Problems with 05 A8L
 

Hey everyone, I'm trying to help out my dad. He owns a 2005 A8L 4.2, but he is experiencing some problems. His car just past 84,000 miles and he has been on schedule with all service intervals. His last service was at 80,000 miles and just a few days ago he had to add 2 quarts of oil to the engine!

Another issue is the front passenger seat. It goes forwards, backwards, tilts, but the seat back will go all the way down but wont go all the way up.

He does not want to go back to the Audi dealer because what they charge him is outrageous. I'm pretty comfortable working on cars but the A8 is intimidating. I don't have a Bentley manual yet, but if the car is easier to work on than it looks I may just pick one up.

With the oil, were you sure it had the proper fill at 80K?...if so you know it's lost a quart per 2000 miles...not good but not "horrible"...but something's doing it. Any leaks under the car or on the belly pan ? (might have to pop off). Any blue smoke driving or on start up? Any on the engine, you can see? Loss due to valve stem seals is sometimes the hardest to detect...it happens gradually and only gives a clue (sometimes) with a puff of blue smoke at start up...sometimes with a little oil on plugs after engine is fully cold.

The seat is probably an internal seat motor or drive cable problem. Can you hear the motor running after it stops moving? Is the seat memory turned off, in case there's a problem there (not likely).

Others here may know more particulars about your seats. My Bentley stops at 2003 models.

I do HIGHLY recommend getting a Bentley, even if you;re not going to do your own wrenching. It will give you more knowledge, therefore more savvy with mechanics and help analyze problems, so you'll know when you're bein BS'ed.

The D3 A8 is actually really easy to work on, much easier than that of the A6 at least. The oil is either leaking or it wasn't filled correctly, 4.2L engines aren't known for high oil consumption. My money is on the oil filter housing, this IS hard to get at. You have to remove the entire air box to get at the oil filter which is on the side of the engine, its a canister filter, which means its a paper filter in a plastic housing. Now where your problem will lie is the rubber O-ring that seals the top, if this isn't changed every oil change or it gets "pinched" it can continually leak oil over time.

The seats have four triple square bolts holding them down, roll the seats all the way back and take out the front bolts, then all the way forwards and take out the rear bolts. Tilt the seat back and loosen the harness from the bracket from the carpet bundle. Now you can get a good look at the seat motors and still have electrical power to see whats going on. The seat motors are built on a solid worm gear, so the only thing that could stop them from moving is some crap stuck in the gear, or the motor itself it taking a crap.

I haven't physically checked anything out, I do know it was serviced at the Audi dealer at 80,000 miles and there was an oil change done. I would find it hard to believe that the dealer wouldn't put the O-ring on the oil filter. Guys at Jiffylube can at least do that.

I happened to be driving the car last night and noticed a couple more things that have gone wrong. The front end, by the shock towers, there's a light popping sound when you go over little bumps and crevices in the road. And the other thing, its probably just a sensor but the tire pressure monitoring system no longer works. The tire pressure is good on all wheels but the whole system has gone down.

Believe me, an Audi dealer is capable of ANYTHING...they aren't certified by God. I've had Audi, Porsche and VW dealers leave things out or forget to torque something down...you name it...things that could have killed me or destroyed an engine or other major system, had I not discovered them in time. So don't assume anything.
A good first step for the oil loss, is get a flashlight and really look everywhere you can under the hood. Then, take the belly pan off under the engine (really easy) and give it a good look there, especially if there's ANY oil on the pan itself (or under the car)...normally it should be clean of oil...just road dirt.

The suspension sound is probably upper control arms startin to go, a common problem in these cars with some miles on em.

Please for the love of god tell me your dad didn't take a D3 A8 to jiffy lube, i would be amazed if they could even find the oil filter. The dealer charges close to $400 to change the oil for a reason, its not a honda civic. However like silverd2 said the dealer can be capable of anything, I myself have screwed up on simple things like pinching the O-ring on that same car.....thats how i know.

The tire pressure sensors only have a battery life of about 5 years, another reason i hate TPMS. If you want that fixed you most likely need to replace all 5 sensors, at a reasonable price of about $125 per sensor plus installation.

The upper control arm bushings only last 50k on that car, the sound you're hearing is the strut flopping up and down, back and forth. Replace all 4 upper links, easy job.

No no no, this car hasn't even seen the parking lot of a Jiffylube or similar stations. I don't think it would be a used O-ring since I can smell the car burning oil when he pulls up to places. Now I myself am more of a BMW guy, is there a website for Audis like RealOEM.com where it shows diagrams and schematics of just about every model? That would be good, meanwhile I'm going to order a Bentley manual.

If you have a burning oil smell its either the valve cover gaskets or cam adjuster seals...or both. There are also cam plugs on the back of the cylinder heads, but those only tend to leak if the motor gets overheated.

Ok, so theres no website like realoem.com for Audis? That would help a lot.

Nope it's Bentley CDrom only... and that info comes straight from Audi....but listening to people who know and are answering your questions would help a lot, too.

Have you actually popped the hood?

Burning oil, if not coming out of the exhaust blue, is coming from the manifolds...spilling onto them from the valve covers or cam seals...should be visible and smellable (UNDER THE HOOD) when hot.

BUT,...you actually have to LOOK at THAT car, not a schematic.