audio problems--how common are defective radios?
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audio problems--how common are defective radios?
I've had problems with the audio system in my 2002 A4 3.0 Quattro for practically the entire time I've owned the car. The dealership tried four times to fix the problem (under warranty) without success.
The symptoms vary, are intermittent, and often difficult to describe without actually seeing it yourself.
My post is not meant to ask anyone to try to diagnose this perplexing problem all over again. Rather, a local mechanic that I know speculated--based mostly on a few key elements of my informal description--that the radio itself was bad and should be replaced. He said there are a lot of electronics built into the radio unit that control all sorts of things, including sending power to each of the speakers consistently and the functioning of the buttons and ***** of the radio itself (both among my problem areas). He said if this unit is faulty all kinds of semi-random problems could be seen.
In fact, way back during one of the first warranty visits Audi said the same thing, and did replace the radio at that time, but the problems persisted.
So I told my local mechanic that it must be something else as the radio had been replaced with a new one and he said, "why do you assume it has to be something else?"
This led to an interesting discussion and some thinking by me about everyone's approach to this problem.
I am not a car expert nor audiophile by any means, but I certainly assumed that if replacing the radio did not solve this problem, then the problem could not be due to a bad radio. But of course this assumption further assumes that defective radios are a truly rare thing (almost akin to hitting the Lotto, so to speak).
But if bad radios are more commonplace than I thought, then of course the possibility exists that I was unlucky enough to have a second bad radio replace the first. Never until now did I consider this possibility, and apparently neither did the dealership.
So herein lies my questions for this post:
Assuming the explanation for the audio problems is indeed a faulty radio as described above--
1) is the percentage of bad radios high enough that I could have in fact received two of them and therefore replacing it once more might very well be the ultimate solution to this problem?
2) if the answer to (1) is yes, should Audi reasonably have known this and suggested this to me or tried it themselves while the car was still under warranty?
3) if the answer to (1) and (2) are yes, do I have any legitimate grounds to ask them to take care of it now (for free, of course), even though the car is now long out of warranty?
Any links to information or data about any of this would also be greatly appreciated.
Thank You!!
The symptoms vary, are intermittent, and often difficult to describe without actually seeing it yourself.
My post is not meant to ask anyone to try to diagnose this perplexing problem all over again. Rather, a local mechanic that I know speculated--based mostly on a few key elements of my informal description--that the radio itself was bad and should be replaced. He said there are a lot of electronics built into the radio unit that control all sorts of things, including sending power to each of the speakers consistently and the functioning of the buttons and ***** of the radio itself (both among my problem areas). He said if this unit is faulty all kinds of semi-random problems could be seen.
In fact, way back during one of the first warranty visits Audi said the same thing, and did replace the radio at that time, but the problems persisted.
So I told my local mechanic that it must be something else as the radio had been replaced with a new one and he said, "why do you assume it has to be something else?"
This led to an interesting discussion and some thinking by me about everyone's approach to this problem.
I am not a car expert nor audiophile by any means, but I certainly assumed that if replacing the radio did not solve this problem, then the problem could not be due to a bad radio. But of course this assumption further assumes that defective radios are a truly rare thing (almost akin to hitting the Lotto, so to speak).
But if bad radios are more commonplace than I thought, then of course the possibility exists that I was unlucky enough to have a second bad radio replace the first. Never until now did I consider this possibility, and apparently neither did the dealership.
So herein lies my questions for this post:
Assuming the explanation for the audio problems is indeed a faulty radio as described above--
1) is the percentage of bad radios high enough that I could have in fact received two of them and therefore replacing it once more might very well be the ultimate solution to this problem?
2) if the answer to (1) is yes, should Audi reasonably have known this and suggested this to me or tried it themselves while the car was still under warranty?
3) if the answer to (1) and (2) are yes, do I have any legitimate grounds to ask them to take care of it now (for free, of course), even though the car is now long out of warranty?
Any links to information or data about any of this would also be greatly appreciated.
Thank You!!
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