My wife has a 2002 audi a6 quattro 3.0. She drove it to work about a week ago and the car done fine. I went to start it yesterday and it would not start. It would crank fine and start then die 1-2 seconds later. I kept trying to start it but the same thing everytime. I noticed that none of the lighting behind the instrument cluster was lighting up and that the tachometer needle was sitting on around 1500 rpm. At first I thought it was probably the fuel pump but because of the instrument cluster i am not sure now. I unhooked the battery for about 15 minutes and once i reconnected it the gauge did go back down to 0. I tried starting the car again and it would not start. I removed the rear seat to get access to the fuel pump. I tapped on the top of it a couple of times and still no luck starting. Then a few minutes later i tried to start it and it fired right up and kept running. I let it idle for about 5 minutes then turned it off. Then restarted it and in started fine. However, the gauges are still not working properly. Sometimes while it was idling, the tachometer would register correct then at other times it was as if the needle was stuck again. I let it be overnight and tried to start it the next morning and it would not start again. Does anyone have any ideas as to what this might be? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

 

Ok, so I have checked the fuel pump and it seems to be fine. I got the car to start a couple of times today and when it did it would run for a few minutes the the ESP and ABS lights would come on. The tachometer needle would work for a few seconds then it would start bouncing all over the place the fall back down to 0. I could cut the car off and try to restart it again and it would start but only run for 1 to 2 seconds. I am really confused as to what the problem could be. Anyone have any ideas?

 

Any codes? VAG-COM? Blown Fuse, Relay?

Have you tried starting the car with another/spare key?

A guess.. would be a faulty ignition switch

Gotta make it clear that this is just me putting symptoms together. I'm not a mechanic or tech guru, I just own the car car like you do and attempt to fix/diagnose it myself when things go wrong. If I can help out a fellow owner, I'll definitely try... but for my peace of mind don't go digging into the car head first just off of the suggestion I put out there.

I get a little sketchy when trying to help diagnose things online because I don't like the feeling of anyone spending unnecessary $$$ based off of my suggestion, and have it not be the problem in the end. - Disclaimer

gauges going nutty.. and if you're describing it correctly, that shutting down 1-2 seconds is the same thing that would happen when when the immobilizer shuts down the car. So I'm assuming it would be an electrical problem based off of that, and reading thru the forums kinda gives the impression that ignition switch failure on the C5 Chassis isn't too uncommon.

Please wait for a more knowledgeable poster, a veteran or someone that's BTDT already with the problem before running with my suggestion.

 

Hey, thanks for the reply! I have wondered about the ignition switch. I have read a couple of posts about the immobilizer but i do not see the symbol for that ever light up on the instrument cluster anywhere. I have tried a spare key and get the same results with it. Checked most fuses and all seem to be fine. I'll keep looking and see what I can find out. Thanks.