Stiglitz

Hey guys, need a second opinion... Driving home from work on Thursday my B8, '09 Q5 3.2 wouldn't turn off - looks like pretty much all the B8s use the same components, so this isn't a specific Q5 problem. Tried driving, changing gears, holding the button in for 30 seconds and anything I could think of, but the car just wouldn't turn off. At that point I couldn't help but laugh at the irony of it - until I drove it to an Audi dealer and was told that it's going to cost me $1800 to fix... I stopped laughing at that point.

There is a warning light on the dash of a key with a cross through it, in the manual it says that this means "ignition key malfunction". I heard many threads discussing the sticky key problem, which I had as well, but this is something much different, and I couldn't find any discussion about it.

Dealer says that I need to replace both the SWITCH (8K0-909-131-C) and CONTROL UNIT (8K0-907-064-R).

Here is the problem - these guys seemed so clueless about the problem, they had never seen it, didn't know what to do, and it took four of them to come up with a plan for how to turn the car off. In the end one guy just disconnected a couple cables in the trunk, on the right side behind the tail light, and that caused it to turn off. After that we have the same problem, the button can still turn the car on, but it just can't turn off. The key is also permanently stuck within the ignition.

So back to the solution - are these guys just saying replace everything because they're not really sure how to fix it? I wouldn't doubt that a damaged switch could cause the control unit to report an error as well, but does it really need to be replaced? The control unit is $700 alone! Can some firmware be flashed or reprogrammed?

Any thoughts or experts here on the subject? My current plan is to tell them to just replace the switch first to see what happens.

Thanks!

britney

If you are sure about "ignition key malfunction" You could try spraying WD40 . I recommend you follow this article found in wiki How to Fix an Ignition Key That Doesn't Turn: 7 Steps

Stiglitz

Thanks Britney - this is actually something else though, the vehicle uses a "Smart Key", which is a push button start. Sorry I should have been clearer on that initially.

It's quite odd, I haven't found any other talk about this issue, and it sounds like no one has ever heard of this happening before.

Stiglitz

Update!

The car is fine, and nothing had to be replaced.

During a previous conversation, the rep handling my case said that the faulty control unit was the cause, which burnt out the ignition switch, so both parts must be replaced.

After a bit of insistence we decided on replacing only the switch, against their recommendation. I just had trouble believing that a faulty control unit could actually fry a switch, it just didn’t make sense, but I could certainly see how a bad switch could cause the control unit to throw errors.

I spoke with three different people, and there were just so many inconsistencies, they were more than simple errors, these guys were strait out lying to me. It was clear that they really didn’t know what they were talking about.

I just couldn’t trust them, so I told them not to do anything – that I would just pick up the car without any repairs, and take it elsewhere. He tried to stop me, saying that they can’t release a car that may be a safety risk “what would happen if you got stuck on the side of the highway”… well he quickly dropped that argument when I reminded him that the problem is that the car doesn’t turn off. He then slipped out some information that the car is actually working now after a “reset”.

So much for being “burnt out”, a reset actually fixed it, but they hid that from me and lied to me, claiming that I must pay $1800 to replace the parts.

Granted, maybe the problem will return one day, but I definitely can’t trust these guys. Really it sounds like a software error; maybe a simple firmware update is all that’s needed? Anyway, lesson learnt, always ask questions, careful who you trust!

Ps. They didn’t even put the panels back on, they returned the car to me incomplete, seats folded, and tools out in the back. How unprofessional!