AudiForums.com - The 94 cent solution

I just fixed a somewhat major problem on my 96 A6, but before I get into the details I need to tell you that I am cheep. I don’t like to spend money. I know that owning 3 Audi’s is not for cheep guys because Audi’s are not cheep or inexpensive. If it were not for Chris Semple at Force Five in Concord NH or the availability of parts on the internet I would have given up long ago.

But on to the fix--- A few months ago I couldn’t get the key out of the ignition on my A6 with auto. After trying a few different things and getting some assistance for people on this forum I found that the shift knob had stick in the down position. A simple-pull up fixed the problem. A few weeks later I began having trouble again and the pull-up did not help so I put a small pin in the key release cable at the shifter to lock it in the released position. This fixed the problem but about a week later I started having trouble getting the shifter in park. It just wouldn’t go far enough forward to move to the left. By this time I was very frustrated so I parked the car in the garage and returned to my 89 200 Q that has 315K on it ( I drive 100 miles a day). I fooled around with the A6 a couple times on the weekends but couldn’t figure out what was wrong. Since it was cold –even in the garage – I didn’t spend a lot of time but today it was 60 outside so I started taking thing apart. When I pulled the top off of the shifter the problem was apparent. There was $ .94 in change 2 quarters, one dime, a nickel and 4 pennies in the bottom of the shifter housing. The quarters and nickel were bent. I removed them and everything is back to normal.

So the fix didn’t cost me 94 cents – it gave me 94 cents - All I have to do is figure out who will take the bent quarters.