silverA8L

Our 2001 A8L didn't want to start this afternoon!!!! It turns but doesn't start! I didn't want to try a long start since the engine sounded REALLY bad. After a call to the Audi roadside assistance and about half an hour, a mechanic arrived, a couple "expert" hits with his heavy metal rod on the fuel tank when I try to start the car, it started! The mechanic explained to me that this is a common problem with European cars (ie BMW, Audi, Mercedes...etc). If the car sits for too long (say 3 days), the gas vapour will mess with the fuel pump (something like that) and causes some fuel pump issue. The strangest thing is, our 00 S500 was stored in the last winter, it didn't have this problem at all when we recharged the battery and it started right up. The car also sat in the garage for a weeks just now and had no problem at all. I love our A8L, but something like this really freaks me out and this has never happened to our other cars we have/had (94, 97 & 00 S500 and a Toyota minivan)

MannyA8

I sometimes don't drive my A8L till the weekends (my daily driver is the S4). That means that the car may sit for 5-6 days. I have never experienced this problem. Maybe it has something to do with the gas - I almost always use Mobil Premium.

ryoung

... sounds like a lame excuse to me.

I'm often out-of-town a week or more at a time, and my S8 just sits. I haven't had this problem ... yet.

Charles Lane

I have let my 99 sit for 1 full month and it didnt have this problem over last Xmas

silverA8L

The car only has half a tank of gas at the time. That may be one factor, I don't really know what happened except I couldn't start the car yesterday. Everything return to normal now.

AdamD

With a full fuel load it is ok, but with room for evaporation, you risk getting your car "sick". 3 Days isn't long so there may have been extenuating circumstances but in general when you leave your car sit with a non-full tank, you end up with wator vapor in the tank. This then can condense on the walls of the tank and you can grow all sorts of funk. Very bad stuff for fuel systems.

metalhead

I can imagine that anyone would give or accept this answer. After letting a car sit with a full, half full, or almost empty tank that it won't start or is a common problem. My SL sits all winter and fires once every month without issue. How did the banging fix the issues is something getting stuck? Did you get a service order or anything to reference this in the future that way when you get stuck the have a documentation. I guess you shouldn't travel by air for more than a couple of days because if you leave your car in the lot it might not start when you get back.

silverA8L

I don't drive the car often, since we have 3 cars and 2 drivers in our family, we only use the A8 during weekends in summer and daily in winter. (we only put about 20000km since we got it in October 00') This problem has never happened to us before and I'm stunned by this problem since we've had NO problem at all with our S500 sitting in the garage for more than a week (actually, the longest time is 3 months, we only had to recharge the battery, the car started right up). I called Audi roadside assistance and they sent in a local mechanic (Audi consign their roadside assistant service to another company here in Canada) to look at the car. He hit the gas tank from underneath the car couple times with his metal rod while I try starting the car. The car started up after he hit the tank couple times. I was too happy to actually listen to his explaination but it is close to what others have said about vapour inside the gas tank. I was assured that there's no need to bring it into the dealer unless this problem reoccurs. This is actually the first time I have only half a tank of gas in the car. I usually fill the car up if the gas gauge ever goes to half. I think this may have contributed to the problem.