2004 A6 Quattro 2.7T Frigid Weather weird event
 

New to this forum and to the problem I had the other evening after work. Temperature around 8 degrees. Went to the A6 to start and warm up. Was going to move it inside for a half hour before closing - work in a Ford store.

Started fine, put into reverse, hard thump, shift indicator all red and could barely crawl into the service area. Let it sit for 45 minutes. Opened the shop doors, started again, within a few seconds, billowing white (?) smoke out of the exhaust. DID NOT smell of anti-freeze. Moved the car out and drove it to meet some friends for a beer about a half mile down the street. Was able to get up some speed this time - maybe 20? Shift indicator still all red.

About 2o minutes before I left the pub, started the car again to warm up. When I came back out to leave, car was running smoothly, the shifter was back to normal. Drove fine and power was smooth up through 70. Seemed fine. There were NO warnings on the center screen except for the shift indicator being all red on the first 2 starts earlier that evening.

A few days later, it happened again - without the smoke or steam. Shut down, restarted and it was fine. Bear in mind, through all of this, gauges in dash are all reading normal.

112,000 miles on this engine. Replaced timing chain 4,000 miles ago. Audi Service said the water pump "looked" new so they did not replace.(?) Disconnected secondary air pump when it started whining about a month ago. Will replace along with valve cover gaskets in March. Use the correct synthetic oil and 91 octane fuel. Car normally runs great with plenty of juice. Car is garage-kept, but . . .

Normally, when I shut off the engine, I would always hear what sounded like maybe a turbo spooling down. Now, all of a sudden the past few days, I don't hear that. Makes me wonder. Weather in the Great Lakes is still frigid. 14 today. Any thoughts, please? Hope I've been clear. Thanks.

You should scan with vag-com. I'm in detroit metro and have it. Pm me.
The issue youre seeing could be caused by electrical contacts at the shifter position sensor or transmission position sensor. These 2 have to be in sync or it goes into limp mode.

Theres updated crnakcase breather stuff with insulation. Water gets inside of them, freezes, and then the breathers stuck wide open or broken and its a giant air leak, causing limp mode from the trans, and it will ingest oil and smoke, the smoke can be white grey blue, just depends. I would suspect thats whats happening.

Thanks for the reply. Just saw your suggestion. The issue never repeated but what you say makes sense based on other input I have had. I have a local Audi mechanic over here Euro Autowerks that will be doing service on it and I'll pass along your suggestion. Thanks again.

Thanks for the suggestion. What you relate is exactly how it looked and smelled and seems a worthwhile path to follow. I will pass it on to my mechanic. The issue I mentioned has not repeated, by the way, giving some credence to what you describe. Thanks again.