Adam5oh

I just went through this with our 08. Dealer wanted 5k to replace the steering column and KESSY module. I did some interneting and found this: http://www.speedosolutions.com/Audi-...ice_p_112.html Talked with an indy that had some experience with the issue but had only swapped out a matching KESSY and steering column from a wrecked car. I showed him the service and he said it was worth a shot, so we rolled the dice. Got the car back today $1200 bucks later, so I'd say so far this is a viable alternative. Dealers diagnosis of the bad KESSY turned out to be incorrect, but there are reports of the bad lock frying that module too. If something happens in the future I'll post an update. As far as I know the overcomplicated lock is just for theft protection. But if the car senses an error it prevents all driving in case you could be driving down the road and suddenly have the lock engage.

I just finished this job on our 2008 TT. It was certainly the hardest belt change I've ever done but you don't need to take off as much as what is posted for the 955s. Y-pipe comes off by loosening the outside hose clamps and then un-securing the plastic pipes they connect to via 2 torx screws towards the front of the car. Disconnect the boost pressure sensor on the Y itself then you need to rotate the plastic hex caps until a tab at the bottom lines up with a channel on the side. Once this is lined up pull straight up with pliers and the Y-pipe will be free. Unclip a few hoses underneath then you can get it up and out of the way. As was mentioned, the hardest part for me was the 2 lines that need to be unhooked since they route in the middle of the belt. The bigger PCV line wasn't so bad but I snapped the smaller line trying to separate it. If that upper cooling line wasn't in the way you might have better luck but I wasn't sure if I'd have a mess of coolant on my hands so I left it in place. The snapped line I reconnected when finished using 1/4 ID fuel line and hose clamps. From what I can understand this line has to do with the bypass valves for the turbos. Once those lines are out of the way (and the vertical cooling line moved out of the way a bit) I had a hard time getting to the tensioner using my adjustable wrench. I was able to get the belt off but couldn't get it back on. I made a quick trip to Lowe's for a $5 30 mm socket and was able to get the belt back on just fine afterwards. The routing instructions in the 955 procedure are still useful for this. I did end up having to pull the undertray off to get the belt looped around the bottom pulley. Good luck and feel free to ask if you run into any specific issues.