black97quattro

After all that ive been through with this mechanic and bull****, I believe my hard starts ive been having are due to my EGR somehow (but im not getting a CEL)

After the car has been driven and engine is warmed up, the car has to crank at least 4,5 or more seconds before starting.

Has anyone heard of this, and how do I fix it. Can I clean the passageway that people clean when they get insufficient flow problems. If that is clogged is that even a big enough reason as to why i would have a hard start when the car is warmed up. Or is there a way to clean the EGR. All i know is if I have to take that off I need one fvcked up weird wrench to get in there.

I already tried and didnt feel comfortable taking the throttle body off and disconnecting those cables and such. Id rather not due that.

AudiMick

Opening the EGR valve makes the car run worse if anything. I doubt that cleaning the EGR passage will do anything to improve atarting.

There are a lot of reasons for bad starting, plugs, ECT etc.

black97quattro

i think everythign else has been checked. when the car is cold, and i mean hours of not driving or overnight, the car starts up perfect. its just after its been driven and its warm, and i wouldnt doubt it if the exhaust and such are still warm after an hour still, thats when it has a hard time starting.

AudiMick

When the car is idling apply vacuum to the valve. (suck on the tube going to the valve). You should hear the valve operate. If the EGR passage is open the idle will stumble. if the Vag.com is connected you can monitor intake temps.

Are both the temp sensors working OK. Did you check the coolant temp sensor. Intermittent faults on that sensor can cause the cause the ECU to make the engine run too rich.

black97quattro

brand new coolant temp sensor and from in the cabin the temp sensors are acting normal.

im going to reconnect everything and try to hear the EGR valve operate when i apply vacuum.

Last mechanic re routed the vacuum hoses. One of the lines is now capped off, and he also blocked the vacuum to EGR.



He fixed the hard start problem when car was warm, and in return I got a insufficient flow to EGR problem. Lots of $$$ later im still back to square one with hard start. not happy.

losnova

The first thing unfortunately is to make sure the vacuum lines are even corectly routed. Nothing should be just capped off. Everything has it's use. This would also be a good time to replace all the lines since you are pretty much starting from scratch. There are some vucuum diagrams that have been posted, STFA. If the car starts better still when cold and not when just driven, check for codes and inspect the fuel regulator. I have seen regulators that are bad and fuel leaks into the vacuum system from the point where the regulator connects with the vacuum line causing a too rich condition. Pull the line and check if there is moisture from gasoline leaking. If condition persists, just keep going one thing at a time until the cause is rectified.

austinado16

As losnova says; get all the vacuum lines routed to their original configuration.

I famous trick hack mechanics use is to mask one problem by creating another. Quit going to this guy and find yourself a good German independant shop.

If you had an EGR valve problem, where the valve was stuck open, you'd have bad running, all the time.

Hard hot starting (combined with normal running once it starts) is almost always some "over-rich" condition. As in: Fuel injectors that sit and drip after the engine it turned off, or a coolant temp sensor for the computer, not your gauge, that has failed and tells the computer the coolant is actually cold so apply more fuel to start the car.

Anyway, get back to the basics. Put the vac lines back, get a new mechanic, and then go from there.

geil90

once the engine was warmed up and if i wanted it to start it again after shuttin it off, i either had to crank it for a little while or just kept tryin to start it. It would start fine when it was cold. It turned out to be a bad cam shaft positioning sensor (G40). replaced it and it didnt matter how hot the engine was it started just fine. u might want to check that too.

losnova

I wish we could tell some of these people the magic cure for all the problems. It sucks sometimes because I feel bad that I should go and fix the stuff myself for all these inquiries. For the sake of the 12V I would love to do it. But the fact is that when someone hacks your **** up, it costs even more just to get you to the point where you know the ONLY problem is the one you had in the first place. That is why I think every customer should also have the responsibility to tell the mechanic what to do. Some will say that they don't know what to do. That is why they go to a mechanic in the first place. But that doesen't exclude you as the customer from demanding COMMON SENSE. If a mechanic changes systems designed from factory, they will cause other problems [unless they are educated enough]. Mechanics hate to be told what to do, but a technician will listen to you and think "I know that, let him/her make the suggestion if it makes them happy" as often as they say "this guy knows nothing of what he/she is requesting to be done and I will just start from basics with my hour diag time". A tech will go down the list of possibilities and suggest a proper fix to the customer with the hopes that the customer will understand and allow things his way. Then if the customer denies, explain that the problem will not be guaranteed to be fixed. It's all a dance. But the customer with the money always has the opportunity to lead. The acronym STFA applies to all, even myself. I have learned so much from this site. And I have never actually thanked anyone for it. So here it is...Thanks all.

Fair Cape-Cape Town

All of our cars are 10 to 14 years old. It's hard to find a tech who actually worked on these cars when they were new. Also the training they got was not to fix but rather find the fault and renew the component. It's not their fault - it's Audi protecting themselves against warranty issues. Even the Bentley manual is orientated towards renewing rather than repairing. All of us have fixed some or other component on our cars and here is where this forum is incredibly valuable to all. We have the power to share information and gain the knowledge necessary to do the repair or tell the tech what we think or what we want done should we need to go to them.
I believe that if you are unable to do the basics on these cars you're better off driving something less complicated.