A8 Dead :(
 

It just won't start, I drove it on a 100 mile journey yesterday. Parked her up at 10PM and tried to start her two hours ago and nothing. Had the AA man out, he spent nearly an hour trying to get it started, checking the battery which is fine, fuses etc.. but he couldn't find what the problem was. He wrote on the job sheet 'suspect loss of starter feed'. He said it wasn't the fuel pump. Any ideas anyone?

Does the A8 have 'power amplifiers' which feed the coil packs?

Not sure, I rekon Ian or someone else will though. If I cant get it sorted I will have to get it flatbedded to AVP.

I lose track of all your hardware Singh, but assuming this is the older prefacelift one you're talking about then its probably about time the copper cable feeding the started corroded away completely, most of them do.

The power cable from the battery runs all the way down the drivers side, then roughly under the drivers pedals it disappears into the chassis itself and re-appears at the end of the drivers side chassis leg, where it connects to a small distribution block on the underside. This block connects the alternator and starter. They corrode badly, and you'll find it under there with loads of green powder, which is normal, but not good.

Simply repair this connection and all will probably be well.

Note though, this is a live, unfused connection direct to the battery, so please disconnect the battery first +++

Pre-face, yes it does, however I read the symptoms as not actually turning over at all, ie dead, but I assume ignition, cluster etc all works fine otherwise, almost like you're trying to start it in Drive?

If the ignitions amps fail, you usually lose a bank or two, but it'll run.

In fact, there are two amps, and the cylinders are spread in an alternate firing order over them, so even if you remove one amp completely it will run on 4 cylinders. just. :D

There, you were right - Ian has all the answers +++

Have you run Vagcom up?

Thanks Ian, yeah it is the 96 4.2 qs in my sig pic, so where should I start looking? under the carpet on the footwells? Havent got a clue where the drivers side chasis leg is?

Clive - I offered someone on eBay £200 for a VAG COM, just waiting for them to get back to me. My eBay cable doesn't work anymore so thought I would go for the full Ross Tech version.

Edit: Just want to add, this is the first thing that has ever gone wrong with the car in the 11 years we have owned it!

[quote=Singh;5546]
Clive - I offered someone on eBay £200 for a VAG COM, just waiting for them to get back to me. My eBay cable doesn't work anymore so thought I would go for the full Ross Tech version.
quote]

£200 :eek3: ?

They're only £250 brand new, and thats the posh Can version that you dont need for the D2's...

You should be paying sub £100 for a genuine one you need second hand.... +++

In fact, I think we'll have one spare very shortly....

Oooo, I'm interested to!!! ( see my post in teh VAG com Section ).

If Singh gets his Can I be up for first refusal on it if it comes up?

Oh really? What a plonker I am, it was £350 buy it now. Yeah I'll take the old one of your hands +++