Dealing with tricky Audi Diagnostics

A few weeks back, we dealt with a 2018 Audi R8 that had some serious issues. An auto-locksmith needed to recode two new keys for the vehicle, but when our technicians initially inspected the vehicle, a couple of modules had connection issues.

Our team of master technicians are used to a tough challenge and can work with most makes and models (see our application list here), so we dived in to get it sorted. Here is how we fixed the customer’s problem.

Firstly, the OSCA team took a deep look into the vehicle’s computer system to determine some of the root causes of the vehicle’s diagnostic errors using the OSCA cable. Then, we logged into the vehicle remotely via our cloud-based system and reprogrammed it swiftly and started to diagnose all the faults within the modules, which later allowed us to code the keys successfully.

The first thing that we discovered was a flat battery, so we instructed our customer to jump-start the vehicle. This allowed our team to get a full 360-degree view of the vehicle’s modules. Unfortunately, after this, we identified that the vehicle had been damaged by the incorrect operation of a jump back.

We then needed to program the gateway control module so we could successfully program the keys. After this, we managed to successfully access the immobiliser and code the keys to the vehicle. After having accomplished that, we were then able to identify, diagnose and reprogram the vehicle’s BCM.

We also realised that we needed to calibrate the steering to bring the vehicle to a fully functional state, so yet again, we got back into the vehicle and calibrated the all-wheel-drive before lastly adjusting the steering angle set-up. We managed to complete all these tasks within two hours on a Friday afternoon, thus saving our customer a trip to the dealer, not to mention the expensive towing fees and dealership costs.