1995 A6 Questions from Cat

[Mike Veglia]

In a message dated 2/15/2007 Fay Kelley <iceisit at earthlink.net> wrote:

<< When I bought my A6 about a year and a half ago a receipt by previous 
owners said that a few months ago they had replaced the ignition 
switch (along with timing belt) .... we replaced the ignition switch 
twice and I finally took it to the dealership and had the housing and 
ignition switch replaced.

What lead me to do that was that the car doesn't shift to a higher 
gear sometimes.   It seemed to coincide with stopping the car, 
turning it off and restarted it ... then it would run and shift 
correctly.    At one time the ignition switch was very loose and if I 
jiggled it then the car would shift up.   Now if I turn the car off, 
which means step on the brake and put it in park and re-start, most 
of the time that takes care of it ..... but 5% of the time it doens't. >>

On the ignition switch, there was a revised part. I did the job twice early on when we bought out '95 A6q avant. I made sure to get an updated switch the second time and have not had an ignition switch problem since (~4 years and 60k+ miles). Make sure you weren't getting old stock switches. There is an interlock (shift lock device) between the ignition switch and the shift lever. It is conceivable that with as many times this has come apart and been back together that the interlock is not quite right. However, I would think you would see "3" instead of "D" on the indicater display were that the case. 

This problem sounds more like a problem with a switch on the transmission, I have heard it called "multifunction" but that word is used for lots of switches on Audis it seems. The switch is on the left side of the transmission and is somewhat expensive. Ours was done by the previous owner at ~90k miles (we are at ~182k now). You may also be able to gleen some insight by pulling transmission computer codes.

HTH

Mike Veglia