A4 30V oddity

["Paul Parry" <paulp@rocketworks.com>]

I had the following odd thing happen with my A4 last week, and was wondering
if anyone else has experienced it.

Before flying out of town for a couple of days, I moved the A4 (98 2.8aq)
into my garage from the driveway, a distance of about 10 yards.
When I returned the thing wouldn't start. The battery was fine, the gas tank
was full, so I called "Guaranteed Mobility" and had it towed to the dealer
(Heishman in DC).

Matt at Heischman was able to fix it just by cranking the engine for about
30 seconds (not a good solution to repeat regularly). Apparently, when you
run it for a short time, the hydraulic system doesn't have time to pump the
oil out of the engine, which can cause problems if the car then sits around.
Matt says that Audi knows about the problem, and it applies to the new
6cylx5V 2.8 engines.

So the simple workaround is to drive the car around the block before parking
it for more than a few days.

-Paul Parry
Arlington, VA