Lat night when my wife started the car, 1996 A6 avant 2.8, the key seemed to not return
and the starter continued to engage while the car was running. The horrifing metal on metal grinding sound could be heard all over the hood. I am hoping the starter is not fried, but it seems the ignition swithc is toast. Does anybody have a DIY for removing and replacing the switch?
Hopefully it is not too bad of a job.

The switch itself is sort of in the dash, not in the steering column. I have searched the site but have not found any info.

Thanks.

 

Nobody has any info on this?????

 

Anybody????????????????????????????????????

 

I'm also having ignition switch problems on my 96 avant. i have a new switch but the old unit is behind the a/c duct. did you resolve your problem? how did you get the darn thing out? thanks

 

http://forums.audiworld.com/a6100/msgs/51133.phtml

 

its under recall, take it to the dealer they should have it fixed for you within a day for free.

 

I had a lot of electrical problems that would go away if i jiggled the ignition switch. I found a place on line that sold a new (German made) switch for my 96 A6 for $15 delivered to my door in 2 days! At first I thought it would be easy to change, after all it looked to be just accessable from below the dash. Well, once in there I found that the air duct runs directly under the switch and was next to impossible to get out from there. But looking up at it I could see the back of the instrument cluster. i have had the instrument cluster out before to change bulbs. So i proceded to pull it out again. 2 screws hold the bezal or shelf in front of and below the cluster, remove the screws and pull it to the left and out. There are 4 screws on the bottom of the instrument cluster, remove them. The instrument cluster can be carefully pulled out and put on top of the dash (the wires are all long enough to do this). You can now look down and see the ignition switch. At this point I pulled the + terminal on the battery, because i did not want to short any of those fat red wires! Looking at the switch you should see 2 orange dots on the switch, those are drips of wax made to seal the 2 set screw below. Dig out the wax and unscrew, but not remove the screws. This allows the electronic end of the switch to pull away from the metal ignition mechinism. seperate the connector from the switch and install the new switch. follow the steps in reverse. Remember to tighten the 2 set screws. It really was not as bad as I first thought and took me less the 1 hour.
Someone else's link with pictures: http://forums.audiworld.com/a6100/msgs/90912.phtml