Hello, I am new to this forum and I am a novice to the concept of forums in general, so please forgive any faux pas here. I registered specifically so I could ask this question—I could not find the answers anywhere else. This may be a long post—part history, part rant, part speculation, but hopefully there is a question or two in here somewhere that someone can actually answer. At least, maybe someone can commiserate or offer some general info. OK, here ‘goes:

First, my car is a 2002 A4 3.0 Quattro. I bought it from a private party when it was about 18 mos old and had about 18k miles. It now has about 70k. Warranty expired at 50k. My driving habits, driving style, usage and storage of the vehicle, maintenance, etc. is just about as typical and ordinary as one could imagine. The car has never been in extreme weather conditions.

The car is fun to drive. It’s solid—the ***** and handles alone are almost what made me choose this over a BMW, and in general I’ve gotten pretty much what I expected in terms of ride and performance. Were it not for the fact that I’m now a fortysomething family man instead of a twentysomething wildman, and maybe because I live in an area of 24/7 traffic congestion, the car would probably be even a lot more fun than it is.

But the car has been plagued by electrical-type problems I find surprising and unbecoming for a car of this class. Thankfully, most (but not all) were found and fixed before the warranty ran out. Here is a list of some of the problems I’ve personally had with this car—all were either fixed or have been identified:

• Faulty fuel tank fuel level sensors (affected gas gauge, estimated tank range, etc.).
• False alarm on catastrophic Oil pressure warning light/alarm (faulty sensor or wire but no actual problem with the oil).
• “Memory Seat” failure (seats can be moved but not by memory buttons though memory buttons still properly control side mirrors).
• Previous owner disclosed spontaneous moon roof opening but I’ve never seen that problem myself.

I just this week noticed a problem where the interior lights, etc. are not sensitive to the opening of the front passenger-side door but are as expected for the other three doors.

The real problem and the main purpose of this post is to ask about the audio system (in particular AM radio, which is primarily what I listen to when in the car). I’m hoping someone knows this to be a known issue which wasn’t known by Audi all the years I took it to them to try to fix it. There are various symptoms and they are all intermittent. All have shown themselves at one time or another for at least five years. None have really gone away completely, though Audi has replaced pretty much every audio component in the four or five times I brought the car in for this issue when it was still under warranty. Here are some of the things I’ve observed, in no particular order:

• Cutting out of speakers on one side of car, then cutting back in. (Sometimes, when the speakers cut out, adjusting the volume can “fix” them. In other words, a slight increase in the volume causes the speakers to pop back to normal. If I don’t do that, they usually pop back in a few moments anyway.)
• Turning the volume *** up can initially cause the volume to go down and vice versa.
• Occasionally the sound is completely crap on every station (sounds like the worst static you’ve ever heard even on very strong stations). Turning the radio off and back on again gives no improvement but stopping the engine completely and restarting the car clears the problem.

There’s probably more I could say about this but at this point I think anyone who knows what’s up here and has something conclusive to say has enough info to say it, so I’ll sit tight and wait to see if anyone has any constructive comments, explanations, or advice.

Thank You very much!