flyingkilt

Help! I have a 2005 A8L with 4.2 that I bought used this summer with 92,000 miles. Even when the weather was warm, I noticed a couple seconds or so delay from turning the key and then waiting for the starter to finally do its thing and engage. Once the starter FINALLY engages, the engine fires right up. But, lately, as the weather has been turning colder and colder, that starter delay has been getting longer and longer -- and took several tries the last couple of days before engaging and turning over the engine . . . until, today, with a temp of around 20 degrees, THE STARTER DOES NOT ENGAGE AT ALL! AAARRRGH! All I hear is an electronic-type ticking sound for 8 seconds after turning the key to start position, and then silence I'm dead in the water. Has anyone else encountered this problem? What could it be? BTW: MMI system battery check indicates 100 percent charged, but still no starter engagement.

rfdude

i am having the same issue with my 2005 A6 with the 4.2L. Anybody out there have a fix for this problem?

flyingkilt

Your battery is probably shot. I have FINALLY figured out that a new battery has solved my starter-engagement problem twice this winter: once in the D3 A8L, and once again in our D2 A8. When you change your battery out, though, you should hook up jumper cable from the new battery to the battery terminals on the car -- in that way, your less likely to lose your radio code. However, if your old battery is completely DEAD, you'll have to re-program in your radio code.

rfdude

This makes sense as it seems to be happening only in the cold weather. I am the second owner of 3 yrs now and have never changed the battery....it could be the original one for all I know. I will do this first and then panic if I'm still having these issues.

Thanks for getting back to me.

flyingkilt

It's about time to change it!

rfdude

Ok, I swapped out the "original" battery (if you can believe it) with the new after-market equivalent and problem has gone away...nice! I was lucky I did not have to reprogram the code into the radio as I was quick enough on the change apparently to not have to.

Thanks again for your reassurance that the battery was the issue. Lets hope I get another 8 yrs out of the new battery!