[200q20v] radio

[Phil Rose]

>The radio no longer works on my wife's 200/20v avant.  I've looked at the
>previous owner's paperwork and it appears that he replaced this twice.  The
>car has only 120,000 miles on it.  Is this a systemic problem for 200's and
>if so, is Audi doing anything about it (like replacing them for free with a
>radio that will continue working?)

Hah! Audi took a couple of years to even consider replacing their '91 
model Bose rear speakers with ones that don't attempt to turn the car 
and its contents into a smoking pile of ash! But at least you have no 
worries about _that_ possibility in your Avant, which has no rear 
Bose speakers.

Anyway, Bruce, to answer your question: Yes, relatively short 
lifetime is a "systemic problem" with Audi radios of that era and not 
just for 200 models--the Audi (Blaupunkt) radios are often 'hors de 
combat' sometime after a few years of operation. Usually the problem 
is a malfunction of the station (preset) buttons. But these radios 
don't typically just fail to work entirely--you may simply have a 
wiring or antenna problem.  Unless the radios were replaced for the 
previous owner under his original new-car warranty, the usual 
procedure was to replace with a factory rebuild. When these were 
available from Audi (and I recall hearing that they no longer are) 
the rebuilt radios cost about $100 (with exchange).

So,  systemic problem or not, don't expect the company to replace it 
for free beyond its stated warranty period (which is what...90 days 
for a rebuilt radio?)


>Bruce Boeder
>
>- the engine makes such a sweet sound that I may not replace the radio

Yeh!
-- 

Phil Rose				Rochester, NY
'91 200q				mailto:pjrose at frontiernet.net