Audi Touch Up Paint: A4, A3, Q5 Paint Code Guide (2026 UK Guide)

Audi owners tend to take their paintwork seriously, and a chip or scratch on an A4, A3 or Q5 is exactly the kind of thing that nags until it is sorted. The good news is that the right Audi touch up paint makes it a straightforward job at home, and it all starts with one thing, your paint code. Getting the exact code matters more than anything else in the whole repair, because ordering the right paint is what makes the difference between a repair that vanishes and a patch you can spot from across the car park. Match by eye or by colour name and it will never quite look right, but match by the exact code and the colour disappears into the panel.

Your Audi’s code usually lives on a sticker in the boot, and this guide covers exactly where to look, how to read it, and the colours owners match most.

Where to Find Your Audi Paint Code

Audi keeps the code in a few places depending on the model and its age. Here is where to look, starting with the most reliable.

1. The service book. Audi prints the code on the front page, often kept in the glovebox, and this is the easiest win of all if the car still has its booklet. We would check here first, honestly, before lifting any carpet.
2. The boot floor or spare wheel well. The most common spot on the car itself, across the A3, A4, A6, Q5 and the wider range. It usually means lifting the boot carpet or liner to reach a white sticker underneath.
3. The passenger side door frame. Used on some newer models, including parts of the Q5 and the e-tron range.
4. The engine bay or door frame. Where the sticker sits on some older Audis instead.

If the sticker has perished or gone missing, contact your Audi dealer’s parts department, who can confirm the original code, or use our colour-match tool to pull it straight from your registration, which is the fastest route by a distance.

Reading the Audi Sticker

Once you have found the sticker, it carries several codes stacked together, so it helps to know which one you are after. The paint code is the entry labelled “Paint No.”, usually toward the middle or left, and you want that field rather than the trim code sitting beside it.

Audi codes are a letter-and-number combination that almost always starts with an “L”, which comes from the German word Lack, meaning paint. You may see the same code written with or without that leading “L”, so LY9C and Y9C are the identical colour. The colour name often sits alongside it, frequently in German, so you might see Gletscherweiss for Glacier White or Mythos Schwarz for Mythos Black. That is completely normal for Audi and no cause for concern. Order from the code rather than the name, since similar names recur across the years and, as we will see, across the wider VW Group. And as ever, your V5C logbook will not give you the code, only a broad colour description that is nowhere near precise enough to order from.

The Shared VAG Palette

Here is the single most useful thing to understand about Audi paint. Audi, Volkswagen, SEAT and Skoda all sit under the Volkswagen Group, and they frequently share the exact same paint under the exact same code. The practical upshot is that a colour on an Audi can be the identical formula and code as one on a VW.

This is genuinely handy for cross-checking, since finding the same code on a sibling brand confirms the match. The one caution is that the names differ between brands even when the code is identical. The clearest example, the code LY9B is Ibis White on an Audi, but the very same paint is called Oryx White on a Volkswagen. Same code, same paint, different name. That is exactly why the code, never the colour name, is the reliable reference. Order by the code on your sticker and you cannot go wrong.

Common Audi Colours and Codes

The Audi colours owners search for most, with codes verified across paint databases.

This is not the full list. For every Audi colour matched to your exact model and year, head to the Audi model page and you will find yours. Once you have your code, ordering the right paint is the key to a repair that vanishes rather than shows, so you can pick up a colour-matched repair kit built around it, with everything the job needs in one go.

Solid, Metallic and Pearl: What It Means for the Repair

The Audi palette runs from simple solids through to premium pearls, and the finish changes how the repair goes, so it is worth knowing which you have.

Solid colours like Ibis White and Brilliant Black are the most forgiving and match very cleanly at home. Metallic colours like Florett Silver and Navarra Blue need the metallic flake properly suspended in the paint before you apply it, but they are still a comfortable DIY job. Pearls like Daytona Grey are the trickiest, built up in more than one layer, and the finish where rushing shows most, so they simply ask for a bit more patience.

For the standard solids and metallics that make up most of the Audi range, a colour-matched kit gives a seamless result on your own driveway, for a fraction of what a bodyshop charges to spray a panel.

Model Notes

A3. Among the most-owned Audis in the UK, with the code in the boot and service book and a broad modern palette to match. Match yours on the Audi A3 page.

A4. Same sticker logic as the A3. Its larger bonnet catches more chips over motorway miles, so it is worth checking the leading edge regularly. Match yours on the Audi A4 page.

Q5. Boot floor on most, or the passenger door frame on some newer examples, with a broad palette that includes the pearls. As an SUV it tends to pick up chips low on the bumper and around the wheel arches. Match yours on the Audi Q5 page.

Across the range, the S, RS and S-line trims carry sportier exclusive shades, such as Nardo Grey, so if you have one of those, order against its specific code rather than the standard equivalent.

A Couple of Things Worth Knowing

Two situations come up often on Audis.

Audi Exclusive colours are bespoke, special-order paints that sit outside the standard catalogue. If your code will not resolve against the usual list, an Exclusive colour is the likely reason, and your dealer or the reg lookup will confirm it.

Resprayed used Audis are common in the used market. The sticker records the original factory colour, so if the car has been resprayed, the current panels may not match what the sticker says. On a resprayed Audi, confirm the colour actually on the bodywork before ordering.