Chalk one up to the Coil Pack gods...
01-29-2003, 06:28 AM
#12
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I'm stock, along with the extreme majority of all owners...
of cars with MY 2001 1.8T engines... who have been blowing CPs at an alarming rate.
01-29-2003, 06:31 AM
#13
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Primary correlation is temperature and maybe stress...(my theory on CP failure)
Seems to be that they have been going at a much greater rate now that the weather is cold. Some component or material in the coilpack likely is mis-engineered/manufactured and as a result has an incredibly high failure rate at lower temps. Also, think maybe stress (higher rpms, quick acceleration, etc) while at lower temps may be a contributing factor. Also, accelerating while the component is cold will create temp differentials within the component itself would could also cause additional stress within the component.
High failure rates at low temps + High stress/Temp Diffs = High rate of failure??
As a result, I am letting my car warm up and then I am accelerating very gently and keeping the RPM's under 3K until the car / engine (and all components including the coilpack) reaches a nice temp (185-200). My hope isthat by allowing the coipack to slowly reach defined operating temps, I am lessening my chances of a coilpack failure.
As for chipping, I do not believe the program changes due to the chip change the power being sent to or through the coilpack. Only factor there could be higher rpms, faster driving generall associated with drivers after they chip. ;-)
Now that I have said all of this...I am going outside to start my car and have a coilpack (#2 for me) fail on me. ;-)
JMHO,
Shane
High failure rates at low temps + High stress/Temp Diffs = High rate of failure??
As a result, I am letting my car warm up and then I am accelerating very gently and keeping the RPM's under 3K until the car / engine (and all components including the coilpack) reaches a nice temp (185-200). My hope isthat by allowing the coipack to slowly reach defined operating temps, I am lessening my chances of a coilpack failure.
As for chipping, I do not believe the program changes due to the chip change the power being sent to or through the coilpack. Only factor there could be higher rpms, faster driving generall associated with drivers after they chip. ;-)
Now that I have said all of this...I am going outside to start my car and have a coilpack (#2 for me) fail on me. ;-)
JMHO,
Shane
01-29-2003, 06:36 AM
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Re: interesting...
That's the symptom I'm talkin about, but it's worst from Neutral to First for me... really resists the shift at really cold temps.
I know about the MT90, and asked if I were to bring it if they would be able to put it in, even though the oil in our trannies is elegedly "good for life." He said he would rather a tech look at it first to determine of there was anything mechanically wrong with it first and then would consider the synthetic oil. I brought up the fact that they put synthetic in the S4 trannies, and that I wasn't sure if it was the correct rating for the 5spd... He didn't say either way if it was or not, but stated that the stuff they put in the S4 tranny is really expensive to flush, and they would consider the synthetic oil solution for my problem if they deemed the transmission in good order otherwise.
My appointment was actually for Thursday, but the service rep suggested I drop it off today so that it could sit over night... in efforts to recreate the cold condtions that cause the shifting problems in the morning. A good idea, and I was surprised he cared enough to suggest it. He really wanted to make sure the techs could recreate the problem.
I know about the MT90, and asked if I were to bring it if they would be able to put it in, even though the oil in our trannies is elegedly "good for life." He said he would rather a tech look at it first to determine of there was anything mechanically wrong with it first and then would consider the synthetic oil. I brought up the fact that they put synthetic in the S4 trannies, and that I wasn't sure if it was the correct rating for the 5spd... He didn't say either way if it was or not, but stated that the stuff they put in the S4 tranny is really expensive to flush, and they would consider the synthetic oil solution for my problem if they deemed the transmission in good order otherwise.
My appointment was actually for Thursday, but the service rep suggested I drop it off today so that it could sit over night... in efforts to recreate the cold condtions that cause the shifting problems in the morning. A good idea, and I was surprised he cared enough to suggest it. He really wanted to make sure the techs could recreate the problem.
01-29-2003, 06:50 AM
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I'm not too sure about the stress while cold bit...
I take VERY special care to not exceed 2800-3000 RPM until the eng temps reach full optimum level. I've been doing this for the life of the car.
I do think the cold has something to do with it... ie an engineering fault with the CP. I don't think it's driver induced... atleast mine CERTAINLY wasn't...
Ther only thing that I think could have contributed to my CP failure other than the engineering bit is... and I posted about this about a month ago... I live VERY close to work, and it was often the case that by the time I got to work, my eng temp hadn't increased at all according to guage. Although I was driving with very low RPMs the entire 1-1.5 mile trip for the saftey of the engine, the temperature never increased.
Since then, I've been taking a round about route to and from work (@6.5 miles), for the sole purpose of letting the car warm up before shutting her down in the garage at work or at home.
Just an idea though.
I do think the cold has something to do with it... ie an engineering fault with the CP. I don't think it's driver induced... atleast mine CERTAINLY wasn't...
Ther only thing that I think could have contributed to my CP failure other than the engineering bit is... and I posted about this about a month ago... I live VERY close to work, and it was often the case that by the time I got to work, my eng temp hadn't increased at all according to guage. Although I was driving with very low RPMs the entire 1-1.5 mile trip for the saftey of the engine, the temperature never increased.
Since then, I've been taking a round about route to and from work (@6.5 miles), for the sole purpose of letting the car warm up before shutting her down in the garage at work or at home.
Just an idea though.
01-29-2003, 07:05 AM
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I was just curious.BTW...
Mine failed after driving 2 hours. But then ambient temp was around 27 degrees F. I'll bet the real reason they failed was somebody found a cheaper way to produce them. Remind me not to send that German Bozo a christmas card.
If a car cannot be trusted to give reliable service it shouldn't be in your garage.
Audis didn't have a good record before and this doesn't help their cause. I sold mine and I suggest you do the same while there is some value left in it. This fiasco is only going to get worse. Since they are cutting corners on coil packs be assured they cutting corners elsewhere. If you don't make around the track you don't win. Audi knows this. On their Race cars they can switch out a gear box in 4 minutes. Unfortunatly it takes hours to fix real world Audis.
If a car cannot be trusted to give reliable service it shouldn't be in your garage.
Audis didn't have a good record before and this doesn't help their cause. I sold mine and I suggest you do the same while there is some value left in it. This fiasco is only going to get worse. Since they are cutting corners on coil packs be assured they cutting corners elsewhere. If you don't make around the track you don't win. Audi knows this. On their Race cars they can switch out a gear box in 4 minutes. Unfortunatly it takes hours to fix real world Audis.
01-29-2003, 07:22 AM
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I can't but...
You are asking the engine to explore the upper limits of its enginnered capacities. A lot of AWers have chipped. There may be no correlation and maybe there is. Audi should take a big hit. They have a pretty good record for unreilability Hopefully it will not be some poor CP slug waiting for a tow truck.