So today I was supposed to drop off my car at the dealer who sold me the car. We had some free work promised mainly composed of a new battery and some cold valve work. This dealer is about 35 miles away from where I live and you have to take a very fun and winding road that connects Santa Cruz to Silicon Valley. Anyways, as I was getting ready to leave, I noticed it took some effort to start the car...the weather was about 65 degrees today. Once I was about half way there, I noticed the coolant temperature and oil temperature decrease to almost the bottom. At that time, the check engine lamp came on. This is on a 1996 A4 2.8 Quattro automatic with 120K documented miles and one-owner. Could that possibly be the cold valve? I was too excited about being accepted to the college of my choice today so I didn't really worry about it.

Thanks for all the help!

 

17 is the funnest freeway in the South Bay, i used to take my gsxr out there all the time when i lived in SJ. I live up by Concord now, there ain't **** up here. I got a 96 A4 too, mine has 136k miles. Sorry I can't help you with your problem, I just bought mine three weeks ago.

 

17 is awesome...great in the A4 but even better in our 2001 MBZ S-Class...

My dad just said that if the check engine lamp is something serious, then good-bye Audi...strongly against my will. Could this be that pesky cold-start or valve? In the past 3 weeks of owning this car, I've had about $650 in services and tune-ups recommended by Audi.

 

I'm gonna end up putting about 3Gs into it after this trani work is done. Just run your car over to Autozone and ask for there loaner Actron diagnostics tool. You have to give them a $185 deposit (the cost of the unit) but you get it right back when you bring back the tool. I don't know if you're familiar with ODBs, but you just plug the Actron into the back of the center console, right next to the ashtray. Then turn your car on (not the engine, just put the key in ON position) and press the read button on the Actron. Then write the code down and post it here, or you can PM Jestnomen, he's got a list of all the codes and what they mean.

 

Did I say ODB? Sorry, I musta been thinkin about the late great Dirt McGirt. I meant OBD (On-Board Diagnostics)

 

My mechanic will do this since he just charged me $500 for a 30K service on Monday. He said everything looks good but according to the car, it isn't....

 

Might be the temperature sensor.

 

Without the CEL codes, it's hard to say.

 

Why does my car hate? Only three weeks and already some issues...

 

How would I know if it was an O2 sensor?