Overview
Community orientation
The Audi A8 D3 (2002–2010) is the aluminium-spaceframe flagship, offered as the 4.2L V8 FSI quattro, the 3.0 TDI V6 quattro, and the 6.0L W12 quattro, in standard and long-wheelbase sedans, all quattro all-wheel drive with the ZF 6-speed Tiptronic. This generation authors no problems of its own: the 4.2 V8 and 3.0 TDI patterns resolve, through the shared engine graph, from the corpora that own those engines, while the 6.0 W12 is a catalogue-only flagship with no modelled issues. This is an editorial catalogue summary, not a reliability rating.
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Filtered: 30TDI · 3.0 TDI V6 diesel.
Known issues
Sorted by severity. Tap an issue to reveal the relevant details and what to check.
Engines & reliability
Tap a row to filter the issues to that engine.
Pre-purchase checklist
Cold start
- ☐Start the engine from cold and listen for rattling or ticking from the timing chain area
Diagnostics
- ☐Scan stored DTCs and check live fuel/ignition/boost data before the test drive