Etch

Thx, yeah I did that but couldn't move the seat at all, just hear it unclipping underneath and then it wont go any further like something else is holding it in place. I wondered if it needed some 'special' movement in certain angles to get it loose. Seems like I just need to pull up super hard then .... so probably I am not doing it with enough strength.

Dear all, I see some of you are managing to take your rear seats out (thanks for the image of the module/unit under the seat, that helps to know what to look for). A few months back I tried to get my seat out but could not do it. Have had a spine surgery since then so only just getting around to trying again. Today I made another attempt after reading manuals and watching you tube vids, still can't; do it. I can tug up on the seats and hear the latch unclipping but that's it, the seat is just locked in place, can't pull it up any further, can't slide it out. Any tips on how to get this seat out would definitely assist.

Aha thanks for this. When I took car to previous electrician I made it clear I want him to remove the back seat and look in the middle. In the end he charged me for no fix and said he didn't remove the seat because he knows there is nothing there. The "customer is right" policy doesn't apply to mechanics, even when they are getting paid for it.

Hey man, sorry to hear that. Issue isn't battery, it's just when someone sits in the middle of the back seat, so has to be something like a short somewhere. In the end I just put the armrest down in the back so nobody can sit in the middle .... doesn't happen anymore since I did that. Not a solution but it's good enough to keep my sanity

Hi there, yes he did battery test and said its running below expected capacity. He doesn't think battery has anything to do with the problem but I will replace it anyway. I have the car back now, time will tell what will happen. When he disconnected and reconnected the abs module cable the warnings went away, hopefully it was just a dodgy connection there (doesn't explain the back seat movement or lifting the boot tyre to make problem permanent) ... but let's see. Thx guys, your input has been very valuable.

That's the problem, the lights are not permanently on now. Back to being hidden gremlin again. I wish I knew about cars. I am a software developer so have the problem solving mindset, just have no idea about car electrics

I already did that 2 years ago, they couldn't find anything

The mechanic called today and said he disconnected a cable to the ABS unit and reattached it, and all the warning lights went away. He is puzzled as well what the actual problem is. I have a feeling I will get the car back without any identifiable cause and after some days/weeks the same issue will re-occur. I told him to keep investigating, the problem isn't fixed ... just hidden again.

Thanks Gareth and Steve. I dropped the car with an auto electrician today, let's see what they can find. He also mentioned that audis tend to get water inside, and looked around battery area and passenger seat floor, didn't spot anything. But I've left the car there for diagnosis as the problem is permanent now.

I decided to confirm that the battery was in the boot today. I lifted up the spare tyre and confirmed this ... but the strange thing is since I did this now I have this problem permanently. The car is just acting like it's possessed. speedometer is dead, power steering dead, whole load of warning lights and constant beeping .... seems like something got triggered but not sure what. I checked the battery and it was at 12.5v resting and over 14v running. no cables looked loose ... I also disconnected the positive/negative terminals and re-attached them, all clean and tight. No idea what happened just from lifting the spare tyre and looking inside ... now there is no need for rear seat movement. Well at least the symptoms seem to occur permanently, it will be easier for someone to diagnose. (I will start car after a good night's rest to see what it does tomorrow)

Great, I will get it checked, thanks Gareth

this is useful information, thank you kindly. I didn't realize the battery was in the boot, I don't know much about cars and in my mind they have always been at the front. It's useful information

Hey all, I've had this 2012 Audi A6 since 2017 and have suffered this problem since then. Sometimes it appeared after a few months, sometimes after 6 months, sometimes daily for a week, just random. The problem: When driving, randomly a whole load of warning lights and messages would come up on the dash, sometimes speedometer dies and comes back (could even be gone for many minutes, which is not a condition to drive in, have to rely on Google Maps for speed until I can stop somewhere), power steering sometimes goes, cruise control gone, sometimes AC, ABS and anything break related mainly. After switching car off the parking red light flashes as if it doesn't come on ... but I leave the car for an hour or so and then all is fine, next time it starts there are no signs of problems. I've had it checked in many garages and nobody could figure it out (well, all they did was plug in the machine and see no error codes showing the fault). I took it to Audi themselves for diagnosis a couple of years back who guaranteed they would find the problem, but in the end could not. Over the past year I have been toying with a clue that my wife gave me ... she said whenever the problems start it's because somebody has moved in the back seat, her or my child. She is right .... as soon as there is excessive movement in the back the lights/warnings come on (not all the time, I can still have a good run before it happens again, I suppose it depends on the amount/intensity of movement) What would this mean? Is there some loose cable under the back seat, center console, under the carpet? Was sad that Audi couldn't resolve it despite charging per hour for diagnosis. I need to figure this out and it doesn't seem like it should be a big problem to resolve knowing that movement in the back triggers it. I have uploaded a video showing some of the problems: Many thanks