New member & just bought my first A8 - a fully loaded 4.2 TDi.
 

Great to see a forum dedicated to the A8 and with plenty of passionate members. These are complex and expensive cars to keep working so sharing knowledge is good for all of us :)

Picked up our first Audi last week, a 2011 A8 with the mighty 4.2 diesel engine.Its an ex Audi exec car so has a massive spec which greatly increased its appeal over most out there and makes it a very special thing to drive. Low miles (38k) and in near mint condition, she will make a very worthy replacement for our M5. While the M5 was epic I found it useless on the cold/wet roads in deepest darkest Scotland where the roads are wet 50% of the time, even over what was summer. Loving the smoothness and handling of what is a very large car and of course the effortless urge from the V8, this is going to be a fun family car for the next couple of years.

I am still working my way through all the tech and no doubt will post a few daft questions in the coming weeks. I have already come up against the inability of the car to copy CD's to the jukebox and done some reading on the VCDS I need to activate this function. Why Audi chooses to do this baffles me.

Any other 4.2 owners around?

Cheers,
mondie

Welcome, car sounds great! You'll find the answers to anything you want to know on this forum.

Any pics of the car? +++

Only pics I have are the sellers or some phone pics from when I first viewed the car. Will find the time to give the car a proper clean and get some decent photos. Its a striking car in the flesh :)

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j2...pstmipfatx.jpg

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j2...psfpj1y9mw.jpg

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j2...psitnxv4ox.jpg

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j2...pssintz7zt.jpg

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j2...psdger8cex.jpg

Welcome along. What acracking motor you've got. Enjoy.

John.

Wow....rocket ship :-)
Welcome

Adaptive cruise, sunroof, and do I spot a bit of Bang and Olufsen in there too?... nice...

and of course welcome +++

I saw the B&O. Consider me wel jel, as they say.

Welcome from me too, and wow +++

I don't see the picnic table, rear screens, fridge or ventilating seats tho :Confused:

Wow that is one loaded D4 ! A Keeper for sure, Welcome aboard.
If you get the Jukebox sorted, Post some details as I need to sort this also.
I took the lazy option and currently just use my iPhone for music in the car.

Thanks for the welcome guys :)


Yes B&O, double glazing ACC, comfort seats, LED lights, extended leather,4 zone climate rear/side blinds and some other stuff. +++

It was the interior trim that really drew me initially, well that and the B&O.

..and a welcome from me too. Car looks just great. The 4.2 must be a joy to drive.

welcome from me too, lovely car, apart from the seats being the wrong colour;)

That later 4.2 TDI is a stonking motor.. Mine has been remapped to just a tad under what that later lump produces as standard. MRC told me they could get that thing out to about 970 Nm.... staggering.. wel jel too +++:cool:

What colour 'should' they be? :o

Does anyone know if its possible to bring up the hidden menu without VCDS? It ****s me that I cannot copy CD's to the jukebox.

Cheers

afraid I am firmly in the Henry Ford camp there, has to be black;)

+++

Black is everywhere, thats exactly what we didn't want :ROFL:

Very nice motor!


Welcome :)

Just ignore him - check his signature line and you can see where he is ccoming from. :rolleyes:

Ah yes, I see now. Full drug dealer look :p

Loving this car, its taken me a few days to get to grips with the tech, even te seats have taken a lot of messing around with to get them right. Sometimes too many adjustments just make for more confusion but I am happy now, they are very comfortable. Still trying to pick the differences in the various suspension/steering etc settings. Dynamic for all except steering (auto) and suspension (comfort) is feeling like the best compromise right now.

The difference in the suspension/steering settings are very subtle i find.
I usually let the suspension on Auto as most days i travel a mix of short motorway and bumpy rural roads. I have mudflaps fitted which bottom out a bit on rural bumpy roads if the suspension is set on dynamic.
Have you had a play with the interior light settings yet, the Ruby/Polar combination is pretty nice with a 60-70% brightness setting.

Joe, do you know the difference between comfort and auto on the suspension out of curiosity? I haven't tried the suspension on auto yet and quickly came to the conclusion that Dynamic can be too harsh on our NE Scothland 3rd world roads.

The interior lighting is a nice feature and I have had a good play with it but I find the ruby doesn't really look any different to the yellowish colour (amber?). The subtle lighting in the doors is a particularly nice touch and the lighting in the vent dials is just plan showing off :p

Auto lowers the suspension by 10mm at 120kph, details below taken from an Audi Self Study Programme;

The control system implements three different vehicle heights. Starting from the basic level, the “lift” mode can be set by raising the vehicle .78” (20mm).

This mode is automatically deactivated upon reaching or exceeding a vehicle speed of 62.1 mph (100 km/h). This mode can be selected up to 49.7 mph (80 km/h).

The level is lowered 0.39 in (10 mm) by activating “dynamic” mode. If a road speed of 74.5 mph (120 km/h) is maintained for 30 seconds in “auto” mode, the vehicle is automatically lowered by 0.39 in (10 mm) below the basic level.

"So Officer, the reason I was speeding ... "


:D

Ah, that's interesting. So Auto doesn't really do much at all other than lower the vehicle at speed. More real world testing required I think :D

Spot on, in effect Auto is Comfort mode at all times other than when it switches to dynamic at the magic 120kph.
Dynamic all the time not an option for me either, rural roads in Southern Ireland are much like Scotland i suspect.
Any progress on the CD to Jukebox issue ?

I have done some reading on the CD/Jukebox issue, it seems I need to access the hidden menu to activate the function but on the D4 I can only do this with a VCDS cable unlike the D3 where it could be accessed by a combination of button presses. Mate has a cable I am just waiting to see him so we can make some adjustments.

Cheers

Welcome to the forum. +++ .

I see you have lane assist also from the camera in the windscreen. .. is it active steering or vibration warning ?

Hi Dave, yes the car has Audi lane assist but no active steering. We recently had a rental Mondeo in Germany that had active steering, not a feature I will be looking for in the future.

For future ref the D4 uses the camera for adaptive cruise and traffic sign recognition also...... For completeness it also uses the front parking sensors when acc is crawling in traffic +++

I got a replacement loan car this week, it has active steering and lane assist and whilst letting it park itself has some novelty factor I wouldn't specify it given the choice!

nice car

mine is the same colour and very similar spec i didnt want a sunroof but would have liked b@o instead of bose ... mine has a black interior as opposed to light coloured

i managed to do quite a few mods via vcds including the jukebox function
and also managed to alter suspension height
i added mudflaps as when i got car i could allready see signs of stone chips on bottom of doors ' it has vastly improved since fitting

when remapped these things go like stink :D

Nath,
Would you mind posting some details on the VCDS mods ?
I am very keen to sort the CD to Jukebox issue on mine.
Would make for a good "Sticky" perhaps.
Joe

These are the two bookmarks I have from re-coding my D4, hope it is okay to post here.....

http://forums.ross-tech.com/showthre...-A8-VCDS-Codes

http://www.vwaudiforum.co.uk/forum/s...cks-for-the-A7

the post above just about covers all thats currently available to adjust or correct with the d4 a8,s

if anyone is struggling with coding or indeed needs coding doing please get in touch .... i live in barnsley south yorkshire

nath

Thanks Nath. Tell me more about the remap :D

For a laugh I went through the 2011 brochure that was with the car, with all options it originally came to £93k OTR. Wow, these cars are bargains for what they are. I love driving it even after coming out of an M5. The B&O is fantastic, an option I could never afford but I am glad someone else did.

Thanks for the info on programming, plenty of reading there +++

Welcome :)

Very very nice d4 you have there, I'm liking my d2 so can't even imagen how good the later ones are :)

a friend of mine who i have known for a long time
did mine for me after a few enquiries

we had to remove both ecu,s and recode
its possible to remove dpf also but for the moment i have kept mine

the difference is noticeable in normal drive mode and very very noticeable in sport mode .... it just keeps pulling and pulling
you soon become aware that the issue isnt the engine its the brakes and suspension

i did the same with my vehicle when i got it and its just over 90k and thats without bang and olufsen and without sunroof

my car didnt have the rear view camera fitted so i retofitted everything myself and coded everything in

Nath - did you notice any improvement in economy? Curious at t waht hp/ft you gained and what company you used through your mate.

I reckon the brakes on the A8 are fantastic, they feel very strong but I can understand how they may not feel as convincing if the car is putting on speed more rapidly and a result you are leaning on them more often.

Cheers

before this a8
i had a a b6 audi s4 for 9 years which was again well tuned and mapped by the same company
the s4 feels more planted but the a8 definitely accelerates quicker
the problem is it doesn't stop like the s4 does

no real improvement in economy im afraid but its no worse either '
massive improvement in torque and the company claims over 400bhp for
there map .... but as mine wasn't put on a rolling road before or afterwards
the power is unknown

he has his own company and travels all around the country remapping
a lot of cars this is the fourth car of mine he has done
the companies name is ccctech.co.uk

the price on the website is £300 but please check with him

the guy who runs the company is called simon coe

Cheers Nath, tempting ........ ;)