check engine light / ignition coil
 

Hi all. I'm hoping for some help on this since I know nothing about cars! I just bought a 2000 A4 1.8T that had only 37,000 miles when I got it. It has always run great, but about 2 months after I got it, I turned the car on one day and it started very rough and the check engine light came on. The RPM's kept revving up and going down even though the car was in park, and the whole car was literally shaking.

I took it in to an Audi mechanic who told me that it was the ignition coil and that that might happen four or five times over the life of the car. $400 bucks later, I was out the door.

The next day, the same problem happened again, but when I restarted the car, it was fine. I didn't think much of it, and it has been okay until today (less than a month and a half after it was fixed) and it's doing it again. It had been riding rough the last 2 weeks but it didn't get bad until today.

I'm starting to get frustrated! Did I get a lemon? Is this caused by something else? Is it caused by something in particular? It only happens right after I turn the car on, and it seems to maybe have something to do with the times that I have to hit the brakes hard or turn it on & off a bunch of times in a short amount of time.

Any thoughts would be really appreciated. It's hard to spend another $400 when they just told me it was fixed.

Thank you so much,
-Jordan

Mighty expensive for a 30 dollar part and 10 min of labor.
 

The coil is only 25 dollars at ECS.
Was it by chance cyl 2 that was the problem. If so check the archives for the answer to your problems.

very possible is the ignition module

whao...
 

first step is to find a new audi mechanic. $400 bucks is way too much to charge to change a coilpack. I couldnt charge that much and keep a straight face at the same time.

A coil pack is about 30 bucks and takes less than 5 mins to replace. I'm not sure if a 2000 had a Ingntion Control module or not, ask around. It may be that.

Re: Mighty expensive for a 30 dollar part and 10 min of labor.
 

Thank you much guys. I had some other work done at the same time for that $400 total, but I think they still way overcharged me. I'm going to pay them a little visit. ;) Thanks

One more question
 

Hey again. One other question - since they replaced the ignition coil last time and less than a month later, it's doing it again, and everyone seems to be saying it's the ignition module - does that mean the ignition coil didn't need to be replaced? Or is this a separate problem? I'm trying to find out if they misdiagnosed it the first time. Any thoughts? Thanks!
-Jordan