Hi all, I hope someone may be able to steer me in a direction. I have a 2001 S8, The car has about 98000 miles on it, never had a problem. A few months ago, my remote on the key stopped working for no reason, so I grabbed my extra key with remote and it worked fine. Nothing else happened since. Tonight, I came out to the car, it was locked with the factory alarm on, I hit the trunk release, it popped open, I loaded the trunk, closed it, ran into the store and when I came back out and hit the unlock button for the car, nothing happened. So I wound up having to use the key itself to unlock the drivers door manually. When I did that and opened the door, the alarm went off, and I couldnt shut it off using the remote. I put the key in the ignition and started the car, it started up, but the alarm was still honking away. Eventually it stopped beeping, but the flashers were still going, then that stopped. I had to go out, and just came back after 4 hours, but the remote still isnt unlocking and disarming the car. So my guess is one of two things, either the battery in the remote may be bad, or the battery in the car itself may be on its last leg, it still is the original battery from 2001. Does anyone have any thoughts or has seen this before? If it is the car battery, and I get a new one tomorrow, is there anything besides radio codes I need to watch out for when I disconnect and install the new one? Is there any sort of adaption that must be done, or will I be able to just install the new battery and input the radio code and be fine....IF that is whats causing this issue. ANy help would be greatly appreciated. And is there any way to disable the alarm without using the remote? Of course theres nothing in the owners manual about this. Thank you in advance for any help!

 

Assuming you had a properly coded key, starting the car SHOULD have shut the alarm off.

 

I know, thats what I thought, but the engine started, but the alarm was still going

 

If the alarm was still going off after you started the car the vehicle doesn't recognize the key being used, which quite possibly means the battery in the remote is dead and the car isn't recognizing it.
After replacing the batteries in the remotesyou may have to re-adapt all the key remotes, then it should work again.

 

Hi all thanks for the help, I found that it was two things, one, both of my remotes lost their synch with the immobilizer, and two, the plastic ***** inside the lock cylinder in the door handle broke, thus when I manually turned the key, the microswitch to trip the central locks and immobilzer was not getting activated. If any of you ever has a chance to take the door apart on one of these cars, you will see how well engineered the assembly is....well, um , aside from the cheap plastic peice that broke, but its really easy to work on the way the entire window operating mechanism and frame jsut unbolts from the shell and can be laid to the side, and then the way the door hande comes apart....fuc**ng germans! I commend them!