PA-Driver

I took my Audi to the dealership because my car was not always starting on the first attempt. It sounded like it was trying to and then just wouldn't. Also when I'm doing around 70 and celebrat my car was not always starting on the first attempt. It sounded like it was trying to and then just wouldn't. Also when I'm doing around 70 and accelerate The car feel shaky. They told me it would cost around $400 just to diagnose the problem. They said it was probably the camshaft issue. They said it could cost eight to $10,000. it's an 09 which I bought in 2011 certified preowned. They extended the warranty for the fuel injection system. Is this covered under that? I already had to have all my Pistons replaced which was covered under warranty due to the oil consumption on my 2009 A4.

snagitseven

Has your CPO warranty run out? If so, I doubt the previous work they did would cover this. Sounds like you've had a problem engine on that car - injectors, pistons and now a possible canshaft issue? You should fight this one as well to get AOA to cover it.

PA-Driver

Apologies I had some errors in my original post. It should read as below:

I took my Audi to the dealership because my car was not always starting on the first attempt. It sounded like it was trying to and then just wouldn't. Also when I'm doing around 70 and accelerate The car feels shaky. They told me it would cost around $400 just to diagnose the problem. They said it was probably a camshaft issue. They said it could cost eight to $10,000. it's an 09 which I bought in 2011 certified preowned. They extended the warranty for the fuel injection system. Is this covered under that? I already had to have all my Pistons replaced which was covered under warranty due to the oil consumption on my 2009 A4.

PA-Driver

My CPO ran out in March. this car had been a headache for me I did everything the dealer ever wanted me to as far as servicing and now a few months out of warranty this happens. I guess I should contact AOA and see what they say.

NateatMAP

Dealers will have a difficult, if not impossible time diagnosing this issue... in fact, I can tell you from experience, the typical Audi diagnostics flow chart will trace a problem only so far as to determine the likely major offending part with service specifications.

Can you get the car scanned? Have VCDS? If you are experiencing a hard start, I would assume you have a check engine light present. Please let us know what the code or codes are you are getting.

In cases of hard starting with the CAEB engine, I have actually seen a great number of instances of low oil pressure to the head causing the oil pressure actuated intake cam to fail to advance itself. The typical codes you will see to evidence this condition will indicate low fuel pressure at start up, followed immediately by a fuel pressure too high warning.

Audi has several RVU's and TSB's revolving around this problem that will eventually solve the issue, but it is almost by coincidence. Early CAEB's were fitted with a cam bracket support which feeds oil from a passageway from the block through the head, after making a hard turn, through a strainer and a bearing check valve. The strainers will always eventually fail and break apart and in some instanced, the check ball has been known to fall out... but post RVU you will still see these heads failing. Audi moves on to recommend replacing of the camshaft and potentially head. This is due to potential oil starvation causing excessive wear on the cam and journals... but if you catch this issue soon enough, the head is often still okay.

What I have discovered is that the oil passageway.. the feed from the block through the head that makes a hard turn into the cam support bracket, actually acts like a sludge trap over time. You wouldn't believe the contamination I have located in there.

From a diagnostics stand point, I recommend the following procedure:

Pull codes from ECU to confirm conditions are present.
on startup conflicting information present:
Fuel pressure to high followed by fuel pressure too low

Monitor measuring block through advanced settings while running to confirm intake cam is stuck at negative advance with marginal to no effect with increased RPM or load.

At that point, you will want to remove the upper timing cover and inspect the timing chain via the well documented marking/measurement technique to ensure the timing chain is still good and the engine is still in timing however, this step becomes less necessary once you have confirmed the cam fails to advance under load as even a cam out of timing by a tooth will attempt to respond to correcting timing values... the ECU will simply throw different codes.

Next step would be to remove and inspect the cam support bracket. Make sure it is the RVU unit... don't fret if you discover that the screen/filter is damaged as this is quite normal but DO get concerned if the check ball is not visible. It should be located directly behind that screen.

If the support bracket appears to be in good condition, you will want to remove the valve cover and inspect the intake cam and journals for excessive wear. They will be worn by now and it will take a trained eye to know what is or isn't excessive.

Now here comes the scary part, if the cam appears to be serviceable and the journals appear to be useable, the head must be removed and thoroughly cleaned. All oil passageway plugs must be pulled and cleaned and then drilled, tapped and recapped. You will find a huge chunk of sludge and particulate matter in the oil feed to the cam support bracket. Inspect the deck for true (these heads don't seem to ever warp, tho... I have a 165k CAEB which was completely true)...inspect the valves and guides for excessive wear... again... that same 165k head was operational. Replace seals and reassemble using new hardware and gaskets.

I would recommend updating the main drive timing chain and tensioner at minimum at this point as well.

If all inspected wear points were actually still good, the car will fire up and run like new assuming that it has been assembled correctly.

It's not a cheap job, and it is certainly not a fun job and I cannot stress enough, I could not possibly complete an entire write up or document the procedure, but I do want people to know these engines are serviceable and can be perfectly reliable if you take the time to work on them. Audi will typically diagnose to a certain point only and then when all else fails, default to "Oh, it's still not working right? New engine, new trans"

Not necessarily because they don't know or don't care, but because that mentality permeates their network. It's not because Audi doesn't care... it's because Audi is constantly changing their designs in favor of the new and next model... and this evolutionary process doesn't necessarily mesh well with absolutely and full understanding of how things work out long term when it comes to long term viability of certain designs. Simply put... my first attempt at tackling this issue left a car on the lift for 2 months while I threw everything I could at that engine to diagnose the problem. It was a methodical and long term process of changing only one thing at a time that afforded me the ability to finally and, in my mind, definitively determine the cause of the issue, namely that the main oil feed from the block to the head becomes blocked over time from sludge and particulate matter, due mostly the the hard turn the passageway takes before making it's way into the cam support bracket.