A4 convertible - design fault

[Broadsword]

Found the fault - two crushed cables (one the aerial the other for the traffic alert system) in the gaiter between the body and the boot lid – cut out the crushed cable and replaced the section - everything works ok !!!!

Can't see how this could have happened though as the satnav and earthing cables go through the same gaiter and are part of the same loom and they look fine - still I'm glad its all working and as it should be!!!

[RickT]

good end result!!

Cheers

Rickt

[u688731]

Just to add to the thread and confirm design fault - I have 2004 A4 Cabriolet with same symptoms. Wiggling the gaiter on LHS of boot lid seems to return radio reception intermittently but audio elecs shop tells me that might just be me acting as aerial. He could find no obvious breaks and confirmed line continuity from radio to boot lid. Any ideas what to do next? Technician suggested changing black box inside LHS of boot (AU 465 part no 8HO 035 225J) - is that the aerial? - but I guess this will be expensive and might not even work. Any further ideas??

[Broadsword]

Hi - it sounds to me that your fault is similar to the one I had, basically the copper in the cable has stretched and either broken inside or is touching the shielding, the annoying bit is as you describe it works when you partially open the boot.

As far as I know the black box in the boot lid is an amplifier & SatNav if you have that fitted, you should find two wires for the Arial, easiest way to identify which is the problem is wiggle the boot lid until you get signal then disconnect one of the aerial terminals you’ll quickly identify the culprit!

I wouldn’t have thought that your arial amplifier has gone otherwise it wouldn’t work at all... BTW it wasn’t until I chopped the damaged section out I actually found the damage its not obvious to find...

Be sure to make the join somewhere that doesn’t move during normal opening and closing of the boot!

Good luck!

[hmeah]

hi all,

i have the same problem with my audi cab, no radio reception... i would really appreciate some info.. how did you get into the boot lid? or did you just open up the plastic tube which runs into the boot lid?


this copper wiring.. where did you find yours damaged? i really appreciate you help.

thanks

[Broadsword]

Hi, as I said in the earlier threads if you’ve got the same problem I had, the damage will be the wire between the boot lid and the main body of the car, to get at it you need to remove the rubbers from around the boot lid lip, and also behind the warning triangle you'll find some screws, when you've removed these you should be able to remove the cover and see the amp and wires, the wires run through a couple of rubber gaiters, and they go into the right hand quarter of the car, there should be plenty of slack there, I put my joint there as its not really going to take any abuse, basically you can use pretty much any Arial grade shielded copper, Maplins is your best bet, I soldered my joints and bound it all up with plenty of tape, now nearly two years on - no problems at all..

Good luck