Have you ever noticed that damn near everytime you see a car on the road with a headlight/tailight blown out it is an Audi?

Probably 3 out of 10 BRAND NEW A4's I see a day has one brake lamp thats brighter then the other... or a sidemarker that doesnt work... or a blinker that is out.

Same goes for all models... I rarely EVER see a A6 where all the lights seem to be working.



Why is this?


Same seems true for VW's... my friend just bought a new GTI and his left brakelight went out by the time he made it from the dealership to my house. heh


Not bashing the cars... just wondering why such well built automobiles have this finicky lil problem?

 

Audi's do have poor electrical systems. When I worked Valet, they always had check lights on for the car. Good build, bad electrical

 

That's the euro fog light.

I didn't know it until I owned one, but all european cars have a rear fog light on one side only. This makes it seem like the other side is blown out and sometimes owners forget to turn it off.

I had an S4 and after 16k miles never had a problem.
Most other fellow S4 drivers never had a problem either.

Previous audi's had that problem.

 

i know they had ALOT of electrical problems in the 90's

 

bwhahah you are such a dick....

 

soopa, ya notice how many cls out der have blown fog lamp/s???

 

my moms 2003 audi she has had for 2 months now....has had 1 electrical problem with the rear tail...fixed now.

but speaking about lights...these are stock

 

Those are some serious HID's...



Peace

 

Audi's reputation and beauty far outstrip their reliability - most cost a fortune to purchase, own and operate. A friend had a '99 1.8 turbo A4 wagon and if it hadn't been a lease car he would have spent $6,000 to $7,000 in failed parts and repairs in just 3 years. POOR BUILD & POOR VALUE!

dogfight

 

if i didnt have a warranty, i would have paid over 5k u.s. in parts for the CL too...

dogfight, audi is the cheapest car in the market to operate...
ALL maintenance, including oil changes, are FREE for 80 000 kms. (50 000 miles) everything except for tires.


quality, is definetly one of the best on the market, and reliability is up there too...all these chipped cars runnin around, and no problems for the most part.

 

There's about 5 or 6 new A4's around where I work that either have one bright brake lamp or it's completely out. Must be a common A4 problem.

 

oooooo...real fog lights.

nice pics amir...

 

I had a 92 audi 90 quattro and that car put me in the hole. That cars paint quality and interior was light years ahead of it's time. I still miss 12 way power front seats. Besides the gadgets that car was a mess with electrical problems. I have a friend that owns a 99 A4 and no problems from him. And amir is right about the foglights. I had two foglight switches in my 92 90 and i found that strange. Yeah it's only one light in the back.

 

German cars are not known for their electrical reliability....

 

actually i see a bunch of MB and BMW with dead tailights or brake lights on all the time. u figure for an expensive car like that, they should at least get the tailights right

sidemarker

 

Most of the problems I see with Audis and VWs come down to the dealer, not the car.

 

You're probably thinking of the rear foglight..

Here take a look at this pic. On my dad's allroad on the right, one light is on in the back, but the other doesn't.

It's normal and I can do it on the S4, and the A6.

 

But once the Audi warranty period is over, the maintenance and repair costs are going to pile up very fast. I don't know about in the US, but in Canada here, a minor service that does nothing but oil change and inspections costs $200. A rear brake pads change costs $400. Light bulbs that no shops carry cost $10 or more. I know because my wife has an Audi A4 and we're glad that we bought the extended warranty (covers repairs only, so we have to pay the above mentioned jobs from our own pockets) for a hefty $3500 when we bought the car. But still it's such a hassle keep going in and out of the Audi dealership for repairs.

Audi may be the cheapest car to operate within the warranty period. But Audi owners are paying a much higher price for their Audi's vs other non-european cars. In other words, they've already prepaid all the operating costs when they bought their Audi's.

 

400 to change rear pads? Dude you are getting ripped off. You can find brake pads for your A4 that are better than OEM for 39.50 for the set, and even if you need a new set of rotors even sloted its $125 for the set.

Don't believe me? www.ecstuning.com, and million other examples.

Why would you pay $200 for an oil change out of warranty, when you can do it yourself..

 

The problem is that my wife is driving the A4, and she only trusts Audi oem parts and the Audi dealership. She is not into performance stuff. You know, women !! I know Audi parts and service are expensive. But the extra money is well worth if it can buy my wife a peace of mind and less arguments. Married men would know how I feel.

The reason I posted is to show amirsafdari that maintaining an Audi is not as cheap as he thinks using a real life experience of myself.

I don't consider $400 for oem service to replace with oem brake pads a ripoff because every items were listed out properly in the invoice from the dealership. There is no gurantee that some outside shops using below par parts and unqualifed skills and charge a cheaper price will not rip us off.

 

All German cars have minor electrical problems at one time in the ownership. My dads 98' 740iL had a malfunctioning drivers seat, my dads 330i had a malfunctioning transmission control, our 02' A8 was recently in the shop for a malfunctioning fan that was always on and drained the battery. We used to have a 99' E320 and it would sometimes read a Error Message on the info screen stating a burned out bulb, even though they were functioning properly.


As for maintenance....BMW, Audi, and Mercedes included scheduled maintenance. After the warranty is over I wouldnt take the car back to the dealer for service. Find a shop in your area that specializes in German Cars. There was a great shop that I used to take my 93 Mercedes to and he would charge a lot less than the MB dealer down the street. He was an EX MB mechanic that opened his own shop.

 

i dont really plan on keeping any car for more than 80 000 km clicks..

also, edward, i know they are expensive after the warranty, i was just saying that up the 80 thousand is free...great for people who lease.

 

My friend's S4 was taken to the dealer recently for 16! repairs, and almost all were electrical related. (all were taken care of under warranty, but I would hate to have the car past that point)

Beautiful cars, but VW/Audi have some issues from what I have seen. Although I am far from an expert on the subject

 

Electrical problems are greater than the japanese cars, but very low nonetheless.

Compare the german engine's bottom ends vs the japanese, and you'll realize why you can boost all of them ridiculously high.

Finally, I said it once, and I have to say it again:

THE LIGHTS ARE NOT OUT
It's a rear fog light, on one side only.
If you see one in the fog, you'll realize why it's useful, so that people can see your car long before they slam into it in the fog. I don't know why all cars don't have this feature.
The problem is that some of the audi's have a feature that turns both on when you hit the fogs, so that the driver never really knows he has his rear fog light on.

 

Yes.. I think many of us know what a rear fog light is... I personally was talking about brake lights.

 

i agree w/ cusdaddy. I know what a fucking fog light is....I too often see Audis/VW with their tails/brakes and most often head lights out.

 

where these pics taken at a haunted asylum or something??

looks VERY cool tho

 

um, Amir, I hope that audi's lights go off automaticly because your mom left her lights on! :P

 

Ummm, I don't think people here know what a rear fog light is.

Being around Audi's as much as I have, I have seen one taillight that was out. Never as many as what has been implied here.

In fact, when I drive in the fog with my rear fog on, everyone tries to tell me my taillights were out, even the "knowledgeable" car guys.

It's red, just bright red like brake lights.

 

um... did u not read what cusdaddy and i just wrote??? I (we) know what a foglight is. I have seen many audi's and Vdubs with burned out tails, brake lights and headlights. So are there foglights in the headlights and the brake light?

 

I read your post. I was just a little irritated because I've been working 40 hours straight, and I didn't take to kindly to the statement above. I'm just trying to let people know that those lights are often fog lights.

If you know that they have them, fine. I didn't have any problem with cusdaddy's post since he just stated what he knew.

And again, I've seen few audis/vw's with burned out lights, although still more frequent than honda's acuras.

Sorry if I insulted some of you guys.