It's talking German

[Codes]

I have a 2003 4.2 A8. The display on the clocks and the center screen keep defaulting to German. When I go into the menu and choose English it works fine untill the ignition is switch off. When the car is started again it`s all back to German.When I go to factory default it puts it all back to German. I thought the car might be homesick so I brought it to my local Audi dealer who tells me that I need new clocks and wants to charge me £1000 to do so. Has anyone had the same problem or any other ideas.

[zollaf]

for £1000, you could learn to speak german, thus solving the problem.

[bez101]

I have a 2003 4.2 A8. The display on the clocks and the center screen keep defaulting to German. When I go into the menu and choose English it works fine untill the ignition is switch off. When the car is started again it`s all back to German.When I go to factory default it puts it all back to German. I thought the car might be homesick so I brought it to my local Audi dealer who tells me that I need new clocks and wants to charge me £1000 to do so. Has anyone had the same problem or any other ideas.
i had this in the DIS display i changed it with vcds
and if it is your clocks get second hand and have them coded to ur car fk the dealers with there grand

[Codes]

Thanks lads, I tried talking back to it using my best "ALLO ALLO" german accent but to no avail. I'll try and get hold of a diagnostic and if that doesn't sort it it's off to the breakers yard. Do I have to go to a dealer to get the clocks configured to the car?

[EG-4.0TDI]

Hi, Just wondering whether you had any joy solving this one?

My 2004 A8 is doing something similar except it's random as to when it goes into German and it's just the menus on the MMI. In my case, resetting to factory defaults brings it back to English - which is odd!

Any throughts most gratefully received before we end up fitting a whole new MMI ECU at some horrendous cost! My diagnostics are currently with Audi technical so will let you know what they say...

[Codes]

I've brought the car to a different dealer than the one that told me that i needed new clocks and they haven't even mentioned it(i didn't tell them what the other dealer said). They reloaded the software into the car twice with no result. They informed me that they are waiting on a reply from Germany. It's not only the german thing that's the problem the car won't hold any memory and the auto wipers don't work. I'm hoping it's only an e-prom as an MMI is ridiculously expensive.

[caspa7]

I have a 2003 4.2 A8. The display on the clocks and the center screen keep defaulting to German. When I go into the menu and choose English it works fine untill the ignition is switch off. When the car is started again it`s all back to German.When I go to factory default it puts it all back to German. I thought the car might be homesick so I brought it to my local Audi dealer who tells me that I need new clocks and wants to charge me £1000 to do so. Has anyone had the same problem or any other ideas.
I think it's an amazing opportunity to learn a new language! One day you will be very grateful for your car doing this, it certainly has character.. ;)

[maxmax171]

Dealer clap trap im afraid. My 2004 4.0TDI did exactly the same, including the miles being displayed in KM. Went to the dealer new clocks required I was told. Asked to see the Audi senior tech and quizzed him as to why the dash could not be recoded to UK format ( Im led to belive all dashes revert to german as default and hence the MMI via the can bus detects this and sets all systems to the dashes ( instrument cluster ) home language, the audi diagnostics allows the region code to be set to any they choose.

In short an eprom inside the instrument cluster stores all the mileage data and country origin along with vin and a load of other info. This is the chip that the "mileage correctors" of the world play with.

Sorry getting carried away!! Just tell the dealer to set the dash home region back to the UK and save or whatever they do.

It worked on mine, poor audi tech had a very red face!!:biglaugh:

[Codes]

Excellent stuff. They contacted me last week and said they would need the car for two days for further investigation. I'll spring this on them and see what they say. Thanks again.

[EG-4.0TDI]

Quick update on mine - turned out the radio unit had gone loopy and was corrupting the software thereby not allowing it up update. New radio module and total update - expensive as you can probably imagine but seems to have solved the Germanic issue...

[Codes]

I left the car with Audi on the 2nd March for the German issue and to get supension bushings and new battery. One of the conditions i stated was that they were not getting the additional work until the German issue was fixed. I got a phone call from them on the 9th to say it was done, so I gave the go-ahead for the bushings and battery. Phone call two days later to say all the other work was done but the car went back to German(sounds like they never looked at it). Another 7 days past and they were back on to say it was fixed by Audi Technical but would only say it was a "software issue". Funny thing is I was only charged and hours labour for the German problem after them having the car for just over two weeks. The bushings and Battery cost me 800 quid. Thanks for the pointers anyway.