Longevity and an Airbag question...

[Phil Rose]

At 8:59 AM -0800 1/13/06, the Spaeth's wrote:
>Thanks for all of the input on the longevity question! We have decided to
>keep the car. There is nothing as nice without spending at least 4 times
>what we have into this car.
>
>On another note our airbag light has been on for quite some time. My
>mechanic said it was the contact spring that is bad. It is $350 from the
>dealer. Does anyone have a good lead on a known good spring? Or any good
>ways around this, short of unplugging the light in the dash.

The airbag light in these cars is notorious for remaining lit--either 
staying on all the time or for a few minutes duration after every 
start-up. The symptom commonly arose right after a car had its 
('97-'98) airbag-recall "modification"  done by Audi. Typically, 
there is no need for a physical repair as the problem can be 
eliminated by a simple reset of the airbag computer using the VAG/COM 
tool. This service (takes only about 10 minutes) ought to be 
available from any competent mechanic who is doing much work on 
Audis. Or perhaps the tool is available from an Audi-enthusiast 
friend....or last resort--done by the dealer.

If your mechanic already tried doing this and it didn't help, then 
perhaps there is actually a need to repair the airbag system. 
However, have the simple "reset" procedure tried before spending much 
$$ on repairs.

Phil
-- 

Phil Rose
Rochester, NY
mailto:pjrose at frontiernet.net