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2008 Audi AS
Owner's Manual
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Introduction
Thank you for choosing an Audi A8 -we value your trust in us.
Your new Audi A8 incorporates the newest technology as well as numerous features designed for
your comfort, convenience and safety. We recommend you read your Owner's Manual thoroughly
so that you can quickly become acquainted with your Audi.
In addition to explaining how the different
feaitures work, we also give you many useful tips and
information concerning your safety and that of your passengers, how to care for your vehicle and
maintain your veh icle's value.
We hope you enjoy driving your Audi A8 and we wish you safe and pleasant motoring .
AUDI AG
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Table of contents
Table of contents
Vehicle literature ........ .
About this Owner's Manual ..................... .
Controls and
equipment .. ... ... ..... ... . .
Inst rumen ts and contr ols ..... .
Genera l ill ustration ............. .
Instruments and
warning/indica tor lig hts ....... .
Instruments ................... .
Warning/indicator lights ........ .
Driver informa tio n d isplay ..... .
Introduction ................... .
On-Board Diagnostic system
(080)
Auto Check Control ............ .
Speed war ning system ... ...... .
Trip computer ..... ............ .
Tire pressure monitoring system ..
Opening and closing .......... .
Keys ............ ... .. ... · · · · · · ·
Power locking system .......... .
Rear lid/Trunk lid .......... ..... .
Ch ild safety loc k .... ... .... .... . 5 Advanced Key
................ .
Anti-theft a larm system ..... ... .
Powe r w indows ... ... ... ... .. .
S lid ing/ti lt ing power sunroof ... .
6 Clear vision ... .... .. ... .. ..... .
9
11
1 1
1 2
12
1 6
2 4
2 4
27
28
36
38
40
47
47
49
55 58 Lights
..................... ... .
Interior lights ... ...... .. .. .. .. .
V is ion ........... ........... .. .
W iper and washer system ... ... .
Mirrors .. .. ... ......... ..... .. .
Seats and storage ......... ... .
Genera l recommendat ions ..... .
Powe r seat . ... ... ......... ... .
Head restraints .............. . .
Arm rest ..................... .
Seat memory ... ... ...... ..... .
Rear sea ts . ... ... ... ... ... .. .. .
Ind ividua l rear seats ........ ... .
Luggage compartment ........ .
Roof rack ........ ... .... .... .. .
Cup holder .................... .
As htray . ... ... ... ......... ... .
Cigarette lighter/socket ........ .
Long center console ........... .
Storage .... ...... ............ .
Warm and cold ............... .
Climate controls .............. .
W indshield defogg ing /defrosting .
Rear clim ate controls ..... ..... .
Basic settings ......... ... ... .. .
On the road ... ... . .. ... .. ... .. .
Stee ring .... ... ... ............ .
Ignition lock and ignition sw itch .
Starting and stopping the engine 59
Starting and stopping the engine
61 using t he Advanced Key . . . . . . . . . 131
62 Electromechanical parking brake . 134
65 Cru ise control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
69
A dapt ive Cruise Control . . . . . . . . 139
69 Speed and distance control system 139
7 4 Driver informat ion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
77 Specia l driving si tua tions . . . . . . . . 14 9
80
Audi lane assist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
83 Lane assist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
86
A udi side assist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 4
86
87
91
93
9 4
96
97
100
103
105
106
107
108
109
1 14
11 4
123
125
126
128
128
129
130 Lane Change Assistant ........
. .
No tes ........ ...... ........ .. .
Automatic transmission ...... . .
tiptron ic® (6-speed automatic
transm ission) ................. .
Advanced Parking System .... .
Advanced Parking System with rear
v iew camera .................. .
Specia l parking situations ...... .
Towing hitch .. ....... ......... .
Settings in the MM I ..... ...... . .
Safety t ips .............. ...... .
Adaptive A ir Suspension ...... .
Adaptive Air Suspension and
Damping ..... .. .............. .
Homelink® ................... . .
Universa l remo te control ....... . 154
161
163
163
170
170
178
180
180
183
185
185
191
191
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Table of contents
Safety first . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197 Vehicle operation . . . . . . . . 267 Vehicle care ................ 287
Driving Safely . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198 Intel ligent technology . . . . . . . . . . 268 C leaning and protection ........ 288
General notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
Proper occupant seating positions 200
Driver and passenger s ide footwell 204
Peda l area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204
Stow ing luggage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
Reporting Safety Defects . . . . . . . . 207
Safety belts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
Genera l notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
Why safety belts? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 O
Safety belts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 3
Safety belt pretensioners . . . . . . .
216
A irbag system .. . .. .. . . .. . . . . . . 218
Important thing s to know . . . . . . . 218
Front airbags . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222
Monitoring the Advanced Airbag
System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
229
Knee airbags . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234
Side a irbags . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237
Side curtain airbags (SIDEGUARD™) 240
Child Safety . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243
Impor tant things to know . . . . . . . 243
Child safety seats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248
Instal ling a ch ild safety seat . . . . . 253
Addit ional Information . . . . . . . . . . 256
Lower anchorages and tethe r for
children (LATCH) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
258
Not ice about data recorded by
vehicle contro l modules . . . . . . . . .
268
Electron ic Stab ilizat ion Program
(ESP) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
268
Braking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270
Servotronic® -advanced power
steer ing system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
273
Driv ing w it h your quattro® . . . . . . 273
Energy management . . . . . . . . . . . . 274
Driving and environment . . . . . . . 277
The first 1,000 m iles (1,500 km) and
afterwards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
277
Cata lytic converter . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278
Avoid damaging the vehicle . . . . . 279
Operate your vehicle economically
and minimize pollution . . . . . . . . . .
279
Trailer towing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282
Driv ing w ith a trailer . . . . . . . . . . . . 282
Trai ler towing tips . . . . . . . . . • . . . . 284
Genera l info rmation . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288
Care of exterior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288
Care of inte rior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295
Fuel supply and filling your fuel
tank ............................ 301
Gasoline . . . . . . . . . . . . . • . . . . . . . . . 301
Fuel tank ....................... 302
Checking and filling . . . . . . . . . . . . 306
Engine hood . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . • . . 306
Engine compartment . . . . . . . . . . . . 308
Engine oil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309
Engin e cooling system . . . . . . . . . . 3 14
Brake fluid .... .... ............. 3 17
Battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 8
W indshield/headlight washer
container . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
323
Tires and wheels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 324
Tires . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . • . . 324
Vehicle care I I irechnical data
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Table of contents
Do-it-yourself service ... 347
What do I do now? . . . . . . . . . . . . . 348
Trunk escape handle . . . . . . . . . . . . 348
Emergency warning triang le . . . . . 348
Jack, tools and spare wheel . . . . . . 349
Changing a wheel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 351
Fuses and bulbs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 358
Fuses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . • . . . . . . 358
Bu lbs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 362
Em ergency s ituat ions . . . . . . . . . . 36 4
Gener al . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 364
Sta rting by pushing or towing . . . . 364
Start ing with jumper cab les . . . . . . 364
Use of jumper cab les . . . . . . . . . . . . 365
Em erge ncy towing with commercia l
t ow truck . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 366
Lifting vehicle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 369
Technical data
General information
373
37 4
Expla nation of technical data . . . . 374
Vehic le ident ificat ion . . . . . . . . . . . . 374 Displaying Vehic
le Identifica tion
Number in MMI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 375
Weights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 375
Dim ensio ns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 376
Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 78
350 hp, 8 -cylinder engine, with all
whee l dr ive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 378
450 hp, 12-cylinder engine , wi th all
whee l drive, long wheel base . . . . 379
Consumer Information . . . . . . . . . 380
Warran ty coverages . . . . . . . . . . . . 380
Operating you r veh icle outs ide the
U.S.A. or Canada . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 380
Audi Serv ice Repair Manuals and
Literature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 380
Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 380
Ad ditional accessor ies,
mod ificat ions and parts
rep lacement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 382
Alphabetical index . . . . . . 385
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Vehicle literature
In addition to this Owner's Manual, your Audi comes with the
• MMI Operating Instructions
• Warranty
& Maintenance booklet.
If you are missing one of these publications, or if you believe that
the informat ion is not comp lete, contact your author ized Audi
dea ler for assistance .
MMI Operating Instructions
contain detailed description of the Audi Multi Media Interface (MMI)
including the navigation system, the sound system and the hand
held phone .
The Warranty & Maintenance booklet
explains how you can keep your Audi in top driving condition by
having it serviced regu lar ly and contains detai led information about
the warranties covering your Audi. Always have the booklet with you
when you take your vehicle to an aut horized Aud i dea ler for service.
Your Audi Serv ice Adviser will record each schedu led service and
can answer any questions you may have regarding how to maintain
your vehic le.
In Canada,
the vehicle literature is a lso avai lab le in French. To obtain a copy,
co ntact your dealer or write to :
Au Canada , on peut se procurer un exemplaire en
fran9ais de ce
document
aup res du concessionna ire ou de:
Volkswagen Canada Inc .
Cl ient Assistance
Assistance a la Clientele
777 Bay ly Street, West,
Ajax , Ontario L 1 S 7G7
Controls and equip
ment Safety first Vehicle operation
V
ehi cle lite rat ur e
If you sell your Audi
a ll l iterature should be left in the vehic le to make the Warranty terms
as well as all operating, safety and maintenance information avail
able to the next owner .
If you change your address or if you bought this
Audi used
be sure to send in a "Notice of Address Change"/ "Notice of Used
Car Purchase" post card. This card can be found in the Warranty
&
Ma intenance booklet or obtained from your authorized Aud i dealer.
It i s in your o wn inte re st th at w e are able to conta ct you should the
need ari se .•
Vehicle care Do-it-yourself service Technical data
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About this Owner's Manu al
About this Owner's Manual
This owner's manua l contains important information, tips, sugges
tions, and warnings for the use of your vehicle.
Make sure that th is owner's manual is always located in the ve hicle.
This is especial ly important if you a llow other people to drive the
ve hicle, or if you sell it.
This owner's manua l describes the
equipment range specified for
t h is model a t the editor ia l deadline date . Some of the equ ipment
described here will on ly be availab le at a later date, or on ly in
specific mar kets.
Some sect ions in th is owner's manual do not apply to all veh icles.
In that case, the
range of appl icability is given at the beginning of
the sect ion, e .g . "Appl ies to ve hicles : wit h Advanced Park ing
System". In addition, optional equipment is indicated by an asterisk
"*"
The details in the illustrations may be different from those in your
vehic le, and are intended to be viewed as a bas ic guide.
You wil l find a
table of content s at the beginning of th is book , wh ic h
displays all topics described in this manua l in order of appearance.
Yo u wil l find an alphabetical
index at the end of th is bo ok.
All
directions , such as "left", "right", "front", "back", are re lative to
the direction of trave l.
* optional equipment
.,. This section continues on the next page.
• Ind icates the end of a section .
® Registered trademarks are identified with a® . If t his symbo l is
missing, it is no guarantee that the terms can be used freely.
~ & Cross-reference to a "WAR NING!" within a section . For indi
cation with a page number, the corresponding "WARN ING!" can be
found outs ide of the section.
& WARNING
Te xt w ith thi s symbol conta in s impo rtant inform ation on safety
and how to reduce the risk of per sonal injury or death .
0 Note
Text with this symbol draws your attention to potential sources of
damage to your veh ic le.
<£' For the sake of the environment
Text wit h this sy mbol contai ns in fo rmation about the environment
and how you can he lp protect it.
(I) Tips
T ext with this symbol contains specia l tips and other information
about getting the most out of your vehicle and i ts features .•