Hello everyone, this is my first post on this great Audi Forums site. I just wanted to give everyone some input on the Audi Q7 amp that gets fried by water due to the drang tubes from the Sun Roof. Here is what happened in my situation and believe me Audi and Bose have not herd the last of me. I plan on fighting this further even if it lead me to getting a Lawyer to fight the issue. Okay a few details of what happened to my Amp, I will try to cut it short as I don't want to bore everyone.
I purchased a 2007 Q7 about 2 months ago, I went on Holiday trip which was about 1800 miles away , drove with the family , well upon me reaching my destination the MMI stopped working , no screen, radio, phone , sound , nothing , not even the screen to regulate the heat and air condition.

Well you can imagine my disappointment, well reached my distination and quickley brought the car to an Audi Garage where my old man new someone that worked there, he told me straight away that it was the amp. He told me to come back after hrs and he would remove all the cover in the rear to test the amp.

Sure enought once he removed the plastics you could see water on the foam and on the amp. He looked around and could not find a leak anywhere but he said it could of been condenstation accumilating for a long period of time, anyway he told me since I was 1800 miles away from home and that I would have to pay up front for them to order a new amp , he sugguested that I wait until I reach home, for the time being he was going to by pass the amp with a fiber optics connector ( photo to come) he installed the connector and presto everything worked but no sound on any of the devices. Well at least I could read the Satnav on my way home.

He put everything back and I was off , he only charged me like 10 euros as I only payed for the connector ( he was a very good friend of my dads ) so all was well until a few days later as the car didn't start , I called my dad friend again and he said that it was due to the amp still being plugged in and it was consumming low voltage that some days it would be fine and other days car would not start he said there was nothing you could do until amp is replace, okay fear enought, my two weeks holiday came to an end and back to the UK.

Back in the UK a called my extended warranty dept and told them exactley was was done , they advised that I take it to a reccommended repair centre which was Halfords , I said you must be joking the said no that they worked close with them on fixing car issues, I said there was no way that Halfords repair centres had the technology to repair the amp, well I gave them the benifit of the doubt and took it there and sure enough they said they could not repair it.

So I book an appointment with Audi, took it in and they said it would be £144 to have them diagnose the problem , I told them exactley what the problem was but they said it was procedure , again fear enough , left the car and I get a call at mid day stating that they needed 1 more hr at an additional cost of £144 I said absolutely not to have the service manager call me , he called me back in 5 minutes and said that they needed more time, I told him I told your receptionist exactley what the problem was why did she not tell you, he said oh are you sure that is what is wrong , I told hime that I was 100% sure as it amp has a fiber optic by pass, he said okay we will call your extended warranty to have the amp replaced , well 2 hr later I get a call from Audi that the extended warranty ( AA Gold) will not cover the repair because the amp is part of the entertainment unit , at this point I was steaming and called the extended warranty dept and explained to them yes it was part of the entertainment unit but also controlled the MMI information system screen and with out it nothing works, they did not want to hear it , so I told them that I wanted to cancle the warranty , they said that the warranty could only be cancled by the dealer I purchased it from , well that is another story.

On to pick up the Q7 , at this point I was at a boiling point , went to collect the Q7 paid the £144 , well I thought hey at least I got a car wash and clean, but to my surprise I looked around the car's interior and exterior and the cleaners must of been blind that they did not clean the two row behind the driver seats, then I looked in the back and saw oil all over my third seats , I then checked to see if the plastics were put back correctley when they diagnosed the amp and to my amazement plastics were not cliped right and the back panel were missing screw , I few off the wall and called the service manager and started argueing with him as to what type of service dept he was running , that this was unexceptable , well he just said sorry and cleaned the seats , then I said what about the screw , he said that they would have to get me a loaner and order the screws , I said you must me joking right , so I quickly loosened one of the other screws and gave it to hime to have a look if they had any laying around and sure enought he came back with two. At this point I had enought , I just got into my car and burst out of the car park, absolute rubbish never see me there again.

Now to the point , Audi useless , extended warranty useless , I will have to sort the issue out myself.
I will be posting a DIY very soon on how to take locate the Bose Amp , remove the amp and check that fiber loop , I will also be posting some videos on DIY Audi Q7 , as I want to help the other Audi Q7 owners, I use to own a BMW X5 and there is allot more into on the varies forum then The Audi Q7.

So stay tunned for Video, DIY instructions and Fiber optic device.

Any Question please feel free to contact me.

Cheers

 

Hi. I have the same issues with my 2007 Q7 as well. I havent had issues with my Service Department here in the US, however they estimated my repairs to be over $3000 (repair leak and new amp). I am also having problems with my battery running low and I assumed that it was becuase of the fried amp, and I guess my assumtions were correct! I havent had much luck with finding a used amplifier (that I can trust) here in US. Its not often that they post one on Ebay but it's gonna cost around $600 for one (used). If/when you get your DIY, please let me know. I would like to repair the amp myself. Thanks for your post. It was certainly helpful!

 

Hi,

i get the same bluff... sunroof leaking and bose ampli fried...
i diagnose it myself, i already buy VCD and did some readings...

i am loocking to a way to fix the amplifier, i check it out, fixed some blowup connections, and can't find why it still dont work..

any info is apreciated.

thanks.

 

I had this same "plugged drain tubes issue" with a 2005 A8L. When taking the car through a no-touch car wash, the passenger's foot well would fill up with water. The transmission ECU is located in the bottom of the foot well and can be damaged - $$$$$.

I took the car to Audi, put it up on the hoist to look for the drain tube exits. Shining a light up into the transmission tunnel we could see the ends of the tubes above the transmission. The rubber tube ends are sort of crimped closed so water can only flow one way...out the tubes. These tubes are very prone to clogging due to leaves, pine needles, and other debris. The dealership cleaned out the tubes and charged me $80 for for 15 minutes of their time.

I was very upset and said that this should at least be mentioned in the owner's manual as a DYI maintenance item. Over the next few days I sent letters to Audi and talked to several Audi reps. Me and others must have raised quite a stink because Audi eventually issued a notice and service bulletin regarding cleaning out the drain tubes.

 

last thing we expect from such cars is to have a leak from the sunroof that cause xK damage repair..
they had to put sensors that warn you.
in my case i have to pay 1800$ for the bose ampli.. trying to repair still not succesfull!

 

I have several factory amplifiers for sale if you interested.

 

How much for the amp. Please advice.

 

If your still intrested in the amp text me - 610 368 2532

 

I'm new here and not exactly a mechanic.
I had this fried amp problem last week, and I left my car at an independent repair shop (sick of Manhattan Audi prices). He said he could only put in a new amp from Audi because the VIN is encoded in the amp. Any truth to that?
Anyone has ever put in successfully a new amp without going through Audi?

 

Hi,
what is more important is that you make steps to stop the water leak..
in my case i had to buy new one from audi at about 1650$ and i have VCD, but i had to go to audi for extra 75$ charge to activate it online.
at the same time i also had the tuner fried, i found exact one second hand, it worked direct..
try to find exact same one second hand; good luck!