[s-cars] B6 doesn't turn over in the cold.
Jim Gates
jim at gates-home.com
Wed Jan 6 18:58:28 PST 2010
> I have a 2005.0 S4 and since the temperature has turned cold it has
> started being hard to start. Everything works as normal except the
> starter doesn't engage for half a second to 30 seconds or longer (one
> time I tried for 10 minutes). The lights all come on when I turn the
> switch as normal, but it just won't fire the starter.
It's a well known and fairly common problem. You need to replace your
starter. I had it on my 2004 S4 and I've heard of many more with the same
problem. If you search AW or QW you'll see it often.
Here's a tip to make the replacement easier.
http://forums.quattroworld.com/s4b67/msgs/11735.phtml
Jim Gates
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Today's Topics:
1. B6 doesn't turn over in the cold. (Sean Reifschneider)
2. Review: Dension Gateway 300 ipod/USB Music Link
(Sean Reifschneider)
3. Re: B6 doesn't turn over in the cold. (mike schowengerdt)
4. Re: Review: Dension Gateway 300 ipod/USB Music Link (Kent McLean)
5. HALP! Does anyone have the timing belt tool set that would
be willing to rent it to me? (Kevin Barnett)
6. Re: HALP! Does anyone have the timing belt tool set that
would be willing to rent it to me? (Cory Pio)
7. Re: Toys for Davey (David Kase)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Message: 1
Date: Wed, 06 Jan 2010 16:21:29 -0700
From: Sean Reifschneider <jafo at jafo.ca>
Subject: [s-cars] B6 doesn't turn over in the cold.
To: s-car-list at audifans.com
Message-ID: <4B451AF9.6090100 at jafo.ca>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
I have a 2005.0 S4 and since the temperature has turned cold it has
started being hard to start. Everything works as normal except the
starter doesn't engage for half a second to 30 seconds or longer (one
time I tried for 10 minutes). The lights all come on when I turn the
switch as normal, but it just won't fire the starter.
As the weather started getting colder, I started noticing it take half
a second after I turned to start, where before it was instant. As it
got colder it progressively got worse.
Usually after I drive it and leave it sitting an hour to 4 hours I have
little if any trouble starting it. But after it sits over night it can
be hard to start.
The one time that it didn't start at all, I put a kilowatt heater blowing
under the car by the front drivers side wheel for an hour, and then it
started right up.
Here is what I've done for diagnostics:
Replaced the battery. This was because once under acceleration the
battery light went on, and it's 5 years old so I figured I might as
well.
I have tried another key with the same results, just in case the
immobilizer in the original key was having issues.
A little bit of heat blowing into the engine compartment behind the
front drivers side tire seems to help a lot.
Took it to my independant shop but they were confounded.
It *MIGHT* work better if I turn the key SLOWLY from "on" to "start",
but sometimes it doesn't.
When I press the clutch pedal I can hear what sounds like a relay
activating or deactivating as I press and release around 80% of the way
in.
The drivers side mat is firmly planted on it's pins, and pressing the
clutch pedal slightly hard doesn't help.
I'm thinking it's something related to the clutch interlock because:
Blowing some heat into the engine compartment for 15 to 60 minutes seems
to greatly help.
If it were the starter, I would expect it to need heat much longer to
warm up. I'm blowing the heat in fairly close to where the clutch is,
though I admit I don't know exactly where the starter is, they're pretty
weighty and I wouldn't expect even an hour of heat blowing in would make
a whole lot of change to the temperature of the starter.
The ignition key isn't getting any heat from this heater, as it's
blowing under the car, not inside it.
I'm expecting that the problem is isolated to the starter, ignition switch,
or clutch switch. Or maybe the ECU (Ugh).
Any advice before I take it in to the dealer? I'm not really looking
forward to trying to isolate the issue in the snow, but think it should be
a fairly simple check of voltage at the starter to see if it's getting the
voltage and not firing, or not, in which case then check the clutch and
ignition inputs. Immobilizer complicates the ignition switch I imagine.
Thanks,
Sean
------------------------------
Message: 2
Date: Wed, 06 Jan 2010 17:14:34 -0700
From: Sean Reifschneider <jafo at jafo.ca>
Subject: [s-cars] Review: Dension Gateway 300 ipod/USB Music Link
To: s-car-list at audifans.com
Message-ID: <4B45276A.7050103 at jafo.ca>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
When I got my 2005.0 S4, the previous owner had an IceLink installed to
allow connecting an iPod to the stock stereo (the non-navigation one,
Symphony I believe it's called). I got an iPod and was reasonably happy,
though it had some issues.
Issues with the original IceLink:
The iPod sometimes wouldn't resume playing when I started the car.
About one time out of 3 I had to open up the ashtray and press the play
button. About one time out of 10 of those, I had to disconnect and
reconnect the iPod before it would start working again.
It wouldn't charge the new model iPods (I originally had a "fat" nano,
the newer nano would work until the charge ran out). This is because
Apple switched from 12v firewire charging to 5v USB charging or
somesuch.
I could really only fit a nano in the ashtray, which seriously limited
how much music I could have. 4GB is what I started with, and the new
nano was only 8GB. And besides, I'm paying a huge premium for 4, 8, or
30GB of storage in the iPod form factor.
This all becomes an issue because I really don't use the iPod outside
of the car. I don't use iTunes, loading music from my Linux computer
into the iPod is painful (partly because Apple tries to prevent you from
doing it with an obscuring encoding, which took me 3 hours to get
working when I got the original Nano, it almost went back).
The biggest issue was that it was constantly requiring attention because of
the issue with not starting playing that I mentioned above.
I started thinking about putting together a "carputer" which I could put a
big ass SSD that would hold my entire music collection and also be able to
do many other things like navigation, wirelessly pull down new music,
whatever.
Then I had this idea to start searching for what was available that would
play music directly from USB.
I found the Dension products and the Gateway 300 seemed to be the best that
I could use. The Gateway 500 sounded nice, but was not compatible with my
car.
So I got one.
It was an easy, EASY install. It just uses a wedge between the head unit
and the in-trunk CD changer. This head unit also has a in-dash 6 disc
changer, which continues to function with the Gateway in place. I do not
have the in-trunk changer, nor XM, and no desire to use the iPod, so I
have not tested the external changer, nor did I get the options for using
the iPod or the satellite radio.
I got a 32GB USB stick, and encoded my music in the Ogg format (it supports
mp3 and other formats, but I like Ogg). And off I went.
After some initial testing, I got some "panel mount USB cables", and had a
local stereo installer do the final mounting (using velcro, easy) of the
Dension, and also run the panel mount USB cable into a convenient location
(inside the arm rest).
So now I have my entire CD collection available in my car.
Pros:
It integrates very nicely with the car. You select modes, artists,
random play, and other features from the CD buttons.
The display shows up in the instrument panel with things like the song
title. It doesn't scroll most of the time, which is good because my
wife finds that extremely distracting on the radio RDS stuff.
You can ask it to tell you what the current artist is, and also can
select to play all songs from this artist, or select a specific artist
to play.
It's never, in say 4 months, had an issue with failing to start or play.
It has just worked.
Cons:
You need to use a Windows-only program to update the music meta-data
after you put new music on the USB stick. If you don't do this you lose
the ability to do some things like get the track title and play a
particular artist, etc... Probably not an issue for most, but of the 10
computers I have none of them run Windows -- they're all Linux.
It claims that the unit will build that database itself, given enough
time, but I have not ever seen that happen, despite giving it an hour or
longer. It says it needs something like 10 minutes per GB, which on a
30GB USB stick that's full is going to take a while.
The random play, particularly within an artist, isn't very good. It's
truly random and not shuffle, so it will sometimes replay songs that it
has recently played, even though the playlist still has songs that it
has not played recently in it.
Other issues:
The original Oggs I created had serious skipping issues. In the end I
think the issue was that I was generating them at too high a bit-rate.
I had started with 192kbps, and I'm not sure if that rate was too high
or if it was the VBR peaking above 320kbps. I ended up encoding them
with "oggenc -M 192 --bitrate=128", and that worked fine. To me, 128kbps
Ogg sound better than 192kbps MP3s (way, way better), so this is fine.
In fact, for car use 64kbps is probably fine for me.
The first USB stick I got just sucked. This isn't Dension's fault,
obviously. I finally ended up with a $80-ish SanDisk stick that has
worked just great. I'm about ready to take a hammer to the other USB
stick I got.
I really wish I could have gotten the Gateway 500, particularly with it's
ability to do BlueTooth with a phone for calls and music from the phone.
But it wasn't compatible with my head unit (or any in the S4).
Over all, I really enjoy the Gateway 300 in my car.
I am, of course, not affiliated with Dension other than as a happy
customer.
Sean
------------------------------
Message: 3
Date: Wed, 6 Jan 2010 16:11:34 -0800 (PST)
From: mike schowengerdt <urdrquattro at yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [s-cars] B6 doesn't turn over in the cold.
To: Sean Reifschneider <jafo at jafo.ca>
Cc: s-car-list at audifans.com
Message-ID: <45542.4255.qm at web83006.mail.mud.yahoo.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
classic symptoms of a balke starter solenoid, almost bet $ on it, test is to
make sure there is sufficiant voltage at the connection to the solenoid at
the moment the problem occurs (measured with a voltmeter) probably should be
at least 9.5 volts or better, if so, it's starter
time......................m
________________________________
From: Sean Reifschneider <jafo at jafo.ca>
To: s-car-list at audifans.com
Sent: Wed, January 6, 2010 5:21:29 PM
Subject: [s-cars] B6 doesn't turn over in the cold.
I have a 2005.0 S4 and since the temperature has turned cold it has
started being hard to start.? Everything works as normal except the
starter doesn't engage for half a second to 30 seconds or longer (one
time I tried for 10 minutes).? The lights all come on when I turn the
switch as normal, but it just won't fire the starter.
As the weather started getting colder, I started noticing it take half
a second after I turned to start, where before it was instant.? As it
got colder it progressively got worse.
Usually after I drive it and leave it sitting an hour to 4 hours I have
little if any trouble starting it.? But after it sits over night it can
be hard to start.
The one time that it didn't start at all, I put a kilowatt heater blowing
under the car by the front drivers side wheel for an hour, and then it
started right up.
Here is what I've done for diagnostics:
? ? Replaced the battery.? This was because once under acceleration the
? ? battery light went on, and it's 5 years old so I figured I might as
? ? well.
? ? I have tried another key with the same results, just in case the
? ? immobilizer in the original key was having issues.
? ? A little bit of heat blowing into the engine compartment behind the
? ? front drivers side tire seems to help a lot.
? ? Took it to my independant shop but they were confounded.
? ? It *MIGHT* work better if I turn the key SLOWLY from "on" to "start",
? ? but sometimes it doesn't.
? ? When I press the clutch pedal I can hear what sounds like a relay
? ? activating or deactivating as I press and release around 80% of the way
? ? in.
? ? The drivers side mat is firmly planted on it's pins, and pressing the
? ? clutch pedal slightly hard doesn't help.
I'm thinking it's something related to the clutch interlock because:
? ? Blowing some heat into the engine compartment for 15 to 60 minutes seems
? ? to greatly help.
? ? If it were the starter, I would expect it to need heat much longer to
? ? warm up.? I'm blowing the heat in fairly close to where the clutch is,
? ? though I admit I don't know exactly where the starter is, they're pretty
? ? weighty and I wouldn't expect even an hour of heat blowing in would make
? ? a whole lot of change to the temperature of the starter.
? ? The ignition key isn't getting any heat from this heater, as it's
? ? blowing under the car, not inside it.
I'm expecting that the problem is isolated to the starter, ignition switch,
or clutch switch.? Or maybe the ECU (Ugh).
Any advice before I take it in to the dealer?? I'm not really looking
forward to trying to isolate the issue in the snow, but think it should be
a fairly simple check of voltage at the starter to see if it's getting the
voltage and not firing, or not, in which case then check the clutch and
ignition inputs.? Immobilizer complicates the ignition switch I imagine.
Thanks,
Sean
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http://www.audifans.com/kb/List_information
------------------------------
Message: 4
Date: Wed, 06 Jan 2010 20:07:16 -0500
From: Kent McLean <kentmclean at comcast.net>
Subject: Re: [s-cars] Review: Dension Gateway 300 ipod/USB Music Link
To: s-car-list at audifans.com
Message-ID: <4B4533C4.40700 at comcast.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
Sean Reifschneider wrote:
> Over all, I really enjoy the Gateway 300 in my car.
iPod? We don't need no steekin' iPod! The new issue of Winding Road
reviews the 2010 VW Golf. It has a picture of the head unit. It has
an SD Card option.
<http://www.windingroad.com/photos/galleries/2010-volkswagen-golf/#12>
I wonder if it would be backward compatible... Nah!
--
Kent McLean
1990 V8 w/5-speed and other mods
1991 200 TQA #3, with mods
1999 A4 Avant, V6 Tiptronic
gone: '91 200 TQA x2, '94 100 S Avant, '89 200 TQ "Bad Puppy"
------------------------------
Message: 5
Date: Wed, 6 Jan 2010 17:08:45 -0800 (PST)
From: Kevin Barnett <bluevr6 at yahoo.com>
Subject: [s-cars] HALP! Does anyone have the timing belt tool set that
would be willing to rent it to me?
To: s-car-list <s-car-list at audifans.com>
Message-ID: <288727.72530.qm at web113310.mail.gq1.yahoo.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
94 S4 is my daily driver and kid transport.
Monday - waterpump failure
Need to do timing belt and waterpump this weekend. Force5 just rented their
set out.
I am in a bind.
Thanks,
Kevin
bluevr6 at yahoo dot com or 828twothreezero8470
------------------------------
Message: 6
Date: Wed, 6 Jan 2010 20:51:23 -0500
From: Cory Pio <cpio921 at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [s-cars] HALP! Does anyone have the timing belt tool set
that would be willing to rent it to me?
To: Kevin Barnett <bluevr6 at yahoo.com>
Cc: s-car-list <s-car-list at audifans.com>
Message-ID: <80EC41F2-6486-4588-8D1E-19ED3DC4ED03 at gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed;
delsp=yes
I have one just sitting here. Send me me you address and I'll ship it
out.
Sent from my iPhone
On Jan 6, 2010, at 8:08 PM, Kevin Barnett <bluevr6 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> 94 S4 is my daily driver and kid transport.
>
> Monday - waterpump failure
>
> Need to do timing belt and waterpump this weekend. Force5 just
> rented their set out.
>
> I am in a bind.
>
> Thanks,
> Kevin
> bluevr6 at yahoo dot com or 828twothreezero8470
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> S-CAR-List mailing list
> http://audifans.com/mailman/listinfo/s-car-list
> http://www.audifans.com/kb/List_information
------------------------------
Message: 7
Date: Wed, 6 Jan 2010 21:21:52 -0500
From: David Kase <dbkase at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [s-cars] Toys for Davey
To: Patrick Moores <pfm2316 at yahoo.com>
Cc: s-car-list at audifans.com
Message-ID:
<369092171001061821r42234f41l5c1f95b98899e229 at mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
Nice story Patrick!
I had pictures of "the Audi" at the Glen - in the rain. Our camp befriended
the guy running the traps (soda/water during the day and a beer right after
the last car of the day) and he would give us speeds during the weekend
practices and qualifying.
The track was soaked and it was raining during qualifying. The Cougars
rumbled by then the Audis hit the track. As soon as Stuck went by, the trap
guy spun around and yelled 170! That's right, 170mph in the rain. How
sweet it is.
I took the pictures with me up to the Glen for a race a couple years later.
Hans was there running a 911. I searched out his trailer and poked my head
in. I asked if he would sign a photo. "Sure" he said, come on in. I
pulled out a picture of the Audi in the back straight, in the rain. I will
never forget what he said - "OHHHHHH, da Audi in da rain!" He had a big
grin, grabbed the picture and took it to show his wife. He signed them and
then I got a picture with him. Way cool...
Big Stuck fan right here!
BTW - I got my model. REAL NICE!
Kase
On Wed, Jan 6, 2010 at 8:43 AM, Patrick Moores <pfm2316 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> Too cool Dave, great video too.....brings me back to when I first fell in
> love with all things Audi....I fell in love with Audis reading about the
> sport quattro in Autoweek(still have that issue with the one on the
> cover)(red)....(I was lucky enough to buy a 1985 4000Q(red) in '87)...one
> time, don't remember the year('89? I wanted to go up to Road America to
> watch Audi stomp everyone, while there on a saturday I was cruising the
> paddock and walked up to the Audi area and then behind me there is a blast
> of exhaust and the car shuts off brakes squeeking but it didn't have
enough
> momentum to carry it up a small incline to a platform in a tent, the
driver
> jumps out are rips off his helmet clearly agitated and in a hurry and
tries
> to push the car up the ramp but it starts sliding back and he turns to me
> and yells "push zee cahr!....You!....help me push zee cahr!" so I dropped
my
> gear and ran behind it and pushed on the tail alongside of him up the
ramp,
> he turns to me sweating and a huge smile breaks out on his face and he
slaps
> me hard on the shoulder and shakes my hand says "szank you..", I walk away
> smiling having just met Hans Stuck....later that day you could watch that
> car launch and get air under the front wheels over the smallest of
inclines
> perhaps it was around turn 4.....those were my favorite Audi races, IMSA
> GTO...re:the video @ time 2:25, kind of looks like the Audi is at Road
> America, coming up the hill out of turn 5(or I want it to be)
> patrick
> 1995 Audi S6(red)
>
>
------------------------------
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