Audi A8 (2003) - Will a OBD II code reader work?

[Davrianman]

Hi Chaps,

I have an Audi A8 4.2 (2003) that I have owned for about 3 months. I have recently had a few warnings come up on the screen. These are:
- Adaptive Headlight Control out of range
- Constant orange light on the Air Suspension
- Constant orange light on for Emmission Control

The first two will come on together after a few minutes of driving

The Emmission control light came on yesterday after I had a Gas Conversion fitted. Spoke to the conversion company who said they need to tweek the map to get rid of it...

I was thinking of buying one of these to investigate the fault codes:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&am...

http://www.diytrade.com/china/4/products/5244360/G...

I think it will work with the CAN Bus systems, but not sure if it will only interogate the engine faults...

Has anyone had similar problems or used one of these on a post 2003 car?

Many Thanks,

Martin

[Tame Technician]

To the best of my knowledge, ALL OBD readers, only read OBD codes.

That is to say, they wont be able to check your air suspension or Head lamp range control faults.

It will be able to check your engine fault memory, no problem.

To read fault memory for Air suspension, ABS, Air bags, central locking/convenience, air con, and all the other systems on the car you need a specific tool, like VAGCOM, or to take it to your local Audi centre.

[Davrianman]

Thanks for the help. I took the car to my local independant Audi garage and he could not diagnose the headlamp / suspension faults. If I buy a VAG-COM unit do you think it will definately work? I intend to keep the car for a few years and my wife has a 2000 Audi A6, so I guess it would pay for itself... My main dealer in Cardiff is really expensive and I have not been pleased with their work... I am an aircraft engineer, so I like to fix things myself if possible. It's just finding out what the problem is!

Many thanks,

Mart

[FoolOnTheHill]

Davrianman said:

Thanks for the help. I took the car to my local independant Audi garage and he could not diagnose the headlamp / suspension faults. If I buy a VAG-COM unit do you think it will definately work? I intend to keep the car for a few years and my wife has a 2000 Audi A6, so I guess it would pay for itself... My main dealer in Cardiff is really expensive and I have not been pleased with their work... I am an aircraft engineer, so I like to fix things myself if possible. It's just finding out what the problem is!

Many thanks,

Mart

Mate look on gendan.com, they sell all the different interface leads. I have vagcom and a gendan lead for my 2002 Mk4 Bora, and it's very useful, not least of which because I now do my own servicing and can clear the service reminders and fault codes. I bought a specific Mk4 lead and then a vagcom licence from ross tech. Only drawback is that the licence only lets me run vagcom on the one laptop, and the lead is only for mk 4 VAG cars.

That said, as you have two VAG group cars you might be best stumping up for the lead from ross-tech that has the vagcom licence built in via a dongle, so you can use it on any box, and also a multifunction lead that will connect to cars of various ages with various interface types.

Vagcom and the correct lead will let you do a full scan of your car's electronic systems and give you all the fault codes. There's also a wealth of info on ross-tech and other places on what to do about the fault codes.