=1420367585

Thanks, page 27 I needed for the latch removal.

All seems to be working perfectly today +++