nextguy

I've got an issue with my A4 1.8T Quattro 2003. My car has 145 000 KM. Drive belt was changed at around 110 000 KM.

A few weeks ago while driving i had a coolant low warning. I went straight to a garage near home and the mechanic opened the coolant reservoir and the coolant was just boiling out. He said it was probably the thermostat so I booked an appointment for later in the week to change that out. Day of the repair, he calls me a few hours after starting the job that the car would no longer start. Long story short, he said the ECU was fried because of condensation on the board. He said it was bad luck that the ECU died while it was in his garage. Another long story short, he changed out the ECU for a used one and had someone he knew program the replacement. That part of the story I don't have all the details on. He said the guy that did the work knew what he was doing so I didn't question him too much. Probably should have though.

Anyways I left the garage and drove the car for a week. No problems. Actually the car felt a bit smoother. Then this last weekend I was doing about 110 KM/h and the car started shaking and the CEL flickered. I dropped my speed to 90 KM/h and the issue went away. I went home and checked the coil packs and the sparks. The coil packs had a miniscule amount of oil which I cleaned up. The sparks looked fine. I saw a video on YouTube to test the coil packs using a multimeter by checking continuity between pins 2-3 and 2-4. All the coil packs passed this test but maybe it is not a good enough test?

The issue has not resurfaced since then but it has only been a few days. I also have not gone faster than 100 KM/h since then.

Does anyone know if this is the sort of problem that can just go away by itself or is it time to retire this car?

TIA!

lyleswk

I would dump codes and determine if it is a general misfire (i.e. misfires on multiple cylinders) or a single cylinder. I suspect you will find multiple which points to an issue with intake leak or vacuum leak.