minbo

Hello All,

I have an A4 Avant 2.8 automatic from 1998 that has served me well. Unfortunately I went away for a long time this winter and my car sat in the cold for several months. When I got back the battery was dead as a doorknob. I took the battery out and charged it up with an external charger and put it back in. Of course it was so dead that the ECM lost all of it's settings and I've got a boatload of faults that I didn't have before I left. The car refuses to idle, I have to rev the engine to 1000 rpm or it stalls out.

To make a long story short, my service station doesn't have a VAG scan tool to input the settings and the closest Audi dealer is backed up so I couldn't make an appointment (though they said that if I had the car towed to them they would look at it sometime next week). I've ordered the Ross Tech VAG-COM and was planning on trying to do it myself after I put in a new Optima Yellow top battery. The old battery works but with such a deep discharge I don't know how damaged it might be and how much longer it will last so replacing now rather than having an unfortunate incident on the road.

I was wondering I was missing anything important.

I was going to:
1) Reset the DTC
2) Perform a Throttle Body Alignment
3) Do a Basic Settings procedure for the Automatic Transmission
4) Perform a Basic Settings procedure for the Fuel Injection System
5) Do a 5 minute road test and check to see if any new DTC codes appear, if not than happy day. If any do appear than let the shop take care of things.

Anyone think of anything else?

Thanks!

Uwe@Ross-Tech.com

On a 1996 or newer car, you should try to set all the Readiness bits, but this can be a real PITA (like 12 pages of procedure on some engines) and if it was me, I'd do what you said above..:-)

-Uwe-

minbo

Thanks!

I got the VAG-COM USB delivered this morning and performed 1 2 and 3 to the car and it appears to be fine so far. I don't have any error codes anymore... I haven't done 4 and 5 as my battery was damaged by the deep discharge and I don't want to start the engine with it... I will do those after I put in my new battery when gets delivered tomorrow.

Only question I have left is that where the odometer is it still flashes INSP, even though I don't have any error codes, when I start the car and I can't figure out how to clear that.

Oh and as per the FAQ, I'm a registered user, last name A. LEE, was originally ordered ship to zip to 10601 but my zip is 10003.

minbo

Bleh, I'm a dope, should read more before I post. Looking at the VAG-COM car info and procedures page, I figure I just need to reset the service remiders. The shop that I have work on my car is great in general but they don't have an VAG so can't reset the reminders even though they perform the service. I use them because A) they are real close to me and B) They are really trustworthy, though they do charge a slight premium over some other shops I've been to.