where is this located? Is it a selenoid under the shifter? Need to know how to fix?

 

Follow your brake pedal up. You need to pull the bottom panel out. There are 2 switches. Brake is the white on the top.

 

Thanks for the feedback.
Hey, before I start this project with the brake switch I see you own a 2001 A6 Avant and sounds like you have done some work. You may know what the fix is for mine (99 A6 Avant).
Here is what happened...I applied pressure to the brake pedal (indicator brake light went out) but forced the shifter a little too hard out of park. Now it slides through the gears (automatic). The car just sets in park mode. I was originally thinking I may have broke a cable linkage, but a guy on here told me to check the brake light switch? What do you think?

BTW, Are there any diagrams out there for removing the console? I gotta get under the shifter to expose it and see what I did...

Thanks again! -Dan

 

If the "foot" light at the shifter goes out once you depress the brake pedal, than I think your brake switch is okay.

I may suspect the cable from the ignition switch to the shifter maybe funny. Anyways, to open it up, carefully lift up the wood trim. It is held with some clips, so just lift up. Move the shifter to 3rd gear position. Slide down the tube at the stem portion of the shifter, and pull out the button at the shifter about 1/8th of an inch. Pull up the ****. It should come up. FYI, it is bitch to reattach.

After that you can remove the selector plate by undoing clips.

I opened the plate before for tiptronic magnet issue but never really ventured deep into the selector cable connections and etc. Based on the repair manual, if the ignition switch lock cable is giving you trouble, then you can access it from the top. But if is the actual transmission selector cable, then you need to do it from the bottom, meaning you need to remove catalytic converters and the drive shaft. Hope that is not the case.

Good luck.

 

My daughter had a quarter fall into the shifter slot on her 1998 Audi A6 wagon with C4 chassis and automatic transmission. The 1999 wagon has the C5 chassis, so the shifter may be different.

 

OK Dan get the message --

Do a search on the brake light switch in this forum -- replacement is easy but a lttle tricky because they are easy to break. As I told you if the brake lights come on it is not the switch look elsewhere.

I also had the coins in the shifter problem. When that happens the shifter lever usually won't move into park or to another gear, so I did not suggest that as a fix.

Since you can move the selector thru all the gears without moving from park you most likely broke or screwed up the cable.

 

Agreed... You broke something, At the least pulled the linkage off.