Cantata

Thanks Cliff, but not investigated further yet. Will post again on here if/when it gets resolved.

2012 Avant 3.0Tdi S-Line I had a problem with one of the reversing sensors in the back bumper - when reversing, it constantly displayed a very close obstacle when there wasn't one there. I found advice on Youtube for the exact symptoms it had, which said to clean the face of the sensor thoroughly with WD40 - it made some sense in that we'd had loads of rain for weeks. So I did that and it pretty much cleared the problem, working well for a few days. BUT a few more days later, when I selected reverse, the internal display didn't appear, at all - I just got a continuous beep for a few seconds. And it's stayed that way. I went into the car settings, and found the the reversing warning function was switched off, and no means of switching it back on. Could this be caused by the faulty sensor having packed up completely? Seems a big coincidence if the disabling of the whole function has been caused by anything else. Does the team think that if I replace that sensor, the whole function will come back to life?

Thanks Spartacus, it was something like that! The tag on the underside of the connector has to be pulled outwards, it simply bends a bit and detaches a tiny latch inside. Awkward little blighter but all done now, contacts sprayed (they looked a bit green) and problem has gone away.

A few years ago the car kept telling me the coolant level was low, when it was perfectly OK. I managed to remove the connector on the sensor, cleaned the pins, and all was then OK. Until this week when it started happening again. Trouble is, I cannot remember how to get this connector off. It has a tag on the side that looks maybe like it's a clip preventing the connector pulling off, but no luck. Can someone please tell me what the trick is to pull this connector off?

Thanks for that. Symptoms point to the outer handle cable broken, hope it’s that simple!

Thanks alpha omega. On mine the lock is definitely making a noise when triggered by the key buttons, so maybe it's something inside the lock itself that's failed. Anyway I'll put up with it for now until the weather warms up....!

I have exactly the same problem, started yesterday. Looked on youtube but haven’t found an entry there yet that gives me confidence to tackle it.

Ok thanks guys, my local garage has agreed to do the job for £25-£30 and I’ll return the OBD2 thingy to Amazon.

So should any decent garage be able to do it?

I'm sure this must have been covered somewhere but I couldn't find it on a search. My 2012 S-Line Avant 3.0 TDi at last needs a new battery - yes, it really has lasted 14 years. So I found one last week, got a good price on a Bosch-branded replacement, assuming I could simply replace it myself. However when I looked online to check there were no snags with fitting it, I realised that the online diagnostics need to be accessed to 'tell' the car that it has a new battery. Question is, could I do this myself using one of the 'OBD2' access dongles that you can buy for £20-£30 on e.g. Amazon, or do I really have to get a garage to do it? I actually bought one of these gadgets, a XTool AD20 Pro, but looking at it I'm doubtful as to whether it will do the job - it just seems to be about reading and resetting fault codes. Maybe I should return it and just take the car to a garage.

Not tried seriously yet, Steve.

Thanks Steve, I did a MMI reset and we'll see if that fixes it.

First long journey for a while in my 2012 A6 S-Line 3.0TDI Avant, which I've owned for 9 years. Strange happenings on my satnav. Have established a route from Norfolk back to Kent, it worked fine for the first hour or so then started wanting to divert me all over the place because of 'road closures' that simply did not exist. My wife had Waze going on her phone beside me to reassure us there were actually no problems at all en route. The map showed where we were, no problem with that, it just wanted us to go anywhere but the direct plotted route. In the end when I had finished the first section of the journey and knew the way home from there, I cancelled the set route. It was as though the satnav suddeny started reading loads of historic data about closures. I presume the Highways traffic system wasn't transmitting all this nonsense! Anyone seen anything like this? Is there perhaps a 'reset' option that will clean up the Nav system back to factory defaults? While I'm on, does anyone happen to know of an Ebay seller who can supply a map update for this car? I tried a few a while ago but none of them could do it.

No idea why first name. Except it's actually Richard and I probably put in its common abbreviation! Point about main dealers most definitely taken. Normally never go near the place.

Good enough for me, Steve Q, thank you!!