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I bought an RS4 Avant, with 29,000 miles on the clock, last November. I bought it from an official Audi dealer, complete with the full Audi warranty of twelve months. It has developed a starting fault which I will describe here – I’ve checked through an awful lot of subject matter on this forum and I haven’t seen anyone post this subject.

Start car in the morning – all is fine, car starts and runs fine. A few short journeys, later, (stop leave for twenty minutes, each time), return to car and it refuses to start. Turn the key, and depress the clutch pedal, press the button – it turns over but will not fire. Double check you have depressed the clutch pedal to the floor – and try a second and a third time – and still nothing!

Leave car – come back 5 minutes later and it fires up and runs. Now when this first happened three weeks after buying the car, I put it down to a one off, due to severe weather, ( - or me loosing my touch, or something..). but in the past three weeks it as happened more regularly, and the ‘recovery time’ as increased to maybe 30 minutes).
This past weekend it happened on two consecutive days - and I refuse to use it for fear of becoming stranded.

I’ve phoned the Audi assist, they tell me to speak with Audi breakdown/ the dealer. Under the circumstances I’ve logged the car into the local Audi dealer, (a different one to the one I bought it from) – they promised to take a look this Friday. I’m without a car just now, as I can’t trust this one to start – and you can’t leave the engine running all day, can you

Does anyone have any thoughts, ideas / I guess I’m trying to predict what the local Audi dealer will say, concerning the fault and the warranty aspects.

Fuel pump problem?

Perhaps related to the immobiliser?

If the car wont start, have you tried getting out, locking, unlocking and trying again?

Scott

Appreciate your reply Scott
.. fuel pump - I wonder? .. would't the fuel pump more likely fail under extremes of load? Could it be this, fails to energise intially...?

Yep did get out, shut door, locked/ unlocked got back in and tried to start again - but it only wanted top start once it had been left for a while, (and this time period seems to be increasing).

Hall Sender on the way out? Surprising on such a new car...

Happened on my S2...

I reckon its your starter motor. its been known that corrosion (of some sort) can effect it. It will/might get worse and the one time you need the car to start it will fail.
Did you call Audi recovery? they will flatbed your car away to nearest dealer or of your choice) is it still under warranty? if so then they should supply one of the fastest cars in the UK to you, a courtesy car

sounds like the reader coils on the ignition switch

Fuel pump
Immobiliser?
Hall Sender
starter motor
reader coils

There you go, print that list off and give it to them, got to at least be one of them lmao

How fast does the starter motor turn when it won't start? Faster than normal or normal? If faster then the starter isn't engaging in the flywheel.

When you turn the ignition on you should hear the low pressure fuel pump run from the petrol tank area (you can hear it from the drivers seat), does that happen?

I don't think it's an immobiliser or reader coils problem, if the correct key isn't detected you normally see a yellow key symbol on the dash and you haven't mentioned seeing that.

Can you check what fault codes the engine ECUs (1 and 11) and the instruments have stored, if any?

My other suggestions:
high pressure fuel regulator
high pressure fuel pump

Appreciate the replies - Thank you.

Dave - how do I retreive fault codes?
Car in tomorrow so we'll see what happens - I've written out a the list and emailed it to the Missus -whos looking after the car, (I'm away with my work this week).

Always interesting, (sometimes frustrating), to see how the big boys deal with problems such as this - but I'll have a few suggestions ready, should they falter

I'll post up when we're all done. Thanks agian

sonny wrote:if so then they should supply one of the fastest cars in the UK to you, a courtesy car

faster than a Bugatti Veyron....my 1.8T loaner A3 is anyway

maybe thats why im struggling to get over 30mpg from it

oscawhite wrote:Dave - how do I retreive fault codes?

Using VAG-COM.

Had the same issue for months. See this thread. Seems to be a rare issue. Frustrating because it happens so randomly.

A year on Audi cannot explain what's going on. They believe it has to do with throttle electronics. They've tried multiple software upgrades, new plugs, etc. I even left the car with them for four (!) weeks.

It's been better since they've redone all earthing points. Still some issues though, especially if the car hasn't run for several days.

Good luck. Keep us posted if you do find the cause.

.. and the fault turned out to be a faulty relay adjacent the ecu. I wasn’t present when the fault was resolved and telephone calls have failed to determine exactly what relay When my wife collected the car; she as under instructions to collect the paperwork associated with the job – but the dealer informed her it wasn’t completed and they would post it on. Two weeks later and it still hasn’t arrived. Never mind the car appears to be cured of its starting problem – and covered under warranty, so nothing to pay. Audi, Stockton, were very good - kept me posted and returned the car within a couple of days.

These cars seem full of electronic gimmicks which manifest themselves via flashing lights, icons and buzzers – i.e. a warning concerning brakes – (new brakes fitted about 1000 miles ago) and this morning traction control light decided to come on and stayed on, till I got to work ? Sort of like if TVR had gotten into electronic add ons, would they have built an RS4…

"Sort of like if TVR had gotten into electronic add ons" thanks for that - that is funny !

I received the invoice/ report from Audi, through the post, the other day, (as described previously, all covered under warranty, so nothing to actually pay). It describes the work carried out to fix my starting problem.

The report states, load circuit main relay (J271) at fault. Part No. is shown as 033038 at a cost of £16.63 plus vat. Total bill (to Audi) was just shy of £200.

Teesside Audi handled it all very well, I thought.